What triggered your interest in spaceflight

[Drunkrobot]

I developed an interest in sharks when I was in nursery school, which led to reading into marine biology, then more general biology, leading to the passion for Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology I have to this day (biology bringing up the rear nowadays, ironically).

During this time, I found out that actual men walked on the actual frickin' Moon, so a love in spaceflight blossomed. Discovery of KSP turned that candle of interest into an inferno, and here I am today, doing the most difficult A-levels I could possibly have chosen, because SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

We thank you, most noble of the aquatic killers.

[Astronut25]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first thing I had ever seen on TV.

I guess it was mostly the challenge that attracted me.

[NASAFanboy]

I looked up. Not at the sky, but at the void beyond.

To the stars

[7499275]

http://youtu.be/iJIY4n5oXjc

This video, skip to 2:09 to see exactly what part I'm talking about. Seeing that O ring getting shot off by Saturn V's exhaust.

[ReptilianGameplays]

Aliens.

And that's pretty much it.

[Skyrunner27]

I had a couple of books from when I was younger about stars and planets. One year my parents got me a telescope fro Christmas. The real first remembrance of a launch for me was the launch of Discovery following the Colombia Disaster. That was the limit of my interest for the early part of my life. Then I got a book about the Moon landings, and I loved it. It even talked about the constellation program. Only a couple of months later it was cancelled.

[nhnifong]

This image from the cross section book

[Dr. Ivo Robotnik]

My trigger was the Airene (sorry if spelled wrong) ANdthe space shuttle later the Sauturn 5 and after that KSP

[Pawelk198604]

Well Well topic that i created in August are still debated:D

So, as I said earlier I love space and everything that is related with space.

My biggest tragedy is that I was never good at science. I liked physics, especially astronomy, but I did not like the calculations.

What is evident in my style of play KSP.

I cannot send probe to other planet like Eve, not wasting much Delta-V:-)

[razark]

What got me interested in spaceflight? Nothing did. I have no abnormal interest in space.

I grew up a stone's throw from Johnson Space Center. My mother worked for a contractor. My father was a civil servant. He started on Apollo-Soyuz, and moved on to Shuttle. I had to learn the Orbiter Vehicle numbers, because he didn't know them by name. There were always friends and coworkers around talking shop. Our entire neighborhood was NASA people, except for the college professors that lived across the street. Shannon Lucid lived one street over, so I went trick-or-treating at an astronaut's house. Our house was full of pictures and artifacts. I remember the piece of Columbia's tile encased in plastic; there was also a large chunk of title sitting on the shelf. During a mission, the TV was tuned to the NASA channel. I was nine when we lost Challenger. Onizuka was a friend of my father, and his daughter was on my sister's soccer team. T-38s were a constant sight in the sky, and a constant sound. I remember that we'd have a fire drill every time one of the shuttles was being transported through so we could all go out and see it. It made sense; nearly all the kids a school were NASA kids. And now, after going away to college and moving back, I am working for a contractor at JSC.

So, yeah. Spaceflight isn't something one has an interest in. It's just what people do. It's as natural as breathing.

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

It was Kerbal Space Program for me, sorry for being uninteresting but aside from the odd astronomy book given to me at Christmas i never really had that much of an interest in Space, i loved the night sky like most people sure but nope, Kerbal was the first time i ever gave serious thought to actually travelling in Space.

[Justy]

The earliest big news story I was old enough to be aware of was the Challenger explosion, and later I read the story of Apollo 13 in school -- in French!

But THE MOMENT space became awesome was exactly 8:52pm Pacific Standard Time, December 5, 1993.

STS-61 was the first Hubble service/repair mission. For those not old enough to remember a time before the Hubble Space Telescope, when it was first launched, it was an embarrassing failure, practically blind. But it had been designed from the start to be serviced by humans. During STS-61, my local cable company aired NASA TV on the next available channel... which coincidentally was channel 61.

