Emily wanted to know what the planetary symbols are, so that she could more easily identify the glow-in-the-dark planets on her ceiling. She decided not to have them orbit the sun anymore, but instead to move across her ceiling in a rough line as if she were looking up at them at night. Since she can’t rely on position to identify them now, she wanted to use the symbols which are painted on their southern poles.
I knew some but not all (I always screw up Jupiter and Saturn), and she wanted me to write them all down so we pulled up NASA’s page listing the symbols.
She looked at the page for a while and clicked around the “kid stuff” sections.
Her: N-A-S-A. What’s what?
Me: NASA? It’s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA. It’s where the American astronauts work.
Her: Really?
Me: Yeah! NASA! There’s a base in Florida, and one in Texas. The astronauts and all the people who help the space shuttle go up work there.
Her: … REALLY??
Now I’m wondering if she thought astronauts were imaginary, like fairies and mermaids. I mean, she learned about the moon landing in school, and she can reel off the names of the most famous astronauts, and she tells us all the time she wants to be the first person to walk on the sun (ouch!). I even did a Brownie program involving space that used a handout on female astronauts. She should realize that yes, astronauts are out there. But her level of incredulity makes me wonder. Maybe she thought it was a “long time ago” thing, or maybe she didn’t realize there was a whole organization devoted to these things. Or maybe, way in the back of her mind, it really was in the same category as wizards and magic wands.
Yes, Virginia, there is an astronaut.