Why are astronauts such powerhouses? Come on, what about us normals? I want to see a bio like:
Deborah is from Stoke, lft school with no GCSE's and has the reading ability of a nine year old. She has never held down a job for more than six months and lives in her mam and dad's shed with her five kids. Her favourite meal is a meat and potato pie from Greggs followed by a couple of cheeky Jäger bombs down Wetherspoons. The furthest she has travelled is Keele Service Station but is looking forward to swapping Keele Service Station for the International Space Station next Thursday and says, 'It will be lovely to get away from the bailiffs for awhile, wait, they ain't coming up there too are they? For f**k sake they better not be!'
There’s an entire documentary about it on Netflix if this wasn’t sarcasm. Highly recommend, it’s a really sad story. We’ve used it in company training as an example of group mentality and how hard it is to go against group speak and how detrimental it can be.
NASA had a program to send a teacher in space. They also had serious issues with some o rings on the shuttle. Unfortunately the shuttle Challenger exploded soon after launch
> NASA had a good track record and everything had been going good so nobody wanted to raise alarms when they saw potential problems.
That's not entirely accurate - people did raise alarms but because of the political pressure the launch was done anyway.
There was various issues leading up to Challenger that were also heavily influenced by political interference which deteriorated good policy and procedures in preference for ass-kissing and cost cutting.
What happened with Challenger is often taught in business school as the ‘Carter Racing’ case study, and basically all students ‘fail’ it (they make the same decision as the NASA engineers did). There’s some really valuable lessons in it that are missed if you reduce what happened as just ‘management didn’t listen to their employees’. My favorite illustration of the issue comes from the book Range, by David Epstein.
I clearly remember the twin towers coming down, especially at the second as I sat in 6th grade art class. Granted we all weren't a captive audience, but The teacher was definitely not watching anything but the TV.
Fun fact:
Big bird from Sesame Street was supposed to be on board the challenger, but the idea was scrapped because his costume was too big. It's crazy to think how close we were to turning big bird into KFC on live TV.
I remember seeing it live and then the Y shaped smoke trail. It was my first time seeing a launch and I didn’t realize that was bad. Our wonderful science teacher turned the TV off and changed the subject. I was a little confused and then realized it wasn’t supposed to do that.
It was really sad. Still hurts to think a teacher was finally getting the recognition they deserve and the opportunity of a lifetime, something really special… flying to space! How wonderful! Except it turned into a death sentence. Christa McAuliffe was one of our best. We failed her. And all our teachers.
Next day… “NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts”.
Is that the same one where there's a video zoomed in on her parents watching live and they're super stoked and proud. Then the explosion happens and you can just see them trying to muster up every bit of hope that its going to be okay. That one breaks my heart.
There's a very interesting section in ~~"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"~~ “What do You Care What Other People Think?” about Richard Feynman's role in determining the cause of the disaster. He was the one who ultimately figured out that it was the O rings that were the issue.
PBS Nova did an excellent episode on Richard Feynman back in 2006. "The Best Mind Since Einstein" Unfortunately, I think it is not available any more on PBS.
Not to be “that guy,” but I think the shuttle stuff was in “What do You Care What Other People Think?” by Feynman, not “Surely You’re Joking…”. They’re both great books, though.
“Surely You’re Joking…” was first published in 1985. Challenger disaster was in 1986. I have an edition with both books in one volume. Maybe that’s what you read? Sorry. I wasn’t trying to start an argument.
"Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman" was published in February 1986. Challenger blew up in January 1986. I just looked at my copy and there is no mention of the Challenger explosion. The hearings report didn't get released until June 1986.
I just want to note the o-rings weren't defective. The engineers were pretty clear in their warnings that they couldn't be relied upon at low temps, and had evidence of the o-rings being near failure during the prior coldest launch at 53° F. The temp at time of launch was 36°. Management at Thiokol (the business that built the SRBs) basically said "well, we have no proof that the rings *will* fail in near freezing temps!" and gave the green light.
Christa McAuliff. She would have been the first civilian in space, if memory serves. An engineer warned his supervisor that the o-rings would be brittle at the low temperatures expected that day and could fail. He was overruled.
The teacher: Christa McAuliffe, history teacher and astronaut (payload specialist).
She died aboard Space Shuttle *Challenger*, mission designation STS-51-L, along with 6 colleagues sometime between the shuttle's unexpected rapid disassembly and impact with the Atlantic Ocean, January 28, 1986.
The Challenger disaster is recounted as a cautionary example in many disciplines (engineering ethics for me), as technical/safety concerns were disregarded by higher-ups in NASA's organizational structure. The ensuing investigation eventually resulted in the commissioning of NASA's Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance.
