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iversity in STE A M www.diversityinsteam.com
COVER STORY
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n a day he'll never forget, astronaut Leland Melvin saw 24 sunsets in 24 hours. He flew over his hometown of Lynchburg, Va., and thought of his family, his modest and healthy upbringing; seven minutes later he was over Paris. It wasn't lost on him that he was African-American and his crew members included women, Russians, people from all walks of life. It made me contemplate my existence, he said. My faith was stronger, more magnified, and doing it with people we used to fight against.
LELAND MELVIN'S
Making Space Inclusive
Interview and Story By Brady Rhoades
NASA
The STS-122 and Expedition 16 crewmembers gather for a photo in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. NASA astronauts pictured are Steve Frick (bottom left), STS-122 commander; Rex Walheim (bottom center) and Leland Melvin (bottom right), both STS-122 mission specialists; Peggy Whitson, Expedition 16 commander; Stanley Love (above Whitson), STS-122 mission specialist; Alan Poindexter (top right), STS-122 pilot; and Daniel Tani (top left), STS-122 mission specialist. European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts pictured are Leopold Eyharts (left middle), Expedition 16 flight engineer; and Hans Schlegel, STS-122 mission specialist. Russia's Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, Expedition 16 flight engineer, is pictured above Walheim.
STAN HONDA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Space shuttle Atlantis crew mission specialists Leland Melvin (R), Rex Walheim (2nd R), European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Hans Schlegel (2nd L) of Germany and ESA astronaut Leopold Eyharts (L) of France outside the Operations and Checkout building on February 7, 2008 as they board the Astrovan to launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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