Stella Felix •First Nigerian and African Student To Take Zero Gravity Flight Into Space

I Feel Like A Role Model -Stella Felix •First Nigerian and African Student To Take Zero Gravity Flight Into Space

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Saturday, 03 September 2011

SEYI GESINDE writes about the life and exploits of Stella Bridgette Felix, who at 17, became the first Nigerian in space. She was selected from more than 400 students who applied for the zero-gravity flight in the United States. Stella, who topped her class 

Stella Fellix

in physics and chemistry took off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and spent two hours on a modified aircraft which rose 10 kilometres above the earth.

Stella Bridgette Felix is the first Nigerian, even African student to go to space, taking a zero gravity flight. She became qualified to embark on this long journey outside the earth’s atmosphere after she defeated colleagues whose names were also submitted for assessment by organisers of the trip.

The space flight was organised to commemorate the World Space Week, and one of the organisers, Dennis Stone said the event was celebrated in 50 countries and Nigeria was identified as a strong participant.

Selected schools from different geo-political zones of the country were encouraged to send names of their best students to the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education, but Stella was singled out for the World Space Week zero gravity flight.

Stella, as at 2006, when she took part in the zero gravity flight, was her school’s best in Chemistry and Physics. Also, at that time, she was the best of all the 400 students who were brought into the programme for a workshop on space education by Nigeria’s Centre for Space, Science and Technology Education.

The centre said it created a database for students, and from it, it was able to pull a particular candidate that really matched the profile sent to it by Space Week International Association, based on the profile the flight organisers gave to it.

Stella’s outstanding profile saw her through and the centre picked her for the weightlessness flight.

The flight to space was like a dream come true for Stella, who said she decided to live up to her father’s words that “education is knowledge and knowledge is power.”

This, Stella, one of the seven children of her parents, etched firmly in her memory and it eventually gave her an early breakthrough as an aspiring astronaut.
Stella believed that “education is her passport to a bright future,” this belief, she said, drives her to excel in school, as according to her “education is vital to me because someone without education doesn’t have the straightway to success.”

Not minding the fact that Stella spends a lot of time after school hours to help her parents with the family business, which in most cases made her to only have time to attend to her homework later in the night, yet, she made it to the top academically.

She said she used to study by candle light and at times relied on books she borrowed from friends; but she stuck to her father’s words and remained diligent to her studies.

Stella, narrating her flight experience said she often prayed that “God should do a good thing in my life, but I thought it would be later, I never knew it was going to be immediate.

“When we got to the conference room I still doubted if really, I was going on the journey.

“I wondered how I was going to cope. When the man showed us a video, of a woman floating inside the spacecraft, I was relieved; if the woman could do it, so could I.

“When the flight took off we were going flat, just normally. When we got to 24,000 altitudes, we were asked to separate into our different groups and lie down flat.

“When the flight rose from 24,000, we were feeling 1.8 gravity, that is about twice our weight. Soon after, we went down to 24,000 again and that was when everybody just started to float; it was a very fun ride.

“I felt that even if I wanted to be an astronaut, at least I now have a little experience of it. I really loved the experience and would gladly go over it again if asked to. It was an unbelievable opportunity because I never thought about it in my wildest dream.

“I feel very happy and I also feel like a role model. I know that this will create awareness to other students and make them have more interest in space science and technology education.”

Stella, who is today seen as a symbol of hope and inspiration to both the Nigerian and African youths, on arrival was celebrated by the government, family and friends. Her father said “I felt very happy and excited, it came to me as a surprise and it took some time for me to understand what it was all about. It will be a glory, the glory of God to the family.”

Now that Nigeria is planning to have an astronaut in orbit by 2015, and Stella has got the experience of what it is like to travel out of the earth into space, perhaps, she would be groomed to fly Nigeria’s flag in the orbit.


http://tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/youth-achiever/5148-i-feel-like-a-role-model-stella-felix-first-nigerian-and-african-student-to-take-zero-gravity-flight-into-space.html