{"id":9189,"date":"2016-06-23T20:29:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T20:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=9189&post_type=story"},"modified":"2024-08-27T12:57:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T12:57:53","slug":"nicole-stott","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/nicole-stott\/","title":{"rendered":"Such Great Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer 2016 | By Jeffrey Billman ’01<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[blockquote source=”” cite=”” color=”#707070″ css_class=””]\u201cThe whole spaceflight experience\u2026\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n

[photo id=”9342″ title=”Nicole Stott” alt=”Nicole Stott” position=”left” width=”250px”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

[lead]Her voice, which typically effuses confidence and energy but now sounds almost wistful, trails off, like she\u2019s searching for the right word. And then she lands on it: \u201cSurreal<\/em>. I\u2019m so thankful for the pictures and videos. They remind me I was really there.\u201d[\/lead]<\/p>\n

Nicole Stott \u201992<\/strong> has been on this planet for a little over 19,000 days \u2014 and off it for 104, in two space shuttles and a three-month stay on the International Space Station. She\u2019s one of 533 people to enter Earth\u2019s orbit and the 52nd woman to do so \u2014 and the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk.<\/p>\n

Stott doesn\u2019t dwell on her place in history. But the enormity of what she accomplished \u2014 the decades of preparation, the fearlessness of riding a rocket into the sky at more than 25,000 mph, and the six hours and 35 minutes spent in the vacuum of space, with only a bulky spacesuit and a thin white tether protecting her from the starlit abyss \u2014 stays with her.<\/p>\n

But when she was in space, the surrealism wasn\u2019t as daunting; the focus was on the specific, nitty-gritty objectives of each particular mission: fix this thing, check on that thing, make sure this other thing is running properly. Stott, like most astronauts, can talk for hours about the technical minutia that goes into keeping a football-field-size station operating while hurtling through space at 17,500 mph.<\/p>\n

[callout background=”#f58020″][blockquote source=”” cite=”” color=”#ffffff” css_class=””]<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize you\u2019re not from Florida or the United States. You\u2019re an earthling. The bottom line is we are all earthlings.\u201d
\n[\/blockquote][\/callout]<\/p>\n

Down here, those things feel impossibly complex. Up there, it\u2019s the job you came to do \u2014 unglamorous but necessary. And so you focus on the task at hand. Then you come home and have time to reflect on what you\u2019ve just experienced. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you, a spacewalk, that\u2019s one of the times of my life where I felt the most alone and detached from any other human being,\u201d Stott says. \u201cBut at the same time, I also felt the closest and most connected to humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was alone in a literal sense, floating more than 200 miles above the Earth, far removed from life on terra firma. But from such great heights, you also see that indescribably beautiful blue marble, set against the blackest black, differently. The distinctions that drive so much conflict \u2014 race, class, religion and ideology \u2014 are no longer visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize you\u2019re not from Florida or the United States. You\u2019re an earthling. The bottom line is we are all earthlings,\u201d Stott says.<\/p>\n

So last year, when Stott retired from NASA after 27 years, she decided that conveying this sense of awe and wonder was her new mission. And she does this with a brush and canvas, creating paintings that portray what it\u2019s like to live and work in space and offer a sense of our place in the grand scope of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to look at [the paintings] and maybe think differently about where we live,\u201d Stott says. \u201cYou can see Earth as your home, really looking at your home planet. People don\u2019t consider it that way all the time. People don\u2019t realize they\u2019re in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if you think about it that way, she says, perhaps you\u2019ll take better care of it.<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[lead]Stott\u2019s first-ever tweet was full of exclamation points. \u201cOn orbit! Feeling great! Launch was an incredible kick off the pad! Smiled the whole way! Got a \u2018woo hoo\u2019 in there for good measure!\u201d[\/lead]<\/p>\n

Her first flight, aboard Discovery<\/em> STS-128 \u2014 STS-128, meaning the 128th space shuttle mission \u2014 blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:59 p.m. on August 28, 2009. There were seven crew members; Stott was the only woman.<\/p>\n

[photo id=”9334″ title=”Stott and mission specialist Tim Kopra pose for a photo on Discovery while docked at the ISS” alt=”Stott and mission specialist Tim Kopra pose for a photo on Discovery while docked at the ISS” position=”center” width=”100%”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

Stott and mission specialist Tim Kopra pose for a photo on Discovery<\/em> while docked at the ISS.

