Wally Funk's Race for Space_The Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer by Sue Nelson

Author:Sue Nelson [Nelson, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07H9GK66G
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning we popped inside the station so that I could record Wally walking out into the square, describing the cathedral in front of us. After our first radio programme together, I realised that this was one of her broadcasting strengths. She might not be able to read a script with ease, but her commentaries were natural and spontaneous. ‘This is incredible. We’re at the Cologne train station and we’re gonna walk outside and then right to my left is the cathedral, which is fantastic. I saw that, oh, forty years ago, and it’s so outstandingly beautiful. All the spires reaching to the sky,’ she enthused, ‘is absolutely fantastic. And we’re here to interview the European Space Agency folks. I just love it here in this town square.’

Perfect. Once inside a taxi headed towards the nearby European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Training Centre, Wally got out her research notes and interview questions for the day. ‘What’s the name of the astronaut we’re meeting again?’

‘Samantha Cristoforetti.’

‘Samantha Cristoforesti.’

‘Foretti.’

‘Foresstiti …’ There was a considerable pause. ‘Do I have to say her whole name?’

‘Yes … Nice try.’

Wally grinned. I admired the way she took each interview seriously, rehearsing and practising over and over, working on her delivery or pronunciations. As with everything in life, she wanted – and was determined – to do her best. I’d begun making interview notes myself once we were inside the taxi, but had got side-tracked into writing down her questions to me instead.

My parents had unwittingly ignited a future journalism career by buying me a notebook. They ordered me to ‘write everything down’ to reduce trips to lost-property offices. Despite having a good memory for faces and numbers, I was incredibly forgetful. So forgetful it cost me a position of responsibility. Aged eleven and newly installed at a local grammar school, I was shortlisted to become form captain. One of the other six girls was elected, but decades later an old school friend, now a breast cancer surgeon, confided that I had won the vote. The teacher had questioned the decision. ‘Don’t you think she’s a bit too absent-minded?’ The hands came down one by one.

‘Are you concentrating?’

Wally had noticed I was no longer listening to her. ‘I want to ask you about the truck. Oh look, a Shell gas station. I wonder how much their gas is.’

As I paid the taxi driver, I glanced up and noticed Wally was beside a car in the middle of the road. For a brief moment, I thought she’d jaywalked in front of it. But there had been no squealing of breaks and, as I got closer, I recognised the driver chatting to Wally through the car window. It was the European Space Agency astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti.

Cristoforetti had been an Italian air force captain and a fighter pilot, part of the 101st Squadron, 32nd Bomber Wing, in Italy. The only woman selected for ESA’s class of 2009, she trained alongside fellow astronauts from a range of European countries: Alexander Gerst

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