Colorado's Nichole Ayers Aims To 'Execute That Mission Well' As New NASA Astronaut
(CBS4) - The Colorado woman to join NASA's newest class of astronaut recruits says growing up in Colorado and exploring the Rocky Mountains paved her path to exploring space.
"Naturally all of the outdoor experiences in Colorado were right there in the Rocky Mountains. We got to do a ton of hiking and camping. The little explorer in me got to see everything in Colorado, and I think that's part of what brought me here and the ability to get through pilot training and explore all of those things, and now I get to be part of the ultimate explorer team here at NASA," said Nichole Ayers.
Ayers grew up in Colorado Springs where she could easily look to the sky for inspiration.
"Right there in the Springs we got to see the Thunderbirds over the Air Force Academy every year, so I knew what the Air Force Academy was at a very young age, and you know, serious little Nichole set her sights on being a pilot and going to the Air Force academy," she said.
After graduating from Woodland Park High School, Ayers was accepted into the Air Force Academy where she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor in Russian. She later earned a master's degree in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University and became skilled in combat aviation.
Now 32, she has accumulated more than 200 combat hours and more than 1,150 hours of total flight time in the T-38 and the F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
"Like I said I've wanted to fly since I was very little, and I am fortunate because I was able to go on to fly the F-22 which, you know, is the premiere air dominance fighter in the entire world and it is an amazing job. I love to fly high and fast, but also do our mission. That is what drew me to the F-22 is the mission that they do, and then I actually got to employee the F-22 in my deployment and got to see, you know, us as a team start to execute all of the training that we do together," she said. "You know very similar to what we do here at NASA now, I'm excited to transition into that team and execute that mission as well."
She is one of the few women currently flying the F-22. In 2019 Ayers led the first ever all-woman formation of the aircraft in combat. While it's a statement about the capabilities of women in her field, she says really comes down to the skill of the pilot.
"The jet is the ultimate equalizer. It doesn't care what gender you are it just cares what you tell it to do, and fortunately for the young ones like me, we get to stand on the shoulders of giants you know? The women who have gone before us and kind of paved the way for us."
Ayers is one of 10 with incredible resumes. All were selected from a pool of 12,000 applicants and will train together for the next two years before they are qualified for space flight.
"There are kind of five main subjects, if you will, so we're going to learn about space station systems. We're going to learn about robotics. We get to learn about space walking, and then we'll learn the Russian language as well, and then flying T-38s. So, got a little bit of Russian language in my background and obviously flying T-38s in my background, but I'm actually really excited to learn about the space station systems and robotics and all of those things that I haven't learned before," she said. "I love learning new things so I'm pretty excited to do that and then also learn about my new classmates because they have such an amazing and brilliant and diverse background.
Ayers and her classmates have only spent a few days together, but she says they will learn to be a family, something she's always loved about her combat missions. Everyone becomes close.
"It's been a few days. We all showed up to start working on the announcement and kind of get the lay of the land, if you will, so just in a few days I feel like I met my nine new best friends. These are amazing humans, and I feel like we're all best friends already, so I can't wait for the next few years training with them and getting to be closer."
NASA is referring to this generation of astronauts as the Artemis generation. Artemis is NASAs newest mission to put astronauts on the moon which will include the first woman and the first person of color.
"I think it's a great time in human space flight as we continue to do research on the ISS but also Artemis is going to the moon... and figuring out how to do this long-term space living in order to eventually get to mars and eventually other parts of our universe. So I am excited to be part of any of the NASA mission here," said Ayers.
