When Galaxy Babe Met an Astronaut
Created | Updated Feb 17, 2019
When Galaxy Babe Met an Astronaut
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My lovely daughter Laura bought my partner Andy, a fellow astronomer, and I a very special gift for Christmas 2018 - two tickets to go see and hear astronaut Michael Foale! It was for the evening of 17 January at Lincoln University, arranged by Pint of Science. Before the event even started, the 'early birds' were invited to leave their precious seats and queue up to meet the first British spacewalker and pose for photos. Needless to say, I was very close to the front of the queue! The talk Mike gave was riveting: Part One was on how to become an astronaut, with Part Two being about how to save a space station. Two hours positively flew by! We learned that it was his idea that had saved Russia's Mir space station from catastrophe, and he helped repair the Hubble Space Telescope. During his career Mike flew on six Space Shuttle missions and on the Soyuz. Mike not only travelled to the International Space Station, he commanded it while he was there, too. The event was held to benefit the International Space School Trust (ISSET) and Mike had flown from the US specially for it. We both enjoyed the event very much. I hadn't even had 'meet an astronaut' on my Bucket List so I had to revise it - just so I could cross it off!
