Here I am, up late at night thinking about the announcement of the Para//e/s Journey that happened about a month ago. When we astronauts first started the astronaut training program about 4 years ago, we all signed an NDA agreement with Olympus Mons, stating we could not share the news of the journey publicly until the official announcement . We have all grown so much since then, we couldn’t have possible known what it would feel like now.
We’ve been receiving a lot of support, which feels wonderful. A lot of old friends have been reaching out to me, and it’s been so important to connect with them again. It’s also been very hard for my friends and family, since they are also getting a lot of questions, and, it’s not such a light topic to be bombarded with.
One thing, other than those family and friends, that has really helped hold everything together is the astronaut team. As you can imagine, we’ve gotten pretty close over the years and we’re still in training - so we practically live together and can talk things through.
Here we are, mad bunch of astronaut artists - I will be living with these folks for the rest of my life. End of summer / Fall will see our first takeoff window for our launch into space.
This is us -
You can learn more about everyone and watch our introduction videos here.
I think we can all agree that training has taught us to look at what’s right now. Though even that can be overwhelming at times, we are doing our best to take training and emotions and everything one day at time, all the while preparing intensely for our future.
Talk soon
xo Rykka