Corcoran High School students gained some insights Tuesday as to what it takes to become a successful astronaut for NASA. School alum Jeanette Epps gave a presentation complete with videos from her mission in space last year. Epps says she wasn’t tested the least bit when she had an extended stay because she always dreamt of going there. She said the galactic skyline was breathtaking.
“There were so many stars that at nighttime, if you made it very dark on the inside, you could see that the starfield is just very cluttered with stars, they’re just very far away,” she said.
There was a lot of work to be done in space. Epps says she completed about 123 science experiments; logging 465 work hours on those projects alone. She encouraged students at Corcoran to work hard and believe in themselves. Epps also recalled offering advice to a physics major at LeMoyne College, her other alma mater.
“And she wasn’t sure she could make it through and I had to remind here what she’s doing is really hard. So, you’re going to have hard days but, that’s ok, you keep working towards a goal, you get a good night’s sleep and come back… and everything is a new day…you start, again.”
Epps said her body has been recovering from her 8 month space mission by spending a lot of time outdoors. She plans to return to NASA in the near future and doesn’t rule out going on another mission.
