Dead or alive, Costa Mesa teacher readies for space trip

The grainy black-and-white television images flickered and burned indelibly into the little girl’s mind.
It was May 5, 1961. Dee Chester, age 5, watched astronaut Alan Shepard take an elevator to the top of an 83-foot missile and blast off into space. And she was mesmerized.
“That looks cool,” Chester said to her parents. “I want to do that.”The next day, Lee and Agnes Chester suggested to their daughter that she start chasing her passion by collecting newspaper and