NASA Astronaut Promotes STEM at Space Leadership Conference
Former NASA Astronaut Winston Scott may have pursued a career as a musician if it weren’t for a grade school teacher who brought newspaper articles about NASA’s emerging space program in the 1960s. “Had it not been for my teacher, I don’t think I would have gotten into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math),” Scott said Thursday while speaking at the National Society of Black Engineers Space Leadership Conference at Embry-Riddle.
And while he never gave up his love for playing the trumpet, the Miami native found the support to pursue a career in science and technology.
As the opening speaker for the four-day conference, Winston shared his experiences serving as a mission specialist on two NASA space shuttle flights in 1996 and 1997. He also discussed ways to bring more minorities into the aerospace industry.
“I wish we had organizations like STEM where people would come into the classroom or take children to Kennedy Space Center on field trips,” he said. “We didn’t have that.”
Scott discussed the details of his missions on the Endeavor and Columbia in which he logged a total of 24 days in space and three space walks totaling 19 hours. During the Columbia mission, Scott performed two space walks to conduct a manual capture of a satellite.
Asked about what it felt like to leave the earth’s atmosphere, Scott had difficulty putting the experience known as the overview effect into words.
“There are no words to describe how it feels,” Scott said. “Flying in space is so foreign to anything you do down here. You realize how small and fragile the earth is.”
Scott said that it’s important to continue supporting space exploration for future generations.
“Space allows us to learn things that are going to make life better for human beings on earth,” he said. “Space impacts everyone, and I believe where we go in space affects where we go with the rest of this country. If we fall behind in space exploration, we fall behind in everything else.”
The Space Leadership Conference, hosted by the NSBE Space Special Interest Group, brought leaders from around the country together to discuss outreach programs that use engineering projects as platforms to create opportunities to guide black youth into space-related careers.
Dr. Kari Jordan, adjunct engineering professor at Embry-Riddle and NBSE National Professionals Board secretary, said that the conference was a great opportunity for Embry-Riddle to build relationships with partners who share similar goals.
“Hopefully, this is an opportunity to form a partnership with the Space Special Interest Group and Embry-Riddle,” she said. “My hope is that it will raise awareness for our organization and our goals to provide students of color the opportunity to explore these types of careers that they would otherwise not know about.”