<\/p><\/div>\n

While the astronaut class of 2013 had as many men as women, Stott\u2019s class in 2000 had 14 males and only three females; all three were classified as mission specialists, not pilots. This wasn\u2019t uncommon. As Amy Foster, a 麻豆原创 associate professor of history who has studied women in space, points out, many of the pilots are drawn from the male-dominated Air Force. The women, on the other hand, tend to come up through the science and engineering fields, like Stott did. And \u2014 at least at the dawn of the 21st century \u2014 they stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely get appreciation,\u201d says Kevin Ford, a member of the 2000 astronaut class and the pilot of STS-128. \u201cThey had to come through a little tougher path to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stott\u2019s path began in Clearwater, Florida. Like most children of her generation, she watched the Apollo missions and the moon landing. She thought being an astronaut was cool, but it seemed far removed from her reality. Airplanes interested her more; her father flew them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted my dad to show me not just how planes are built but how they fly,\u201d she says. \u201cThe idea of flying into space evolved from a love of flying in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t want to be a pilot, at least not as a vocation. She wanted instead to become an engineer. She earned her private pilot\u2019s license and attended Embry-Riddle, earning a B.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1987.<\/p>\n

[callout background=”#f58020″][blockquote source=”” cite=”” color=”#ffffff” css_class=””]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing normal about every day is that every day is different.\u201d
\n[\/blockquote][\/callout]<\/p>\n

She soon got her first job with NASA, as an operations engineer at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Over the next decade, she held a number of positions at KSC and went to grad school, earning a master\u2019s degree in engineering management from 麻豆原创<\/a> in 1992, which she says was \u201clike the icing on the cake, preparing me for what I wanted to do with the astronaut office.\u201d She started to realize that going into space didn\u2019t seem so far-fetched.<\/p>\n

So in 1998, she applied for the astronaut program. Two years later, she was accepted.<\/p>\n

NASA officials told her class it would take about six years for them to get into space. In reality, it took nine as NASA assessed the loss of Columbia<\/em> and its crew. In the meantime, Stott spent 18 days in 2006 living underwater as part of NASA\u2019s Extreme Environment Mission Operations program, earning the title of aquanaut and claiming the women\u2019s world record for saturation diving. But fly she did, as did all 17 members of her class. And like most of them, she went to space twice.<\/p>\n

The first time, she spent three months on the International Space Station, where she performed maintenance tasks, did a spacewalk, assisted with research activities, and helped track and capture a Japanese cargo vehicle.<\/p>\n

On the space station, Stott says, astronauts\u2019 days are planned from the ground, sometimes down to 5- or 10-minute increments: when to wake up, when to eat, daily tasks, the occasional moment of free time and, finally, sleep.<\/p>\n

As regimented as that sounds, Stott says, each day was a new adventure. \u201cThe only thing normal about every day is that every day is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

[lead]But one day was more different than the others: September 1, 2009, her spacewalk. Her prep for the spacewalk began the day before with a deliberate process to remove nitrogen from the body since, like divers, spacewalkers are at risk of getting the bends. Just before the walk came another elaborate process: getting suited up. After that, the airlock was completely depressurized, and the hatch opened. She was in the void.[\/lead]<\/p>\n

[photo id=”9336″ title=”Photo of astronaut in space walk” alt=”Photo of astronaut in space walk” position=”left” width=”400px”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

\u201cI had spoken to a lot of people who had done spacewalks,\u201d Stott says. \u201cPeople have come out of the airlock and felt immediately disoriented. I was very pleased to not experience any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and fellow spacewalker Danny Olivas had a couple of jobs that day. They had to remove a massive old ammonia tank and attach it to the station\u2019s robotic arm. They also retrieved a technology experiment\u00a0to be returned to Earth.<\/p>\n

Stott rode on the robotic arm for 20 minutes, holding the bulky tank in her hands. \u201cI felt like I was standing on the floor,\u201d she says, \u201cand everything else was moving around me.\u201d It was very peaceful, almost Zen-like \u2014 I could nap here, she thought to herself. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

During her stay, Stott did two things that no one else had ever done. She was the first person to paint in space. And about halfway through her tenure, Stott co-hosted the first live NASA \u201ctweetup\u201d from the station, interacting with Twitter followers at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Stott had a knack for this sort of public relations, says Michael Barratt, who overlapped with Stott on the station for three weeks. She is \u201cintense and really bright but also warm and affable. She could have been my long-lost sister, kidnapped by gypsies,\u201d Barratt says.<\/p>\n

While on the station, she and Barratt were tapped for another, higher-profile mission, one for which the space agency wanted to put its best foot forward \u2014 the final space shuttle flight. (As it turned out, this was not the last one, but STS-133, which Stott was on, was Discovery<\/em>\u2019s 39th and final mission.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for specific astronauts,\u201d says Steven Lindsey, who commanded STS-133, \u201cwith superb technical capabilities but that could also represent NASA well. [Stott] was specifically chosen because we knew she could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has members of a dream team,\u201d Barratt says. \u201cShe was on a lot of people\u2019s lists.\u201d<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

