A week after Suni and Butch — formerly stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — finally came home safely to Earth after nine long months in space, former NASA astronaut Kathryn C. Thornton reflected on their ordeal.
“They are professionals, and they did what they had to do,” said alumna Thornton, the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “I can't imagine there's any place they would rather have had their service extended.”
Thornton commented in March on this and a host of other space-related topics during a “fireside chat” held at UVA Engineering’s Link Lab in honor of Women’s History Month.
Her thoughts, informed by her experiences, engaged a lively in-person audience of students and faculty, as well as viewers on Zoom.
NASA was one of the first organizations in the country, I think, to truly accept people for what they could contribute.
Thornton is a Double Hoo who earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from UVA, in 1977 and 1979 respectively. Thornton was working as a physicist at the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center in Charlottesville in the early 1980s when she applied to NASA to be among the third class of astronauts to include women. NASA ultimately hired her in 1984. She went on to become a mission specialist for four space shuttle flights
“NASA was one of the first organizations in the country, I think, to truly accept people for what they could contribute,” Thornton said. “They didn't integrate or include women because it was the right thing to do. The women's movement and civil rights movement at that time forced their hand. But they embraced it and treated us all like astronauts.”
Of her 975 hours working in space, more than 21 of those hours involved working outside of the shuttle.
The spacesuit wasn’t a great fit for her relatively small body, she said.
“The suits that we would use to spacewalk were originally planned to have sizes to fit the 5th percentile of American women to the 95th percentile of American men,” she said. “I was probably the only person flying small.”
NASA could customize aspects of a spacesuit, to a small extent, but Thornton also felt there was a fine line between complaining, and possibly losing her chance to fly, and adapting.
Flight suits worn for flying in NASA’s T-38 aircraft, however, could be more easily adapted because they were simpler.
“I got to where I would get issued two flight suits,” she said. One size she used for the top, the other size for the bottom.
Then, “I'd cut them in the middle,” she said to laughter. “I would take half of this one and half of that one. That was doable.”
Chloe Dedic, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, served as moderator. She and students asked additional questions about the fear and grandeur involved with being in space.
Thornton remained low-key on the topic of worry, however. She said staying focused on tasks helped her manage any anxiety that she had.
ASK AN ASTRONAUT
What’s It Like in Space, and How Do I Get There?
The following highlights some of the other answers Thornton gave to questions. The responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q. How did you feel the first time you stepped out into space?
A. I was having problems with the communications in my suit. I could hear my spacewalk partner, but I couldn't hear the ground [control], and I couldn't hear people inside the shuttle. So mission control says stand by. I thought they were going to say, “no-go.” So I went as far outside as my umbilical [the cord attaching her] could stretch and enjoyed the view until they finally said, “Go for EVA [extravehicular activity].”
I didn't worry about not being able to hear anybody else, because Tom [Thomas Akers], my partner, liked to hum, and when he was humming, everything was great. I didn't need to know any more than that. He only knew four bars of the song, but if Tom was humming, there was no problem.
Q. What was the coolest thing you saw?
A. I was space walking on the end of a mechanical arm and working on the Hubble [Space Telescope]. It was being moved from one position to another. It's kind of interesting because you're at the end of this crane, this arm that has about the same flexibility as a diving board. Your feet are snapped into it and, after a little while, you become comfortable with that. So I didn't feel like I was falling. The guy running the arm can flip you over, he can do all this stuff, and you have no sensation that you're moving at all. So I was out there, and I was working with tools. I was getting the sockets on the wrenches for what I was going to do next. And the guys said, “Stop what you're doing. Look.”
We were over the Gulf of Mexico, and it was nighttime. We could see the entire North American continent, and you could see the coastlines because they're outlined by light. You could see the aurora borealis up over Canada. All in one view. It was mesmerizing.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring astronauts?
A. I wouldn't plan my career trying to guess what NASA's looking for because you have no idea what the program is going to be like [in the future]. And there are now lots of different pathways to space. There are the commercial paths through Axion or through SpaceX or Blue Origin and other companies. So I wouldn't try to guess what they’re all going to want.
I would plan your career to have a successful and fulfilling life. And any chance you get, try to go toward the space side, if that's what you want.
