After spelling ended for the day, the spellers heard from Leland Melvin, a former football player and retired astronaut.
Melvin told spellers that he grew up learning to be an engineer without even realizing it by playing with an at-home chemistry set and helping his father convert a bread truck into a camper.
He said his inspiration as a child was The Little Engine that Could -- and its motto, "I think I can" -- and Curious George's The Man in the Yellow Hat, who always had Curious George's best interests in mind.
"No matter what you do in life, make sure someone has your back," he said.
Melvin played football, and joined both the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys before he was cut from the teams for hamstring issues.
So he finished a degree in material science before working at NASA and, later, applying to be an astronaut. He was one of 25 people selected of more than 2,500 who applied.
Then, during a training session, he went deaf. His hearing returned, but he lost friends on the Space Shuttle Columbia. It took years before he was cleared to fly, but in 2008, he went to space for the first time. He went again in 2009.
"If I can do these things, you can do anything," he told the spellers. "You can go to Mars; you can do anything you want to be."
Spelling resumes tomorrow morning with the 41 finalists.
