I would like to do my project on Mae Jemison and this is why. She was the very first African American women to go up to space. The connection between us is that when I grow up I wouldn’t like to be an astronaut but I would like to study about space.  For more information go to this website.

Listen to an Interview with Mae Jemison

Mae Jemison

Carson VW

On October 17, 1956 in Decatur Alabama, Mae Carol Jemison was      born. Her dream was to be a scientist, and she followed her dreams. Mae Jemison was the first African American Women to go up to space.

Mae Jemison was the youngest child in her family. When she was little she moved to Chicago with her family.  Mae called Chicago her hometown because that’s where she grew up. Mae’s mother, Dorothy was a schoolteacher and her farther Charles was a carpenter. Mae always went to work with her father. She watched and learned what he did everyday and that made them very close.

 When Mae was in kindergarten she told her teacher that she wanted to be a scientist but her teacher said “Don’t you mean a nurse?” Her teacher couldn’t imagine a little black girl growing up to be a scientist. But that didn’t bother her. Mae just kept on following her dreams.

 When she was little her parents had to put up with all kinds of (things like science projects.) Then by the time she was 14 she was already reading adult astronomy books.

When Mae was growing up she lived in Chicago. Mae lived in New York for awhile because she decided she wanted to be a doctor so she went to Cornell University Medical College. Then she traveled to several other countries, such as Cuba, Thailand, Los Angeles. Then for more than two years she lived in West Africa. Mae wanted to use what she knew about medicine and about African history to help people in Africa.

 Mae always thought she was going to be a dancer but science always interested her way more. Real Life Space Flights and Moon Landings on television always interested her too. Mae was one of the 2,000 people who applied to be in the astronaut program. One year later Mae got a call from NASA. She was chosen to become the 1^st African American women ever to join the astronaut training program. When Mae found out about the call from NASA she moved to Texas so she can begin training to be an astronaut.

 She learned at NASA how to land a space shuttle in water and how to exercise in space. She also learned how to use special equipment. Finally Mae became an astronaut. She was already to fly in a space shuttle but she had to work in NASA before she had her chance to. After she worked in NASA, she boarded the space shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. Six other astronauts took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. September 20, 1992 Mae returns to space after 7 days and 127 trips around the earth. The Endeavour returned to Kennedy Space Center. Mae finally made her dream come true!

 While Mae was in space they did 43 experiments. The first thing was that they wanted to learn about what was space sickness. Space sickness is a kind of motion sickness astronauts get during their first few days in space. Mae was so proud of herself.

Sakurai, Gail.  Mae Jemison.  Chicago:  Children’s Press, 1995.  Bibliography

Burby, Liza, N.  Mae Jemison New York, NY:  The Rosen Publishing Group, 1997. 

Naden, Corinne N.  Mae Jemison Out of This World. Brookfield, Connecticut:  The Millbrook Press, 2003.

Kozloski, Lillian, D.  “Jemison, Mae Carol.”  World Book Encyclopedia.  2010.  World Book Online.  4/15/10.

“Picture of Mae Jemison.”

 http://space.about.com/od/nasapictures/ig/Mae-Jemison-Pictures-Gallery/.