Blast-off: UVA astronaut recalls first moon landing, career
As one of the millions watching July 20, 1969, as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first to walk on the moon, Kathryn Thornton was awestruck.
“I remember seeing them walk on the moon and walking outside and thinking people are up there,” Thornton says. “It was a pretty amazing moment.”
Despite her excitement about the moon landing, Thornton didn’t see a future for herself in space.
“At the time it wasn’t an option (for women),” Thorton says.
Just over 20 years after that first moonwalk, Thornton was in orbit as a mission specialist on the crew of the space shuttle Discovery.
Selected by NASA in 1984, Thornton orbited earth hundreds of times, logging over 975 hours in space in her career over the course of four space flights. In her second flight, Thornton was aboard the maiden flight of the space shuttle Endeavour.
Thornton left NASA in 1996 to work at UVA, where she earned her master's and doctorate in the late seventies.
Now an associate dean for graduate programs, Thornton remembers her time in space fondly, adding that floating in space was the most memorable part of her trips.
“There’s no way to really simulate that here on earth,” Thornton says
“The people I talk to think it is still relevant,” she says. Thornton, who in 2008 testified in front of a House committee in favor of exploration to Mars, added that space flight was important to continue for future generations.
“It enriches our life and expands it.”