In Rhea’s blogs, she shares the adventures of her journeys into space as well as the many other experiences in her lifetime! We know you will find each one a bit unique and enjoyable as well as a bit educational.
From small-town southern girl to space traveler, Rhea Seddon experienced a life that was on a trajectory of its own from an early age.
One of the first six women Astronauts accepted by NASA, Dr. Seddon, a surgeon by training, married Navy Captain Robert “Hoot” Gibson becoming the first Astronaut couple. Their three children became the world’s first Astrotots. A woman of many firsts, Rhea’s compelling story of achieving the American Dream carries a universal message to all that overcoming obstacles of any kind is possible if we persevere and carry the torch of our vision.
Her memoir, Go For Orbit, tells of one American woman’s personal journey that will inspire you to reach amazing heights of your own.
These modern-day heroes became my friends in the Shuttle’s heyday. All are very bright (some brilliant), friendly, hard-working, reliable, and productive. I had the opportunity to serve twice on selection boards for new astronauts. We liked to say we were looking for high-performing, low-maintenance people. That is not to say they were serious all the time. In fact, they were the most fun-loving people I have ever known. There was the constant back-and-forth banter between fighter pilots and attack pilots, between the Air Force guys and...
Imagine looking out at a sea of bright young faces in a faraway land, a place called Australia. In 1994 I had been invited to be the Astronaut-in-Residence at Melbourne’s St. Catherine’s School. In a huge auditorium, I faced several hundred girls from tiny four year olds to blossoming teens. Then, they began to sing. After a lengthy plane ride to this “Land Down Under,” a song rang out and linked me to home. Their glorious rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” reached a crescendo, and my visit began in grand style. In the 1990s,...
In May of 1981, I married fellow astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson, and we had a decision to make: children now or children later. The first Shuttle flight had launched six weeks earlier, and no one was sure how quickly other flights would follow. My biological clock kept saying, “You ain’t gettin’ any younger.” I was 33. Although I was very committed to my career, the opportunity to have a child or children was more important. We decided to let nature take its course. Four months later, I was expecting. As a physician, I knew that not all...
“I own a flight school.” Those words spoken in 1973 by a plastic surgeon across an operating table in my last semester of medical school were the beginning of my aviation career. When I said I had always hoped to take flying lessons, he invited me for a test flight that weekend at the Memphis airport. Getting into the air and leaving all the sick people behind was exhilarating: I was hooked. My father gave me flying lessons as a graduation present. During my surgery residency I earned my private pilot’s license and put about a hundred hours...
As we move out of a dark, freezing winter and look forward to warmer weather, won’t it be wonderful to get outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun? We live on a glorious and diverse planet hurdling through the universe. Viewed from space, it is even more amazing. I’d like to take you on a quick “World Tour.” If you right-click on any picture, you can save it to your computer’s desktop. Then, zoom in to enlarge it to see the details. Hold onto your seat: here we go. Let’s begin where the Shuttle begins—in Florida. You can see Cape...
How did our nation get to the moon in less than ten years from the time we first sent a man into space? Thousands of people had a hand in that bold adventure. Today I meet them, their children, and their grandchildren who can’t wait to tell me their part in that story with pride. It was not until I got to NASA that I learned to appreciate the true value of teamwork. We had close-knit teams that made sure our spaceflights went well. It took me a while to understand who those teams were, but they held my life in their hands. First there were my...
Imagine flying like Superwoman. You could in space. In fact, you MUST fly everywhere. Walking or swimming is not an option. An astronaut learns fast on that first flight the power of a gentle push. Shove off as you learned to do in the swimming pool, and you will crash against your target with no way to slow down along the way. “Whoooaaa!” is a frequent call heard from the weightless rookie on the first day in space. The preferred technique? Zoom headfirst into hatches between floors or modules, of course! After drifting up to type on a...
On April 12, 1981, I stood near a swamp in Florida with a Search and Rescue team, in case we were needed. We watched the Space Shuttle Columbia, a butterfly bolted to a bullet, roar above the trees and into the sky on its first flight. The magnificence of the moment cannot be described. We cheered, we cried, and we felt so lucky to be present at the birth of the Space Shuttle era. On June 5, 1991, I launched aboard that same vehicle on my second trip to space on a life sciences mission to study human adaptation to weightlessness. Columbia,...
Shuttle launches were always special. We were friends helping friends get ready for great adventures. Hoot had landed safely from his second mission, and I was in training for my next one. The space program was gearing up for a year of many spectacular launches. It was full speed ahead. Not that there hadn’t been problems. On Hoot’s recent mission, there had been many glitches. On one launch attempt a brave engineer had stopped the countdown when something didn’t look right. Unbeknownst to the crew, a bizarre combination of failures drained...
Monday morning, January 16, 1978 was like any other in the life of a surgical resident at the VA Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The final six months of my training were dragging on. There were patients to admit, cases to do, rounds to make, and lectures to attend. My future after that June was uncertain. My pager went off: a phone call was awaiting for me at the front desk. “For you, Dr. Seddon,” said the operator. In each life there are moments that change everything: a special person appears, a catastrophic disease is diagnosed, a child is...
No part of the information on this Web site may be reproduced in traditional print or online without the expressed written permission of the author, Dr. Rhea Seddon.
