BLOOMINGTON - The cheers grew as LeRoy Elementary School fifth-graders got assignments to rendezvous with a comet.

Students and teachers prepared four weeks for the session at the Challenger Learning Center at Prairie Aviation Museum. Chaperoning parents also shared the thrill.

"Alex was really excited. I like seeing him excited," said Julie Payne, a Country Financial employee there to watch her 11-year-old son and his classmates learn about space.

The LeRoy group was one of about 225 missions to "take off" in the last year. About 6,000 students annually take part.

The first mission blasted off Dec. 17, 2003, 100 years to the day after the Wright brothers' historic first flight at Kitty Hawk. It was dedicated to the late Joe Warner, an avid supporter of the center, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

The center is one of 53 in more than 30 states, England, South Korea and Canada. The other Illinois site is in Woodstock.

They were created through a foundation established by the families of those who died in the 1986 Challenger shuttle explosion. Among them was Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space.

The Bloomington center is the only one to have the micronauts program, geared for primary grades. "That's one thing that's unique to us," said Stacey Shrewsbury, the Bloomington center's lead flight director.

The center got a national grant to create curriculum used by all the centers. It will test a program for high school students and plans a move to Heartland Community College next year.

Shrewsbury said the move will allow access to college experts and expansion of its corporate programs.

On this day, Don Cook, who works at Pioneer Hi-Bred International in LeRoy, watched his son Jake, 11, in action and explored the possibility of a corporate mission.

Challenger Learning Center is a jewel for this community, said Shrewsbury, noting the center gives students a chance to see results of their learning.

"Students and teachers get to see each other in a new light," as do parents and children, said Shrewsbury.

Abbie Lewis, 10, was on the medical crew and in charge of spinning students in a chair as part of an experiment. "It was fun," she said.

Her mom played the role of a non-English speaking visitor inside the "space station."

"I really like doing things like this with her," said Vikki Lewis, a State Farm Insurance Cos. employee.

---

New frontiers

Challenger Learning Center continues to develop programs for different audiences:

• A Valentine mission to the moon from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 12 includes a romantic candlelight dinner;

• A home-school mission is noon to 4 p.m. Feb. 16;

• Good Movie-Bad Science night with pizza and popcorn is 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 27;

• A "gold series" mission for seniors is 9 to 11:30 a.m. April 18.

For info: (309) 268-8160.