Female astronaut of Vietnamese origin brings 169 lotus seeds into space

Astronaut Amanda Nguyen will be the first woman of Vietnamese descent to fly into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft at 8:30 PM on April 14th (Hanoi time).

According to information from the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC) under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the NS-31 flight of the New Shepard spacecraft took place in Van Horn, Texas (USA). This event marks an important milestone in space exploration and cooperation between Vietnam and the United States.

The event will be streamed live on Blue Origin's official website at https://www.blueorigin.com/ . Blue Origin is a company founded by Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos.

Six female astronauts are part of the NS-31 mission crew. Photo: Blue Origin

Amanda Nguyen was born in California to Vietnamese refugees. She is the founder of the NGO Rise. With her journey on NS-31, she will be the first Vietnamese-American woman to fly into space.

Amanda graduated from Harvard University and conducted research at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA, and the International Space Science Institute, Blue Origin said. The astrobiologist worked on STS-135, the final flight of NASA’s space shuttle, and Kepler, the Kepler telescope that searches for exoplanets.

For her efforts fighting for victims of sexual violence, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and honored by Time magazine as Woman of the Year.

Notably, the female astronaut will bring with her 169 lotus seeds (nelumbo nucifera) from the Flower and Ornamental Plant Research and Development Center of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences. After returning, the lotus seeds will open up research on the effects of space on growth, contributing to plant science and space exploration.

Joining Amanda were five other female astronauts, including: Aisha Bowe, a former American aerospace engineer of Bahamian descent; journalist Gayle King; singer Katy Perry; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and journalist Lauren Sánchez. This was the first all-female astronaut crew since Valentina Tereshkova's flight in 1963.

The flight lasted about 11 minutes, during which the crew experienced several minutes of weightlessness at a maximum altitude of about 105 km, observing the curve of the Earth and the darkness of space before landing by parachute in West Texas.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nu-phi-hanh-gia-goc-viet-mang-169-hat-sen-giong-len-vu-tru-2391008.html