Cape Canaveral, FL – It’s an all-male, all-veteran crew for space shuttle Atlantis’ final flight.
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Six astronauts are aboard for this third-to-last shuttle mission. NASA is retiring its three remaining shuttles so it can focus on getting astronauts back into true outer space.
Atlantis’ astronauts are putting off any commemorations and, for now at least, focusing on the work awaiting them at the International Space Station.
“This is probably the kind of thing that’s really going to hit all of us after we’re done with the mission and we realize what part of history we may have played,” said commander Kenneth Ham.
Amongst the six is Garrett Reisman, one of the astronaut corps’ shorter astronauts at 5-foot-4½, is jokingly called “Big G” by his crewmates.
He can’t wait to grow temporarily in weightlessness, as all astronauts do thanks to elongated spines. He stretched to 5-foot-6 during his three-month stay at the space station in 2008. Going back for a short visit is reward for the four years of training he put in last time. He’ll perform two spacewalks.
Reisman, 42, became an astronaut in 1998 after working as an engineer on spacecraft navigation for what was then TRW Inc.
He’s taking up the original federal document proclaiming May as Jewish American Heritage Month.
“As a Jewish kid growing up in New Jersey, the concept of being an astronaut was really something I didn’t think was possible,” he said. As he watched films of the Apollo moon shots, “it was all a bunch of white men, non-Jewish people flying, test pilots.”
Now, his message to all Americans is, “this is something that’s within their realm of possibility.”
“There’s nothing more powerful than making a child believe there’s nothing they can’t do, and that’s turned out to be true for me.”
Wife Simone Francis is an oceanographer. Home is Parsippany, N.J.
Oh, oh, given the track record between Judith Resnick and Ilan Ramon, hopefully the third time’s the charm.
As far as I know there were two Jews who went to space, and both have died doing it. One was a teacher in the Challenger, and the other was an Israeli astronaut named Rimon, who died coming back.
Maybe we don’t belong in space.
Interestingly, the passuk in Nach says that Hashem will get Edom even if they make their home between the stars….
jeff hoffman is also a (living) jewish astronaut, he is a champion spacewalker and also went on the famous hubble repair shuttle mission. google him! 🙂
Scott Horowitz has been on the space shuttle multiple times. He has family who are frum.