On a day history was made in space, a Pittsburgh astronaut speaks to local high schoolers
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - History was made Thursday hundreds of miles above Earth with the first commercial spacewalk. It happened shortly before a NASA astronaut visited Pittsburgh's north side to teach local students about the field.
Growing up, Mt. Lebanon High School freshman, Shane Rooney, didn't believe his dream could come true.
"Part of my dream since I was like, four was to like, go to space," Rooney said. "It was like, oh yeah, there's no way in my life that I'm going to be able to go to space."
Now, at 14 he got the chance to meet and learn from a real NASA astronaut. Mike Fincke is from Pittsburgh, and so far, has gone on nine spacewalks.
"People from Pittsburgh, kids from here, high schoolers and college kids have this opportunity in front of them, and if I could do it, they can," Fincke said.
He talked to nearly 200 high schools at a special event at the Community College of Allegheny County, about his experience and the evolving industry.
"The space business is really booming now, and we need all the help we can get," Fincke said.
His visit came just hours after tech entrepreneur, Jared Isaacman, and SpaceX engineer, Sarah Gillis, conducted the first commercial spacewalk in the history of space exploration. It was a part of SpaceX's 'Polaris Dawn" mission, which had already set records, traveling farther into space than any human since NASA's Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago.
"The goal of the American space program is for everyday people to go to space and to do things like spacewalks and the science and the engineering that it takes to go there and to make money in space," Fincke said.
The hope is to provide more opportunities across the board.
"Places like Pittsburgh can use that opportunity to make more jobs, high tech jobs, fantastic jobs to go fly in space," Fincke said.
Possibly, they'll offer some encouragement to young people still trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up.
"By the time I'm 20, there's a chance I could have gone to space and come back by then," Rooney said.
