Nasa astronaut praises Alexandra research centre
A National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut has praised New Zealand for its space work and taking advantage of what space has to offer.
Colonel Mike Hopkins was visiting Central Otago this week and met staff at the Centre of Space Science Technology before enlightening a 350-crowd of mostly students about the life of an astronaut.
Hopkins was selected by Nasa as an astronaut in 2009, and as a member of the Expedition 37/38 crew logged 166 days in space. He launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station in September 2013.
Hopkins said it was his first visit to New Zealand and he was ‘‘fascinated’’ with the work Alexandra-based research centre was doing.
‘‘I think it’s excellent to see people taking advantage of what is happening in space. That is one of the things as Nasa astronauts ... there is so much more that doesn’t involve having somebody up in space orbiting the Earth. Quite frankly, before I got here I wasn’t familiar with what they are doing, but it sounds like there is a lot of exciting things happening – not just here but all over New Zealand – Rocket Lab successfully launching rockets, New Zealand Space Agency, it’s all very exciting.’’
During Hopkins’ stay aboard the international space station, he did two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes to change out a degraded pump module.
‘‘For most astronauts, that is one of the things you dream about getting the opportunity to do. When I went up we didn’t have any planned space walks during my six month mission but we had a failure that occurred on the external cooling ... we had to shut down a significant part of the station because we couldn’t get rid of the heat so we start to get into these thermal limitations.
‘‘It was an incredible feeling ... everyone has a goal to be able to do one but on the other hand they are a lot of work. It is hard. It can also be stressful, it can be a little nerve wrecking, very intense, very focussed when you are out the door ... it’s a huge mental game.’’
Hopkins hoped he would get a chance to get back into space, but with 50 active astronauts, and only four launches a year, the line was long.
‘‘There are astronauts before me that haven’t been reassigned yet.
‘‘I have been back on Earth for four years now and I feel very fortunate to have gotten on a flight.’’