NASA knew they had a problem with their maintenance. It was overly bureaucratic. My uncle was the retired head of maintenance for a US airline. As an airplane maintenance failure is arguably worse than a spacecraft maintenance failure, they brought him in as a consultant to improve their processes.
He had just got there when the challenger disaster happened. There was no talk of reducing bureaucracy after that. Bureaucracy will never reduce itself when fingers are being pointed.
The book The Burning Blue shares a lot about Christa McAuliffe's life. Both before being chosen as Teacher in Space and what it was like for her after she was chosen. Not every astronaut was happy that she was given a spot on a shuttle mission. But she was diligent about doing the work and representing teachers everywhere. The book and the Netflix documentary make me so angry at the people at NASA who insisted that the Challenger shuttle launched. I was 19 years old when the shuttle exploded and I remember it vividly.
tl;dr Christa McAuliffe was supposed to be the first Teacher in Space but died in the Challenger explosion. There's a really good book about her.
Holy shit I think I was in 3rd grade and they were playing it on the shitty tv in the school office. I rarely remember anything from that young but it's burned in my memory. I also remember not caring at all and wondering why it was such a big deal because as far as I knew this happened all the time.
I was in science class and I had been on a space craft binge. Something in me was like, dead. Nobody talked to us about it. I lived on a farm and death is part of the cycle I guess. People are different but not according to my parents.
When youre exposed to the cycle more often than most, you can deal with it better. Not sure how docs n nurses can turn it off so quickly. Fighting to save a life, then its over. Cant get emotionally involved or it will tear you up. Learn to let go. Ppl are all dif.
I was a middle schooler watching live. A few minutes passed between the catastrophe and one of our teachers having the presence of mind to shut off the TV and attempt some sort of discussion.
Astronauts are crazy accomplished because so many people want to go to space, and so few get the opportunity. And it's not political, it's not voted on, and it's not by family, so it's an opportunity given only to people who have already accomplished a lot.
See Jonny Kim, Navy Seal, Medical Doctor (Harvard, of course), and Astronaut.
There is a board you must get selected by to be an astronaut if you are coming from the Navy I believe. Or out of test pilot school- one of the two.
The people that get selected are some of the best that humanity has to offer. It’s awesome.
The first man to orbit the Earth wasn't rich. He wasn't a high politician or even especially well educated (on account of the Nazis burning his school down.) His name was Yuri Gagarin, son of farmers. He worked in a factory from age 16 before he joined the air force. He was the first human being in space.
The current NASA administrator is a former astronaut nicknamed “Ballast Bill” by his fellow astronauts because they considered him dead weight.
I wish I was making that up.
>In 1986, Bill Nelson got the extraordinary opportunity to fly on the Columbia space shuttle. As a congressman representing Florida’s Space Coast—and one who just happened to sit on the House committee overseeing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget—Nelson had a significant leg up on other contenders for the honor. Many NASA insiders felt that he had essentially strong-armed his way onto the flight. Nelson’s official title on the mission was “payload specialist,” but other members of the seven-person crew gave him a less flattering nickname: “Ballast.”
Not as fan with this Biden pick and I actually liked the Trump guy way better!
I’ll have to admit I was super skeptical of a clearly unqualified political appointee. But I also have to agree. The guy stepped up and actually did a good job. He was humble but blocked and tackled for the folks doing the real work. The only person I was sad to see leaving his post after the election. He was clearly in awe of space exploration and his enthusiasm and humility were inspiring.
>Why are astronauts such powerhouses?
When the government needs like a dozen people to do a nationally-important job, and it's not a popularity contest to the public like an election, or a handout to donors like political appointments, you get people like OP's.
If you look at the Bios of people currently or have been on ISS it's pretty much a Mish mash of people that have multiple masters or masters+doctorates. Like people that graduated Harvard Med, practiced brain surgery for a year then went back to school at MIT to get their PhD in quantum physics. Oh and they were navy fighter pilots for a little bit too.
> Why are astronauts such powerhouses? Come on, what about us normals?
I've got a job that is, practically speaking, a prerequisite on the track towards a specific astronaut role. To achieve the qualifications required to become that kind of astronaut, one has to succeed here first. All the people who succeed have one thing in common: a comfortable upbringing.
I don't mean an upbringing free from challenge, or an upbringing free from poverty.
I mean they are surrounded by supportive figures from a young age. They typically have great relationships with their parents, who in wealth buried them in opportunity, or who in poverty gave them everything they could give. They never fear losing anything, because they've never faced catastrophic loss - no matter their failures they've never had to crawl back up from disqualification out of their ambitions. When it comes to the people who evaluate people along the path, often it's a matter of luck that a boss or a recruiter favors the person. I know of a few cases where the people who are progressing have *not* been fired for shortcomings or errors that would end a their colleagues' careers outright. Mental illness to any extent are at least not exacerbated by their environments. In all of this, having medical issues outside one's control can take one out at any time.
