You need to be our ally also when it’s hard

I finished the book Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut by Samantha Cristoforetti. She is Italian and a member of of the European Space Agency. Though she is fluent in five languages, including Russian and English, she wrote the book in Italian for an Italian publisher. It was translated by Jill Founston. As the title says, this book is scenes in the life of becoming an astronaut. She discusses the application process in 2009, including what she felt she had to accomplish even before applying. Then there is five years of training. That took up the first half of the book. The second half is about her 200 days on the International Space Station. Decades ago I read a story about a couple guys on a spaceship. They had to fly close to a star, yet the environment in their ship was too cold. On arriving at their destination they complained of inadequate controls. The were told the controls existed. They hadn’t used them because they didn’t know about them. That’s not how it works in real life. Not at all. She and her classmates, then crewmates when she is assigned to a flight, have to learn about the Soyuz rocket that will take her up and bring her down, the various modules in the station, and both the Russian and American space suits and learn it all in intimate detail. They have to know how each thing is supposed to work and how to deal with dozens of ways each might fail. They learn how to work in space suits in the neutral buoyancy tank in Houston. They learn how to control the robot arm at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany. They learn about the Russian rockets and suits in Star City outside of Moscow. Then off to Japan to learn about the Japanese module on the station. She talks about slow orbits – making circles around the globe in months rather than minutes. Finally, she’s off to Baikonur as part of the backup crew, then as part of her turn to fly. It’s all fascinating, though at times I felt there was too much detail. This part of the book isn’t just the training. She talks about her fellow astronauts from around the world and what they did in their off time. She also describes the traditions – such as each three person crew planting a tree (though I don’t remember if that’s at Star City or Baikonur) and the huge breakfast spread before they set off for the rocket that no one actually eats. In the second half she describes the ascent in November 2014, her stay on the station, and then descent in June 2015. Though there’s descriptions of what she does on the station, there is also a lot of contemplation of what it all means to her, especially her feelings watching earth pass by when she’s in the cupola. Mentioned in an author interview at the end of the book Cristoforetti went back to the ISS in the spring of 2022 for a second six month mission. If one is a space geek this is a book to read. For the rest of us it’s still a pretty good story. In that author interview there is discussion that the job of astronaut is still overwhelmingly male. But she doesn’t want to describe the process as a woman battling sexism. In her case, going through the ESA there weer 2000 applicants and one out of every six was a woman. And she was the one woman selected for a class of six. That seems fair. But being an assertive woman should not need to be a qualification to be an astronaut. She said.

Willingness to struggle against prejudice can’t be the most important requirement for this profession – truly important requirements are a passion for aviation or medicine, engineering, and natural sciences, for example. Curiosity integrity, empathy, resilience, self-awareness: Those are the things that really count.

The only drawback to the book I see is how little Cristoforetti talks about her personal life. Yes, she deserves her privacy in whatever way she defines it. However, as launch approaches she starts mentioning Lionel. I figured out this must be her husband, but she didn’t actually say so. And she doesn’t give any indication of when in those five hectic years she had time to date or have a wedding ceremony. The bill to avert a government default passed the House yesterday evening with more Democrats voting for it than Republicans. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported some Republicans grouse that they were told such a bill would never come to the floor. At the bottom of this post is a cartoon I’ve seen several times now. It is by Mike Luckovich. A guy labeled GOP is playing poker with Joe. Joe has stacks of chips and all the guy’s clothes. The guy says, “He’s not a bad card player despite the severe cognitive decline...” The bill is on a fast track in the Senate. Laura Clawson of Kos wrote on Tuesday that Republicans are crumbing. Back in January the Freedom Caucus extracted several concessions to allow McCarthy to be Speaker. One of them was he would hold firm on the debt limit. Another was that any singer member could call for a vote to oust McCarthy from the job. The Freedom Caucus is furious with McCarthy for not being firm enough and for promoting a bill that got more Democrat votes than Republican. With that in mind this is the time for them to kick McCarthy from his perch. But it doesn’t look like there will be an attempt to oust him. The reason is simple. No other Republican wants the job. This cartoon by Ed Wexler demonstrates the Freedom Caucus fury. A new study from the Earth Commission was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. This group is made of international scientists. They looked at eight aspects of life on earth: climate, air pollution, fertilizer contamination of water, groundwater supply, fresh surface water, the unbuilt natural world, the overall natural world, and the human built environment. Seven of those are already in the danger zone. The eighth, air pollution, is on its way there with some places already in the danger area.

If planet Earth just got an annual check-up, similar to a person's physical, “our doctor would say that the Earth is really quite sick right now and it is sick in terms of many different areas or systems and this sickness is also affecting the people living on Earth,” Earth Commission co-chair Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of environment at the University of Amsterdam, said at a press conference.

The situation isn’t terminal. The planet can recover if we eliminate fossil fuels and we change how we treat land and water. But at the moment we’re moving in the wrong direction. The big difference in this report is scientists also looked at justice.

The justice part includes fairness between young and old generations, different nations and even different species. Frequently, it applies to conditions that harm people more than the planet. ... “Sustainability and justice are inseparable,” said Stanford environmental studies chief Chris Field, who wasn’t part of the research.

Happy Pride Month! Of course, I’ve seen the list of pride festivals around the Detroit area and some elsewhere in Michigan. I rarely go and don’t plan to this year. I’m glad they exist, but there isn’t much beyond the entertainment and the type of music and the drag shows just aren’t my thing. Kos of Kos discussed why snowflake conservatives will have a tough Pride Month. He started with a photo of a giant pride flag being pulled over the lawn at a home game of the Nashville Soccer Club. Yup, Nashville. As in Tennessee. Kos began with stats from Civiqs. The question “Do you think it should be legal or not legal for same-sex couples to marry” was asked over the years. Back in the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that our marriages must be legal 54% agreed and 38% didn’t. Now 68% agree and 24% don’t. And while 64% favor laws and policies that would protect transgender people from discrimination, only 10% oppose. That’s a fringe position.

Conservatives are out of step with the mainstream, and this coming Pride Month will certainly shove it in their face. Given how much these snowflakes are already struggling to cope, this coming month will prove particularly brutal for them.

Kos then showed thee is a rainbow version of the NFL logo and of every NFL team logo. I guess a few people aren’t going to be watching football anymore. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that not everything is going smoothly for us.

Following Target’s announcement last week that it removed products and relocated Pride displays to the back of certain stores in the South, activists in the LGBTQ+ community are calling for new campaigns to convince corporate leaders not to cave to anti-LGBTQ+ groups. “We need a strategy on how to deal with corporations that are experiencing enormous pressure to throw LGBTQ people under the bus,” said California state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, a member of the LGBTQ legislative caucus. “We need to send a clear message to corporate America that if you’re our ally — if you are truly our ally — you need to be our ally, not just when it’s easy but also when it’s hard,” he said. While the retailer said its actions were aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of its employees after protesters knocked over Pride signs and confronted workers in stores, the controversy comes at a time when conflict over LGBTQ+ rights is simmering.