Thought I Was Gonna Die

Thought I Was Gonna Die

One of the things we had to master as new Astronauts was to be good back-seaters for the pilots in the planes part of the time. As they (and we) gained some confidence in our flying abilities they gave us more and more responsibilities. And of course, we had to learn how to handle emergencies. We had checklists with pages of what to do if something went wrong. Sometimes they did. The pilots were training for a number of jobs, one of which was...

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May I Borrow The Jet?

May I Borrow The Jet?

Remember when you were young and you asked to borrow your parents’ car for a date?  What if you could borrow something faster? Say… a jet?  When I became an astronaut, non-pilot Mission Specialists (MSs) had to learn to fly in the backseat of NASA’s T-38 jets. We had instruction in the communication and navigation systems followed by training in doing the actual flying. The T-38s were slick little planes. They could speed around at 700...

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Hurricanes & The Space Program

Hurricanes & The Space Program

When Hurricane Harvey ripped through Houston, it brought back memories of my NASA days in that area.  Thirty-four years ago this month, my husband, fellow Astronaut, Hoot Gibson, and I experienced a fearsome hurricane up close. The Johnson Space Center is located near the Texas Gulf Coast, half-way between Houston and Galveston.  It has seen its share of storms.  Our home for much of our astronaut careers was on a bayou…not far from Galveston...

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