Update April-2026:
Dear Grand-daughter,
Today,
20-Aug-2013, just two months before your second birthday, NASA announced their
most recent “class” of Astronauts. There
are upcoming missions of exploration, to near-by asteroids, and to Mars, and
they wanted to recruit a new cadre of candidates for the program. They received over 6,000 applications which
they narrowed down to eight as the final group.
From 6,000, to 8…a pretty exclusive club !
The
thing I found most remarkable about it was, four of the new astronauts are
women, “the highest
percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a single
class.”
They are:
· Christina M. Hammock, presently a National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief - Christina (Koch) Hammock flew around the Moon on Artemis II, April-2026 !!
· Nicole Aunapu Mann, Major, U.S. Marine Corps,
a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School and an F/A 18 Fighter Pilot - Major Mann was the First American Indian woman in space, Oct-2022 !!
· Anne C. McClain, Major, U.S. Army, a Graduate
of West Point and a Helicopter Pilot - Major McClain spent more than 6 months on the International Space Station including 3 Space Walks !!
· Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D, an Assistant Professor
at Harvard Medical School - On the ISS, Jessica Meir participated in the first All-Female Space Walk, Oct-2019
So,
my point is this, as you grow up, I want you to always feel that girls can go,
and do, and achieve anything they want to achieve. You can be a stay-at-home mom, or an
engineer, or a school teacher, or a fighter pilot, a secretary, or a
physicist. We can already tell you are a
smart kid. All you will have to do, is try.
Go Girls, Go !!
You
go girl !
Love, - Your extremely proud Grandfather
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Photo by Mark W. Laughlin
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