ASTRONAUT

FROM PAGE 10

She enjoyed blastoff because if reminded her of when she was a girl, and her dad drove his Corvette and floored it, pushing her back into the seat.

She said space was beautiful and she could see the curve of the Earth, the blackness of space and the blue atmosphere. Being weightless was fun, as she and her fellow crew members did flips and threw small footballs in honor of retired football player Michael Strahan, who was also on the flight.

“As Daddy said, `We came back to Earth safely,’” Laura explained.

She took items into space for her grandchildren because not many people can say their grandmother went into space.

“Daddy would have loved that I did this,” she said. “He would have said, `Go for it.’”

Furthering space flight

Laura said it didn’t dawn on her as a young woman to strive to become an astronaut because women weren’t allowed in the NASA astronaut program. However, she became involved with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which was started in 1984 by the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

As chair of the board of trustees, Laura is proud of the 60 scholarships given yearly to support scholars in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — while commemorating the legacy of America’s pioneering astronauts.

“If I could influence young girls to go into space,” she said, “that is what I want to do.”

Laura enjoys making presentations about space flight to students, donning her father’s flight suit — even though he never wore it into space — and showing artifacts from his time at NASA. Now, she’s thinking about wearing her own flight suit because it — and she — have been in space.