Jerry Linenger, The Astronaut I met

Jerry Linenger, Astronaut flew on STS-64 (September 9-20, 1994) aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Mission highlights included: first use of lasers for environmental research; deployment and retrieval of a solar science satellite; robotic processing of semiconductors; use of an RMS-attached boom for jet thruster research; first untethered spacewalk in 10 years to test a self-rescue jetpack.

Wondering as to why I’m speaking about him, well its only because I got an opportunity to meet him. Truly speaking, I had never heard about him until I met him recently. Few days back there was our company relaunch in Boston, USA and I was there to be a part of the event. And the event’s special speaker was Jerry Linenger, the Astronaut. Till then I knew nothing about him, but when he was introduced to the crowd, I was very excited to know more about him. First time I was seeing an astronaut and hearing him speak right in front of me. He spoke about his space adventure, how it was to spend 5 months in space, away from everyone. And there was one thing which he told which made me start to think. When he was in space, fire broke in the shuttle and they were on oxygen support which could last for 1½ hr. They were doing everything possible to get the fire off but nothing was happening. Almost an hour had gone and still they could not get the fire off. Jerry had almost lost the hope and he told ‘Sorry Son, sorry Catherine(his wife), sorry people, I’m letting u all down, I’m dying without completing the task for which I was here, but still I will try till the end’. These words made me think, being an Astronaut, he has already made his family and people happy and proud, he has achieved so much in life that many of them only dream of and his last words was to tell sorry that he is letting everyone down. If he feels sorry even after achieving so much, what have we done in life. What should we say, I had no answer. I was just wondering and trying to find an answer. Well coming to what happened next with him, they were able to get the fire off and that night he slept like a baby. He told whatever worries you may have, but when you go to bed, leave behind all the worries, take everything that happens has a learning, don’t think anything at the end of the day, just sleep like a baby and start the next day like a new day, like a new birth.

It was indeed a great day and a great opportunity that I got to hear an Astronaut’s experience in his own words. We crib for each and everything that happens in our life, but when we see such people, I realize there is still a lot left in our life. We may not be as great as him, but we can try and do our best in whatever we do and bring the best out of us. All we need to do is take whatever happens in life as a learning and start each day as a new day. Hope I can live my life like this.