Latest news with #ScottParazynski
Digital Trends
5 days ago
- General
- Digital Trends
10 amazing images to mark 60 years of U.S. spacewalks
On June 3, 1965, NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to exit a spacecraft in orbit. 'This is the greatest experience, it's just tremendous,' White said as he floated outside the Gemini 4 spacecraft on that historic day. Recommended Videos To mark the 60th anniversary since the first U.S. spacewalk, we've compiled a collection of 10 awesome images captured during the first-ever U.S walk, as well as subsequent walks that have taken place over the years. 1. First up, Ed White during his historic spacewalk on June 3, 1965. For his safety, the record-setting astronaut was secured to the spacecraft by a 25-foot umbilical line and tether during his 20-minute adventure. 2. NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski appears to wave to the camera while attached to a foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle's Orbiter Boom Sensor System during a spacewalk in 2007. 3. NASA's John B. Herrington, seen at the far left of the image, during a walk outside the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2002. 4. NASA astronaut Suni Williams pictured secured to the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, with the orbital facility's solar arrays behind her during a walk in 2025. 5. With a dramatic cloudy backdrop, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. can be seen during a spacewalk at the space station in 2006. 6. Bruce McCandless II is seen approaching his maximum distance from the Space Shuttle Challenger in an extraordinary spacewalk in 1984 that saw him become the first astronaut to maneuver in space untethered. McCandles was trialing a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit. 7. Reid Wiseman takes part in a 2014 spacewalk at the space station some 250 miles above Earth. During the 6-hour, 13-minute spacewalk, Wiseman and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst worked outside the station's Quest airlock, relocating a failed cooling pump to external stowage and installing gear that provides back up power to external robotics equipment. 8. NASA's Christina Koch snaps a 'space selfie' with Earth behind her. She and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir worked outside the ISS for more than seven hours during the first-ever all-woman spacewalk in 2019. 9. American astronaut Dale A. Gardner gets up close and personal with the spinning WESTAR VI satellite during a mission in 1984. Gardner used a special device to stabilize the communications spacecraft sufficiently so that it could be captured and placed in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery for return to Earth. 10. Astronauts Carl Meade and Mark Lee during a spacewalk in 1994. Lee can be seen attached to the Space Shuttle's robotic arm.
Tatler Asia
23-04-2025
- Science
- Tatler Asia
Meet the first human to conquer both space flight and Mount Everest
Not many can say they have flown to space or scaled Mount Everest. But Nasa astronaut Scott Parazynski has checked both off his bucket list. His next adventure is youth education Fewer than a thousand people have ever flown to space, including the all-women crew of Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez and others on the recent Blue Origin mission. In comparison, the number of people who have successfully climbed Mount Everest is slightly higher, but it still remains below 10,000 throughout history. Given these figures, it's clear that very few individuals have accomplished both feats. But Scott Parazynski is one such remarkable person who can claim to have achieved both. The ex-Nasa astronaut completed five missions to space between 1994 and 2007, and also became the first astronaut to have summited Mount Everest in 2009. Now he's on another mission—to educate the youth on space programmes and more. It was with this in mind that he was in Hong Kong earlier this month, by invitation of our city's chapter of the Royal Geographical Society. He also took this opportunity to share his experiences with local students. Don't miss: 7 private space tourism experiences and how they push the boundaries of travel Above Scott Parazynski in space (Photo: courtesy of Parazynski) 'I love talking to kids, because I had role models who encouraged me when I was their age,' he says. 'Talking to people who were doing things that I wanted to do one day was transformative for me. Hopefully, there were a few kids in the room who found some inspiration in my talk. What I always try to get across to them is, regardless of whether you want to become an astronaut, STEM is going to the language of the future. It's important to know the foundations of it to succeed in whatever career you choose, be that a politician or lawyer. 'But, if you're interested in space programme, the opportunities are going to be much broader [than my time], because it won't just be a limited number of national programmes that will be flying people. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are widening the field. So if you want to do it, you can make it happen.' Above Scott Parazynski in his space suit (Photo: courtesy of Parazynski) Parazynski himself was inspired by attending the launch of Apollo Nine at the Kennedy Space Center as a child. His father worked on the Apollo programme that sent astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 'As a kid, everybody in the block wanted to become an astronaut. I just never grew out of it.' He went on to become a physician and physiologist at Stanford and though that, he connected with the Nasa Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In 1992, he was selected to be an 'as hope'—a humorous abbreviation for 'an astronaut hopeful' before becoming an 'as can', short for 'astronaut candidate'. Training was a rigorous year-long process, which Parazynski describes as 'drinking from a firehose'. However, it all paid off when he went on five spatial missions in the next decade. Each mission had a different purpose: to study the earth's ozone layer; to lead the first joint US-Russian spacewalk; to serve as a physician for US senator John Glenn in a mission that combined medical research with space exploration; and to construct and repair the International Space Station. Above The sight of Mount Everest from space (Photo: courtesy of Parazynski) The most memorable thing for Parazynski, however, was seeing the earth from space. 'It's such a profound human experience to see your planet from that perspective,' he says. 'What I would reflect on is how insignificant we as individuals are in the grander scheme of things. You turn your head and you look out into the blackness of space, and you see you're looking back nearly 14 billion years to the beginning of time. The scale of the universe around us is just overwhelming.' 'Everyone comes back from space as an environmentalist, at least to some degree. It's certainly a passion of mine now to travel the world and to talk to the media, schools and other groups of influential people about the importance of being responsible citizens of the planet.' His first spatial mission also ignited his sense of adventure back on earth. 'On the shuttle flight to space, I took this beautiful picture of the summit of Mount Everest, which looked like the mountain was coming out at you. It was really extraordinary,' he recalls. It would, however, take him two attempts—and the painful experience of rupturing a disc on his back at 7,000 metres above sea level—to summit Mount Everest in 2009. Above Scott Parazynski and his team climbing Mount Everest (Photo: courtesy of Parazynski) According to Parazynski, climbing the world's tallest mountain and going to space have several points of similarity. 'It's the same kind of mental and physical preparation. It's about being mindful of the technical and operational risks. You can't make space flight perfectly safe, just as you can't make climbing a big mountain perfectly safe. But you can make it as safe as possible by being in your best physical condition and technically proficient, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team and waiting for the right window of weather.' While Parazynski has long retired from these extreme missions, his sense of adventure is very alive. It's this spirit that has led him to found Onwardair, an electric aircraft company that aims to alleviate urban congestion and provide rapid medical transport. The prototypes have been used in mainland China, the UAE and the US, and Parazynski hopes it will see significant growth in its global demand in the coming years. 'It will revolutionise the way we live. Ultimately, these types of aircraft will be in all our homes. That's the kind of future that we're aiming to build,' he says, looking out the hotel window at the bustling Central district below, as if looking out from a space shuttle.
South China Morning Post
12-04-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
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.
