Photo: NASA
Nicole Aunapu Mannis enjoying all the beauty that comes with seeing the Earth from afar.
The astronaut, 45, who officially became thefirst Native American woman to fly into spaceearlier this month, spoke with the AP from the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday about her mission and seeing the planet from a new perspective while in orbit.
Noting that “theemotions are absolutely overwhelming,” Mann told the outlet, “It is an incredible scene of color, of clouds and land.”
“And it’s difficult not to stay in the cupola [lookout] all day and just see our planet Earth and how beautiful she is, and how delicate and fragile she is against the blackest of black that I’ve ever seen — space — in the background,” she added.
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JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty
Together, the group arrived at the ISS after about 29 hours of flight time, and are taking part in a mission lasting 150 days aboard the space-based laboratory.
Mann told the AP that having a diverse crowd aboard the ISS is monumental, given that it is currently home to three Americans, three Russians and one Japanese astronaut, per the outlet.
“What that does is it just highlights our diversity and how incredible it is when we come together as a human species, the wonderful things that we can do and that we can accomplish,” she said.
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NASA
And though she is loving her time away from Earth, Mann told the AP that she does miss home, however, and her loved ones are always on her mind.
“It’s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home and that when things are difficult or things are getting hard, or I’m getting burned-out or frustrated, that strength is something that I will draw on to continue toward a successful mission,” she explained.
“It’s difficult for some people maybe to understand because it’s not really tangible,” she said. “But that positive energy is so important, and you can control that energy, and it helps to control your attitude.”
RELATED VIDEO: Nicole Aunapu Mann Becomes First Native American Woman in Space I Hope It ‘Will Inspire’
Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California,USA Todayreported. According toNASA, she earned a mechanical engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1999 and a master’s degree from Stanford University in 2001.
She is a Colonel in the Marine Corps who worked as a test pilot for the F/A - 18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft and was deployed on aircraft carriers twice during American combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the space agency.
Mann was first selected as an astronaut candidate in June 2013, NASA said.
The only other Native American individual to have traveled to space is John Herrington, who flew on a shuttle mission to the ISS in 2002, according toReuters.
source: people.com
