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'You can do anything;' Astronaut Sian Proctor on achieving your dreams

Sian Proctor won a coveted seat on a SpaceX flight. It wasn't the culmination of a dream. It's just the beginning.

PHOENIX — Ed Proctor, who had no college degree and taught himself calculus and physics, helped Apollo 11 re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in 1969. A little over 50 years later, his daughter orbited the Earth, the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft.

In September 2021, Dr. Sian Proctor and three other crew members would orbit the earth for three days on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

“It was the most amazing view of my life, most amazing experience,” Proctor said.

The Valley geoscience professor teaches at Maricopa Community Colleges and was part of the first-ever all-civilian commercial space mission. It was a trip she had been dreaming about since she was born. But as a child, the possibility of someone who looked like her going to space seemed unlikely.

“I remember when I was a little girl, there were no black and female astronauts, zero," she said. "May Jamison, Dr. May Jamison, did not fly until 1993,” Proctor said.

It was her father, Ed, who would set the example for Proctor and give her the motivation to realize her dreams later in life. Landing a job a NASA when he was just 19 with no college education, he taught himself calculus and physics. Her father would assist Apollo 11’s re-entry to earth’s atmosphere on July 24, 1969. The younger proctor took an autographed note to her father signed by Neil Armstrong to space with her.

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“My dad passed away when I was 19," Proctor said. "So I never got to really talk to him about all the crazy things that he did during that time. You know, how he contributed to the advancement of human spaceflight."

Dr. Proctor is a geoscientist, professor, and licensed pilot --  but it was her love of art and poetry that won her a seat in a contest to select four civilians for the Inspiration4 mission. She submitted a Twitter video reading her poem “Space to Inspire”.

“I was able to paint and draw in space," she said. "And I just feel so lucky that I got that opportunity because I feel like I found my authentic voice through art and poetry, where I can express things that I'm feeling that I haven't been able to in the past."

Dr. Proctor is now creating her own narrative of what the future of space looks like through her artwork and a genre called “Afrofuturism” which combines science-fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the African American experience.

“Afro-futurism is all about thinking about the future of, you know, minorities, people of color, particularly black women, for me," she said. "And so I want to think about well, not only are we going to create this Jedi space, just like a more diverse and inclusive space, but how would that maybe look, you know, how would the black women connect to that space."

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Doctor Proctor credits her father’s words for helping her realize her life’s dream of becoming an astronaut at 51.

“You know because that's what he said…you can't do everything, because there's just so many things to do. But you can do anything. Just put your mind to it and work hard, be you know, persevere, determination, grit, all of those things. But the main thing is hope. Don't give up hope” says Proctor.

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