I was watching during the second spacewalk when Thomas Akers unplugged one of the solar panels, the one that was stuck and couldn't be rolled up to return to Earth. And more importantly, at 8:52pm my time, I was watching when Kathryn Thornton let go of it. As I remember it, the camera stayed on the solar panel for a very long time as Endeavour moved away from it. And I watched for the rest of the orbit, until panel and shuttle entered the Earth's shadow. And it was beautiful. And I stayed watching through the shadow, and when it was back in daylight the camera panned over to it now and again, still slowly drifting away.

I missed spacewalk #3, I was a Scout at the time and Mondays were meeting nights. But I watched as much as I could of the last two walks, including the installation of the "contact lens" to fix Hubble's vision; I do believe I remember Story Musgrave hand-cranking one of the new, boxier solar arrays.

A month later NASA released the photos showing how Hubble's vision had improved. And manned spaceflight was the most awesome thing ever.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Justy

[Joshington]

The Magic School Bus, the episode where they tour the system.

Also, RIP Pluto, you're a planet in my book.

[Beowolf]

In chronological order, Fireball XL5, the pictures of Ed White's space walk (I was 6 years old), Lost In Space (yikes!), Star Trek, and then at age 8 I read Heinlein's Red Planet.

That was a life-changing couple of years! I never recovered.

[m4ti140]

Hmm... That started when I was 6 or 7... Remember the LEGO Space Port sets? I got the space shuttle set for Christmas and since I was always a perfectionist and I wanted to know everything about space travel imediately, next thing I got was a children's book about spaceflight... Then some more serious book followed... There is something special about space that draws me to it. Oddly enough, I have not learned the orbital mechanics until I discovered Orbiter. When I discovered KSP I was like "OMG!! An actual GAME, with proper newtonian physics!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!"

[fatfluffycat]

KSP, when I downloaded the demo, I didn't even like spaceflight.

[TicTacToe!]

When I first saw Saturn's rings through a telescope with my own eyes. Made it very real for me as a young kid, who always thought space was far off, and kinda mythical. That, and the visits to Jodrell Bank.

[metl]

The Magic School Bus, the episode where they tour the system.

Also, RIP Pluto, you're a planet in my book.

Pluto will always be a planet to me as well. My first space love was Wing Commander: Privateer. I've been hooked on space games ever since.

[SemiaCloud]

I saw a Soyuz launch on television when I was getting ready to enroll into a college and I suddenly had a huge interest in the subject. I decided to enroll in Avionics and engineering.

[Motokid600]

The Magic School Bus, the episode where they tour the system.

Also, RIP Pluto, you're a planet in my book.

Yes! Lol this made my night. Came here to say the same thing. I very faintly remember it, but it was that episode that kindled my interest in space as a kid.

Space flight however... KSP.

[r4pt0r]

It was never space per say, but flight always captivated me. Long, long ago, when I was being babysat I played Super Mario 64 only to get the wing cap and fly around. Same with Starfox64, just playing to fly. Then I played BanjoTooie and just flew around. Eventually I worked my way up to playing Microsoft flight sim 98, then MSFS 2004, then IL-2.

Edited April 12, 2015 by r4pt0r

[Loligoat]

I remember in kindergarten my teacher set up a projection of a solar system tour on the ceiling. At the time I was blown away by how much more there was than school and cheerios.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Loligoat

[Pipcard]

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. I had a small interest in space before, but learning Orbiter is when I realized that it was one of my main passions.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Pipcard

[OleB]

The start ? seing Neil Armstrong landing on the moon when I was a child , a shattering moment of triumf in defiance of everything the adults around me had been saying before the event ....I suddenly realized that the world does not have to be a boring place without heroic struggles towards mindblowing achievements . That feeling has never left me .

[Pawelk198604]

Thanks for necrioposting my old thread

I was about to post something similar again, i love space despite i probably never fly into space on my own