NASA – Jen's Orbital Platform

During 2015 I kept hearing about this American astronaut aboard the International Space Station. I don’t follow NASA and the ISS as much as I would like but for whatever reason, Scott Kelly kept popping up on my social media news feeds. I began following his shenanigans and learned he would set an American record for the number of days in space. His mission was largely to study the long term effects of microgravity in preparation for an eventual manned trip to Mars.

As I mentioned last week I’ve always been a space case and for some reason, Kelly’s story piqued my interest in the final frontier once again. When he announced he had written a book I quickly pre-ordered mine on Amazon. He even wrote a children’s book in hopes of inspiring a young mind to set their sights on the stars. I picked one of those up as well hoping one of my nephews might take an interest.

It didn’t take me long to read his book even though I’m a bit of a slow reader. He wrote extensively about what it was like to live on the ISS for a year as well as how he became an astronaut. I was surprised to learn he was barely an average student in high school and even after he started college he really didn’t have a direction in mind. A book on display one day changed his life and after reading that book he knew what he wanted to do. He worked harder than he ever had and eventually lived his dream of becoming an astronaut.

For the longest time I wanted to be an astronaut and for a while it looked like I was on the path to at least set myself up as a good candidate. Eventually math kicked my chances too far away and at the time I didn’t have the focus to do what it took to get back on track. I also began to realize what I wanted most was to be a starship captain and explore strange new worlds, not conduct science experiments in a lab in orbit of Earth. While it is very likely I will live long enough to see the first humans on Mars, I doubt it will happen in what I would call my prime. So yeah a part of me has some regret for not going full-bore on my dream but I have other gifts and talents and I certainly have a full life even if it doesn’t include a walk among the stars.

Yesterday my husband and I stood in line for just over an hour at the Costco in Kirkland waiting for our turn to get my copy of Endurance signed by Scott Kelly. I saw at least two kids dressed as astronauts and people of all ages young and old stood in line with us. While it certainly wasn’t the masses I’m used to seeing at Emerald City Comicon, it was refreshing to see so many people enthusiastic about space exploration.

End Transmission

It’s no secret I’ve been a “space case” most of my life. I’m not sure when it started but I recall a book I picked up in my school library when I was in second grade that really inspired me. It never occurred to me at the tender age of seven just how significant the woman featured in that book was. I mean come on, what does gender have to do with space exploration? Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. While America had all but won the space race, Russia got a woman up there first. It wasn’t until June 18, 1983, twenty years after Valentina Tereshkova, Ride broke that particular glass ceiling. It leads me to wonder what the hell took NASA so long.

There are many notable women in S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, math) fields and particularly at NASA. The recent movie Hidden Figures highlights a few of the many contributions by Kathrine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician integral to the success of the Apollo missions. I felt the film did a wonderful job portraying the challenges Ms. Johnson had to overcome not only as a woman but as a person of color as well.

When I heard about a Lego Ideas kit featuring some of the pioneering women of NASA I was super excited. This isn’t the first Lego Ideas kit to feature women in S.T.E.M. The previous kit featuring generic female characters in a research institute was so successful they had to do a second run. I imagined this new kit would be equally popular! I waited by my computer on the evening of October 31^stto be sure I had a good chance to snag one. One of the benefits to living on the west coast is not having to wait until midnight. The kit went on sale online at 9:00pm my time and I was able to get one with no trouble!

I was a little disappointed the kit didn’t include the aforementioned Johnson as she was part of the original Ideas concept. Apparently there was some conflict with obtaining her permission. However the kit did include my personal hero Sally Ride as well as Mae Jemison, Nancy Roman, and Margaret Hamilton.

I really enjoyed building the space shuttle as part of the Ride Jemison vignette. It’s really easy to build large scale models of various things out of Lego but a real challenge is building something small. Micro scale is quite difficult but also a lot of fun. The Hubble Telescope in Roman’s vignette is another good example of micro scale.

The Women of NASA kit has already sold out on Amazon and the online Lego shop proving once again the popularity of women in S.T.E.M!

End Transmission