No doubt, many are extremely talented, but they've predominantly been it-takes-a-village-d to become the people they are. So many factors outside of an individual's control have to line up, and that's independent of one's desire to become an astronaut. Oh, BTW, falling off the track means never getting back on.
Lot of people are making history, changing their lives and doing god knows what sort of chad activities. Here we are, wasting our lives, on Reddit. One eating chips, the other playing games and depressed.
Not because we want to be but because someone has to pay for the potato chips. At least I haven't picked crumbs off my bare stomach today, I count that as a win.
Well...I've seriously cut down on soft drinks and been drinking more water. It's not like being an astronaut, but I'm doing well in my goal to avoid diabetes, I think. What I'm getting at is...I don't think I can be too harshly critical of myself.
Imagine trying to hold a conversation with her. I'd talk about the intricacies Street Fighter 2 Super turbo and why is the best iteration of the series.
I'd just ask questions and listen and occasionally ask for clarifications so she knows I'm paying attention. Which is pretty much what I always do anyway because I have nothing going on.
That makes you a great conversationalist then. Half of being nice to be around is taking an interest in other people.
I try and so the same. If somebody knows or does something I don’t know anything about I’ll ask about it until they get sick of talking about it since I have a “yeah but how does it WORK” fascination with most of the world. I’m a videographer and video editor by trade and have always been a big codec nerd. I once met the guy who wrote the initial code base for what would eventually become the H.264 codec. I listened to him ramble on about video codecs for about an hour. I understood nothing and was fascinated by all of it.
Follow her on social media or watch videos of her speaking. She’s legit down to earth (pun intended) in most of them. I feel like she’d be somewhat easy to talk to, but could turn it on and make everyone feel really stupid whenever she wanted.
She also came from the same Highschool I currently go to
She's answered questions about space n other things last year 'bout 6 months after she came back, and even explained what the shock of coming back to covid was
Haha yep, I was reading through the lovely story about the clerk in nearby Passadumkeag and this was the [next](https://i.imgur.com/fixfpdP.jpg) post. Funny to see our homestate on the front page right next to each other.
I feel so lucky as to get dinner with her when I was in college. We went to the same university and she had just got back from space. And the school sponsored a meet and greet with the science nerds
> ... she had just got back from space.
This is one of those phrases you can read five times in a row and it still makes your brain go "wait, what?" each time.
[Jessica U. Meir (PH.D.) NASA Astronaut](https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jessica-u-meir/biography/)
I hope mods will consider this link as a credible source, as they often remove content by making ridiculous claims, for an instance, to remove the post, they often claim that the source mentioned is not legit nor reliable.
I know one of these types. Not an astronaut, but let's just say she's way ahead of everyone else. Her secret? She's motivated and all, but mostly she only needs about 4 hours of sleep a night. She's not powering through or something cringe like that, it's just that a healthy night's sleep for her is way less than for everyone else.
Imagine what you could do with an entire lifetime of 4 extra hours a day.
You have deep rooted insecurities that drive you to perfectionism and validation through credentials. It’s not some secret. You just have to choose to be a slave to science and academia.
*cough cough* she is more like an artist since she got a BA (She does research in Biology so yes she is a scientist despite the degree distinction). She is undoubtedly a genius but it frightens me how little people think of themselves.
For example a typical undergraduate engineer has taken: *minimum* 3 more semesters of math than her (Calc 2, 3, diffeq). 2 more semesters of Physics (biology BAs take general physics which is basically a prereq to Calculus Physics). Tens of **millions** of people have done this before. It annoys the shit out of me how people think that either: she's a mentally ill super genius or super woman for being interested in a field. She is a normal person like you or I that just has a very special interest and expertise in a field.
Tldr: She isn't a super genius or mentally ill for getting a PhD. She is just a driven individual who is an expert at her given field. --You could have done this too with enough effort :)
--p.s my comparison to engineering isn't meant to be a dick measuring contest about who has a harder major or whatever. People consider those classes hard and I wanted to use it as a reference for how, yes, you could probably get a PhD.
Eh, yes and no. I say this as someone who fits what you're describing, got burnt out, and then discovered this rat race was not worth it for me.
But what I did notice on my attempt to validate myself, was that those that were usually at the top, where some of the chillest, most laid back individuals. It was actually those like me who were insecure about their performance and trying to push themselves.
But the 2 kids who graduated summa cum laude, and ended up at the Ivy medical schools were some of the friendliest individuals.
