An astronaut’s story
Sitting in front of the TV as a child, Wendy Lawrence watched the Apollo moon missions, which sparked her 25-year journey to make it to space. In that journey, Lawrence became a Navy captain, helicopter pilot, and in 1992, was selected by NASA to trek into space. Lawrence said her first mission to space was a dream come true for her.
“The rocket ride was incredible,” Lawrence said. “First view out the window was a pretty emotional moment. For me, in particular, it was 25 years, but I finally did it. I'm up here now. And I'm living my dream.”
Lawrence has logged 51 days, 3 hours, and 56 minutes in space. As a retired NASA astronaut, she spends some of her time inspiring others through the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Astronaut Encounter program. She said she wants young people to realize they can become an astronaut too.
“Every time you're here, you see those kids that are dressed in the flight suits,” Lawrence said. “And they have the same dream. And you realize, I am here, to nurture that dream to encourage it. Put a little water on the seeds.”
The historical fight for American women to be astronauts
Wendy Lawrence made her first trip to space in 1995, more than a decade after the first American women, Sally Ride, made her historic flight on the Space Shuttle in 1983.
The effort to get women in the astronaut corps started even earlier than that. University of Central Florida space historian, Amy Foster, focuses on technology and gender and has chronicled the story of women astronauts.
Foster said that the Space Shuttle opened doors for women that were not available during the height of the Cold War
“By the time we get to the 70’s, more women have had that opportunity that those levels of education and are now eligible to fly on the space shuttle, which is new in the 1970’s,” Foster said. “And so, as the mission at NASA changes from that Cold War mentality in the space race, now it becomes something more about science, which is not deemed as high risk as the space race was. And so, this really opened up opportunities, as long as the astronauts now who were trained in the sciences that they are now eligible.”
