Astronaut Nicole Stott’s Blog: The Little Things

We’re wrapping up our week of quarantine and looking forward to launch in a couple days. In preparation for our scheduled launch time of 1:35 in the morning, we have been sleep shifting — with a pretty tough sleep shift going to bed at 7 am and getting up at 3 pm. Most of our time in quarantine is spent organizing our procedures and support materials for the flight, exercising, and thankfully having the chance to relax a little before launch. Today, as a crew, we had the opportunity to spend a couple hours at the beach that’s on the property near the space center. It was a beautiful day.

A few of my crewmates were running on the beach and came across an amazing sight —- about 50 baby turtles had just hatched and were making their way to the ocean. They stood back and watched as all of the little turtles made their way quickly down the beach and toward the water. On their way back they noticed one small turtle alone in the sand and on its back. The rest of us were just a short way down the beach, so they called us to come to down and see the turtle.

Our time at the beach gave us a very special gift – finding a little turtle on the beach that we could help find its way to the water. We all were smiling big as we watched the little turtle swimming out and through the waves. It made me think about how there have already been a lot of little things in preparation for this flight that have meant a lot to me. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most (so I guess they really are the big things) – like getting back in touch with old friends, the last hug with my family before going into quarantine, and unexpected things like encounters with a little turtle on the beach.