Jon McBride, the NASA astronaut who is in the city, visited Science City on Thursday. He was the guest speaker at a science lecture.
McBride spoke about his visit to India and interacted with the children present there. He said, “My focus is on education as it is my passion. I want the youth of today to avail of the opportunity which I had availed of.”
During the interaction, McBride spoke on different phases of his life-his selection in NASA, his role models and experiences during his tenure in NASA, among others.
McBride said it was important for him to study in a test pilot school as after that he had applied to NASA. It was during this time that NASA was looking for space shuttle pilots.
“10,000 applicants had applied to NASA and it was really important for all as it was the first NASA batch of space shuttle pilots, in 1978. Out of 10,000 applicants, 200 were short-listed and I was amongst them.”
He said, “The 200 candidates went through rigorous tests like physical testing, psychological testing and others. We had to wait for six months for the results which were declared and 35 candidates were selected for the first batch. It was a year’s training and I was one amongst the first batch of space shuttle pilots. It was a proud moment for me.” Later, while speaking about his role models in life, McBride said for today’s youth, Rakesh Sharma and Sunita Williams may be their role models. However, for me during those days Alan Shepherd, the first American to go to space in 1961 and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, were my role models.”
McBride, while mentioning about Rakesh Sharma, said, “Rakesh is a dear friend of mine. He had introduced me to India some 20 years back.”
He also spoke about his experiences in space shuttle in zero gravity. “In April 1981, the speed of the shuttle was so high that we were in space in eight minutes. We traveled at 25,000 km per hour. Interestingly, because the shuttle was revolving around the Earth at a high speed, we got to see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a day,” said McBride, adding that watching the Sun rise was amazing as it just takes 15 seconds for the Sun to rise and one feels as if the Sun has risen all of a sudden.
McBride said he now hoped to see an unmanned space shuttle.