Scott Altman isn't the only Pekin native conquering space this month. On Wednesday, the second grade class from Stark Primary School took a field trip to the Challenger Learning Center in Bloomington.

"The kids get a hands on experience," said Jeff Oesch, the parent of a student and a member of the District 108 school board. "It's kind of a junior NASA program an we are so fortunate that its so close to home."

The instructors at the Challenger Learning Center are called flight directors. Satcey Shrewsbury teaches the kids about the planets.

"They're getting a better understanding of earth and our solar system," said Shrewsbury, "and understanding what the planets are made out of. For my group, where's our best home here in the solar system and we're finding out that earth is a pretty good place to be."

The kids also learned what a hassle a space suit can be. But their teachers probably weren't thrilled about the session on how to make a perfectly aerodynamic paper airplane.

The flight directors also talked about Altman's recent mission.

"He is a space man," said second grader Myles Oesch. "This is the fourth time that he's gone into space."

"We're talking about the ride that he would have taken up into space and what he would have been able to see of the earth looking back it," said Shrewsbury. "He had a sunrise and a sunset every 45 minutes, which the kids were kind of impressed with."

But not all of them were inspired to follow in Altman's footsteps.

"Probably no," admitted second grader Sarah Sutton. "I probably wouldn't like spinning around a lot."

Maybe there's a job for her at mission control.