Mae Jemison: coming in from outer space - astronaut - includes related article - Interview

Ebony, Dec, 1992 by Karima A. Haynes, Marilyn Marshall

Ten, nine, eight.......

A wave of excitement washes over Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first AfricanAmerican woman astronaut, as she listens to the final seconds of the countdown aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

Seven, six, five.......

Thoughts tumble through her mind as her heart pounds with anticipation. Gosh, it's getting ready to happen. I hope we launch on time. I wonder what my family and friends are doing?

Four, three, two, one....

The spacecraft rockets away form the Kennedy Space Center with a thunderous burst, hurling its seven-member crew toward outer space.

"I had this big smile on my face," Jemison says, smiling at the memory. "I was so excited. This is what I had wanted to do for a very long time.

With that successful launch Sept. 12, 1992, the Chicago-reared physician earned a place in the history books as the first African-American woman to travel into outer space. "It was the realization of many, many dreams of many people," Dr. Jemison says.

Although space shuttle missions are still very much experimental, Jemison refused to allow herself to fear the worst.

"You are aware that you are sitting on a controlled explosion," she explains. "But you also realize that you've taken all the precautions. You trust the people you have been working with and you know they have worked to try to keep things safe. After that, you have to leave it alone. If you keep worrying about it, then you're not going to he able to do your job."

Trained as NASAs first mission specialist to operate shuttle and space laboratory hardware, Jemison performed experiments that monitored how living organisms react in space. She also designed an experiment that looked at the effects of the space environment on bone cells.

Although the astronauts spent 12 hour days conducting experiments, there was still time to sit back and enjoy the ride into outer space and to catch a birds-eye view of Planet Earth.

"One of the first sights that I saw when I first went into orbit was the city of Chicago," Jemison recalls. "I went to the window, looked down and, literally, we passed right over it."

While the astronauts were honored at numerous homecoming celebrations around the country, Chicago threw the biggest bash for its hometown heroine. The city hosted a six-day, city-wide tribute to coincide with her 36th birthday on Oct. 17.

Perhaps the most moving tribute came during a homecoming rally at Morgan Park High School, where Jemison graduated in 1973. As the schools most illustrious alumnus entered the auditorium, pandemonium erupted. The cheers continued for what seemed an eternity.

"I have to tell you how wonderful, wonderful it is to see you," Jemison said, her voice choked with emotion. "You don't know how much you do for me. You really don't."

Jemison spoke of her days at Morgan Park High School and told the students that what she learned there helped her as a chemical engineering major at Stanford University.

"Sometimes people want to tell you to act or to be a certain way," Jemison told the hundreds of Morgan Park students jammed in the auditorium. "Sometimes people want to limit you because of their own limited imaginations."

To illustrate her point, Jemison recalled how people unintentionally dissuaded her from pursuing a science career.

"In kindergarten, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told her a scientist," Jemison remembered. "She said, 'Don't you mean a nurse?' Now, there's nothing wrong with being a nurse, but thats not what I wanted to be."

And even after earning her medical degree from Cornell University, Jemison visited an elementary school where a male principal told her that the students had the opportunity to attend NASA space camp. He said he planned to have male teachers explain the program because they were more knowledgeable about science.

"You have to be very careful about the images you have about people," Jemison concluded. "Some people say, I don't look like an astronaut. But thats OK' cause I am."

Later, at a Chicago Board of Education rally at the University of Illinois at ChiCago, Jemison proved how down-to earth she is when she got down with the Morgan Park pom-pon girls during an impromptu dance.

For now, Jemison plans to return to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston and place her name back into the pool of astronauts to be selected for the next space shuttle flight. "I don't know when I'll have my next flight assignment," the astronaut says. "We'll have to see."

In the meantime, she wants to encourage Black children's natural curiosity for math and science. "Children have all the motivation, the energy and the enthusiasm, but adults end up taking that away from them by saying, 'You don't know what that compliCated piece of equipment is,' all because we are afraid of it," Jemison asserts. "It doesn't have anything to do with the children's abilities."

Adults Can foster childrens interest in science and math, she says, by lobbying to maintain and expand those programs in schools.

Jemison hopes that her historic journey into outer space will underscore the need for a greater Black presence in space exploration, science and technology. "People don't see women--particularly Black women--in science and technology fields," she points out. "My participation in the space shuttle mission helps to say that all peoples of the world have astronomers, physicists and explorers."