Dick Richards stood on the gymnasium floor. Behind him poster-sized photos hung: one of an astronaut, one of a space shuttle. A large painting of the mission insignia of the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger mission covered a wall.

Richards, a former NASA astronaut, often uses the thrill of space exploration to encourage students to study math and science. And perhaps there was no better place to spread his message than Auburn’s Dick Scobee Elementary School, named after his friend who died when the Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986.

“When I found out there was a school named after Dick,” he said, “I made sure I put that at the top of my list. And before I’ll leave, I’m going to make sure that I get my picture in front of the sign.”

Scobee, a Cle Elum native who grew up in Auburn, was spacecraft commander on the Challenger. Richards trained with Scobee in the 1980s and was informally selected to be on the shuttle’s crew before being selected as the pilot on the Columbia for a mission in August 1989 -- the first of his four shuttle flights.

Richards, now 62 and living in Houston, is attending the Association of Space Explorers' 11th Planetary Congress this week in Seattle. The organization, started in 1985 to foster dialogue between astronauts and cosmonauts on opposite sides of the Cold War and open to anyone who has traveled to space, meets about every year so its members can discuss their experiences.

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Sure, cities around the state are hosting American heroes today. But only one, Port Orchard, can boast the honor of hosting the only Mongolian in space.

Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa -- or, for my legions of Mongolian speakers, Жүгдэрдэмидийн Гүррагчаа -- will be at Orchard Heights Elementary School this evening. According to his Wikipedia page, Gürragchaa is an aerospace engineer, a major general in the Mongolian Air Force and the defense minister from 2000-04. He was selected through the Intercosmos program and spent almost eight days in orbit in 1978. In 1981, he received the Hero of the Soviet Union award.

And Wikipedia (sorry for not having better sources, but my Russian is rusty) also has this interesting bit of trivia:

After Mongolia removed the Communist-era ban on clan names in 1997, and unable to identify his original clan heritage, Gürragchaa chose the clan name Sansar - Mongolian for "cosmos."

Neat.

I'm going to be at Dick Scobee Elementary School in Auburn this morning to Dick Richards, a former NASA astronaut who will be talking to students in Auburn today. He's one of dozens of astronauts and cosmonauts in Seattle for the Association of Space Explorers' "planetary congress."

(A bit of background: The school is named after Scobee, an Cle Elum native who grew up in Auburn. He was spacecraft commander astronaut on the ill-fated Challenger mission.)