Some days ago, I got an email from a source-of-ideas-for-blogs service called Plinky, from which I have already picked some good ideas to write about in posts in the past (on charities, advice…).
The question I liked this time from the email was:
“What was your childhood dream job?”
I don’t know whether I have been posed this precise question many times or not, what I know is the answer to it and that I have given that answer many times to other questions.
When I was a child I wanted to be an astronaut. I don’t know exactly why, but that was my dream job. Surely, I can recall memories of toys related to space, such as a model of the Challenger that my brother and I played with (I presume it came before the accident), or toys related with Star Wars, etc.
This passion, among other factors, led me to study aerospace engineering, and then work for Airbus, which is not working as an astronaut but is still working in the aerospace business. Many times, I have been asked why I studied what I did, sometimes by corporate HR quizzers, and this is what came as a response.
Would I still want to be an astronaut?
Sure! But, yes, I am not pursuing it. I guess I am just waiting for the moment when commercial space flight costs not 20M$ but about 100k$, and if by then I can afford it I guess I would pay for enjoying a stunt out there.
The Blog by Javier 
Now that you recall our childhood with the Challenger model (first toy I ever took to kindergarten!), I have checked one of our common space-related experiences, the European Space Agency Outreach program, organised by dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels, under which we were invited to participate in different editions of the Internationa Astronautic Federation Congress. I took part with Jorge Seoane in 1999 in Amsterdam and you with Lorenzo Prieto the year after in Rio de Janeiro, a somewhat more interesting venue I would say.
Well, the thing is, Mr.Wubbo Ockels, whom we had the chance to know and share good moments with, had been the first dutch astronaut to space precisely as part of the last crew to fly the Challenger just 3 months before the fatal mission.
Who would have said back in the 80s that we would happen to known one of the last men alive to fly our childhood toy…
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