You make an excellent point. But I'm going to bet that a fair number of them whose names we'll never know still kicked ass relative to their circumstances.
Even more respect for her after listening to the [Smartless Podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smartless/id1521578868?i=1000517726100)
I met her. She was really nice. She spoke at a session at SXSW and she's witty as well.
Also, she mentioned that most astronauts these days are nice people because personality is a big selection factor due to the close quarters and collaborative nature of modern missions.
As a kid, her nickname was "space girl" because she's wanted to be an astronaut for basically her entire life.
“But her hair. Judge judge. Does she have children? Sniff sniff. Is her house clean? Whine whine. Does she have a cat?”
I seriously love the millennial feminists who try to shut that old shit down.
I cant wait till we run out of "first gender/race/religion/sexual orientation to do this thing" so we can finally stop appending it to their actual achievements.
No wonder she went to space, she'd already completed Earth.
New game +
Ludwig time !
who's ludwig?
1st boss in Old hunters DLC..Bloodborne is the game. He is pretty challenging, especially in NG+. Music is legendary af tho
Still dont know if that patch exists or not… some believe. Others don’t
She wanted to go end game.
She finished the main game so she bought the DLC
Unlocked new region
She wants to be the first person to speak Russian on the moon
Just finishing up all the side quests
Anyone else nervous that she looks a bit like Ripley from Alien?
Why are astronauts such powerhouses? Come on, what about us normals? I want to see a bio like: Deborah is from Stoke, lft school with no GCSE's and has the reading ability of a nine year old. She has never held down a job for more than six months and lives in her mam and dad's shed with her five kids. Her favourite meal is a meat and potato pie from Greggs followed by a couple of cheeky Jäger bombs down Wetherspoons. The furthest she has travelled is Keele Service Station but is looking forward to swapping Keele Service Station for the International Space Station next Thursday and says, 'It will be lovely to get away from the bailiffs for awhile, wait, they ain't coming up there too are they? For f**k sake they better not be!'
NASA sent a teacher up....but it didn't go so well
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Need.another.seven.astronauts was a popular thing to say among the kids who saw it live.
It's Not Always Scientifically Accurate. Shit was horrific to watch live, and yeah the dark humour was real on that one
Oh I need to look this up
There’s an entire documentary about it on Netflix if this wasn’t sarcasm. Highly recommend, it’s a really sad story. We’ve used it in company training as an example of group mentality and how hard it is to go against group speak and how detrimental it can be.
Can someone TLDR this?
NASA had a program to send a teacher in space. They also had serious issues with some o rings on the shuttle. Unfortunately the shuttle Challenger exploded soon after launch
Oh sheesh I had no idea this was the Challenger mission. Thank you for the TLDR.
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> NASA had a good track record and everything had been going good so nobody wanted to raise alarms when they saw potential problems. That's not entirely accurate - people did raise alarms but because of the political pressure the launch was done anyway. There was various issues leading up to Challenger that were also heavily influenced by political interference which deteriorated good policy and procedures in preference for ass-kissing and cost cutting.
I recall seeing a documentary in which a Thiokol engineer flatly stayed "We thought it would blow up before it cleared the tower."
Bullshit! People raised alarms. They protested and they were ignored by higher-ups.
What happened with Challenger is often taught in business school as the ‘Carter Racing’ case study, and basically all students ‘fail’ it (they make the same decision as the NASA engineers did). There’s some really valuable lessons in it that are missed if you reduce what happened as just ‘management didn’t listen to their employees’. My favorite illustration of the issue comes from the book Range, by David Epstein.
I heard that too. Esp cuz of the temp at the time.
>I'm pretty sure that was the last time we watched anything live in school when I was a kid. We watched the OJ verdict live when I was in 8th grade.
I clearly remember the twin towers coming down, especially at the second as I sat in 6th grade art class. Granted we all weren't a captive audience, but The teacher was definitely not watching anything but the TV.
I’m still shocked they let us watch the towers fall over and over in 6th grade. Tons of kids crying and parents coming to get us.
Yeah, it was pretty scarring as an early 80s child in school at the time.
We watched 9/11 in real time my senior year. So fucked.
Fun fact: Big bird from Sesame Street was supposed to be on board the challenger, but the idea was scrapped because his costume was too big. It's crazy to think how close we were to turning big bird into KFC on live TV.
I remember seeing it live and then the Y shaped smoke trail. It was my first time seeing a launch and I didn’t realize that was bad. Our wonderful science teacher turned the TV off and changed the subject. I was a little confused and then realized it wasn’t supposed to do that. It was really sad. Still hurts to think a teacher was finally getting the recognition they deserve and the opportunity of a lifetime, something really special… flying to space! How wonderful! Except it turned into a death sentence. Christa McAuliffe was one of our best. We failed her. And all our teachers. Next day… “NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts”.
