May 5th is National Astronaut Day! Being an Astronaut can be extremely dangerous and the people who do it are some of the bravest people on the planet. I personally met Astronaut Wendy Lawrence and she was one of the most knowledgeable, charismatic and just overall cool people I have ever met.
I met her at Go For Launch! in Mars, Pennsylvania. She made meeting new people and learning new things easy. Lawrence definitely made my summer so much better. I've never before met someone who worked in the space industry let alone someone who has been part of four space flight missions.
We did so many cool space activities. My absolute favorite was building a launch tower out of paper and tape. We had limited resources and time. These restrictions made us have to think critically and creatively. I love challenges so doing that was definitely perfect for me. Lawrence made testing our towers really fun. She was so supportive of all of us. I’m really glad I got to do that with her.
She had all of these interesting facts about space travel to share with us that really inspired me. We learned about the long training process. Her experience doing extreme cold training where she had to work with her crew to build shelter for the night in negative temperatures. I think it’s funny that you can just sleep on the international space station without laying down because your kind of always laying down. Learning these things made me more knowledgeable about what space flight, training, and living on the international space station in like. I cannot believe I got to learn all that from a real astronaut.
Meeting Lawrence was like meeting a celebrity. Every morning I walked in I could not believe that she was really standing there talking to me. I would not give up this amazing opportunity that I was given for anything. I really think everyone who is interested and STEM should go to a Go For Launch! It can help you meet new people and further your career. I would not be as confident as I am now without Go For Launch!
And to Wendy Lawrence CONGRATULATIONS. For National Astronaut Day she is winning The Astronaut Rock Star Gold Award. It is an honor to have met a recipient of this award. Thank you so much for being so amazing.
Written by Stellar Student Raine Dickinson who was part of Go For Launch! Mars 2024
