U-Today 23-11-2021
‘Can you train yourself to stay calm during space flight?’
In a few years from now, Mindy Howard will almost certainly be the first Dutch woman in space. On the first day of the Week of Inspiration, she gave an enlightening lecture about her journey to become an astronaut and her work in training astronauts to be mentally prepared for the extremes of space.
When she first comes on stage, Dr Howard is particularly striking. Dressed in a NASA flight suit, she begins by asking the audience to think of their dream in life. After giving us a moment to think about it, she says: ‘By the end of this talk I am going to tell you how to accomplish your dream.’
Steve Austin
Dr Howard has wanted to be an astronaut for most of her life. She explains that the dream began for her when, as a six year old child in the United States, she watched The Six Million Dollar Man and was inspired by the character of bionic astronaut Steve Austin. ‘Steve Austin and I are gonna go to Space together!’ The daydream faded as she grew up, but the desire to become an astronaut remained strong.
And so, after obtaining her PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology, Dr Howard applied to NASA. She got ‘down to the last two hundred people from the thousands’, but no further. Undeterred, Dr Howard had more plans – by becoming a Dutch citizen, she could apply at the European Space Agency (ESA). However, the ESA did not hire astronauts until she was 38. The maximum age of entry was 37. So, for the moment, she gave up. ‘I guess I had better get a job on Earth.’