Home Is Where the Heart Is

Guess what? I’m home! I returned aboard SpaceX’s Dragon CRS-16 commercial cargo flight in January.

It was with a sad puppy heart that I left the International Space Station. Being at Space Station really changed my perspective of our home planet. It’s just as they say: there are no country borders visible from space – only this one, breathtaking, fragile world that we all share!

While I was onboard Expedition 57, Astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and I discussed the connection between space exploration and the Lewis and Clark expedition with 15 elementary students and my friends at the U.S. National Park Service. That’s Serena in the blue shirt in the picture. She’s shown with Expedition 58 Astronaut Anne McClain, who arrived in December 2018. The two switched places so Serena could come home to Earth after 197 days in space.

It’s a very exciting time on the Space Station! Both Anne and Serena rode there in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But in March, Anne and her crewmates—Oleg Kononenko from Roscosmos, and David Saint-Jacques from the Canadian Space Agency—welcomed the very first commercial American spacecraft designed to carry astronauts. It was an uncrewed flight test of a SpaceX Crew Dragon, designed to demonstrate a new capability developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The Crew Dragon returned to Earth after a successful flight on March 8, 2019.

My NASA adventures have been the experience of a lifetime! I hope you have enjoyed my amazing journey to become an astronaut! Perhaps my travels will inspire your own science and exploration adventures!

Traveling in the spirit of a Newfoundland dog that became one of the most famous members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Seaman Jr. will enjoy the sights of our home planet from the International Space Station,including amazing views of our national trails, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Trails Act and NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration 60th anniversary.

The National Park Service and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail invite you to learn more about Seaman, Jr.’s space journey! Follow his blog (go.nps.gov/NewfieNews) for special updates to see all of the missions in space and flashbacks to his training adventures at NASA centers and on the national trails.