Medal returns from space

LEMONT -- Emily Sowa remembers when her son Mark used to sit on the swing and dream of working for NASA.

That little boy followed his dreams and spent the past 20 years in pursuit of "shaping the future."

He took on a new mission about a year ago when he enlisted the help of astronaut Dan Tani to carry a medal from the Comets of Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lemont on his trip to space.

"I wanted to bring NASA a little closer," said Mark Sowa, who now lives in Houston but grew up in Joliet, got married and had his son baptized at the Lemont church. "I wanted to tell the kids, 'You can follow your dreams. This could be you.'"

Tani, formerly of Lombard, launched into space on the Discovery shuttle Oct. 23. At that time, the students gathered in the church to pray for his safe voyage and to check in on their medal.

The only other nonpersonal item Tani carried with him to the stars was a Cubs banner.

The 47-year-old Tani returned the medal that travelled about 7 million miles in two weeks to the school -- complete with a certificate of authenticity ensuring that it, in fact, circled the earth in 90 minutes on a space shuttle that weighed 4.5 million pounds at takeoff. "Every ounce of that 4.5 million pounds is precious to someone," Tani told a crowd of about 500 giddy kindergarten through eighth-graders.

"It's an honor to be able to take care of and bring some of that precious cargo back from space."

Seventh-grader Michaela Maslanka, a 13-year-old from Homer Glen, reflected on the magnitude of the historic day.

"It's a very good honor because you sent something from the school that represents it in space," she said.

She imagined Tani's four months in space, most of which he spent on the International Space Station, was "just a whole different universal feeling."

Parents also were star-struck by Tani and the possibilities he represented for their children.

"This is a one-in-a-lifetime experience," said Lemont resident Margie Cliff, who has two daughters at the school. "Like the astronaut said, we're all explorers. I hope they're going to walk away with that and use it to do their own exploring."

The Rev. Larry Lisowski reminded the students that Jesus liked to "go high up on the mountain." And principal Shirley Tkachuk thanked God for the opportunity.

"You really have the ability to do what you like in your life," she said. "We all have gifts and talents, and we need to develop them to make the world a better place."

That was the world Tani was eager to return to in February after about 120 days missing his family and gravity.

"Floating in space is incredibly fun and convenient for many things," said the man who perfected moving through modules. "But I really missed taking a shower, spitting out toothpaste and fresh bread."

He was, however, able to create a space-time favorite meal of peanut butter and M&Ms on a tortilla.

Tani and Sowa reiterated their message.

"We all wonder what's around the next corner," said Sowa, imagery acquisition supervisor at the Johnson Space Center. "I carried that into adulthood. NASA is just little kids who want to explore and continue to explore. Always keep that in mind. That you, too, can be like Dan Tani -- an explorer."