NASA astronauts visit patients at Texas Children's Hospital
NASA astronauts at Texas Children's Hospital
Astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren and former astronaut and former Director of Johnson Space Center Mike Coats helped bring fun and lots of smiles to the young cancer patients and their families.
HOUSTON - It's an out-of-this-world experience for patients at Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center when special visitors from NASA share fun memories about space travel.
Astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren and former astronaut and former Director of Johnson Space Center Mike Coats helped bring fun and lots of smiles to the young cancer patients and their families.
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They brought lots of laughter playing foosball and air hockey with the kids. They even went room-to-room delivering joy and gifts to the kids to help take their minds off of their hospitalizations.
They answered all kinds of questions, like just how spectacular is the view from space?
"It's amazing to see the earth from that perspective and then be able to experience weightlessness, to be able to float around is a crazy thing but so much fun," explains Dr. Lindgren.
Here's another interesting question and something you may have wondered about: how do you take a shower in space?
"It's not easy - you can't just have water floating all over the place, so you get a washrag, squirt it with a hose, make sure no water escapes, wipe it on your body, and then get all soapy, a lot of wet washcloths, and it takes a long time," says Mike Coats.
They explained to the patients how Mike got to fly on the space shuttle three times.
"We stay busy (in space) because we're doing science and research to learn about the human body and to learn about the earth and the planet. We work out a lot up there, so we stay really busy, so you have to slow down to think about this incredible opportunity," states Dr. Lindgren. He goes on to explain how he got to fly twice in a Russian rocket.
They signed plenty of memorabilia for the patients, with fun messages, like encouraging the kids to reach for the stars. The autographed photos will certainly help them remember this special day.
The staff at TCH also enjoyed interacting with the rocketeers! The astronauts also took time to meet with parents and give them words of encouragement during their child's cancer journey, and they all appeared thankful for the positive distraction.
This opportunity came about through: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-scientists-join-white-house-cancer-initiative
Caretakers at Texas Children's work hard to make sure the entire family gets to enjoy special experiences and offer all kinds of distractions, including art. Here's an example of how they do that: https://www.texaschildrens.org/blog/2013/10/making-mark-childrens-art
Space Center Houston offers many opportunities for all types of students: https://spacecenter.org/space-center-u/