Former NASA astronaut Leyland Melvin for a police stop could cost him a career in his starting place.
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Melvin’s currently famous NASA portrait features his two rescue dogs, Jack and Scout, who secretly smuggled into NASA for a photo shoot.
Melvin, who was never afraid to enter space on two space shuttle Atlantis missions to help build the International Space Station, never knew what was going to happen when the cops pulled him out.
“I’ve been on this rocket with millions of pounds of thrust and not once have I been afraid to go into space,” said Melvin, named Blake. “At a time when I was being stopped by police officers I didn’t even know … I started sweating and holding the steering wheel really tight.”
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Melvin was on the space station in February 2008 with nine other crew members. To the left of the frame, from top to bottom, are astronauts Daniel Tanny, Stanley Love and Leopold Eyeharts of the European Space Agency. In the center, from the top, are astronauts Leyland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Steve Frick, Peggy Whitson and Alan Poindexter. Russia’s Federal Space Agency’s cosmonaut Yuri Melenchenko is at the top right, and below it is ESA astronaut Hans Schagel.
“Every father in the black community has told them to talk to their son that if an officer stops you, you know, you assume the position, which is 10-2 (hands on the wheel), look straight ahead, “He added. “You tell the officer, you know, you’re really respectful, you say you’re reaching out for your clear matters.”
Melvin spoke Monday during a panel celebrating black life in the space industry during the 2020 Virtual Human to Mars Summit, organized by Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization that advocates human exploration of Mars.
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NASA astronaut Leland Melvin
Panelists – who shared their personal experiences and discussed the Black Lives Matter movement, the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests – included former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Commercial Moon Payload Services NASA Deputy Manager Camille Elin and Media Daniel Rim Group.
Melvin can still remember a traffic stop when he was a student at Heritage High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he graduated in 1982.
“I was in the car with my girlfriend and a police officer got on top of us,” Melvin said. “He got her out of the car and said I was raping her because she wanted me to go to jail.
“And you know, when black men come into the prison system, they never really get out and get a second chance. I went to a college lodge on a scholarship and wanted to be a major in chemistry.”
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Melvin was aboard the space station in 2009.
Melvin urged people to make sure people are not part of the problem by contributing to racism, and to evaluate both what people are doing to harm it and how they can help fight racism.
The way of space
Luckily Roke did not derail his career. Melvin ended up lingering in space for more than 5,565 hours, but space was not his first choice.
During the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, Melvin said he was an “antenna engineer” when he had an antenna for his parents while they were watching him.
“And the next day all the kids around said, ‘Do you want to be an astronaut?’ No, I don’t see anyone who looks like me, “Melvin recalled.
Carla COF / NASA
Melvin read first and third grade students the book “The Moon Over the Star” and highlighted the importance of reading in honor of Black History Month and on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at Farring-Hope Elementary School.
Five blocks from where Melvin grew up, Arthur Ashe learned how to play tennis. Ashe was the only Black Man to win Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Australian Open in 1969. Ashe was also the first black player to be selected in the United States Davis Cup squad.
ક Mark Sowa / NASA
NASA astronaut Leyland d. Melvin was not afraid to fly in space.
“My dad talked about his athleticism, his intelligence, his perseverance,” Melvin said. “‘I want you to be like him.’ It didn’t happen until I reached NASA, when a friend said, ‘You’re going to be a great astronaut.’
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Melvin did not apply until his friend, Charlie K. Fill Murda, came to the astronaut’s program. “If that person can log in, I can log in, and when I applied.”
Melvin was drafted to play in the National Football League for the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys in 1986, but pulled his hamstrings and did not finish playing any regular season games.
In 1989, he began working at the NASA Langley Research Center in the Fiber Optic Sensors Group of the Nondestructive Evaluation Science branch, according to NASA. In 1998, he was selected as an astronaut candidate.
In addition to serving as an astronaut, Melvin has also led NASA’s education program, chaired federal coordination in the White House’s Stader Education Task Force, and chaired the International Space Education Board.
Conflicting moments
Melvin learned of George Floyd’s death while in Florida for the unveiling of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnen aboard the SpaceX crew dragon.
“I see this black man sniffing his life saying he can’t breathe,” Melvin said. “And when I heard her calling her mother, I started crying because I thought about my mother. I wondered if it was me, because life was gone from me.”
Fried’s death left current police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for about 9 minutes, the first time since 2011 that a U.S. The American astronauts on the rocket were against the achievement of the cocoon.
“If we can (send people to the International Space Station), we can do anything. We can fix these problems.”
And that leads to the need for diversity, Melvin said.
Melvin said his “ah” moment in space came unexpectedly. He expected this to happen, as he helped establish the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory on the International Space Station in 2008.
But it wasn’t until NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson invited Melvin to share a meal in the station’s Russian territory. The crew consisted of astronauts with Russian, French, German, African American and Asian American backgrounds and was hosted by Whitson, the first female commander of the space station, Melvin said.
“We were breaking bread at a speed of 1,500,000 miles per hour, orbiting the planet every minute of every minute. And at the same time when my head exploded, and I was putting this epiphany about our planet and calling this thing an orbital perspective. . “
Astronauts get something when they look at our planet.
“I think we as a culture need to take what we get into space like astronauts.” “And we know that if we didn’t work together as a team, and we were one of the most diverse teams in space, we would be (destroyed).”
Melvin thinks humans can survive on this planet, return to the moon and reach Mars.
“The way we do it is with the right perspective. And we bring this perspective home from space, going back to space as a culture of diverse people,” he said. “It’s a one-size-fits-all perspective, that we work together, stay together, and change the universe together.”
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