A new educational program will connect Waterbury elementary school students to outer space.
Schools participating in the International Space Station program will follow astronaut and Waterbury public school graduate Rick Mastracchio through his travels via his Twitter account, @AstroRM.
Students will also be able to follow Mastraccio on an international location search website called geocaching.com.
Mastraccio will wear a trackable dog tag called a Travel Bug and will have several small hitchhiker tags on board.
The interactive site will allow students to post photos and messages.
The program is part of a joint effort on the part of the Waterbury Police Activity League, Waterbury Public Schools and geocaching.com to increase student awareness of NASA and the International Space Station, or ISS.
Eleven schools in the Greater Waterbury district will participate, including Chase Elementary School, Crosby High School, Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School, Walsh Elementary School and Washington Elementary School.
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Waterbury Police Activity League Vice President and Deputy Chief of Police Fernando Spagnolo said in a statement, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime interactive educational opportunity that Rick Mastracchio is providing to the children of Greater Waterbury.”
Mastracchio will head to the to the ISS on Nov. 6.
