Michael Massimino
Michael Massimino Returns to Earth
Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo
Astronaut and Franklin Square native Mike Massimino had his first spaceflight this past March. While orbiting the Earth 350 miles up, he saw a bit of heaven. "Just looking at the Earth was so beautiful. What I got to enjoy more than looking at the Earth during the day was looking at the stars and the Earth during our night passes. All the stars are these perfect points of light. That was just incredible. It was heaven."
Dr. Massimino brought some of the heavens down to the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Wednesday, July 12th, as the first speaker in the Museum's lecture series. He presented the Museum with a flown flag, mission patch, and dustjacket for the book "Takeoff! How Long Island Inspired America to Fly." He also showed a video about his STS-109 flight, a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. It was a homecoming in another way for Massimino. In the early 1980s, he was a volunteer at the Museum.
This was his third appearance in the area in a week. The previous Saturday, he presented a flag and pennant to the engineering school of Columbia University, where he was graduated in 1984 with a BS in industrial engineering, and also took part in a parade in Franklin Square as the guest of honor. Following his appearance at the Museum, Massimino threw the first pitch in the Mets-Yankees game on Saturday, June 15th.
Massimino recalled that from an early age he wanted to be an astronaut. He showed a photo of himself, wearing a homemade spacesuit and carrying a Snoopy astronaut doll. "When I was in first grade, I had an elephant costume. My mom took it and made it into a spacesuit. Not a bad job." He then showed a photo of himself conducting one of the spacewalks and commented, "I couldn't tell my mother I liked this second spacesuit better than the first."
He continued, "I first thought about becoming an astronaut when I was 6 years old, when they were putting people on the moon. I thought it was really cool that people were going to the moon. I thought it was the most important and interesting thing going on. I still feel that spaceflight is the most important and interesting thing that we're doing, and that's why I'm doing it." He went on to say that later on, he went to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the idea of making space as a career, as well as getting involved with space-related research. "It took me four tries to be an astronaut, but I finally succeeded after seven years."
"My family was very supportive of my work," he said, noting with a smile that he had promised his son a puppy after the launch. "We landed on the 12th and on the 16th we went to the pound." The hardest part? "The swimming requirements," Massimino replied. "I had learned to swim, but not the NASA way," he said, referring to the water survival courses. "My kids are better swimmers than I."
Massimino concluded, "Do the thing that you like the best. The best advice on how to be an astronaut is to find out what you would like to do if you can't be an astronaut. You may find yourself doing something else that you may like even more. You might not get what you sought out in the beginning, but it may be better than what you were looking for. Do what you love and things should work out."
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With Massimino's retirement from NASA in late July 2014, I realized I never posted the above photo. "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" had just come out around the time I met him, and I tried unsuccessfully to get a signed copy from the National Air and Space Museum. Had I done so, Massimino would have been the 7th autograph in that book.
Instead, it would take until April 2011 and the Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration presentation at MIT in Boston before Massimino would sign my book.
Check out my snazzy 2002 NJ press pass and the pocket full of Sharpies. I did write an article for the local Franklin Square paper, which unfortunately has gotten lost over the years. I believe the above transcription, from the collectSPACE website, is an accurate rendering of what I wrote. (There is a typo: he appeared at the museum in June, not July.)
Michael Massimino
Michael Massimino Returns to Earth
Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo
Astronaut and Franklin Square native Mike Massimino had his first spaceflight this past March. While orbiting the Earth 350 miles up, he saw a bit of heaven. "Just looking at the Earth was so beautiful. What I got to enjoy more than looking at the Earth during the day was looking at the stars and the Earth during our night passes. All the stars are these perfect points of light. That was just incredible. It was heaven."
Dr. Massimino brought some of the heavens down to the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Wednesday, July 12th, as the first speaker in the Museum's lecture series. He presented the Museum with a flown flag, mission patch, and dustjacket for the book "Takeoff! How Long Island Inspired America to Fly." He also showed a video about his STS-109 flight, a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. It was a homecoming in another way for Massimino. In the early 1980s, he was a volunteer at the Museum.
This was his third appearance in the area in a week. The previous Saturday, he presented a flag and pennant to the engineering school of Columbia University, where he was graduated in 1984 with a BS in industrial engineering, and also took part in a parade in Franklin Square as the guest of honor. Following his appearance at the Museum, Massimino threw the first pitch in the Mets-Yankees game on Saturday, June 15th.
Massimino recalled that from an early age he wanted to be an astronaut. He showed a photo of himself, wearing a homemade spacesuit and carrying a Snoopy astronaut doll. "When I was in first grade, I had an elephant costume. My mom took it and made it into a spacesuit. Not a bad job." He then showed a photo of himself conducting one of the spacewalks and commented, "I couldn't tell my mother I liked this second spacesuit better than the first."
He continued, "I first thought about becoming an astronaut when I was 6 years old, when they were putting people on the moon. I thought it was really cool that people were going to the moon. I thought it was the most important and interesting thing going on. I still feel that spaceflight is the most important and interesting thing that we're doing, and that's why I'm doing it." He went on to say that later on, he went to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the idea of making space as a career, as well as getting involved with space-related research. "It took me four tries to be an astronaut, but I finally succeeded after seven years."
"My family was very supportive of my work," he said, noting with a smile that he had promised his son a puppy after the launch. "We landed on the 12th and on the 16th we went to the pound." The hardest part? "The swimming requirements," Massimino replied. "I had learned to swim, but not the NASA way," he said, referring to the water survival courses. "My kids are better swimmers than I."
Massimino concluded, "Do the thing that you like the best. The best advice on how to be an astronaut is to find out what you would like to do if you can't be an astronaut. You may find yourself doing something else that you may like even more. You might not get what you sought out in the beginning, but it may be better than what you were looking for. Do what you love and things should work out."
-----------------------------------------------
With Massimino's retirement from NASA in late July 2014, I realized I never posted the above photo. "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" had just come out around the time I met him, and I tried unsuccessfully to get a signed copy from the National Air and Space Museum. Had I done so, Massimino would have been the 7th autograph in that book.
Instead, it would take until April 2011 and the Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration presentation at MIT in Boston before Massimino would sign my book.
Check out my snazzy 2002 NJ press pass and the pocket full of Sharpies. I did write an article for the local Franklin Square paper, which unfortunately has gotten lost over the years. I believe the above transcription, from the collectSPACE website, is an accurate rendering of what I wrote. (There is a typo: he appeared at the museum in June, not July.)