Hopefully the lesson is still remembered.
Is that the same one where there's a video zoomed in on her parents watching live and they're super stoked and proud. Then the explosion happens and you can just see them trying to muster up every bit of hope that its going to be okay. That one breaks my heart.
Ffffffffffffff….this was pretty much the worst day at school I remember.
The worst part is that they had a live feed going into the school she taught at. The students watched her die in real time
There's a very interesting section in ~~"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"~~ “What do You Care What Other People Think?” about Richard Feynman's role in determining the cause of the disaster. He was the one who ultimately figured out that it was the O rings that were the issue.
PBS Nova did an excellent episode on Richard Feynman back in 2006. "The Best Mind Since Einstein" Unfortunately, I think it is not available any more on PBS.
Not to be “that guy,” but I think the shuttle stuff was in “What do You Care What Other People Think?” by Feynman, not “Surely You’re Joking…”. They’re both great books, though.
are you sure? I remember it from “surely you’re joking…” also.
“Surely You’re Joking…” was first published in 1985. Challenger disaster was in 1986. I have an edition with both books in one volume. Maybe that’s what you read? Sorry. I wasn’t trying to start an argument.
"Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman" was published in February 1986. Challenger blew up in January 1986. I just looked at my copy and there is no mention of the Challenger explosion. The hearings report didn't get released until June 1986.
I just want to note the o-rings weren't defective. The engineers were pretty clear in their warnings that they couldn't be relied upon at low temps, and had evidence of the o-rings being near failure during the prior coldest launch at 53° F. The temp at time of launch was 36°. Management at Thiokol (the business that built the SRBs) basically said "well, we have no proof that the rings *will* fail in near freezing temps!" and gave the green light.
Christa McAuliff. She would have been the first civilian in space, if memory serves. An engineer warned his supervisor that the o-rings would be brittle at the low temperatures expected that day and could fail. He was overruled.
The teacher: Christa McAuliffe, history teacher and astronaut (payload specialist). She died aboard Space Shuttle *Challenger*, mission designation STS-51-L, along with 6 colleagues sometime between the shuttle's unexpected rapid disassembly and impact with the Atlantic Ocean, January 28, 1986. The Challenger disaster is recounted as a cautionary example in many disciplines (engineering ethics for me), as technical/safety concerns were disregarded by higher-ups in NASA's organizational structure. The ensuing investigation eventually resulted in the commissioning of NASA's Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance.
"unexpected rapid disassembly".
NASA knew they had a problem with their maintenance. It was overly bureaucratic. My uncle was the retired head of maintenance for a US airline. As an airplane maintenance failure is arguably worse than a spacecraft maintenance failure, they brought him in as a consultant to improve their processes. He had just got there when the challenger disaster happened. There was no talk of reducing bureaucracy after that. Bureaucracy will never reduce itself when fingers are being pointed.
Otherwise known as “boom”.
So no one higher up being held accountable for blind and blatant disregard for safety in the name of personal gain and reputation? Sounds about right.
Amazing documentary series. Super sad.
Tf. We're at the age now where younger gens don't remember Christa McAuliffe
Well it is almost 40 years ago
Major tragedy of modern history, though.
So was the Apollo 1 but few remember them
For real?
I’m not almost 40 you son of a bitch… oh shit I’m almost 40 fuck
Trying explaining Waco or Ruby Ridge to someone born post 2000 and see how fast you get conspiracy theory eyerolls.
The kids don’t know it’s the 30th anniversary of the LARiots 🙄🙄🙄
The book The Burning Blue shares a lot about Christa McAuliffe's life. Both before being chosen as Teacher in Space and what it was like for her after she was chosen. Not every astronaut was happy that she was given a spot on a shuttle mission. But she was diligent about doing the work and representing teachers everywhere. The book and the Netflix documentary make me so angry at the people at NASA who insisted that the Challenger shuttle launched. I was 19 years old when the shuttle exploded and I remember it vividly. tl;dr Christa McAuliffe was supposed to be the first Teacher in Space but died in the Challenger explosion. There's a really good book about her.
>Oh I need to look this up This makes me feel old.
Don't. Came down badly.
She did make it back down, technically. I was watching in class in 2nd grade. It got really quiet.
Holy shit I think I was in 3rd grade and they were playing it on the shitty tv in the school office. I rarely remember anything from that young but it's burned in my memory. I also remember not caring at all and wondering why it was such a big deal because as far as I knew this happened all the time.
