'Space travel can be a fascinating career'

'Space travel can be a fascinating career'


Mumbai: She has literally been on the top of the world and can proudly say she has seen stars. Meet Joan Higginbotham, 56, former NASA astronaut and the third African-American woman to go into space.
This weekend, Higginbotham will be in the city to ‘motivate students to achieve whatever they set their minds to’. She will interact and talk to around a thousand students from 103 schools in Mumbai, at the Nehru Auditorium of Nehru Centre.
“I want to inspire people to look into and explore subjects like science, mathematics, engineering and technology,” says Higginbotham, fresh off a meet with students in Delhi where she fielded questions from ‘bright and inquisitive students’. On her first visit to India, Higginbotham will be visiting Pune and Mumbai, besides Delhi. Her visit has been organised by Mission Apollo, in collaboration with International Space School International Trust (ISSET).
Mission Apollo is an India-based company that organises space
programmes for children, including astronaut camps. This is the first time they have brought an astronaut to India, a pre-event to their hosting NASA astronaut crew of STS 132 (Space mission of May 2010) later this year.
Higginbotham will make a presentation about the challenges and thrills of space travel, human endurance, etc. “This is a fascinating career choice that can open so many doors. And, as long as you try to be the best, nothing can stop you,” she says.
Having spent 13 years in NASA, first as an engineer on the shuttle missions and then as an astronaut, Higginbotham is now retired and works in the energy field. “I always wanted to be an electrical engineer, but after working with NASA I felt I had the intelligence and the determination to go further and become an astronaut,” she says. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist.
One of the questions Higginbotham is bound to face is with
regard to her association and close friendship with the late Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. “KC and I were friends with a voracious appetite for reading. She always had suggestions for good books and would lend me some of hers,” she says.
In the city, Higginbotham will meet with students, teachers and principals; besides interacting with slum kids.

Source Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_space-travel-can-be-a-fascinating-career_1406328