Is there a place for Filipinos in Space?

WRITTEN BY FRANCESA JANA SANTIAGO

Is there a place for Filipinos in space? In December of 2013, Chino Roque was selected out of 28,000 applicants to be the first Filipino to go to space. The then 22-year old Crossfit trainer bagged the opportunity of a lifetime after being recruited into AXE Apollo Space Camp’s space program! But while his expedition has been postponed until further notice, his milestone is still a tremendous achievement not only for his name but for the Filipino community as well. Roque joins the line of remarkable Pinoys whose contributions were “out-of-this-world”... literally!

Genevie Yang

What many do not know is that as early as 1977, Filipinos have been breaking barriers at NASA. Just take Angelita Castro-Kelly, the first ever female Mission Operations Manager! Even at an oppressive time when women’s intelligence was undermined , the agency assigned her to supervise early developmental missions for the Earth Observing System program. The Summa Cum Laude from University of Santo Tomas thrived through a heavily male-dominated field and earned herself many accolades including the Goddard Space Flight Center Exceptional Service Medal and the 1993 “Pamana ng Bayan” Presidential Award from former Philippine President Fidel Ramos. Other Filipino women like her also came in, like Josephine Santiago-Bond who is NASA’s current Chief of the Advanced Engineering Development Branch and Genevie Yang, who made history as one of the team members that launched and landed the Perseverance Rover on Mars!

Gregorio G. Villar III

And speaking of the Perseverance Rover, two other kababayans took part alongside Genevie in this massive mission! Gregorio G. Villar III and Edward Gonzales played equally significant roles in assisting the safe and successful arrival of the rover on the Red Planet. Gregorio previously worked as a Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory while Edward serves in the agency’s Space Science Education Consortium while also acting as lead for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion division. And it doesn’t stop there because just this year, Dr. Josefino Comiso, the senior emeritus scientist at NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, received the “Pamana ng Pilipino” Presidential Award for his many works on polar science, climate and satellite sensing while a student named William Kevin Abran from the University of the Philippines had his experiment “Rotation of ‘Dumbbell-shaped’ Objects in Space” picked up and is set to be to be conducted by the International Space Station.

And as society further progresses, more and more people of color, including Filpinos, will be at the forefront of STEM industries. It’s almost a century since the first man walked on the moon and back then, that very concept was deemed frightening or impossible. Our community as well has an extensive history of being, if not left out, discouraged from participating in moments of history. But those who managed to risk the odds, are proof enough that when Filipinos put their minds into something, they are capable of reaching great heights.

ERRATUM (9/4/2023):
Chino Roque was one of the crowned winners of the Axe Apollo Space Academy, during which he had undergone a 4-day training at the Kennedy Space Center. This does not officially make him an official astronaut.

Moreover, due to change in direction, the Axe Apollo Space Academy has been put on hold until further notice.