This Friday, July 7, the US astronaut at NASA Daniel Tani, came to Técnico and shared his seventeen years of “passion”, “contemplation of incredible landscapes”, marked by “a sense of belonging to our planet”. He illustrated all these experiences with photos, videos and shared histories.

As a child he “didn’t want to be an astronaut”, he had a much more realistic dream: “to be a cowboy or a baseball player”, if he had a knack for that. He obtained his Master in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and, in 1996, he was selected by NASA, where he held technical duties and gained an extensive spaceflight experience.

Before entering the International Space Station (ISS) he faced five years of intensive training that prepared him for the “adventure”. In 2007, he flew as a crew member aboard the Space Shuttle, a “magnificent spacecraft, an engineering wonder”. “I often felt like Superman aboard the ISS”, he shared. Going to the bathroom, eating and sleeping in space were some of the situations shared by the current President of Mission and Cargo Operations in NASA’s Advanced Programs Group.

“I enjoyed all the moments that I spent there. It’s a hard work, but truly amazing”.

During his speech he spoke many times of the landscapes seen from the ISS: the stunning blue landscape and millions of city lights at night. “We spend a lot of time looking at earth from above because that gives us a sense of inexplicable proximity”, he says. “Our planet is extremely beautiful”, he pointed out.

At the end he recalled nostalgically the moment they landed, but the feeling of returning home to their families was the most important: “It was very easy and wonderful for me to live in a space station, but for my family it wasn’t like that at all”, he says.

On his way out and in a hurry, he agreed taking some photos and answering last minute questions. In the next days, Daniel Tani will share his experience with several other students across the country.