Park named for NASA astronaut, native son

BY ROCHELLE LAUREN GERSZBERG Staff Writer

BY ROCHELLE LAUREN GERSZBERG
Staff Writer

EDISON — A hometown boy who became a NASA space shuttle astronaut now has a park named after him.

Township officials unveiled the sign for Mark Polansky Park last week, as family and friends stood with him on a windy day.

Edie Polansky, his mother, helped display the sign.

Polansky graduated from J.P. Stevens High School in 1974. He left Edison to further his education and become an astronaut, said Township Councilman Robert Barnes, who went to high school with Polansky.

Polansky received an Air Force commission after he graduated from Purdue University in 1978, Barnes said.

“He has logged over 5,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft, “he said.

Polansky was part of the Atlantis shuttle crew’s almost 13-day mission to the International Space Station in February, his mother said.

The crew delivered the United States laboratory module Destiny, Edie Polansky said.

“The shuttle spent seven days docked to the station while Destiny was attached and three spacewalks were conducted to complete its assembly,” she said. “The crew also relocated a docking port, and delivered supplies and equipment to the resident Expedition-1 crew.”

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration made a movie of Polansky’s flight and has distributed it to IMAX theaters, Barnes said.

Polansky lives in Houston, but returns to Edison occasionally, where Edie Polansky still lives.

Edison will always be Polansky’s “native town,” his mother said.

The park is located off Grove Street, near J.P. Stevens High School.