Ex-Nasa astronaut Scott Parazynski shares his journey from space to top of Mount Everest
In March 2009, American Scott Parazynski – a veteran of five Nasa space shuttle missions, including seven spacewalks, who had racked up more than 23 million miles (37 million km) – hung up his spacesuit.
Advertisement
'I could have flown once, maybe twice more, but I was keen to stretch my wings as an inventor and entrepreneur,' says the 63-year-old.
A couple of months after retiring from
the US space agency , Parazynski attempted to
summit Mount Everest but, at 7,470 metres (24,500 feet), was forced to turn around because of a back injury.
Undeterred, he tried again the following year, and this time succeeded in conquering Earth's highest mountain above sea level. He reached the top at 4am on May 20, 2009, making him the first person to have flown in space and summited the world's highest peak.
Parazynski is a doctor by training – he was the personal doctor to his hero John Glenn aboard the Discovery shuttle on the then-US senator's return to space in 1998.
Advertisement
HIs other adventurous feats include scuba diving deep into a volcanic lake in the Andes mountains of South America, making the first descent into Nicaragua's Masaya volcano and visiting Antarctica, where he oversaw the medical care of staff of the US government's Antarctic programme.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
4 days ago
- RTHK
Planet found orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists
Planet found orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists Astronomers discovered the planet when searching through low-mass red dwarfs observed by Nasa's Tess space telescope. Photo: AFP Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had discovered a massive planet orbiting a tiny star, a bizarre pairing that has stumped scientists. Most of the stars across the Milky Way are small red dwarfs like TOI-6894, which has only 20 percent of the mass of our Sun. It had not been thought possible that such puny, weak stars could provide the conditions needed to form and host huge planets. But an international team of astronomers have detected the unmistakable signature of a gas giant planet orbiting the undersized TOI-6894, according to a study in the journal Nature Astronomy. This makes the star the smallest star yet known to host a gas giant. The planet has a slightly larger radius than Saturn, but only half its mass. It orbits its star in a little over three days. The astronomers discovered the planet when searching through more than 91,000 low-mass red dwarfs observed by Nasa's Tess space telescope. Its existence was then confirmed by ground-based telescopes, including Chile's Very Large Telescope. The James Webb space telescope is scheduled to turn its powerful gaze towards the planet in the next year, which could help uncover some more mysteries of this strange planet. (AFP)
RTHK
4 days ago
- RTHK
Planet found orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists
Planet found orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists Astronomers discovered the planet when searching through low-mass red dwarfs observed by Nasa's Tess space telescope. Photo: AFP Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had discovered a massive planet orbiting a tiny star, a bizarre pairing that has stumped scientists. Most of the stars across the Milky Way are small red dwarfs like TOI-6894, which has only 20 percent of the mass of our Sun. It had not been thought possible that such puny, weak stars could provide the conditions needed to form and host huge planets. But an international team of astronomers have detected the unmistakable signature of a gas giant planet orbiting the undersized TOI-6894, according to a study in the journal Nature Astronomy. This makes the star the smallest star yet known to host a gas giant. The planet has a slightly larger radius than Saturn, but only half its mass. It orbits its star in a little over three days. The astronomers discovered the planet when searching through more than 91,000 low-mass red dwarfs observed by Nasa's Tess space telescope. Its existence was then confirmed by ground-based telescopes, including Chile's Very Large Telescope. The James Webb space telescope is scheduled to turn its powerful gaze towards the planet in the next year, which could help uncover some more mysteries of this strange planet. (AFP)
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Did China's Tiandu-1 satellite beat US competitors with critical Earth-moon orbit?
China's Tiandu-1 satellite has entered a critical fuel-efficient orbit that synchronises with the motion of the Earth and moon, but claims that it is the first spacecraft to achieve the feat have been challenged by US and Canadian experts. The 3:1 resonant orbit – in which Tiandu-1 completes three loops of the Earth for every circuit made by the moon – is seen as a breakthrough for lunar infrastructure, including a BeiDou-like guidance system that will be needed for interplanetary exploration. Developer Deep Space Exploration Laboratory said that 'the Tiandu-1 navigation test satellite successfully carried out a key manoeuvre at perigee [the point in orbit when it is closest to Earth] on May 22 and precisely transitioned into a 3:1 Earth-moon resonant orbit'. A Deep Space Exploration Laboratory schematic of the Tiandu-1 satellite taking part in a laser ranging experiment in April, before it was moved into the 3:1 resonance orbit. Credit: DSEL 'This made Tiandu-1 the first spacecraft to enter a round-trip 3:1 Earth-moon resonant trajectory,' according to a statement on the website of the laboratory based in Hefei, Anhui province in central China. 'Its flight data will provide support for advancing technologies such as orbit maintenance, control, and autonomous navigation in complex gravitational environments.' Experts in the US and Canada immediately challenged the claim, pointing to Nasa's 15-year-old Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) probe that entered a near-identical orbit in 2011, where it continues to operate. Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer and space historian, and Canada-based amateur stargazer Scott Tilley both said it was debatable whether Tiandu-1 could lay claim to the title, with the IBEX craft's achievement of near 3:1 resonance. 'Yes, indeed Tiandu-1 has entered a 3:1 resonance orbit. Whether it's the first is debatable…IBEX launched in 2008 uses a similar orbit,' Tilley said.
