Perhaps injecting chickens with testosterone isn’t the greatest indicator of scientific talent.

For when Glenbard East High School science teacher James Carter casts his mind back to the school year of 1976-77 and his most famous former student, astronaut Dan Tani of Lombard, he recalls the difficulties Tani and his lab partner had with a science experiment involving chickens and injections.

“They both had a lot of trouble getting it done,” Carter said. “Dan was very determined to get it done the right way. ... I think he decided at that point he wasn’t going to do injections.”

While that might have precluded a career in medicine, it didn’t stop Tani from pursuing a career in science. He graduated from Glenbard East in 1979 and went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And in the late 1990s, he became a NASA astronaut.

On Tuesday,  he was part of a crew on the space shuttle Discovery that blasted off to go to the International Space Station, where Tani will stay for about two months.

Carter had hoped to watch the launch with his upper level anatomy and physiology class, but the launch was delayed about 20 minutes due to ice. The class missed seeing it, but Carter didn’t.

“I always hold my breath until after they get to throttle up,” he said. “I’m always awed by the courage to get into a candle, and they light it and off it goes.”

Carter and Tani have stayed in touch. Carter e-mailed him a few days ago about a interview he did and teased Tani about the chicken incident. Tani responded, saying he was only holding the chicken and that he put Carter on a list of people who can e-mail him while he’s on the space station.

After Tani became an astronaut, Glenbard East inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

“He said to everybody, ‘I haven’t done anything yet — I’m not sure I deserve it,’” Carter said.

That was in 1999, two years before Tani’s first mission. When Tani went into space in December 2001 on Endeavour, he brought with him a flag from Glenbard East and gave the school a small U.S. flag he also took with him. Carter petitioned NASA for the Endeavour mission flag and got it — these items are included in a display case located at the school’s main door dedicated to Tani.

After Tani returned from space, he came back to his alma mater and spent a day talking to students.

“He talked about hanging in there and living your dream,” Carter said. “You can get there. If you want to go to space, you can get there from East.”

Tani’s message to students is that they can go anywhere from Lombard, Carter said, starting at Glenbard East. It’s a message that students hear.

Phil Schroder, 17, is a senior in Carter’s anatomy and physiology class, which has discussed some of the experiments Tani will conduct. Phil watched the lift-off in his English class.

“It was awesome,” Phil said. “It’s really interesting how someone who went to the school is in outer space. ... If you have a dream or something you want to do, you can always do it. Dan Tani is a good example of that.”