[lead]Before she went into space, Stott remembers listening to the former Apollo astronauts, the guys who went to the moon, talk about seeing Earth from up there. The word she kept hearing was insignificant<\/em> \u2014 as in, humanity and our little planet seem very small in this grandest scheme of things.[\/lead]<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really bothered me,\u201d she says. \u201cHow can \u2018insignificant\u2019 be the word?\u201d<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t how she felt at all amidst the stars; she felt awed. Think about it: If the Earth was a little closer or farther from the sun, if the ionosphere and magnetosphere were not there to stave off solar flares, if the atmosphere wasn\u2019t able to fend off X-rays and gamma rays, life here could never have emerged or evolved. None of what we know \u2014 our histories, our civilizations, our very consciousness \u2014 would exist.<\/p>\n

We hit the cosmic jackpot.<\/p>\n

One day on the space station, Stott says, she floated in front of a window and saw her home outside, so small and immense at the same time. \u201cIf we never find another one of us, that\u2019s fine,\u201d she thought. \u201cIt reinforces that we are significant; we were put in this perfect place for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

[callout background=”#f58020″][blockquote source=”” cite=”” color=”#ffffff” css_class=””]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m 95, you can ask me if I want to go into space, and the answer will be yes, unequivocally yes.\u201d
\n[\/blockquote][\/callout]<\/p>\n

After her last mission, Stott led several different groups at NASA and was in line to fly again, but by 2015, she started to wonder if it wasn\u2019t time to step aside, to tackle something new. She wanted to spend more time with her son, Roman, who is 13. \u201cFrom a family standpoint,\u201d she says, \u201cit was the best decision I could have made.\u201d That didn\u2019t make it easy, however. \u201cYou have to be in a place where you\u2019re moving on to another adventure \u2014 not that you\u2019re running away from something.\u201d<\/p>\n

That new adventure was her art.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d painted before; in fact, she\u2019d grown up doing artsy-craftsy things like woodworking and painting Christmas cards. Before her first journey to space, she decided she wanted to do something creative while there, so she brought a small watercolor kit.<\/p>\n

[photo id=”9335″ title=”Nicole Stott holding paintings” alt=”Nicole Stott holding paintings” position=”center” width=”100%”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

In 2009, Stott completed the first painting done in space. The Wave<\/em> is based on a photo taken through the window of the ISS. She has since created a mixed media piece (right) based on the same photo of the Los Roques archipelago in Venezuela.

<\/p><\/div>\n

[photo id=”9337″ title=”Painting by Nicole Stott” alt=”Painting by Nicole Stott” position=”left” width=”300px”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

Her first painting in space \u2014 the<\/em> first painting in space, made on the space station in 2009 \u2014 was a watercolor called The Wave<\/em>, based on a picture she took from space of the Los Roques chain of islands, off the northern coast of Venezuela. To keep the paint from floating away, she dipped her brush into a drop of water before dipping it into the dry paint. The result was an image as seen from space, a thin stretch of green land jutting into a blue ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to find a way that would allow me to creatively express the experiences I\u2019ve had,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She has two series of paintings.\u00a0The first is what she calls the spacecraft collection, which captures life and work scenes from her space shuttle and space station flights. The other is a collection of paintings based on the photos she took from space \u2014 an effort to spread the message that \u201cthis is our planet, and we need to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that vein, last year Stott was one of several astronauts who participated in a video message delivered to the diplomats gathered at the Paris climate conference<\/a>, calling on them to act now to save the planet\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

And, as a speaker who visits schools all over the country, she also wants to inspire kids to do what she\u2019s done in her second career: Blend art with science. The acronym is \u201cSTEAM,\u201d a play on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) with an \u201cA\u201d for \u201cart\u201d thrown in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been this need to keep the arts in play with the science and tech stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cEven the STEM people, if they really thought about it, they\u2019d see that everything we do in engineering or in the lab, just being curious, is very artistic. The way we communicate math is very artistic, as is the imaging of astronomical data. It really all comes down to communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Integrate art into STEM fields, she argues, and you\u2019ll not only have more well-rounded students but more engaged students. \u201cWith STEAM,\u201d she says, \u201cwe\u2019re starting to realize that we need to think about education again in a more Renaissance kind of way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, she says, her time in space has made her fonder of science fiction. At its best, Stott says, sci-fi is a combination of artistry and science that tickles our imaginations and expands the boundaries of what we conceive as possible.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another reason science fiction appeals to Stott: She hasn\u2019t quite shed the space bug. \u201cThat desire to go into space will never go away,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m 95, you can ask me if I want to go into space, and the answer will be yes, unequivocally yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Billman \u201901 \u201910MA<\/strong> graduated from 麻豆原创 with a B.A. in journalism<\/a> and an M.A. in political science<\/a>. He is currently the editor in chief of <\/em>INDY Week in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9162,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[248,148,289],"class_list":["post-9189","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alumni","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-space","issues-881","issues-summer-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nAstronaut Nicole Stott \u201992 on the 104 days she spent in space.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2009, Nicole Stott \u201992 spent 91 days in space, which gave her a new perspective on life. 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