OMG dad’s going to space! 🚀😭 https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/1316454260251467779
There is no better feeling on the planet than watching your loved ones' dreams come true.

Every little kid wants to be an astronaut when they grow up. My dad's childhood dream never died.
He watched the Apollo missions as a kid, and became determined to do anything he could to become an astronaut when he grew up. He knew that required an unbelievable amount of persistence and hard work, but always believed it was possible.
He had mediocre grades in high school, had zero connections in the space industry, and the adults around him urged him to go into a more realistic career. But he didn't give up.
As a kid, he wrote handwritten letters to @NASA asking them to send him flight plans so he could start studying. They refused, saying they only gave those to press. So he wrote an entire book on human spaceflight and sent it back to NASA to fit the technicality.
Someone at NASA was so impressed by his tenacity that they started sending him flight plans.

So he started studying.
After college, he got a chance to work on his first big space mission - the Challenger. My parents watched it explode from the launchpad, ending the lives of dear friends and sending a chilling reminder of how dangerous spaceflight can be.
But again, he didn't give up.

He went back to school, with an unbelievable persistence and drive.
It's that kind of intense ambition that prompted him (along with a team of thousands) to pursue a 30 YEAR project to get a mission to Pluto @NewHorizons2015 - the farthest a spacecraft had every gone in human history.
Through multiple cancellations and setbacks, they were able to keep the mission alive and it explored Pluto for the first time in 2015.
He would always say to us that life is about persistence. He said he was almost never the smartest guy in the room, but he knew he had the power to determine his own work ethic.
All the while, he kept applying to be an astronaut, year after year. He kept getting rejected, but he kept trying -- even applying this year at age 62.
And today, we found out that his dream will finally come true. Dad finally gets to be an astronaut.
I say this because there are way too many people in life who talk themselves out of pursuing wild dreams - believing that they are impossible to achieve. They tell themselves they are not smart enough, not young enough, not well-connected.
But life is about a mindset, and the limits you place on yourself are very often self-imposed and sometimes, systemically reinforced. But persistence matters.
No matter how tough your year is, remember that you have the power to dream big, work hard, and achieve your own goals if you let yourself believe in what others would say is impossible.

Proud of you, @AlanStern, since day one and especially today.
And just because it's twitter....

How it started vs. how it’s going
LOL my dad’s teacher could not believe this. Here is his childhood best friend’s mom:
You can follow @SternSaid.
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