© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Former Astronaut Olivas Talks About Career At NASA

NASA

Former astronaut and El Paso native John "Danny" Olivas took part in space flights on the Space Shuttle Discovery and Atlantis.  And now, he’s sharing his expertise in a mission with the University of Texas at El Paso.  But his career dates back to childhood…seven years old to be exact.

“Seven…I was on a family vacation with my parents and we were in Houston, Texas and they had taken me to see all of these really cool things. We went to the Astrodome, went to AstroWorld, which was an amusement park they used to have there, Gulf of Mexico, but the thing that really resonated with me was when we went to Johnson Space Center,” said Olivas.

Olivas says it took some time to get to space including just getting into NASA…

“To get into NASA…I applied…I started in 1988 and I finally got an interview in 1997 so nine years of applying and then I got into the program and it was a lot of hard work and every year I was writing papers and taking classes and trying to improve myself and then I finally got an opportunity to interview, I finally got into the program,” said Olivas.

As his NASA career progressed….Olivas not only was flying into space, but also was assigned to be a space walker.

“Never having done a spacewalk, I’ve never been into space. I was a rookie, so everything was brand new to me, I had to learn everything. The crew that has been formed as TS-117 had actually been in place prior to Columbia, but because of Columbia and then delays that occurred and moving around personal, a slot was made available on 117 and a subsequent flight and I was inserted into that crew. So I had a bunch of guys that already new a lot about what they were going to do and I had to play a lot of catch up."

Olivas says he remembers what that feeling was like on his first launch day…

“Please god don’t let me screw up…I don’t want to screw up. You train so much that you feel very confident heading out to the pad. You know what you need to do and you’ve rehearsed it time and again by the time you go to the launch pad on launch day. I think there’s a level that you’re a professional, it’s your job, it’s what you trained your life to do. At least I’ve approached it from a perspective that I’ve got to go do my job now.”

Olivas remembers what it was like when he was in space and took his first look at the earth…he says he felt a deep appreciation for everyone who helped him along the way and he wished he could share that moment.  

“There’s nothing that comes close to being able to describe what you see from orbit around our globe, pictures and videos don’t do it justice and you want to bottle it up and you want to bring it back home, but you know you can’t. You want to share it with the people that are close to you and you want to be able to give them that experience and so there’s a little bit of a disappointment in not being able to do that, because it’s just the most phenomenal experience that I think a human being can ever have is to be someplace where God never made us to live there, but yet we’re there and were doing it,” said Olivas. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdBHLimddPM&feature=youtu.be

When it was time for him to complete his spacewalk…Olivas also had to install the first solar panels on the International Space Station…after that, he says he remembered having a moment to take it all in.

“I was over the Indian Ocean and I knew it was cause I could see the coastline of India all the way out  it was so distinct it was like looking at a map, and then I rotated out and I looked out into space and you know…. you get the sense of isolation and also the sense of the enormity, the vastness of the universe and its only things we can see with our eyeballs…"

Credit NASA
Olivas working in space.

Olivas says he must have done something right the moment he was asked to go back into space.

“So I said if I get second space mission, then that will mean that I didn’t do badly and instead of being part of the space walking crew…if I get to lead the space walking crew that will mean that I did it well, and so 2008 or so…they announced that I was going to be on STS-128 in 2009 as a lead spacewalker and I thought WOW…I’m back at the dance and I actually get to lead so that’s pretty cool.”

Olivas says it was a bittersweet moment when the Space Shuttle was retired.

“I was proud to serve in the program while the space shuttle was THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM…and I kind of wish the hurrah that people were willing to come out and see as the space shuttle flew on top of the aircraft had been there the entire time. I was in L.A. when Space Shuttle Endeavor landed in Los Angeles at Los Angeles international airport and people were standing on a freeway outside their cars taking pictures…. people were waving, people were crying, people were waving American flags and I appreciate that they understand and can appreciate what is a representation of what we did as a country, but I wish that every shuttle flight had that level of enthusiasm, I think our leaders might understand and appreciate what spaceflight can do…think about it…spaceflight is the only investment that our government makes that is focusing on the positive…focused on the future.”

From watching the stars with his father to walking in space, Danny Olivas says he’s grateful for those who helped him get there…from his father, to a college professor, his wife, and the many amazing people at NASA. 

Anthony Moreno serves as the Director of Content at KRWG Public Media. He also is host and executive producer for "Fronteras-A Changing America" and "Your Legislators" on KRWG-TV.