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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a cosmic appeal to the International Space Station last week to celebrate NASA astronaut Victor Glover’s historic space flight into orbit.
The call, which NASA and the White House posted to YouTube on Saturday, February 27, came in the middle of Black History Month, as Glover is halfway through a six-month flight to the space station. He is the first black astronaut to complete a long-duration mission to the station.
“Victor, it’s so great to see you,” said an excited Harris in the 3-minute video. “The story you are making, we are so proud of you.”
Related: Astronaut Victor Glover explains why we can’t always stick to space
Glover, 44, was launched on the space station in November alongside three other astronauts as part of SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission for NASA. He is part of the station’s seven-person Expedition 64 crew and is making his first space flight since joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 2013.
Harris, who is the first woman and woman of color to be elected vice president, asked Glover what he thought of his own achievement as the first African-American astronaut to complete a long-duration mission to the space station. The astronaut said his flight was only possible thanks to the astronauts and cosmonauts who came before him to bring humanity to its current point of space exploration.
On April 12, the world will mark 60 years of human spaceflight. The first person to fly into space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was launched that day in 1961.
“I really appreciate this legacy and try to do my best to honor it,” said Glover. “I think right now is a time that we should celebrate and appreciate the current state of human spaceflight.”
“But what excites me the most is the future of human spaceflight and the fact that it’s going to be the future is what we’re going to do for the foreseeable future,” Glover added. “So yeah, that was a first. But it won’t be the only time it has happened.”
Harris agreed.
“My mom used to say to me, ‘Kamala, you might be the first to do a lot of things, but make sure you’re not the last,’” she said.
Harris asked Glover about his recent spacewalks on January 27 and February 1 (he took another today, February 28) to upgrade the International Space Station, as well as how his vision of Earth from space provides insight into the challenges of our planet.
“It’s just a spectacular thing to see from here, and it’s very obvious to see from here how thin our atmosphere is, how special it is that there is human life on this planet. “Glover said of the sight. “And so, it makes me want to do whatever I can to protect this.”
“You inspire us and remind us of what’s possible when we dream big and when we think big,” Harris said.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
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