Josh Cassada has been preparing and waiting for years to launch into space. In about a month, he will be on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft heading toward the International Space Station.
As pilot of NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission, the White Bear Lake native is one of four crew members who will spend six months in space as part of the expedition. Appearing virtually Tuesday morning, Cassada spoke to children attending summer camp at St. Paul's Bell Museum. Filling the front rows of the museum's planetarium, campers wearing brightly colored shorts and T-shirts peppered the astronaut with questions about training, new space innovations and which planet he'd most like to visit.
"While I'm, of course, excited to learn from our friends at NASA, I'm even more thrilled to see so many of you who care about science," U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who attended in person, told the group of students. "You are truly our next generation of engineers, inventors, chemists, biologists, paleontologists, astronauts."
SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, is collaborating with NASA on manned space flights, including Cassada's upcoming mission. The two entities are also aiming, through the Artemis program, to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon before the decade is out.
"The last time we went to the moon a half a century ago, that was the Apollo program. Now we're going in the Artemis program," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who attended Tuesday's event virtually. "And Josh is an example of that new kind of astronaut, the Artemis generation."
Cassada attended Birch Lake Elementary School and graduated from White Bear Lake Area High School. He went on to earn degrees in physics from Albion College in Michigan and the University of Rochester in New York.
Later, Cassada joined the U.S. Navy and became a test pilot. He has logged more than 4,000 flight hours in over 45 different aircraft.
In June 2013, Cassada was selected to be one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. Cassada spent two years in training, where he developed such skills as water and wilderness survival, robotics and Russian language. When he graduated in 2015, he served in different roles on the ground to assist space missions.
On Tuesday, Cassada told students that his favorite part of astronaut training is spacewalking — a skill he practices by wearing a spacesuit in a pool with a team of divers who put weights on him to control floating.
The training is mentally challenging, he said, but walking in an atmosphere so similar to outer space is "amazing." Right after the event, Cassada said, he was headed to the Houston training center in Texas to practice spacewalking again.
"I kind of feel a little bit like I'm in science camp myself," he said. "I don't think we're doing things a whole lot different than what you guys are doing this week — you're probably learning new concepts and doing some experiments."
A student asked Cassada, "If you had the right technology, what planet would you travel to?"
Cassada's answer? Earth.
"We need to do what we can to protect it," he said.
