How to be An Astronaut
There is so much still to learn about space, can we live there, how big is it, can we build a holiday home on Mars? So many films about exploring space – Guardians of the galaxy, star trek, ET, Star Wars! Imagine all the things we could do!
Well there was a girl, Mae C Jemison, living in America who dreamed of space. In 1963, when Mae was only 7 something exciting happened. Valentina Tereshkova a Russian Cosmonaut which is what they call astronauts in Russia, became the first women into space!
“Space, The final frontier…to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Mae knew instantly that she wanted to go to space!
Her favourite T.V show was all about space and explored new worlds. Star Trek: The Next Generation! She loved it! And what was really special was the women who played a space Lieutenant in the show, Nichelle Nichols, an African-American actress. She played the role of Nyota Uhura,
Fun fact "Uhura" comes from the Swahili word uhuru, meaning "freedom".
This was the first time Mae saw a strong female figure who had the same colour skin as her.
Now there had only been one women in space so far and it would be another 15 years before another women followed, not because they didn’t want to go, there were many women who were trained and ready but astronauts were required to be military test pilots, a career not available to American women at the time it was only until 1978 when the anti-discrimination law was brought in that NASA changed their rules.
In the mean-time Mae didn’t stop dreaming. She worked hard and she studied. She got in to chemical engineering and became a doctor.
In 1991 The first British person went up in to space Helen Sharman! That was even before any British man!
Mae aimed high and joined NASA and in 1992 her dreams came true she became the first African American to travel to space. She made it!
I think I’d like to be an astronaut to, how about you? Today, astronauts work on the international space station - a scientific laboratory in orbit around the earth. Astronauts from all over the world work together on the ISS to increase our knowledge of space travel so we can boldly go where no human has gone before. Right now, the only way to get to the ISS is to hitch a ride with the Russians on their spaceship called Soyuz, meaning “Union”. So all astronauts need to learn some Russian!
PREEVE – IT = Hello
DA – Yes
NYET – No
COM-RAD - friend
POYEKHALI – Lets go!
DAS-VID-AN-IYA – Goodbye
Now we can talk to our comrad's in space. Just in case something was to go wrong with the navigation system you could use the stars to find your way home. Did you know that Cosmonaut means space-sailor in Latin? In ancient times we looked up at the skies and realised we could make patterns with the stars, making pictures. We called these pictures constellations.
Do you know your constellations?
Do you know the most famous constellation? Its one of the easiest to spot in the night sky, and you can see it from anywhere on Earth! In Greek Mythology this group of stars is known as ‘The Hunter’.
Can you guess what group of stars I’m describing?
That’s right, Orion! Well done! Astronomers often link a constellation’s name to what they look like. Look up to the stars tonight and see. Look for a long wiggly line of stars. What creature does this remind you of? A worm? A snake? A Dragon perhaps. We call this one by its Latin name – draco which means dragon.
Looking down at our planet, planet Earth, from space, Mae realised how very special our world is and how important it is to protect what we have. It will be a very long time before we’re able to survive on another planet, so it’s really important that we nurture the Earth and each other. Since retiring from being an astronaut, Mae has worked as an advocate for science education, setting up numerous foundations, including “The Earth we share”, where children work to solve global problems.
Dream Big, Aim High and you can Change the world!