Four-Time Space Traveler Chats with SPMS Students

In 8.5 minutes you can read an email, eat a sandwich or maybe run a mile. If you ask sixth-graders at Severna Park Middle what you can do in 8.5 minutes they’ll say you can get to space. 

On Thursday, four-time space traveler Don Thomas gave Severna Park Middle School sixth-graders a first-hand account of what it’s like to travel through space.

“Lift off feels like someone has their hand at your back and is just pushing you off,” Thomas said. “Everything is just rocking and rolling for the first two minutes of the flight. It only takes 8.5 minutes to get in space—that was always amazing to me. I bet it takes you more than that to get to school in the morning."

Thomas, who traveled on space shuttles in 1994, 1995 and twice in 1997, left NASA in 2007 and now works for the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach program at Towson University. Part of the program involves speaking to students about his NASA career.

During his presentation students viewed pictures of major landmarks from space, listened to what it feels like to be without gravity and perhaps most importantly learned about the value of relentlessness.

During his career with NASA, Thomas spent 44 days in space and traveled around the earth about 700 times—but he almost never got the chance to go.

When the first American astronaut went into space, Thomas said, he was in kindergarten. He watched it on a small black-and-white TV when he was six, and in that moment he knew he wanted to be an astronaut. But it took a lot more than wanting it to make it actually happen.

Thomas applied to NASA three times and was rejected each time. After each rejection, Thomas found more and more things he could do to make himself more qualified. He got a pilot’s license, learned how to skydive and learned how to scuba dive—whatever he could think of.

“I tried to do all the little things I could so maybe I would be a little ahead of all the applicants,” Thomas said.

The 9 1/2 years of school, and all the extra activities finally paid off when Thomas got the call from NASA saying he was in.

“I hung up the phone and just screamed for 10 minutes because I knew I was in—I was going to fly in space,” Thomas said. “I was 39 years old the first time I flew in space. I was an average student in school, but I had huge dreams and I never gave up on them.”

Thomas went on to talk about his four space missions. He spoke of what it feels like to be without gravity.

“The smallest little push of the finger and you will go sailing through the air like superman or woman and you’ll go sailing until you hit a wall,” Thomas said. “It’s a lot of fun up there. It’s a blast.”

Thomas answered the students’ questions about what kind of food he ate—freeze dried food—and how you can stand on your head and not feel a thing. He also entertained inquires about using the bathroom and sleeping while strapped to your bed.

The space-traveler also shared photos he took while in space. One featured the top of Mount Everest.

“I can stand here and tell you I have seen the top of Mount Everest 25 times,” Thomas said. “I say it’s the lazy way to see the top—drinking juice and looking out the window.”

He also shared a photo from space in which you could see Baltimore, Annapolis and DC—all in the same picture. Thomas said that while in space, whenever he could, he would just look out the window—something that never grew tiresome.

“Whenever an astronaut has a few moments they open a window to watch the earth go by,” he said. It’s a beautiful blue earth. The first time you see it, you gasp. Even if you have seen the pictures before when you see it for the first time, you just gasp.”

See Also:

• 4-Time Space Traveler Will Speak to SPMS Students