Lakeview science teacher Dan Wray has been fascinated with space and with manned space flight since he was a kid.

Now he may have a chance to live his dream.

Wray, 41, is one of 30 to 60 finalists, out of a field of more than 1,600 applicants, for the position of educator astronaut at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"This is no teacher-in-space stunt," Wray said Tuesday, adding that the educator astronaut actually will become a NASA employee. "They're trying to inspire a new generation of astronauts."

Wray cited his interest in space travel as one of his reasons to apply for the position.

"It gives me a chance to couple my occupation as a teacher with my passion for space exploration and space flight," he said.

NASA announced the educator astronaut program last January, receiving more than 1,600 applications from science and math teachers across the United States. Wray submitted his application in the spring. The applications were evaluated by a committee at NASA's Washington, D.C., headquarters, and 200 were selected for further review.

Wray said at that point he was asked to submit a flight physical, along with recommendations from supervisors and colleagues.

The 200 applications were sent to Johnson Space Center in Houston, and from those, the Astronaut Selection Board chose 30 to 60 finalists for interviews. Wray will go to Houston for his week-long interview beginning Oct. 5.

"I hope I don't say or do anything while I'm there to make me say, 'Oh, gosh, I'll never make it!'" he laughed. "... I know I'm competing with people who are extremely well-qualified."

NASA will announce its selection in February, though Wray will be notified before the decision is made public, no matter what the outcome, he said.

If he is selected, Wray and his family - his wife, who teaches at Warsaw Community High School, and his son, 10, and daughter, 6 - will leave his hometown of Warsaw and move to Houston.

Leaving would be hard, he said.

"I'm just focused on the possibility of helping a program that I've had a love affair with since I was a kid," he said.

According to NASA's Web site, www.edspace.nasa.gov, Wray is easily qualified to become an educator astronaut. To be qualified, applicants must be U.S. citizens; certified to teach K-12 students; have classroom teaching experience three out of the past four years; have a bachelor's degree in education, math, science, engineering or science-related disciplines; and be able to pass a NASA Class II space flight physical.

Wray has taught in the Warsaw school system since 1987, is a 1981 WCHS graduate with a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and a master's degree from Indiana University.

Once the educator astronaut is chosen, he or she will be trained as any other astronaut and will take on the same duties as any mission specialist or space shuttle crew, says NASA's Web site. Some of those activities include helping with shuttle activity planning and operations, science experiments, participating in International Space Station assembly and operations and "extra-vehicular activities" (space walks).

The annual salary ranges from $50,974 to $94,448, depending on qualifications.

Wray said the opportunity to do science experiments in space is in itself exciting - "There's no limit to the number of cool things you can do in zero gravity."

But his real goal is to inspire students to, literally, reach for the stars.

When he was in school in Warsaw, he said, an astronaut came to the school and spoke to the students, letting them know that even though they lived in northern Indiana, NASA was not beyond their reach.

"I would like to travel nationally into the Warsaw, Indianas, the middle-of-nowhere Dakotas, and reach kids and say, 'If this can happen to me, if I can find myself working for NASA, it's not too big a dream for you to start thinking about,'" he said.

He said his family and the WCS administration have enthusiastically endorsed his application. Of superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire, who wrote a recommendation for Wray, he said, "He's known of my passion for space for a long time and he's been very supportive."

If he doesn't make it into the educator astronaut corps, he still wants to support NASA in some way, but he prefers to take it one step at a time. Besides, he said, "there aren't accidents in life, things happen for a reason."

And he's not all that concerned about safety after the Columbia disaster. "I could get hit by a bus walking out of the school this afternoon," he said. "I feel like the possibility (of being selected) is so remote and if you're on the shuttle, the chances of that (explosion) happening are so remote," he said. Besides, NASA has redoubled its efforts toward safety, he said, and "you trust the people who are experts at what they do."

Wray tells his middle school students that the selection process is like running on a track and jumping 10 hurdles.

"NASA has invited me to try to jump the third one," he said. "We'll see what happens." [[In-content Ad]]