'Perspective on Our Planet:' Museum exhibit about local astronaut on display for the year

Astronaut and educator Linda Godwin jokes it’s strange to realize she is old enough to have her life as the subject of a museum exhibit.

It’s a comment she made at the Cape Girardeau County History Center May 18, at a reception held for the opening of her Hometown Hero exhibit that displays photos and artifacts from the four missions she went on with NASA in the 1980s and 1990s. Godwin came back to her hometown of Jackson for the event and spoke about her experiences in space, her hopes for future space missions and the importance of education throughout her journey.

Godwin worked at NASA for 30 years; she says her space missions orbited the earth every 90 minutes, and because they were in lower Earth orbit, the world filled their window view.

“I realize[d] we’re all a lot closer together than we think; what goes on there matters here, all of that, so it’s just a perspective on our planet,” Godwin says. “We have the oasis in the solar system. We already knew that. We don’t have to go to space to know that. But it is a beautiful view.”

After retiring from NASA, Godwin taught physics at the University of Missouri (MIZZOU); she still teaches one section of physics there. She says throughout her career, she has learned “you don’t always get in the first time;” she applied more than once for the shuttle program before being accepted.

Once accepted, two of her missions were on the space shuttle Endeavour, and two were on the space shuttle Atlantis. Each mission had a different purpose, she says; among other experiences while in space, she got to do two spacewalks and see the International Space Station.

Cape Girardeau County History Center executive director Carla Jordan says Godwin’s friends at the First Baptist Church in Jackson encouraged her to create the exhibit, and Margaret Tallent, who is on the Cape Girardeau County History Center Board, reached out to Godwin to invite her to the event. Jordan says Godwin mentored her for the captions in the exhibit.

“It is time for us to do our mission of documenting the people who derive from here,” Jordan says. “We have to document the extraordinary people and the common people, and we have to document women. It’s time to celebrate our female hometown heroes, too.”

Attendees in the audience listen to retired astronaut Linda Godwin speak at the reception held for her Hometown Hero exhibit at the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson. The exhibit will be displayed for the next year.Photo by Jasmine Jones

Attendees in the audience listen to retired astronaut Linda Godwin speak at the reception held for her Hometown Hero exhibit at the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson. The exhibit will be displayed for the next year.Photo by Jasmine Jones

As a child, Godwin says she “read all the science fiction books in the regional library.” She loved her physics class at Jackson High School, and she remembers watching the first landing on the moon with her parents on television the summer before she was a senior in high school.

She says she never thought she would be able to do the job of an astronaut, but her education at Jackson High School, Southeast Missouri State University and MIZZOU afforded her with the means to make it happen.

Beka Newell, who attends Oak Ridge School, came to the event with her grandfather Keith Kanneberg. She says she used to want to be an astronaut and learned a lot from meeting Godwin. She brought four questions she’d written down and prepared in advance to ask Godwin.

“I asked her all four of these questions,” Newell says of the opportunity she had to meet Godwin during the meet and greet portion of the event. “What was the longest length of time you spent in space? What are some experiments you did in space? Why did you want to be an astronaut? Did you have problems walking when you came back from space?”

Patches from Linda Godwin's trips to space are displayed in her Hometown Hero exhibit at the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson. Godwin went on four missions with NASA. in the 1980s and 1990s.Photo by Jasmine Jones

Patches from Linda Godwin's trips to space are displayed in her Hometown Hero exhibit at the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson. Godwin went on four missions with NASA. in the 1980s and 1990s.Photo by Jasmine Jones

Visitors to the museum can learn more about questions like these through the exhibit. Jordan says the exhibit will be displayed for approximately one year.

Godwin says she is in favor of America going back to the moon and exploring other parts of the solar system while also being mindful of the planet here.

“I know we talk about going back to the moon, and if we ever have people on Mars and exploring the [rest of the] solar system, and I hope we can do all of that,” Godwin says. “But this is the planet we have to take care of, and it’s just incredible to see it from space.”

__Want to see the exhibit?__

Cape Girardeau County History Center executive director Carla Jordan says the Linda Godwin Hometown Hero exhibit will be up for approximately the next year. The museum, located at 102 S. High St. in Jackson, is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free.