If you’ve ever wondered how it feels to be thrust into space or to walk in space, you can ask retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross.
Ross did all of those things and helped design the International Space Station.
He will be in Shawano on Nov. 14 to talk about his experiences at a fundraiser for Wolf River Lutheran High School.
Ross is the first cousin of retired school teacher Karen Baker, of Bonduel.
“When he was a fourth-grader, he liked to star gaze,” Baker said, recalling their childhood in Crown Point, Indiana. “He would tell his friends, ‘Some day I’m going to be up in the stars.’”
Ross went to Purdue University to become an engineer with the goal of being an astronaut. After a few setbacks, he was accepted into the space program in 1980.
“He was just determined,” Baker said.
His first launch was on Nov. 26, 1985—Baker’s birthday.
“Even though I was always invited to his launches, I never went,” she said.
That was followed by five more trips on Atlantis, one on Columbia and one on Endeavor.
Baker said her elementary classes wrote notes and letters to Ross.
“He would send materials and answer some questions,” she said.
His last trip was in 2002. He retired in 2012 as NASA’s most frequent flyer. He now stays busy traveling the country to give informational and motivational presentations.
“He motivates people to come up with a goal that they can reach, like he did,” Baker said.
In 2003 a new school in Crown Point was named in his honor, Jerry Ross Elementary School.
In May of this year he was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Ross is co-author of two books about his experiences, “Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record Setting Frequent Flyer,” which is geared to adults, and “Becoming A Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars,” which is suitable for children.
He lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and two children.
“It’s not every day that an astronaut comes to town,” Baker said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
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