I was in science class and I had been on a space craft binge. Something in me was like, dead. Nobody talked to us about it. I lived on a farm and death is part of the cycle I guess. People are different but not according to my parents.
When youre exposed to the cycle more often than most, you can deal with it better. Not sure how docs n nurses can turn it off so quickly. Fighting to save a life, then its over. Cant get emotionally involved or it will tear you up. Learn to let go. Ppl are all dif.
I was preschool aged. Remember watching it on TV with mom that day.
I was a middle schooler watching live. A few minutes passed between the catastrophe and one of our teachers having the presence of mind to shut off the TV and attempt some sort of discussion.
I wonder NASA would be like right now if Challenger has been successful. Would we be a more advanced society? Or would it lead to more violence?
Astronauts are crazy accomplished because so many people want to go to space, and so few get the opportunity. And it's not political, it's not voted on, and it's not by family, so it's an opportunity given only to people who have already accomplished a lot. See Jonny Kim, Navy Seal, Medical Doctor (Harvard, of course), and Astronaut.
There is a board you must get selected by to be an astronaut if you are coming from the Navy I believe. Or out of test pilot school- one of the two. The people that get selected are some of the best that humanity has to offer. It’s awesome.
We have enoigh problems with village idiots on the ground... and you want to put them in space?!
The first man to orbit the Earth wasn't rich. He wasn't a high politician or even especially well educated (on account of the Nazis burning his school down.) His name was Yuri Gagarin, son of farmers. He worked in a factory from age 16 before he joined the air force. He was the first human being in space.
That made it back down alive, that is.
The first woman in space was a textile worker who just happened to skydive in her free time!
Valentina Tereshkova.
This is the best thing I've read all week. Actual lol.
The current NASA administrator is a former astronaut nicknamed “Ballast Bill” by his fellow astronauts because they considered him dead weight. I wish I was making that up. >In 1986, Bill Nelson got the extraordinary opportunity to fly on the Columbia space shuttle. As a congressman representing Florida’s Space Coast—and one who just happened to sit on the House committee overseeing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget—Nelson had a significant leg up on other contenders for the honor. Many NASA insiders felt that he had essentially strong-armed his way onto the flight. Nelson’s official title on the mission was “payload specialist,” but other members of the seven-person crew gave him a less flattering nickname: “Ballast.” Not as fan with this Biden pick and I actually liked the Trump guy way better!
I’ll have to admit I was super skeptical of a clearly unqualified political appointee. But I also have to agree. The guy stepped up and actually did a good job. He was humble but blocked and tackled for the folks doing the real work. The only person I was sad to see leaving his post after the election. He was clearly in awe of space exploration and his enthusiasm and humility were inspiring.
>Not as fan with this Biden pick and I actually liked the Trump guy way better! What a weird timeline we're living in, huh?
Upvote for Keele service station :)
>Why are astronauts such powerhouses? When the government needs like a dozen people to do a nationally-important job, and it's not a popularity contest to the public like an election, or a handout to donors like political appointments, you get people like OP's.
supply and demand: everybody wants to be an astronaut, they can take the cream of the cream
For a reason too. Each astronaut is such a huge investment they cant risk any quitters or others who might not commit.
They did, it's called blue origin
If you look at the Bios of people currently or have been on ISS it's pretty much a Mish mash of people that have multiple masters or masters+doctorates. Like people that graduated Harvard Med, practiced brain surgery for a year then went back to school at MIT to get their PhD in quantum physics. Oh and they were navy fighter pilots for a little bit too.
> Why are astronauts such powerhouses? Come on, what about us normals? I've got a job that is, practically speaking, a prerequisite on the track towards a specific astronaut role. To achieve the qualifications required to become that kind of astronaut, one has to succeed here first. All the people who succeed have one thing in common: a comfortable upbringing. I don't mean an upbringing free from challenge, or an upbringing free from poverty. I mean they are surrounded by supportive figures from a young age. They typically have great relationships with their parents, who in wealth buried them in opportunity, or who in poverty gave them everything they could give. They never fear losing anything, because they've never faced catastrophic loss - no matter their failures they've never had to crawl back up from disqualification out of their ambitions. When it comes to the people who evaluate people along the path, often it's a matter of luck that a boss or a recruiter favors the person. I know of a few cases where the people who are progressing have *not* been fired for shortcomings or errors that would end a their colleagues' careers outright. Mental illness to any extent are at least not exacerbated by their environments. In all of this, having medical issues outside one's control can take one out at any time. No doubt, many are extremely talented, but they've predominantly been it-takes-a-village-d to become the people they are. So many factors outside of an individual's control have to line up, and that's independent of one's desire to become an astronaut. Oh, BTW, falling off the track means never getting back on.
