Have you ever looked back on your life and said “Oh, that changed everything”?  One of those moments happened to me.  It was when our new Astronaut class first got […] The post Just a Handshake… appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

As I reminisce about the special dinners I’ve shared with others, I’m a little surprised.  Of course, I’ve had dinner with family members, but also with my Space Shuttle crews. […] The post Giving Thanks All Over the Place appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

While watching all the preparations for the launch of the Artemis rocket, it occurred to me that Shuttle flights during the era when I was flying were also named for Greek gods and goddesses. For instance, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were appropriate names for what those missions were like and what they planned to do. […] The post The Gods of Space appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

My husband, Robert “Hoot” Gibson grew up in a family of flyers. His father, Paul, was one of the pilots who first flew the Air Mail. His mother was one of those intrepid women who flew coast to coast in the Ladies Powder Puff Derby. Several of the children in the family flew their first solo flights when they were 16 (the youngest you could do that), having been tutored by their father. The post The Need for Speed appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

It was always a joy to take our whole family to the beach in Florida. We usually stayed at one particular house that we adored; but found out last January that it had already been rented out for the whole year. We happened to notice that a house just down the beach was available for […] The post Beach House Saga appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

I recently attended the annual Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando. It was a time to see old friends, many of whom are Hall of Famers and several of whom were being inducted into this prestigious group. It is very special for me to wear the large, heavy gold medallion […] The post A Gathering of Astronauts appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

We had been selected for the Astronaut Corps and this particular flight because we had proven track records of being good team players, both as leaders and as followers, and had the requisite skills to accomplish a variety of space missions with varying payloads. There are strategies to choose team players, to mold them into […] The post Teaming Up for Takeoff: 6 Teamwork Strategies that Are Out of this World appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

One of the things we had to master as new Astronauts was to be good back-seaters for the pilots in the planes part of the time. As they (and we) gained some confidence in our flying abilities they gave us more and more responsibilities. And of course, we had to learn how to handle emergencies. […] The post Thought I Was Gonna Die appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

Have you ever looked back on your life and said “Oh, that changed everything”?  One of those moments happened to me.  It was when our new Astronaut class first got together in 1978.  There were thirty-five of us and most of us didn’t know each other yet.  A reception was planned and we all arrived […] The post Just a Handshake… appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more

Despite NASA’s many accomplishments like the moon landing, the Space Shuttle and the Space Station, there were bound to be errors and mistakes, large and small along the way. Want to hear a few that I was aware of? During one of the Shuttle flights one of the females got her long hair caught in […] The post Space Boo Boos appeared first on Rhea Seddon ..read more