Stars in her eyes

Abigail Harrison, aka ‘Astronaut Abby’, isn’t your run-of-the mill tenth-grader from Minnesota, USA, she has plans to become the first astronaut on Mars.

When your dreams are so far up in the stars (literally) it takes a lot of commitment and determination to achieve them, Abby has both in abundance.

Abby took time out of her busy schedule to speak to Moving On, here’s what she had to say:

“What really kicked off my interest in human space flight was the culture and environment I grew up in. When I was seven I started watching Star Wars, and when I was eight I developed an interest in sci-fi books – I guess it kinda took off from there.

Abby is currently being mentored by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. She will be acting as Luca’s earth liaison while he is aboard the International Space Station from June-November this year.

“I already blog to inspire other kids but I knew this was too big an experience to just blog and hope that people heard about it.

“I decided to take a more aggressive approach to my outreach. I will be visiting schools in person and through web chats, speaking at events, writing for publications, and running an email pen pal scheme for kids.”

Anthony Haynes of Reaction Engines Ltd. said, “Most people think that if you want to be an astronaut, you have to be American.” – we put that to Abby…

She said, “Where you’re from shouldn’t matter when considering your future, as long as you keep working hard; you never know what opportunities will become available to you.”

Find out more about Abby’s space aspirations at www.astronautabby.com