Don't Give Up, Astronaut Tells Warsaw Students
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
In 1996, he received his first rejection letter. He applied again and got his second rejection letter in 1998. Then in 2000, when he was 40 years old, he finally got an acceptance letter. He didn’t take his first flight into space until nine years later, when on Aug. 8, 2009, he piloted space shuttle mission STS-128 to the International Space Station.
“It’s tempting to just apply once or twice. It kind of makes you think it was just not meant to be, but I would just encourage you to stay persistent, keep after your dreams until it’s just at the point where you know you want to do something else. Don’t let someone else give up for you,” Ford told Warsaw Community Schools students Thursday. “Make sure you know you want to do something else before you give up pursuing that dream,”
Ford gave his presentation to two different groups of WCS students, then gave a public presentation Thursday evening. He was brought to WCS through the efforts of Supporting Children with Accelerated Learning Abilities, a non-profit parent organization advocating for high-ability students in WCS, and with financial support from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.
Ford was born in Indiana and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1982. He served as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot before reporting for duty to NASA Johnson Space Center in 2000.
The title of his presentation Thursday was “Follow Your Dreams.”
He started his talk by telling students he was there to inspire them to do something with their futures. His own dreams took him places he couldn’t have imagined where they would take him, he said.
His first dream was to fly a small airplane. The book “Carrying the Fire” by astronaut Michael Collins inspired him to fly more, and he joined the Air Force and flew bigger planes.
“Even though I was a pilot I didn’t think it was possible for me to become an astronaut,” Ford said. He applied anyway.
During his presentation, Ford showed many photos and several videos of his experience as an astronaut, in the space shuttle, on the International Space Station and aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M Kazbek, the Russian spacecraft.
Ford discussed how the shuttle could reach speeds of 17,500 miles per hour. It only took about 9 minutes for the rocket to go from the launchpad into space.
“One of the reasons we go to space is to go to the International Space Station,” Ford said. “That’s what we did.”
He compared the ISS to a giant castle in the sky. If it was brought down to earth, he said the whole thing including the solar panels would cover the length of a football field including the endzones.
As part of their job, astronauts transport cargo to the ISS and return some to Earth. They also transport other astronauts to and from the station.
“Once in a while when you’re not working, you play,” Ford said before showing a video of astronauts having fun in space during their time off.
He said there are no showers in space so they use no-rinse shampoo to wash their hair. He also explained how astronauts used the bathroom while in space.
“We recycle water on board,” he said. “The water you drink today was also the water you drank three to four days ago.”
He said there was a special process that cleaned up all the astronaut’s sweat and urine for reuse.
For sleeping, he used a sleeping bag that was tethered down. He didn’t need a bed or pillow because of the lack of gravity.
A couple months after his first flight into space, Ford was asked if he wanted to go to Russia to study Russian more and then travel to the ISS. He already knew some Russian. He did, and on Oct. 23, 2012, traveled from Kazakhstan to ISS on the Russian spacecraft.
On the ISS, Ford served with Russians, Japanese, Swedish and Canadians.
While on the ISS, astronauts have to stay healthy including getting regular exercise. Ford said if he didn’t, his muscles would lose strength and flexibility. To exercise, he used a treadmill with a harness and bungee cords to hold him down; and also a Resistant Exercise Device for a weight machine. The RED pushes down on astronauts with 200 pounds of force and they have to push up on it.
“They keep an eye on us to make sure we’re doing our exercises and doing them the right way,” he said.
He explained some of the experiments he did while in space and how he had to take his own urine and blood samples for analysis.
“They keep a close eye on our health and see what they can learn from us,” he said.
Ford discussed how careful he had to be when landing a spacecraft because there wasn’t a second chance.
In 2011, the United States retired its space shuttle program.
“I wish we hadn’t retired the space shuttle, but I know there’s going to be fantastic spacecraft in our future, too, because there’s a lot of different dreams still to be realized out there,” Ford said. “We still haven’t been to another planet, and to a lot of places we’d like to go. And there’s an immense amount to be learned.”
He concluded by telling students, “Please do follow your dreams. There’s lots of you out there who will do amazing things.”
Ford then took a few pre-written questions from students. When asked what skills students should work on to become astronauts, he said all of them – not just science and math, but also language and communication skills and physical fitness, “just a huge broad brush.”
He said the most beautiful thing he saw was Earth from orbit, and explained that ISS was built over a period of about 10 years and multiple space launches. One student’s question was if he could smell in space, and he said you could.
