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Clearwater family awaits safe return of astronaut

Staff photo by PAT BRAMMELL

Shelly Rocktoff, a sister, left, Joan Passonno, the mother, and Noelle Krol, another sister, talk about Nicole Stott and her adventures in space.

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By STACIE SCHAIBLE

News Channel 8

Published: November 16, 2009

CLEARWATER - Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch today and return Clearwater astronaut Nicole Passonno Stott and six crewmates back to Earth on the day after Thanksgiving.

Stott, who is on her first mission in space, has spent the last three months at the International Space Station on a mission to deliver equipment and gather materials from various experiments.

Members of the Passonno family of Clearwater have seen her more often during these past three months than they normally do, watching her on NASA television or in other reports about the mission. Stott lives in Houston.

Stott, 46, calls her mother, Joan Passonno, weekly from the space station. Passonno said the family missed one of Stott's first calls from space.

"She left a message, and the end of it was, 'Well, it would be great if I knew how to hang this thing up.'"

Stott also sends her mother and sisters, Shelly Rocktoff and Nicole Krol, e-mails from space. The pictures she sends are amazing, they said.

"This is such a beautiful planet, and there are so many places I'm just dying to go to now,'' Rocktoff said.

"I think she's just so fascinated by looking out the window and seeing the planet,'' Krol said.

Stott's sisters said they are in awe of their older sibling.

"She is really cool,'' Krol said. "I mean, she's serious, she's smart, she's funny. She's a risk-taker; she's a daredevil."

Stott graduated from Clearwater High School in 1980, studied aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle University and graduated in 1987. She went to work for NASA in 1988, earned a master's degree in engineering management from the University of Central Florida in 1992 and entered the astronaut training program in 2000.

Stott's mission is somewhat history-making as she is the first mother to become a member of a space station crew. She and her husband, Chris, have a 7-year-old son.

Stott's mother said her daughter inherited her father's love of flying. They built experimental aircraft together in the family garage.

Her father, Fred, died in 1979 when the experimental plane he was flying crashed into a canal near Lake Tarpon. Her father's death did not deter her from becoming a pilot, though.

"She has done an amazing job getting to where she is. She's worked really hard," Rocktoff said.

But her Clearwater family is ready for her to return to Earth. For her mother and sisters, the countdown to the shuttle's landing has begun.

"I wish her a safe journey so she can give us a hug and a kiss and tell us all about it," Joan Passonno said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. News Channel 8 reporter Stacie Schaible can be reached at (813) 225-2739.

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