Chinese American astronaut on how his space dream came true and why Asian kids need to project themselves to succeed
Leroy Chiao grew up in an era when every kid wanted to be an astronaut; unlike most, he made it, and says Asian kids today can make it too – if they lose their reserve and promote themselves
Giants steps I was born in 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My parents were from China but met at university in Taiwan and got married before emigrating to the United States. I have two sisters, one older, one younger.
I was eight years old when I saw the Apollo moon landing in 1969. I was riveted. We watched it all afternoon; it was so amazing to go out, look up and realise that, almost a quarter of a million miles away, two astronauts were getting ready to take their first steps on the moon. I’ve always been interested in space rockets and airplanes, but that’s where the dream started.
All the kids back then wanted to be astronauts, but it stuck with me. I was always building things on a workbench in the garage – cutting wood and making model airplanes and rockets and flying them.
A degree of difficulty I did well at school and, in 1978, started at the University of California, Berkeley, about 40 miles from where my parents lived in Danville. I got my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.
I always say getting my bachelor’s was the single hardest thing I’ve done in my life. Once I got to university, I was working harder than I ever had before and, for the first time in my life, I was getting bad grades. It was demoralising. At the start, one instructor said, “Look around you – two out of three of you won’t pass my class.” I thought I might fail, but I pulled myself up through it. I learned to be self-sufficient and that experience made me much stronger and shaped what I became.