By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
A former Laughlin AFB grad’s head is in space now, for at least the next six months.
Maj. Nichole Ayers launched as the pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station that will bring the astronauts home after a six-month stay in space.
Ayers received all of her initial 12 months of flight training at Laughlin. She is projected to spend half that long, 6 months, on the space station.
Ayers reflected on how her Laughlin training and experiences
have shaped her readiness for space.
“Most of my training has been in the operational realm; learning to make split-second decisions under intense pressure is a skill we learn throughout our time as Air Force pilots. We train for the worst and hope for the best — training to go to the International Space Station is no different,” Ayers told Air Force civilian writer Maria Galvez.
“We learn about the space station systems and how to react when something doesn’t go as planned. We are well-trained and prepared for any contingency along the way to or from the space station, as well as during our time living there,” Ayers told the writer.
She is still remembered by former senior leaders for her time here.
“I was in a flight with her, and she was flawless,” said Col. (ret) Brian Hastings, former 47th Flying Training Wing commander during Ayers’ tenure here. “She was just spectacular, and it was probably the best ride with a student I ever had. She left an indelible mark, and it was just an amazing T-38 ride.”
However, Ayers’ new ride isn’t a T-38 or F-22 but a SpaceX Crew Dragon sitting atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
This mission is Ayers’ inaugural spaceflight, following her selection as a NASA astronaut in 2021.
“She’s gone from T-6 dollar ride to a literal rocket in just a few years (10 years),” said Col. (ret) Tim MacGregor, former 47th Operations Group commander during Ayers’ time at Laughlin.
The Crew-10 team, comprising Ayers, Commander Anne McClain, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, successfully docked with the ISS on March 16.
Their arrival helped the return of astronauts who had been aboard the station for nine months due to technical issues with their original spacecraft.
Ayers didn’t go from Laughlin to space, but spent quite a bit of time in the F-22 Raptor after graduating from the T-38, where she accumulated over 1,400 flight hours in aircraft such as the T-38 Talon and F-22 Raptor, including more than 200 combat hours during operations in Iraq and Syria.
During her six-month tenure on the ISS, Ayers will engage in various scientific research projects and technology demonstrations.
