Growing up in a small town in the West, could you have ever imagined being the first Irish person going up into space?
I often say this was an impossible dream. I had the chance to visit NASA when I was in primary school. I was 11 and that was just a spark of interest. I grew up in Mayo in Ballina, the West of Mayo. It was very limited space activity in Ireland at the time and you know growing up in the 80s and 90s. Just having that opportunity to visit NASA, to see the wind tunnels to get a little bit of an insight into space exploration, and human space flight, I just thought it was fascinating. So it’s literally been that journey from that 11-year-old all the way through. While it was an impossible dream, I think for me, I just loved space. So it was a case of year on year, year after year to build on whatever opportunities I could or whatever activities I could get involved in to embed myself in the sector. It’s been a very long journey to get to the point of announcing my space flight and I think people have really resonated with it, because they know it hasn’t happened overnight, it’s literally been most of my life progressing get to this point.
We’ve had two female presidents who allowed little girls to know that was a job option. Now there’s a whole generation of girls who will look at you and know that they can be astronauts. What does that feel like to you?
It’s so special when you see that impact and you see those little eyes watching. They’re saying, “Norah is going to space and she’s from Ireland, she’s from Mayo,” I really think the impact is going to be felt from now for many years. I hope! Like that’s one of the things that I really want to build on as part of the flight is the outreach the education, the impact, the engagement. I think having that opportunity to be on the Toy Show before Christmas was just a signal to how many little eyes were watching and looking at this journey and for them to see what’s possible. I often say it’s not about me saying study STEM or study engineering and become a scientist. It’s to show them what’s possible, it’s to show them that sometimes big impossible dreams do come true, if you put in the groundwork and so yeah. I think it’s really really special you know, to get the letters from little kids. I get fan mail now and An Post have delivered, you know, letters to “Norah Patten: Astronaut Ballina” and they do make their way to my parents’ home in Ballina which is just so lovely. The outreach and education piece has always been core to what I’ve tried to do. I’ve tried to use my opportunities to bring and to open the door for the next generation and for others to follow along so I definitely think that the space flight is just a steppingstone to opening up other opportunities.
How do you keep calm when thinking about the vastness of space?
I think with the preparation we do through my research institute IAS, I like to say it’s setting us up for success. So when we actually fly into space, we’ll have flown multiple microgravity research flights. That’s the flights where you get to float the experiments and test them in weightlessness. We do those over in Canada at the National Research Council so we’re going to be very well prepared when we go on the Space Flight. I often think the community and the people around me and the people I’ve had an opportunity to work with and learn from have really been fundamental to help keep me on the course to actually go to space. So, I think the network, I often say that to young people. coming up through secondary school, coming into university, find the mentors. Find the people who can give you a little bit of a steer, a little bit of guidance and surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. I can wholeheartedly say that having Dr. Shawna Pandya and Kellie Gerardi as my two crewmates on this flight, they have 100 per cent brought out the best in me. Those two girls, I couldn’t think of two better crewmates to fly with.
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