AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2020 - 120

PILOTS SPACE ADVENTURER

Scott Parazynski
Pushing new frontiers
B Y I A N J. T W O M B LY

120 | AOPA PILOT April 2020

ROBERT SEALE

Parazynski flew on five missions, including STS95-the famous return to space for John Glenn-where
he served as the late senator's personal physician. One
of his fondest memories was a space walk with Chris
Hadfield (cue David Bowie) when the pair flew through
the Southern Lights. "We were just holding on with our
fingertips traveling at 17,500 miles per hour," he said.
"There's an added dimension that can't be put into
words when you realize you're a human satellite."
After retiring from NASA, Parazynski satisfied his
need for adventure by climbing Mount Everest and
diving one of the highest lakes in the world. Climbing
was something he pursued with vigor while in Denver,
where he scaled many of the Colorado fourteeners.
That's also when he was competing in Olympic trials
for luge, no kidding.
Parazynski learned to fly at Palo Alto while still in
medical school. During easier rotations he would fly
a few times a week, while more challenging rotations
kept him out of the cockpit for a month or more at a
time. "It wasn't the most efficient way to get your private ticket," he said.
LOGBOOK
Since then he has added
WHO | Scott Parazynski,
a number of certificates and
astronaut and CEO
ratings, and he has develHOURS | More than 2,500
FAVORITE AIRCRAFT | NASA
oped an affinity for mountain
T-38
flying. But it's NASA's T-38s
EXTRA | Parazynski is a
that really captured his
veteran of five spaceParazynski's
flights and has a total of
heart. Parazynski said he
autobiography
more than 47 hours of
felt like he had mastered sinThe Sky Below
spacewalks. One of the
gle-engine Cessnas, but the
is available on
highlights of his flights was
being assigned as the perAmazon.
transition to a jet trainer was
sonal physician of Sen.
quite a leap. "You had to fly it
John Glenn aboard STS-95.
all the time," he said. NASA
uses the T-38 for astronaut
readiness training, and he
HOW DO YOU TOP going to space? Maybe by climbing Mount Everest or work- said the high-stress operational environment is a good
ing to create technology that could change lives.
primer for space flight.
Growing up in the shadow of the Apollo program when his father helped
Today he jokes that he's mostly flying other people's
design the Saturn V rocket, Scott Parazynski has always known he wanted airplanes because all his time and money are going to his
to be an astronaut. After realizing too late that military flying might get him company, Fluidity Technologies. The tech start-up has
there, Parazynski instead went to Stanford University and became a doctor. developed a joystick-style drone controller with finger"I did a lot of research to help astronauts thrive and survive in space flight," tip throttle control that Parazynski says has applications
he said. That became his entrée to NASA. He was selected for astronaut train- far beyond the drone world, including the potential to
ing during his final medical training in Denver.
perform remote medical procedures.
AOPA

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2020

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