Natalia Blake, Contributing Writer

Growing up with the dream of being an astronaut is common among many children; and this man did just that. On Thursday, November 1st, Mike Fincke, a friend of the Yahn Planetarium at Penn State Behrend gave a speech about what it means to him to be an astronaut. He also stated that NASA plans to go back to space in the coming years. By no later than 2024, NASA hopes to be back in space and have more people living in the International Space Station.

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Fincke had a full auditorium with people standing in the overflow section just to see him speak. He has been an astronaut for over 20 years and when he is not with his astronaut family, he is teaching his real one about space! Throughout his speech he talked about how beautiful our planet looks from a rocket window and encouraged all the children in the audience to pursue their dreams of being involved with space whether it be a receptionist for NASA, an engineer, or an astronaut just like him. He ensured them that all jobs have equal importance even though astronauts get the fame. The event also had a PowerPoint in which Fincke showed the audience many pictures and videos of him and his coworkers in space. Showing the crowd his prized International Space Station photo as well as a photo of the launch pad in Russia that every country utilizes to fly into space. He also expressed hopes that the US can grow to collaborate with China in addition to the current agreement with Russia to develop better space technology.

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The overall theme of his presentation was about togetherness just as much as it was about space. He posed the question if everyone can work well together in space, why can we not do so on Earth, stating, “When I look down at my beautiful planet earth … why are we fighting, we’re brother and sister.”

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Attendees enjoyed the happy atmosphere as he interacted with the crowd, specifically the children who attended the event. During the Q&A he told a child that he wants to believe in aliens and continued on to say that, “I would love to have friendly aliens come visit us … so we can explore the stars together”.

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When Fincke was asked about what it is like being in space he had this to say, “Working with the Russians has been good for us” and he went on in that question to say how great it is to work with other countries since we cannot seem to do so on Earth, “ “We have the whole universe to explore.”. It was a speech that emphasized space’s plan for the next couple of years and how important it is for countries to get along! The crowd then erupted into applause left the theater.