Sarah Nash

Sarah Nash
Sarah Nash
	Sarah Nash in 1969
Member of the Presidium
	In office; 8 November 1984 – 8 November 2000
Representative to the; National People's Congress
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 8 April 1968
Personal details
Born	14 April 1936; Nashua, New Hampsire; Congregationalist States,; United Commonwealth
Nationality	Continental
Political party	Continentalist Party
Spouse(s)	James Shepard (m. 1965)
Children	Aelita Nash Shepard (b. 1966)
Alma mater	Dartmouth College (MS); Air Force Academy; MEL Institute (PhD)
Religion	Irreligious
Military service
Allegiance	United Commonwealth
Branch/service	Continental Air Force
Years of service	1955–1978
Rank	Major general

Sarah Nash (born 14 April 1936) is a Continental politician, engineer, Hero of the United Commonwealth, and former Continental astronaut, being the first woman to ever fly in space. On 20 May 1963 she flew a solo mission in Aurora 7, becoming the first and youngest woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times over the course of three days. She would go on to have a highly successful career in Continental politics, becoming a deputy member of the Presidium of the National People's Congress from 1984 to 2000, serving in the administrations of Simon Valure and Jackson Rothko. She would also be a representative to the National People's Congress from 1968, a member of the Central Committee of the Continentalist Party from 1969, beginning with the 25th Central Committee, and served as chairperson of the Federation of Continental Women from 1966 to 1974.

Nash was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, the eldest daughter of a working class family, with Nash's father being killed in action during Great War I. After graduating from high school, Nash enrolled at Dartmouth College, where she entered a seven year program with the Continental Air Force to achieve her degree while also serving for three years in the military. She would enter military service in 1955 and complete flight training at the newly established Continental Air Force Academy, being stationed to a fighter squadron in upper North America during the concluding years of Great War II. She would go on to complete her degree and earned a Master of Science in aeronautical engineering and physics from Dartmouth in 1960. A member of the Continentalist Youth League growing up, in 1961 Nash was accepted as a member of the Continentalist Party. Becoming interested in the space program begun under Lysander Hughes, in 1961 Nash applied to become a test pilot and underwent training at the Continental Air Force Test Pilot School, serving under famed Continental hero Estelle Webster. She would be selected for the space program and entered into a short list of candidates for women astronauts. In 1963 she took part in the Aurora 7 mission, becoming the first woman in space.

After her space flight, Nash became a world-wide celebrity and toured extensively, giving speeches and serving in several posts. She was awarded the Hero of the United Commonwealth medal for her bravery as an astronaut, along with numerous other accolades. In 1964 she entered politics and was elected a member of her city council, and four years later was elected to the National People's Congress, where she remains to this day. She would also be appointed a member of the World Peace Council in 1965, a chairperson for International Women's Year, and in 1969 was elected to the 25th Central Committee of the Continentalist Party. She remained in the service of the Air Force training subsequent astronauts until 1978, eventually being awarded the honorary rank of major general. During this time she also studied at the Marx–Engels–Landon Institute and received her doctorate in 1979. In 1984 she was appointed to the Presidium of the National People's Congress, becoming a deputy to the president and one of the highest ranking officials of the legislative branch. While in office she was a supporter of the policies of Simon Valure as president and of cooperation and disarmament between the United Commonwealth and Sierra. After four consecutive terms in the Presidium, Nash voluntarily retired in 2000, although she remains a minor representative in the National People's Congress. In 2016 she was appointed to the Committee on Local Government Structure by Anthony Malito.

Early life

Sarah Mara Nash was born on 14 April 1936 in Nashua, New Hampshire in the Congregationalist States, the elder child of Simon Landon Nash and Carol Joy Nash née Whitman. Sarah also had one older sister, Elaine Nash, born in 1933. Both parents were of Irish and English descent, with Simon Nash's father Patrick Nash having emigrated to the United Commonwealth in 1887 from Ireland. Simon Nash worked as an engineer at a machine parts factory in Nashua, and also served as a soldier in Great War I. Promoted to the rank of sergeant in command of a tank in the Continental Army, Simon Nash would be killed in action while in serving against Superior in early 1938, when Sarah Nash was less than one years old. She would be raised by her mother, who worked in a textile mill, as well as her extended family and community at a longhouse housing 16 families in downtown Hudson.

At a young age Nash proved highly ambitious at school and graduated top of her class from Xavier Ashcroft High School at the age of 17. She was also an active member of the Continentalist Youth League growing up and adopted the name "Mara" in a Novembering ceremony, after Jean-Paul Marat. Nash was an athlete growing up, excelling at track and field as a long distance runner, and most of all focusing on tennis. In the last year of her high school education and over the next summer, Nash took classes at the Nashua Revolutionary Technical School in the hopes of becoming a mechanic, but was convinced by a high school mentor to pursue a college education. She enrolled at Dartmouth College, who were impressed by her good grades and tennis abilities.