The best thing about being an astronaut, he said, was the ability to experience all that he did.[[In-content Ad]]
In 1996, he received his first rejection letter. He applied again and got his second rejection letter in 1998. Then in 2000, when he was 40 years old, he finally got an acceptance letter. He didn’t take his first flight into space until nine years later, when on Aug. 8, 2009, he piloted space shuttle mission STS-128 to the International Space Station.
“It’s tempting to just apply once or twice. It kind of makes you think it was just not meant to be, but I would just encourage you to stay persistent, keep after your dreams until it’s just at the point where you know you want to do something else. Don’t let someone else give up for you,” Ford told Warsaw Community Schools students Thursday. “Make sure you know you want to do something else before you give up pursuing that dream,”
Ford gave his presentation to two different groups of WCS students, then gave a public presentation Thursday evening. He was brought to WCS through the efforts of Supporting Children with Accelerated Learning Abilities, a non-profit parent organization advocating for high-ability students in WCS, and with financial support from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.
Ford was born in Indiana and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1982. He served as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot before reporting for duty to NASA Johnson Space Center in 2000.
The title of his presentation Thursday was “Follow Your Dreams.”
He started his talk by telling students he was there to inspire them to do something with their futures. His own dreams took him places he couldn’t have imagined where they would take him, he said.
His first dream was to fly a small airplane. The book “Carrying the Fire” by astronaut Michael Collins inspired him to fly more, and he joined the Air Force and flew bigger planes.
“Even though I was a pilot I didn’t think it was possible for me to become an astronaut,” Ford said. He applied anyway.
During his presentation, Ford showed many photos and several videos of his experience as an astronaut, in the space shuttle, on the International Space Station and aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M Kazbek, the Russian spacecraft.
Ford discussed how the shuttle could reach speeds of 17,500 miles per hour. It only took about 9 minutes for the rocket to go from the launchpad into space.
“One of the reasons we go to space is to go to the International Space Station,” Ford said. “That’s what we did.”
He compared the ISS to a giant castle in the sky. If it was brought down to earth, he said the whole thing including the solar panels would cover the length of a football field including the endzones.
As part of their job, astronauts transport cargo to the ISS and return some to Earth. They also transport other astronauts to and from the station.
“Once in a while when you’re not working, you play,” Ford said before showing a video of astronauts having fun in space during their time off.
He said there are no showers in space so they use no-rinse shampoo to wash their hair. He also explained how astronauts used the bathroom while in space.
“We recycle water on board,” he said. “The water you drink today was also the water you drank three to four days ago.”
He said there was a special process that cleaned up all the astronaut’s sweat and urine for reuse.
For sleeping, he used a sleeping bag that was tethered down. He didn’t need a bed or pillow because of the lack of gravity.
A couple months after his first flight into space, Ford was asked if he wanted to go to Russia to study Russian more and then travel to the ISS. He already knew some Russian. He did, and on Oct. 23, 2012, traveled from Kazakhstan to ISS on the Russian spacecraft.
On the ISS, Ford served with Russians, Japanese, Swedish and Canadians.
While on the ISS, astronauts have to stay healthy including getting regular exercise. Ford said if he didn’t, his muscles would lose strength and flexibility. To exercise, he used a treadmill with a harness and bungee cords to hold him down; and also a Resistant Exercise Device for a weight machine. The RED pushes down on astronauts with 200 pounds of force and they have to push up on it.
“They keep an eye on us to make sure we’re doing our exercises and doing them the right way,” he said.
He explained some of the experiments he did while in space and how he had to take his own urine and blood samples for analysis.
“They keep a close eye on our health and see what they can learn from us,” he said.
Ford discussed how careful he had to be when landing a spacecraft because there wasn’t a second chance.
In 2011, the United States retired its space shuttle program.
“I wish we hadn’t retired the space shuttle, but I know there’s going to be fantastic spacecraft in our future, too, because there’s a lot of different dreams still to be realized out there,” Ford said. “We still haven’t been to another planet, and to a lot of places we’d like to go. And there’s an immense amount to be learned.”
He concluded by telling students, “Please do follow your dreams. There’s lots of you out there who will do amazing things.”
Ford then took a few pre-written questions from students. When asked what skills students should work on to become astronauts, he said all of them – not just science and math, but also language and communication skills and physical fitness, “just a huge broad brush.”
He said the most beautiful thing he saw was Earth from orbit, and explained that ISS was built over a period of about 10 years and multiple space launches. One student’s question was if he could smell in space, and he said you could.
The best thing about being an astronaut, he said, was the ability to experience all that he did.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092