NASA Astronaut Inspires Vietnamese Youth

Michael Baker, former NASA astronaut shares stories and memories while working in space. Photo: Binh Dinh Portal

What is the most dangerous thing about astronauts? When there is an unexpected incident, how do astronauts handle it? Those are the questions the students posed to Michael Baker, a former NASA astronaut.

Baker spent 965 hours in space. When not participating in space flights, he held many other positions at NASA, including CapCom (Capsule Communication) on 11 space shuttle missions, assistant director of the Johnson Space Center for manned spaceflight programs.

According to Baker, spacewalking is the most dangerous for astronauts. When astronauts have to get out of the space shuttle, if they don't follow the procedures and techniques, they risk a horrific death.

Therefore, when participating in this work, in addition to following the procedures and preparing carefully, the astronauts also have to accept possible risks. That is the courage of the astronaut when taking on the job of traveling into space.

During training, astronauts are often trained in three different levels of troubleshooting. It is urgent handling, not urgent or needing assistance.

To avoid the above risks, usually for each space flight, there will be a support department with about 1,000 people on the ground to regularly communicate with the astronauts.

During the incident, the astronaut's first job was to send a message to the ground for the expert team to give advice. Although the process is strict, the astronauts themselves must be well equipped and prepared for everything to be able to handle it.

“Now that the International Space Station has an Internet connection, astronauts can use their phones to communicate with people from the ground. With the Internet, the communication process is like us on the ground. It's quite convenient compared to before," Baker said.

Students put questions to NASA former astronauts. Photo: sggp

Dr. Josef Schmid is a NASA surgeon and family physician at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. His patients are astronauts and members of their families, retired engineers and astronauts, including those from the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Sharing about the feeling when flying for the first time into space, Josef Schmid said that when the pilot controled the shuttle to somersault, reverse and fly in different ways, that was the feeling that scared him the most. However, accompanying the pilots in such conditions, helped him forget his fear of flying in space.

Lam Nguyen Hai Long, head of Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association, said thta Vietnam Space Week is an opportunity for students of Binh Dinh province and the Central region to learn more about astronauts' dedication to science.

Those are the people who make tireless sacrifices for the journey to explore and conquer space. They are the driving force and inspiration representing human intelligence in discovering new achievements as well as answering questions that many generations of mankind have not answered.

He said that Binh Dinh is the land of talented people. One day, young people will continue on the path to conquer space.

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