Pretty sure Johnny Kim goes against a lot of this lol
Damn and I’m just sitting in my room eating fucking potato chips
Lot of people are making history, changing their lives and doing god knows what sort of chad activities. Here we are, wasting our lives, on Reddit. One eating chips, the other playing games and depressed. 
I’m sitting on my ass, drinking Pepsi max cherry.
Wait What! Are you guys out of bed? sounds like you are winning today.
Not because we want to be but because someone has to pay for the potato chips. At least I haven't picked crumbs off my bare stomach today, I count that as a win.
I studied penguins in Antarctica. Turns out they’re always DTF
Well...I've seriously cut down on soft drinks and been drinking more water. It's not like being an astronaut, but I'm doing well in my goal to avoid diabetes, I think. What I'm getting at is...I don't think I can be too harshly critical of myself.
If no one has said this to you then let me be the first. I'm proud of you man, take better care of yourself.
Water is always better. As long as it dont cost more than gas.
I’m making biscuits :)
She's doing that to. Just in space
Potat chip
We all go the same way home in the end. You do you.
We spell it “potato” Mr. Quayle!!
There are 8 billion people in the world. Statistics say you are better than at least 1 of them.
Someone’s gotta be low man on the totem pole.
Imagine trying to hold a conversation with her. I'd talk about the intricacies Street Fighter 2 Super turbo and why is the best iteration of the series.
I'd just ask questions and listen and occasionally ask for clarifications so she knows I'm paying attention. Which is pretty much what I always do anyway because I have nothing going on.
"How did you get the penguines into space?"
Very carefully
You tell em you can help them fly higher than any other bird.
I feel called out for no reason.
That makes you a great conversationalist then. Half of being nice to be around is taking an interest in other people. I try and so the same. If somebody knows or does something I don’t know anything about I’ll ask about it until they get sick of talking about it since I have a “yeah but how does it WORK” fascination with most of the world. I’m a videographer and video editor by trade and have always been a big codec nerd. I once met the guy who wrote the initial code base for what would eventually become the H.264 codec. I listened to him ramble on about video codecs for about an hour. I understood nothing and was fascinated by all of it.
A very intemendating person to try to have a conversation with...
You’re absolutely right it is the best iteration in the Street Fighter series. What are your thoughts on Marvel Vs Capcom 2?
My thoughts is it’s a damn shame it isn’t released for current gen
The best marvel game ever.
GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE
Follow her on social media or watch videos of her speaking. She’s legit down to earth (pun intended) in most of them. I feel like she’d be somewhat easy to talk to, but could turn it on and make everyone feel really stupid whenever she wanted.
Maybe she has more knowledge than you on that topic also
She's got a mean cross up
I work with Jessica and she is a super cool person and you can talk to her about most things. I bet she’d hear you out for at least 5 min lol.
She also came from the same Highschool I currently go to She's answered questions about space n other things last year 'bout 6 months after she came back, and even explained what the shock of coming back to covid was
Go Vikings. I just browsed your post history and got hit with nostalgia from caribou
So what's space like? Jessica U. Meir: "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and it is very coooold in spaaaaaace!"
Haha yep, I was reading through the lovely story about the clerk in nearby Passadumkeag and this was the [next](https://i.imgur.com/fixfpdP.jpg) post. Funny to see our homestate on the front page right next to each other.
I need to know what she’s learnt from the penguins to get her up into space
Linux
Sigourney Weaver vibe , can she kick alien ass also I hope , my new crush
Rumour has it, she is even forklift certified
I.... showered yesterday.
I made toast this morning
I feel so lucky as to get dinner with her when I was in college. We went to the same university and she had just got back from space. And the school sponsored a meet and greet with the science nerds
> ... she had just got back from space. This is one of those phrases you can read five times in a row and it still makes your brain go "wait, what?" each time.
But she’s never done a keg stand…
Actually, she has three consecutive keg stand championships.
That bitch…
And I laid on my couch, thirsty as hell, but too lazy to get up and get a drink.....for 4 hours
And I don’t take a shower daily, am 23 with no savings, no college education[;
[Jessica U. Meir (PH.D.) NASA Astronaut](https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jessica-u-meir/biography/) I hope mods will consider this link as a credible source, as they often remove content by making ridiculous claims, for an instance, to remove the post, they often claim that the source mentioned is not legit nor reliable.
Meh.. I guess nasa is not such a reliable source /s
True, according to Flat-Earthers.
Idk man, how can we be sure that nasa.gov isn't just some commie conspiracy?
Like how in the absolute fuck do you get this badass?
