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At the Center of a Small World
Mister Rogers, the Space
Shuttle Columbia, and Buhl Planetarium
By R.J. Gangewere
Two of the most popular shows at
Carnegie Science Center's Henry Buhl Jr. Planetarium and Observatory are The Sky Above Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
and On Orbit, a look at the
International Space Station and the people who live and work in Earth's
orbit.
In February 2003, the death of Pittsburgh's own Fred
Rogers, and the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia were
headline news around the world. At the Buhl Planetarium, these losses had
personal meaning.
A
Neighborhood in the Sky
Planetarium Producer Jim Hughes first worked with Fred
Rogers at the old Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in 1986
to produce a Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood program for WQED on the
subject of Haley's Comet. Only in 2000, when Mister Rogers was free enough
to commit to a Planetarium Show, did he and his Family Communications
company focus on his new Skyshow, The
Sky Above Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Jim notes that "a planetarium show for the
pre-school market is a special challenge, and many planetariums don’t allow
children under the age of six to enter." Yet, that didn’t stop the
Buhl staff from partnering with Family Communications.
Rogers was concerned about the consistency of the
message throughout the show and knew from the start the child's point of
view that would be necessary to make the show successful. “The conception,
script, and performance was pure Fred Rogers,” says Jim. “For example, in
planning, he rejected the idea that Daniel the Tiger should be afraid of
the dark because children wouldn’t expect that from a tiger.”
Planetarium Director John Radzilowicz remembers how
Rogers conceived the scenes and his whimsical approach to his characters,
saying, "Oh no, Henrietta would never say that,” or "The King
would look at it this way." Buhl Educator Dan Malerbo recalls working
with Mr. Rogers fondly. “When Mister Rogers met the Buhl Planetarium's
puppet character 'Zeke' [from Zeke's
Dazzling Sky], he looked him directly in his puppet eyes and said in
his quiet, friendly way, 'You can have the day off today.'"
A Mission to
Educate
On Orbit
premiered in April 2002 after six months of preparation in close
collaboration with NASA. The concept for the On Orbit show is that
the audience is training for a mission in space, and the interactive
buttons at each seat allow each viewer to make choices and decisions about
what to do next. Because On Orbit
is so carefully constructed, it lets the viewer experience exactly what the
shuttle astronauts see and undergo during their missions, right up to
re-entry, which is when the space shuttle Columbia exploded.
To collect the detailed NASA images and information the
Buhl staff used to create On Orbit, Radzilowicz notes “Our staff
went through reams and reams of video and met and talked with members from
most of the previous space shuttle crews. This was the first time we didn’t
personally know anyone on board Columbia.”
Buhl Educator Dan Malerbo has taught aerospace subjects
to teachers for 12 years, and the weekend after the Columbia
disaster he went to Houston to teach a workshop at Johnson Space Center and
was struck by how keenly the loss was felt by everyone involved. “The
astronaut ‘family’—all the people associated with the space mission,
whether they sew the gloves for the space suits or package the in-flight
food—are very close,” says Dan. “After the explosion, the conference was
nearly cancelled, but in the spirit of discipline and completing the
designated educational mission, NASA went on with it. Several NASA
officials were so choked with grief they could barely speak, but in the end
the program became a kind of healing process.”
Dealing with Loss
After Mister Rogers’
death, Family Communications Inc. put on its Web site suggestions about how
adults should tell children about Mister Rogers’ passing. Buhl staff were
asked to address the issue only if parents or children in the audience
raised it first, and then to be as gentle and truthful as possible. Most of
the children who attend the show probably did not know or were too young to
understand Fred's death, and everyone agreed that if children were to be
told at all it should be by the adults closest to them. Buhl staff passed
along these suggestions to all of the facilities currently running The Sky Above Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood.
Concerning the loss
of Columbia and the astronauts,
Buhl received from NASA no specific guidelines other than an email reminder
that Buhl, as an informal NASA representative, should not offer speculation
on the crew's final moments or on the ultimate cause of the disaster.
The loss of the seven astronauts and the passing of
Mister Rogers both remind us how small the world sometimes seems, and how
close Buhl Planetarium and Pittsburgh can be to the center of it.
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