A Real Space Mom (Sorry Lori)

Astronaut is a mom on a mission to space, Houston Chronicle
“Astronauts always get the same question: How does it feel to blast into space and leave all your loved ones behind? But Nicole Passonno Stott, who’s scheduled to lift off Monday for a four-month stint aboard the International Space Station, fields more of those “loved ones” queries than the other six crew members flying on NASA’s STS-128 mission. Why? She’s a mom, not a dad. And despite continuing shifts in women’s roles, it’s apparently still more compelling when a mother leaves a child. “My son just turned 7,” Stott said to a group of reporters after a NASA press conference. That means she won’t have to organize a birthday party from space. It also means her son has watched her prepare for this trip for as long as he can remember. “This has been his whole life,” said Stott, 46, who wouldn’t give her son’s name but did say that he loves Star Wars and Star Trek. “One of the things about space-station training is, for over four years, 50 percent of my time has been spent out of the country.”