Port Alfred had a brush with space history last week when Commander Susan Kilrain, a veteran NASA astronaut, addressed learners at 43 Air School and Port Alfred High School.
Her visit formed part of the 2025 Living Maths Space Tour, a nationwide outreach initiative celebrating the Cape Town-based NGO Living Maths’ 30 years of inspiring young minds under founder Steve Sherman. The organisation now reaches more than 4,500 learners per week across diverse communities, running enrichment classes, maths Olympiads and teacher workshops to promote STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics).
Commander Kilrain is widely regarded as a trailblazer: a NASA astronaut, distinguished U.S. Navy test pilot, aerospace engineer and global STEM advocate. She is one of only three women, and the youngest person, ever to pilot the Space Shuttle. Across her two missions, STS-83 and STS-94, she spent more than 20 days in orbit, logging over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 types of aircraft. STS-94 was a re-flight of experiments cut short on STS-83 due to a fuel cell problem, an example she used to illustrate perseverance and problem-solving to the students.
A 20-year veteran of the US Navy, Kilrain broke barriers for women in aviation and earned high honours including the Defence Superior Service Medal. She also served in Mission Control for shuttle launches and landings and later worked at NASA Headquarters in Safety and Legislative Affairs. Before joining the Navy, she was a wind-tunnel project officer at Lockheed and earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech. Today, she travels the world as a motivational speaker and consultant, particularly focused on encouraging young women and under-resourced teens to pursue STEM careers. She has also shared her journey in a children’s book, An Unlikely Astronaut, to inspire younger readers.
At Port Alfred High School on Friday, 12 September, she opened her talk with the words: “I don’t want to stand still,” addressing a hall packed with eager students.
“I am Susan Kilrain, and I am an unlikely astronaut,” she said. “I grew up in a rural area in the southeast United States going to some of the worst schools in our country. We had no money, so for entertainment my father took us to the local airport to watch planes take off and land because it was free. And I fell in love with aeroplanes.”
She spoke about the lasting influence of her maths teacher, Mrs Sarah Brown, who helped her grasp the subject. After her spaceflights, Kilrain was able to thank Mrs Brown personally. She urged students to show their appreciation for their own educators, prompting a hall-filling round of applause. Kilrain also shared her family tradition of encouraging her four children to thank the teacher who most impacted them each year.
Her own dream of flight began early. At 17, she won a competition offering flying lessons, earned her pilot’s licence and set her sights on space. “One night, I was lying outside in the grass, looking up at the stars, thinking: wouldn’t it be amazing to fly in space?” she told students.
After gaining degrees in aerospace engineering and working at Lockheed, she was advised by an astronaut to join the military as a test pilot to boost her chances of selection by NASA. She first applied to the Air Force but was told they weren’t taking women pilots that year. “A friend said the Navy has aeroplanes so why don’t you try them? So I went to the Navy,” she said.
In a class of 60, Kilrain was the only woman but graduated top of her group. She described landing on aircraft carriers as “the scariest thing I have ever done,” but also her love of teaching air combat manoeuvring to Navy pilots which she referred to as “geometry in the sky.”
After completing the rigorous U.S. Navy Test Pilot School, she flew a variety of advanced aircraft and, following the repeal of combat exclusion policies, became an F-14 Tomcat pilot; a milestone that set her apart when she interviewed with NASA.
Kilrain recounted her two shuttle missions, mixing technical details with candid anecdotes about the joys of weightlessness and the less glamorous aspects of spaceflight. She also noted the many benefits of space exploration for life on Earth from new technologies to inspiring the next generation.
She closed her talk by emphasising the opportunities in science and engineering: “There are many benefits to space exploration and lots that benefit our Earth. Hopefully this talk inspires students to go into STEM fields, which is why I’m here in South Africa; to show that science, technology and engineering aren’t so scary. If you apply yourself, you can do it. The best part about STEM is there are careers waiting for you right here in South Africa. This is now a growing centre for these fields, with good-paying careers if you get a STEM degree.”
“If I can grow up to become an astronaut, you can achieve it as well,” said Kilrain.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, September 18, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays
