The Grand Rapids Public Museum is pleased to partner with the Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship Board and the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association (GRAAA) to bring one of the members of the latest class of NASA astronauts to Grand Rapids on May 9 and 10. Nicole Aunapu Mann, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S Marine Corps, was among eight candidates selected for future space missions in 2013. She completed Astronaut Candidate training in 2015 and is now qualified for assignment.
On Wednesday, May 9, Lt Col Mann will give a presentation titled “The Sky is Not the Limit” at 7:30 p.m. in the Meijer Theater at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The event is free and open to the public.
In the presentation, Mann will recount pre-astronaut experiences that put her on a path to the appointment, and then turn to the rigorous training required to fly into space. Mann has undergone intensive instruction about International Space Station systems, robotics, and space walking in the event she is assigned a mission to the orbiting laboratory. Mann is currently training to be part of an Orion mission to the moon in 2022, the first human flight back to the Earth’s satellite in a half century. She will also look ahead to proposed missions to Mars. For more information, please visit grpm.org.
Visitors will have a second opportunity to hear Lt. Col Mann at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 10. Mann will be the featured speaker at the annual banquet in honor of the 51st recipient of the prestigious Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship, this year honoring Patrick Clark Morgan of East Grand Rapids High School. In this talk, Mann will highlight her upcoming space travel in “Back to the Moon and Beyond.” Tickets to the banquet are $55 and can be reserved by calling 800-237-0930 by April 28, or e-mail: dave@mpi-invest.com.
Mann was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in United State Marine Corps in 1999. She began her active flying career in 2004 and was involved in a number of high profile test flights and missions. She accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in 22 types of aircraft, 200 carrier arrestments and 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During her two-day visit to Grand Rapids, Mann will also be speaking to students at Innovative Central High School, the same building where Roger Chaffee attended high school in the early 1950s, Burton Elementary, and the Grand Rapids Public Museum School.
