Tag: NASA

Friday Finds: Tom Cruise interviews an astronaut

2 Comments

Nothing is more important than what you are doing right now. – NASA Astronaut Victor Glover

I’ve been listening to Houston, We Have a Podcast (the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center) since it’s very first episode. I think that was back in 2017. I remember it was in the midst of my PhD. I was delighted to discover it, because I’ve always loved space stuff. I remember reading books about the planet Venus on the playground. (Yup, I was a very cool kid.) Houston, We Had a Podcast was such a brilliant find during a stressful time and I’ve kept listening for all these years as they invite on NASA people (scientists, engineers, astronauts) to talk about space flight.

I wanted to share with you a great episode I listened to recently…featuring (randomly) Tom Cruise.

Continue reading →

Madeira Mondays: Mercury 13

Leave a comment

‘Floating among the stars, that is my objective.’ – Wally Funk

I didn’t know about the Mercury 13 until recently, when I read the sci fi thriller Goldilocks and saw that the book was dedicated to them. I looked them up and learned that they were a group of 13 women in the 1960s who wanted to become astronauts. They aced the same grueling physical tests as the male astronauts, but their careers were cut short before they even began when it was decided (in the USA, at least) that women shouldn’t be astronauts at all. What a tragic story, and equally more tragic when I watched this documentary, Mercury 13, and saw how qualified, capable and enthusiastic these women were.

Continue reading →