AMHERST — Five seconds after Columbia Space Shuttle STS-93 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, Catherine “Cady” Coleman felt her stomach lurch.
The retired NASA astronaut heard her commander Eileen Collins announce that an electrical short took out two engine controls. A hydrogen leak in the main engine also slowed the shuttle’s velocity, throwing off its trajectory into orbit. Before panic had a chance to settle in, Coleman’s training took over.
“My first thought was, we know how to do that,” Coleman told the audience at the UMass Amherst Old Chapel. “We just did that, really, last week in the simulator.”
STS-93 successfully made it into orbit and became the first NASA mission commanded by a woman astronaut. It was also the most dangerous launch in the shuttle program’s history that did not end in an accident, but it could have if every person on the launch pad had not sprung into action for the mission.
Coleman is reminded of this teamwork and training as she takes on her latest mission: the United States of America.
Coleman and retired astronaut Linda Godwin represented Astronauts for America at UMass Amherst’s “American Experiment at 250: Governing Across Differences” last Thursday. The nonpartisan organization, formed in April 2026, brings together 108 astronauts who seek to preserve the Constitution. By drawing on their experiences in space exploration, Coleman and Godwin demonstrate the importance of participating in democracy.
“We each have a voice, and today we’re here to hope that you will see yourselves in some of our missions and understand how important each individual person is to our mission,” Coleman said.
The Constitution Day celebration launched the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Democracy Project. The cross-campus collaboration investigates the tenets of a healthy democracy in the classroom, daily conversation and public life. The day also included a panel with Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton) and Rep. Todd Smola (R-Palmer) on bipartisan collaboration.
“Universities play an important role in supporting a flourishing democracy,” Dean of SBS Karl Rethemeyer said, “Not by telling people what to think, but by creating places where we can think, learn, and research seriously together, encounter people and ideas different from our own, and learn how to disagree productively.”
Astronauts are in a unique position to promote cooperation, Coleman said. United States citizens trusted NASA astronauts during the Space Race of the Cold War. With the creation of the United States Space Force in 2019, people remain compelled by space even in a time of low public trust.
“In these times where trust seems to be lost between others, we hope that we can set an example to people that you know trust is possible,” Coleman said.
As part of their role, Astronauts for America grades national political candidates on their adherence to the law and Constitution. The group also lobbies for “evidence-based leadership.” While showing photos from space, Coleman emphasized the round Earth, a joke that debunks an online conspiracy theory that the Earth is flat.
As an astronaut and U.S. Air Force colonel, Coleman flew twice on the Space Shuttle Columbia and lived and worked for 159 days on the International Space Station as Lead Robotics and Lead Science officer. The Shelburne Falls resident also paved the way for today’s collaborations with partners like SpaceX as the chief of robotics in the Astronaut Office.
Godwin has spent 915 hours in space across four different shuttle missions. She was the first woman to perform space walks at two stations, and assisted the director of exploration at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. She also is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri.
In their missions, neither Coleman nor Godwin picked their team. Scientists from 20 countries joined Coleman on the International Space Station On the third of Godwin’s four space flights, she went to the Russian space station Mir. It was a cultural collaboration unheard of when Godwin started at NASA, especially five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“It took a lot of working together and compromising,” Godwin said. “But what you learn is it works because we had the common goals and we had things that we could learn to do together.”
While online discourse and political rhetoric may make the mission seem fractured, Coleman said all citizens’ mission is the same. Each person desires a healthy life with opportunity and dignity.
“Even somebody that hasn’t worked a lot with women certainly wants their daughters and granddaughters to be able to have the job that I had,” Coleman said, “And they want them to be able to have the education and the health.”
Right now, Coleman and Godwin say people can play their part to support democracy by voting. When Godwin hears people write off their vote as inconsequential, she thinks of the thousands of people on the launch pad who ensured she and Coleman got to space.
“You really are part of this incredible team of our own country, and we have seen firsthand what can happen when we all get out and do our part,” Godwin said.
