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Foreword
Kevin Childton, Shuttle Commander, STS-76
I confess that when I was approached about the possibility of flying a secondary experiment called "KidSat" on STS-76, I was more than skeptical.  My crew already had a complicated mission to execute that included a rendezvous and docking with the Mir Space Station, re-supply and crew transfer operations, a space walk, and an extensive series of biological research experiments.  And, from previous experience, I knew that secondary experiments often take up as much or more of the crew's pre-flight preparation schedule and on-orbit timeline as the primary mission payload.  So the prospect of adding an additional experiment to our already full program of activities concerned me.  But as I was introduced to the KidSat program and, more importantly, to the students who were participating in it, I found my skepticism rapidly replaced with anticipation and excitement for the success of the experiment.
Although a key element of the KidSat project was to remotely image the Earth from the shuttle, in my opinion, this was not the essence of the experiment.  I think a major goal was to motivate and educate students to participate in the scientific and engineering processes required to succeed in any great technological venture.  In both of these regards, I can conclude that the experiment was a resounding success!  The students had to learn what design and safety reviews were, and then conduct them.  They had to build procedures for the flight and ground crews to execute and then personally conduct the appropriate training.  They had to fit and function checks with their hardware in the shuttle mock-ups and rehearse their experiment in pre-flight simulations.  They had to put together a science team to build rationale for the targets that they would image during the flight and then make real-time adjustments to their plan during the mission.  Finally they had the joy of doing post-flight analysis on the fruits of their labor: the beautiful images of the Earth that the KidSat cameras and computers sent down to them from the flight deck of Atlantics.
I can unequivocally say that the students in the KidSat program conducted their pre-flight preparation and mission execution as expertly as any seasoned professional team.  This, combined with their absolutely infectious enthusiasm, made flying the KidSat experiment one of the high points of STS-76.