Former NASA astronaut and Ohio native Dr. Don Thomas was in Wapakoneta on Saturday as part of the 2023 Summer Moon Festival. Thomas stands in the lobby of the Neil Armstrong Museum next to the plaque, bearing his photo and career highlights.
WAPAKONETA — Don Thomas still remembers that day. It was May 5, 1961. He was a 6-year-old boy in Cleveland when he watched Alan Shepard become the first American in space. Shepard’s 15-and-a-half minute flight aboard Freedom 7 convinced Thomas:
“That’s what I want to do someday. I want to be an astronaut.”
Thomas maintained that dream of becoming an astronaut. He recalled watching in 1969 as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and, hours later, looking up at the moon and thinking, “Wow! There are two people up there right now.”
Former NASA astronaut and Ohio native Dr. Donald Alan Thomas was in Wapakoneta on Saturday as part of the 2023 Summer Moon Festival. Thomas made several public appearances throughout the day, both at the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum and in downtown Wapakoneta.
The journey to becoming an astronaut was not an easy one for Thomas. He recalls that he was a “B student,” unlike his fraternal twin brother who he describes as a “genius.”
“I was competitive with myself,” Thomas said. “I knew I would have to work hard [to become an astronaut], so I always did my best.” The former astronaut shared that, for every 18,000 applicants who aspire to become an astronaut, only 9 or 10 are selected.
Thomas advises young people with aspirations like his to “work extra hard at math and science, but the greatest skill is being a good team player. There is no room for this, me, me, me [attitude].”
After obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, Dr. Thomas joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. After realizing he needed to relocate to Houston to improve his chances of becoming an astronaut, the then 32-year-old Thomas relocated to Houston in 1987 and began working for Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company, where his responsibilities included reviewing materials used in Space Shuttle payloads.
When asked by an official the year following the Challenger explosion, “Don, what are you doing here?” Thomas replied, “I am an engineer. We follow three steps when something like this happens. Step 1 is [to ask], ‘What caused it?’ Step 2 is to fix it, and step 3 is to move on. I want to help us move on with this program.”
In his third application to the astronaut program, Thomas made the group of 100 semi-finalists but was still rejected in the program. Thomas said he studied the qualifications of those selected and attempted to better prepare himself for the next opportunity. He took flying lessons and became a licensed pilot, he obtained a PhD in Materials Science from Cornell University, and he learned to parachute.
Dr. Thomas decided at one point to place a “Positions Wanted” ad in a Houston newspaper. Despite the ad being mistakenly placed under the “Lost Pets” section, Al Copeland at the Johnson Space Center saw the ad and contacted Thomas. The position at the Johnson Space Center as a materials engineer proved to be helpful to Thomas in his pursuit of becoming an astronaut.
Dr. Thomas was selected by NASA in 1990 and became an astronaut in July 1991. He became the 313th astronaut in space. Of the 600 people who have now flown in space, Thomas said all would say the same two things. They would all comment on “How thin the atmosphere is; a thin blue line; how fragile our planet is and all would say that it changes your perspective on who you are.” Thomas said there becomes no need for the “pettiness of the small differences of where we are from because we can all say that we are from earth.”
“You gain a global perspective,” he said. “We are all earthlings.”
Describing the awareness of the risks associated with boarding a spacecraft and launching into outer space, the former astronaut said, “If anyone tells you they are not scared, they are either lying or crazy. I knew the risks on each of my missions.
“My confidence in myself and my team allowed me to strap in,” he said.
While Thomas has spent a total of 44 days in outer space, he reports that being in space makes one feel “totally disconnected from earth, even as we passed over Houston, where I live.”
Thomas described the farewell to his wife before the launch.
“I never mention that something bad could happen,” he said. “I always say, ‘I’ll see you in two weeks.’ Take-off is exciting. It’s that thrill and fear like you get from a rollercoaster.”
After the eight-and-a-half-minute ride to get into space, Thomas said one of his first tasks was to take photos of the fuel tank. He reported taking photos every 20-30 seconds “to get all angles,” then setting down his camera only to look out again and see the earth.
“Ah! It is the earth! You just gasp [when you view it],” he said. “I wished my wife and others could have seen it. Fifteen seconds would forever change your view.”
Thomas acknowledges that NASA has “no Nobel Prize-winning experiment yet, but each thing we learn adds a little bit of knowledge.”
“We are now better at keeping astronauts healthier in space,” he said. “Humans explore. It’s what we do. The space program motivates and inspires.”
Thomas said the most frequent questions he encounters from children and adults alike involve the food eaten aboard the spacecraft, questions about elimination, and whether the earth is flat or round. To the last question, he responds, “I’ve been around the earth 692 times and it’s always been round.”
