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PENN STATE TURFGRASS SEED GOES INTO OUTER SPACE
Among his other duties as a payload specialist aboard the Neurolab STS-90 Space Shuttle mission, Dr. James Pawelczyk took along seed of various turfgrass species in order to represent his sponsoring institution - The Pennsylvania State University. Penn State is known world-wide for its varieties of creeping bentgrass (Penncross, Pennlinks, Penneagle) which are grown on nearly 70% of the world's golf course greens and/or fairways. Four students suggested the idea of sending up the turfgrass seed to represent the University on Dr. Pawelczyk's trip, and upon the seed's return it will be grown into sod and planted at each of the University's 24 campus by the Turf Club. If there is any of the Space Grass sod left over from this planting, we plan to make small samples available to Penn State Alumni and then to the general public.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
The turfgrass seed that Dr. Pawelczyk took into orbit marks the first time in history that turfgrass in any way, shape, or form has gone into outer space. Genetically identical seed will be kept here on earth and will be compared to the space seed upon its return for characteristics relating to seed germination and seedling growth and development. One can only imagine what the future might hold from this historic simple beginning. Images of lunar golf certainly come to mind. Who can forget Admiral Alan Shepard's legendary golfing efforts on the moon during Apollo 14 (to download a movie clip click here 10.2 mb avi file). Click here to download an audio/video player.
Using the head of a genuine 6 iron attached to a soil sampling device, (then) commander Shepard demonstrated several lunar sand trap shots for the millions of American golfers. His first one-armed attempt "got more dirt than ball". His second also "got more dirt than ball" but was ruled a slice by Mission Control. His third went straight as a dime and his forth went for "miles and miles and miles". The most conservative estimate puts the distance of this last shot at about 2 kilometers (2188 yards). Admiral Shepard's six-iron is currently housed at the United States Golf Association's Golf House Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey. Visit www.usga.org for a virtual tour of the museum.
Ask the STS-90 astronauts questions at their home page www.psu.edu/nasa/qanda.htm
Monitor the flight of the space grass http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/stsstat/current.htm
View an image of the launch of STS-90 on April 17, 1998. http://cropsoil.psu.edu/launch.htm
United States Golf Association www.usga.org
Golf Course Superintendents Association of America www.gcsaa.org
Penn State's Golf Turf Management Program http://cropsoil.psu.edu/Academic/tmbrotp.htm
Penn State's Poa annua home page http://cropsoil.psu.edu/Research/poa/poa.htm
Created and maintained by Robert Dickerson. Last updated on 4/30/03