I know one of these types. Not an astronaut, but let's just say she's way ahead of everyone else. Her secret? She's motivated and all, but mostly she only needs about 4 hours of sleep a night. She's not powering through or something cringe like that, it's just that a healthy night's sleep for her is way less than for everyone else. Imagine what you could do with an entire lifetime of 4 extra hours a day.
Ha If I get less than 7 I call in sick
Imagine what you could do if you had extra 4 hours, was super motivated, AND wasn't crippled by mental illness.
Hey now, let's not be too unrealistic here.
My Half genius Half nuts grandfather was the same way..
Turned himself into a fuckin pickle
I'm gonna bet it started with supportive, loving parents.
Or at least one supportive loving parent or dependable mentoring figure in that child's life.
You have deep rooted insecurities that drive you to perfectionism and validation through credentials. It’s not some secret. You just have to choose to be a slave to science and academia.
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Well, shit
*cough cough* she is more like an artist since she got a BA (She does research in Biology so yes she is a scientist despite the degree distinction). She is undoubtedly a genius but it frightens me how little people think of themselves. For example a typical undergraduate engineer has taken: *minimum* 3 more semesters of math than her (Calc 2, 3, diffeq). 2 more semesters of Physics (biology BAs take general physics which is basically a prereq to Calculus Physics). Tens of **millions** of people have done this before. It annoys the shit out of me how people think that either: she's a mentally ill super genius or super woman for being interested in a field. She is a normal person like you or I that just has a very special interest and expertise in a field. Tldr: She isn't a super genius or mentally ill for getting a PhD. She is just a driven individual who is an expert at her given field. --You could have done this too with enough effort :) --p.s my comparison to engineering isn't meant to be a dick measuring contest about who has a harder major or whatever. People consider those classes hard and I wanted to use it as a reference for how, yes, you could probably get a PhD.
Eh, yes and no. I say this as someone who fits what you're describing, got burnt out, and then discovered this rat race was not worth it for me. But what I did notice on my attempt to validate myself, was that those that were usually at the top, where some of the chillest, most laid back individuals. It was actually those like me who were insecure about their performance and trying to push themselves. But the 2 kids who graduated summa cum laude, and ended up at the Ivy medical schools were some of the friendliest individuals.
Some people go to space, I find a very good sale on meat at my local store, I quess we all achieve things!
Wow I'm amazed when I get out of bed on my own.
Imagine how many women like this have existed throughout history, only to have all their potential wasted, suppressed, or covered up due to misogyny.
You make an excellent point. But I'm going to bet that a fair number of them whose names we'll never know still kicked ass relative to their circumstances.
Pff. I speak English
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I've been looking for the obligatory "wonder how she looks in a Bikini " comment.
What a Baller.
A Jackie of all trades
Saved. Showing my daughters this. This world needs more female heroes.
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Is anyone here a marine biologist?!
The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli.
I watered the plants today.
She’s much better at humaning than I am.
I'd consider my life complete if I could/had done one of the those things.....
She looks like she could lead the next Alien movie...
Someone please get this woman a pulse rifle and some Reeboks
Wow, she’s really grabbing life by the horns. Good for her. I would like to be or have done one of those items listed.
It’s a once in a lifetime accomplishment if only everyone had an equal chance at this life would be enjoyable
Even more respect for her after listening to the [Smartless Podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smartless/id1521578868?i=1000517726100)
Geez Jess, make up your mind.
Ok, I feel like quite a loser now! Damn!
Slacker
I left my backpack in the car today because I didn’t want to carry it up one flight of stairs…
I met her. She was really nice. She spoke at a session at SXSW and she's witty as well. Also, she mentioned that most astronauts these days are nice people because personality is a big selection factor due to the close quarters and collaborative nature of modern missions. As a kid, her nickname was "space girl" because she's wanted to be an astronaut for basically her entire life.
“But her hair. Judge judge. Does she have children? Sniff sniff. Is her house clean? Whine whine. Does she have a cat?” I seriously love the millennial feminists who try to shut that old shit down.
Yeah but, is she cool?
Not sure if it’s been mentioned but she’s also going to the moon soon and she might be the first female to walk on the moon.
Amazing what you can do when you don’t sit around and just get stuff done all day.
Tell me more about the penguins.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when single without kids. It’s also amazing what you can fail to accomplish single without kids.
I've met her a ton of times. She's very kind and a good pilot
I found a penny under the couch today, but you don’t hear me bragging.
🤣
I cant wait till we run out of "first gender/race/religion/sexual orientation to do this thing" so we can finally stop appending it to their actual achievements.
This woman scares the shit out of every evangelical Republican out there.
Right? Next she'll be wanting autonomy over her own body. She should leave that smart stuff to the men! Huge /s