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“We’ve been talking a lot about space travel this month, but we haven’t answered one very important question,” Ms. Salonga said, leaning against the corner of her desk. “It’s a question that’s foremost on many Americans’ minds. And it’s a very simple question: Why? Why are we going into space? Why are we spending so much money to send astronauts there?”
Dani cleared her throat. “In Star Trek, they call space the ‘final frontier,’” she said. “We’ve explored all over Earth. Space is the last big mystery.” Pause. “Do you think that’s a reason?” Everyone nodded. All but Marcus. Bird watched intently as Dani wrote “final frontier” in her notebook.
Judith Resnik: Christa said, “I touch the future.” That’s what we’re doing, Bernadette. Touching the future. Bird: I like that.
You’re not . . . Those were quite possibly the two most terrible words to start any sentence.
You’re not pretty. You’re not interesting. You’re not special.
The possible endings were as vast as the night sky.
You’re just . . . a girl from Delaware. Being pretty isn’t your thing.
backyards are meant to be shared.
Backyards are meant for dogs. Barbecues. Families. Our backyard is a lonely place. I don’t want a lonely place.
School was like its own mini-universe, after all. Identical stars and planets, identical orbits, floating through the same galaxy, day after day after day.
Salonga’s words drifted into his consciousness. Something she always said in class when someone wasn’t paying attention. Eye contact is the simplest gift you can give someone. Yes, something like that. Fitch picked his head up. “I’m sorry, Amanda,” he said. The words came out crisp and true. He’d never said anything with so much conviction. He surprised even himself.
She listened to girls talk about nothing and giggle over nothing. How could anyone think about anything else? The shuttle, the shuttle, the shuttle. It ran through her mind on a loop. All that smoke curling off like devilish fingers against a bright, blue sky.
Her eyes were tired. Maybe she’d been crying, but she wasn’t now. There was something unnatural about watching a grown-up cry right in front of you. He hoped, with every molecule in his body, that she wouldn’t. What would he do if she did?
We’re this one little planet in this huge universe. How could we ever begin to know what’s out there? It’s too big, too vast. I have an answer for you—”
“—And it’s pretty simple, really. The only way
for us to know what’s out there is if we’re out there, too. Yes, we are small. Yes, there are things we may never understand. But to be small is not to be inconsequential. Never mistake size for might.”
“Did you know that removing one single grain of sand can change an entire beach? A single grain of sand. Earth may be a tiny pinprick in comparison with the whole universe, but that doesn’t make it any more or less impactful than the sun or the moon.” Ms.
“If the sand never moves, it never changes. And each of us should strive to change every single day. To be better explorers. To be better teachers and students. To be better humans. To just be better.”
We owe it to ourselves, and to everyone, to offer our best to the world. To quote the words of one of the brightest people I know: The universe is waiting. So what are we waiting for?”
Sometimes I look up at the sky and I see all those stars and my mind works overtime. There is so much up there to explore. Who knows what’s happening in all that space? Maybe there’s someone on the other side of the
Milky Way, looking up the sky just like I am. Maybe they see a dot in the sky and they make a wish on it, and the dot in the sky is Earth, and they’re actually wishing on me.
When I stare up at the sky and see all that space, it feels like the universe is asking me to go up there. It’s sending me an astrogram, and the astrogram says: We’re waiting for you, Bird. Can you imagine that? The universe is waiting. Even though I’m just a tiny grain of sand, it’s waiting for me. I’m ready.
Brokaw also asked if people in her life—particularly men—were threatened by the fact that she was a female astronaut. “If they are, they’re probably not my friends,” she said.
