Outer space is the next step for Nicole Aunapu Mann, who grew up playing with Barbie dolls and soccer balls in Sonoma County, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Stanford University and got a job in the Marine Corps flying jets at 1,300 miles per hour.
Mann, 35, who flew 147 combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a test pilot four years ago, was named last week as one of eight astronaut candidates in NASA's 21st class of four men and four women with the right stuff.
"Definitely a dream come true," Mann said from her home next to Naval Air Station Patuxent River on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, 65 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.
Mann's life since graduating from Rancho Cotate High School in 1995 has followed a dream-like script of successes since she surprised her family by opting for both a military career and a high-risk occupation.
"I liked the idea of being part of something that was bigger than me," Mann said.
In two months, the Marine Corps major will change into an astronaut's blue jumpsuit and begin a rigorous two-year training regimen at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Beyond that lies the dark abyss of space, with likely visits to the Earth-orbiting International Space Station and possibly a rendezvous with an asteroid in the 2020s and, on NASA's farthest horizon, a trip to Mars.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, introducing the new astronaut class last week, said the agency was developing missions to "go farther into space than ever before," pretty much echoing the fictional "Star Trek" mantra to "boldly go where no man has gone before."
A scuba diver, skier and hiker, Mann, at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 130 pounds, thrives on challenges. She's comfortable pushing a twin-engine F/A 18 Hornet fighter jet through the sound barrier and up to Mach 1.7, which she said is actually a bit less dramatic than it sounds.
"You feel nothing; you can't even tell," she said, other than by than watching a digital display of the jet's airspeed.
The sonic boom, caused by a compression wave from breaking the speed of sound, may resemble an explosion on the ground, but the jet compensates for the change in aerodynamics, Mann said.
It's still pretty cool when you look down and see 1.0 (on the display)," she said.
As a test pilot, Mann's job is to push an F/A 18 outfitted with new equipment or weapons as low and slow and as high and fast as it will go.
"You fly it at the edge of the envelope," she said.
Mann said she jumped at the chance to apply for the astronaut program in January 2012 - even though it meant ignoring her mother's wishes.
It was the summer of 1998, after her junior year at the Naval Academy, that Mann flew in the back seat of an F/A 18 - having never been aloft in anything but a commercial airliner - and decided it was her idea of a sweet ride.
"It's an incredibly powerful machine," she said. "Like being on a rollercoaster that you design as you go."
Her mother, Vicki Aunapu of Penngrove, swallowed the news with a fateful comment. "OK, just don't be an astronaut," she said.
While Mann was earning a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford, she gave her mother an update, noting she was "right on track for an astronaut."
And last week when she broke the news to her mother that she was following in the footsteps of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, the old reservation was history.
"We laughed about it," Mann said.
"I just couldn't stop screaming on the phone," Aunapu said, overjoyed by the prospect of her daughter hurtling through space.
"We couldn't be more proud," Aunapu said.
Mann also mentioned one of the reasons she opted for Marine aviation. "I really wanted to fly off an aircraft carrier," she said without a trace of bravado in her voice.
A carrier landing - in which a 34,000-pound aircraft coming in at 175 mph must touch down and stop on an 800-foot runway that is 60 feet off the water - is among the most difficult maneuvers in military aviation, especially at night.
"Before you is a sea of darkness and a few tiny lights guiding your approach," Mann said. "It is terrifying and thrilling at the same time."
During combat tours in 2006 and 2007, Mann landed 147 times on the USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf. She applied for test pilot school because it made use of both her engineering background and flight experience.
As an astronaut candidate - an "ascan" in NASA lingo - Mann is part of a pretty exclusive club. Including the first astronaut class selected in 1959, 50,758 people have applied for the position and only 338, fewer than 1 percent, have been accepted.
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