Stunes attends Badlands Astronomy Festival and learns about astronaut

Talk about it

Abby Stunes, of Mitchell, was among 15 middle and high school girls who recently attended the Badlands Astronomy Festival.

The event was sponsored through a program coordinated by the South Dakota Discovery Center and funded by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium and NASA Summers of Innovation.

The girls spent three days camping, rock climbing and doing astronomy-related activities. They built and launched engine-powered rockets, screened the movie “The City Dark,” discovered how a tipi links earth to sky, questioned a female astrophysicist, and viewed the sun and more than 15 other space objects through telescopes.

A highlight of the event was learning about the life of astronaut Story Musgrave. Musgrave was a NASA astronaut for about 30 years and flew on six spaceflights.

Tags: life, astronomy, state, badlands, mitchell, education