Astronauts visit Bradford

Its not every day you get to meet and talk to a whole bunch of primary and secondary school headteachers - oh and two astronauts that just visited the NASA Space Station! Mike Fossum and Aki Hoshide were introduced to a small gathering at the University this afternoon having entertained over 3000 primary school pupils at Valley Parade in the morning. They told some simple and fascinating stories about how they became astronauts, how they were inspired and how they both overcame significant obstacles to achieve their true ambitions to fly in space. They were such ordinary joes with extra-ordinary lives. Mike came from a very poor background and didn't do great at school but inspired by his father went on to complete two master degrees and get full marks on his graduation before joining the space agency as an engineer. He failed to get a mission five times before succeeding. A case of reach for the stars. Shame that more people couldn't have known about it and been involved at the University. There was a video camera so maybe this will be youtubed.