Alyssa Carson (born March 10, 2001) is an American space enthusiast who has attended numerous space camps and has visited every NASA visitor center.[1] She has been profiled by a variety of news outlets, public interest publications, and interview shows as an unofficial astronaut-in-training.

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While frequently described by the media as an “astronaut in training”,[20][10] Carson is not affiliated with any national space program.[21][22] NASA has publicly stated that the organization “has no official ties to Alyssa Carson”,[22] and separately that “although Ms. Carson uses ‘NASA’ in her website name and Twitter and Instagram handles, we’re not affiliated at all.”[23] In 2019 Newsweek corrected a headline that had implied that Carson’s training was affiliated with NASA.[9] Snopes.com also has dedicated a page to clarify such claims, which says: “Carson is not in training with—or being prepped by—NASA to become an astronaut, or to take part in the first human mission to Mars.”[24]

I need one of these for myself. I know hella rocks and will probably be the lead of the smithsonian or something if I become a geologist someday.

edit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-carson-87b874152 Can someone with a Linkedin account confirm that she doesn’t actually have any work experience whatsoever? I think that part might be hidden for me but I only see bullshit awards, her own org about wanting to be an astronaut when she grows up, volunteering one day per year at space camp, and inspirational articles from 2018 about how she wants to be an astronaut when she wants to grow up. There’s no “internship at [legitimate company]” which is a required class for any BS degree at my university.

    • abc [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      I think you’re just reading into this post too much and looking to get mad. It is objectively weird to maintain a wikipedia article about your personal dream to become an astronaut, especially when NASA themselves have come out and stated “yeah we’re not training this person to be the first astronaut on Mars” - I don’t think this is controversial to say.

      Whether or not she actually has a disability is neither here nor there - nowhere in the post does OP even disparage her intellect or otherwise. How is this post a proxy for ableism? Because someone found it funny enough to share???

      • AcidLeaves [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        It is objectively weird to maintain a wikipedia article about your personal dream to become an astronaut, especially when NASA themselves have come out and stated “yeah we’re not training this person to be the first astronaut on Mars” - I don’t think this is controversial to say.

        Possibly, but weird self promotion this is commonplace around me and it actually does end up working a lot of times, and is the best way to go about things so maybe my tolerance for it is higher