A4H Supports DC Area Outreach Events

A4H Flight Member Kristine Ferrone recently presented at Alice Deal Middle School's Space Exploration Day held at American University in Washington, DC on June 3, 2011. Other groups represented at the day-long event included FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, First Orbit, Giraffe 'n' Ant, International Space University, NASA, New Space Magazine, Virgin Galactic, We Want Our Future, and more. Beginning with discussions of astronomy and early human spaceflight, the presenters transitioned to space tourism and commercial space by the afternoon.

Ferrone engaged the 300 sixth grade students with a 20 minute presentation on Astronauts4Hire and what it is like to train as an astronaut. The excited students asked many questions about A4H training activities including NASTAR, SCUBA diving, microgravity flights, and survival training. They also enjoyed watching a video of an A4H Flight Member participating in a microgravity flight.  The class was asked who would like to become astronauts for hire someday. The show of hands in the photo below is a good indication of their enthusiasm for commercial human spaceflight!

Ferrone with the class of sixth graders from Alice Deal Middle School. Those raising their hands would like to become Astronaut4Hire!

The next day, Kristine joined A4H Flight Member Alli Taylor at the Federation of Galaxy Explorers' 10th annual Galaxy Ball.  The festivities began with a cocktail hour and silent auction of space trinkets, including commemorative Vostok Space Beer coasters flown by an A4H researcher on a microgravity test flight. Taylor and Ferrone had the opportunity to speak with Bill Nye “the Science Guy”, who was very interested in A4H. The event also included the presentation of several awards from the Federation of Galaxy Explorers for major contributions in the field of spaceflight education.

A4H Flight Members Taylor and Ferrone with Mr. Bill Nye "the Science Guy".

Inspiring the next generation of space explorers is an important aspect of the A4H mission.  We thank Alice Deal Middle School and the Federation of Galaxy Explorers for the opportunity to participate in these inspiring events.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A4H Flight Member Makes it to Top 72 Candidates in Canadian Astronaut Selection Process

Image
We would like to congratulate Dr. Aaron Persad, a Flight Member of A4H, for becoming one of top 72 candidates in the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut selection campaign.   Well-done Aaron!   He is a tremendous asset to A4H.  Aaron set up a collaboration between our organization and students in the University of Toronto’s Department of Mechanical Engineering to develop a microgravity test bed.  It is designed to run experiments in parabolic flight, especially those involving fluids.    Another project he was instrumental in conceiving is that of a physical model of a bone cell to be tested in weightlessness.   Currently, Aaron is completing his post-doctoral fellowship in the Sinton Lab at the University of Toronto. All of us at A4H wish him good luck during the next phase of the selection process.   We hope he will achieve his goal of becoming one of Canada's next astronauts.
Read more

Secret Space Escapes: Soyeon Yi interview

Image
Space is a dangerous place. Astronauts are trained to respond to and overcome challenges that they encounter on their missions. Some of these near disasters are featured in the TV series Secret Space Escapes , which continues on the Science Channel. A4H's Victoria Varone sat down with astronauts Linger, Curbeam, and Yi during their recent appearance at New York Comic Con . Here, we've posted her interview with astronaut Soyeon Yi . They discussed Yi's rough return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule after her mission to the ISS in 2008. Scroll down to read the whole interview but first check out this video on how she became Korea's first astronaut at the young age of 29!. Meet Soyeon Yi: Korea's First Astronaut! from GoodNeighbors on Vimeo . A4H: So, this panel’s about disasters in space. Have you experienced any mishaps in space? SY: We had a ballistic reentry because we had a problem during the separation of our capsule. Some part of the habitation module was stil
Read more

Astronauts4Hire (A4H) is now the Association of Spaceflight Professionals (ASP)

Image
Hello, aspiring astronauts and space enthusiasts! We have some very exciting news. After around a year of brainstorming, polling, and deliberation, Astronauts4Hire Inc., known in short as A4H, has officially been re-branded as the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, Inc., to be further abbreviated as ASP. This move was made after multiple sessions of careful consideration from our members, executive team, board, and various advisers, with the goal of better serving our members and helping them meet their goals in the pursuit of spaceflight opportunities. Astronauts4Hire was started with the goal of creating the world's first commercial astronauts corps; a group of people that commercial space companies could call up whenever they were in need of trained specialists to operate their spacecrafts and payloads and execute science experiments in space. While that is still a big part of our mission, its now integrated into a larger, multi-faceted mission involving more immediate an
Read more