Nancy Comes Out of the Closet on 365 Days of Astronomy

By Nancy Atkinson - April 20, 2009 at 10:09 AM UTC | Site News
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[/caption] For Universe Today readers who know me only as a journalist, there's something I've never revealed until today.

But I tell all on today's 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.

The truth is, I'm a closet musician and songwriter. But while most musicians write songs about love, or love gone wrong, or that kinda stuff, being the space geek that I am, I write songs about things like, well, satellites, spacecraft and space missions. Today's podcast is about the International Space Station, and I share a song I wrote after I saw the ISS for the first time in the night sky.

The first time I saw the ISS was back in December of 2000, just after the first set of large solar arrays were brought to the station. At that point, the ISS was then big enough and bright enough that I could finally see it in the light polluted skies over Minneapolis, where I lived at the time. But of course we had a couple of weeks of typical Minnesota winter cloudy weather, so I had to wait what seemed like an eternity until I could finally see it. But I'll never forget how awe-inspiring it was to see that bright light moving quickly across the sky, knowing the Expedition 1 crew was on board that point of light.

So anyway, check out

today's 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.

A friend of mine, Mike Spainhour, and I threw this recording together in about an hour, but I hope you enjoy it.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com