Star Trek's Capt. Kirk would be proud: A group of Bethel Park pupils conquered space, "the final frontier," and stage fright, all on the same day.

U.S. Army Col. Timothy Creamer, an astronaut, told some 400 pupils at Ben Franklin Elementary School last month about his journey to become a NASA astronaut, while a professional film crew quietly captured it all on tape.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Astronaut Col. Timothy, "TJ" Creamer gives a presentation to pupils at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School. NASA was visiting the school to film two videos. Click photo for larger image.

The presentation was part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration initiative to produce a pair of videos. One is designed to motivate its employees to new projects. The second aims to get young people excited about NASA's planned return to the moon. Both will air on the educational channel of NASA TV, available through the NASA Web site, www.nasa.gov.

At the Oct. 23 assembly, Col. Creamer predicted that NASA would use the moon as a practice site for constructing buildings on other planets. He said the United States planned to delve deeper into space. He said the moon provided an opportunity to learn about other planets, and its proximity to Earth, some 221,000 to 252,000 miles away, depending on its elliptical journey around our planet, offered a great logistical advantage.

The astronaut encouraged pupils to embrace science-fiction because it often predicts technology, as it did with lasers and cell phones.

He talked about Mars. "Everywhere we have found water, we have found life."

It took some hometown pride for the Bethel Park school to become the setting for NASA productions intended for national audiences. Robert Matzen, of Bethel Park, was hired to direct videos for NASA's Space Flight Awareness Program, an astronaut outreach program. He is a senior writer/producer for Akoya, a strategic planning and communications company based on the South Side.

Mr. Matzen needed a classroom scene for a 10-minute video depicting the life of astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, who was inspired to her career watching a TV broadcast of a space shuttle launch from her fourth-grade classroom.

Mr. Matzen felt the Bethel Park school could be transformed easily into a 1980s Colorado classroom, the setting for part of the story.

He used a Pittsburgh-based production crew.

Two dozen fourth-graders were chosen to stay after the assembly as extras in the scene.

"I'm really, really excited because it's going to be on TV," Tommy Crawford said while squirming at his desk waiting for "action."

For one scene, cameras rolled as Col. Creamer and pupils surrounded a model of the moon. There was no script; pupils casually asked questions about things such as moon rocks and exactly where man has walked.

"They had this magnificent opportunity to speak to an astronaut face to face," Principal Shirley Dickinson said. "Students were captivated by his openness and willingness to answer questions."

First-grade teacher Dana Polis was also in the second video production. With the help of a curling iron and some volunteer hairdressers, her current hairstyle was transformed into the big hair fad of the 1980s. Then she was ready for her role as Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger's teacher.

"I look at it as another life experience," she said of her screen role.

"It's definitely a motivation to learn," she added.

Production of the second video took much longer than the first, stretching three hours past the final school bell. Set lights were added and the classroom was stripped of anything that looked post-1980s. A large photo of President Ronald Reagan was hung on the wall near the American flag, and a vintage television set was positioned by the chalkboard. It rolled footage representing the shuttle launch that inspired Ms. Metcalf-Lindenburger decades ago..

Actress Cassidy Chriest, 10, of North East, Erie County, waited patiently in the classroom. She was hired to play the role of the young astronaut.

"And she thought she was going to get out of school today!" her grandmother, Joan Toter, said.

It was 7 p.m. when pupils left for the day.

"They got a little antsy, but no one complained," Mr. Matzen said.

Of course, the production crew had arranged a pizza delivery midway through to quiet growling stomachs.

In one whirlwind of a school day, the pupils were able to glimpse the stars of both space travel and movie-making. Science apparently bested the silver screen. Fourth-grader Lindsey Young said: "It's way more fun to be an astronaut than an actress."