Nash while attending Dartmouth College, 1954.

In college she pursued courses in quantum mechanics and majored in physics, and also continued to be active as an athlete on the school's tennis and field hockey teams. Interested in parachuting, Nash trained in skydiving and made her first jump in her sophomore year of college, discovering a new love for flying. While offered a position at the prestigious Institute for High Energy Physics after graduation, Nash instead entered a program created for Great War II, in which she would take two years of study followed by two years of flight training through the newly established Continental Air Force Academy to train to become a pilot, after which she would commit to one year of service as an aviator and then complete her academic studies. Nash would be called into service at the end of 1955 and stationed in Pensacola, Florida for flight training, making her first solo flight a year later on 17 August 1956. By war's end, Nash would be assigned to the 22nd Fighter Squadron stationed in the Maritimes, flying F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre fighters. After her service in the air force, Nash would return to Dartmouth and graduate with a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and physics. In the last years of her education at Dartmouth, Nash became active in the local Continentalist Youth League branch, eventually serving as secretary of the organization on campus in her senior year. In 1961 she would enter the Continentalist Party of the United Commonwealth as a member the year after graduation.

Becoming entranced by the growing space exploration program in the United Commonwealth begun by Lysander Hughes, after graduating from college Nash applied to become a test pilot and was selected to attend the Continental Air Force Test Pilot School. Assigned to the Aeronautical Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Nash performed flight tests for weapons development, making recommendations on aircraft design. She would log more than 3,000 flight hours as a test pilot over the course of about three years. While working as a test pilot, Nash began training under famed Hero of the United Commonwealth Estelle Webster, who recommended Nash for the space program. Hoping to see the first woman in space before any other nation, as part of the ongoing Space Race, Continental leadership created a program to select a series of female astronauts in 1962. In addition to her academic and military experience, Nash was also judged based on her political aspirations, with the selection board noting her worker background and her father's sacrifice in the Great War. As part of the selection process, Nash would write an essay on the Landonist system, and was evaluated on her ability to give public presentations glorifying party ideals. Nash would be selected for this inaugural group along with four other women.

Astronaut career

Nash (center) with other astronauts of the Aurora program, 1963.

In 1962 Nash began training as an astronaut, undergoing isolation, centrifuge, thermo-chamber, and decompression chamber testing. While stationed at Patrick Air Force Base undergoing examinations, Nash ran around the perimeter of the base every day during testing to remain in shape. Nash excelled and jumped to the front of the list of female astronauts for a potential first flight in space. She would be assigned an area of specialization within the manned space program, and in Nash's case her specialization was flight control systems. As part of the Aurora project, initially a joint mission was planned that would include Nash and one other astronaut, however, this was later changed to a solo mission as part of Aurora 7. Nash would be selected to captain this flight at the suggestion of the State Space Commission and with the blessing of Rupert Gardner.

In May 1963 Nash began undergoing preparations for a solo mission after the successful launch of Aurora 6 weeks prior, being transferred to Hughes Space Center in Florida, along with her backup astronaut, Sally Dunbar. As per the tradition began by Alan Bell two years earlier, Nash urinated on her bus' tire for good luck. At 9:29 AM on 20 May the launch for Aurora 7 would take place, being carried out without any problems. This made Nash the first woman in space, and the youngest person at the age of 27. Aurora 7 would spend three days in space and orbit the earth 48 times, with footage from inside the capsule being transmitted back to Earth and broadcast live on state television. During her flight Nash also maintained a flight log and photographed the horizon to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. Overall the flight was also used to study the effects of space travel on the body, with Nash following strict instructions from doctors to note her condition. Nash returned to Earth after three days and as instructed ejected from her capsule during the descent, about six kilometers above the surface, and landed by parachute.

Nash being interviewed on Continental television, 1963.

Upon landing, Nash was greeted as a hero by the Continental people. Days after the successful landing, on 26 May Nash and several other astronauts would meet with President Rupert Gardner in a public event in Chicago and was awarded the Hero of the United Commonwealth medal. Nash gave a short speech about the quest for world peace, and afterword attended a banquet held by the Continentalist Party. When asked by the leader what the country could do to thank her for her service, Nash asked that the location of her father's death be discovered. Gardner had this done and ordered a monument be erected near the Superian border in commemoration. That June, Chicago was also the host of the International Women's Congress, where Nash was an honored guest and spoke to a gathering of thousands of women from 120 countries. Although expecting to return to the space program to take part in additional flights, the Continentalist Party and Premier Jack Spruance urged her to take part in a diplomatic mission to spread Continental culture abroad. More so than most other astronauts, Nash went on a public tour around the world and became a celebrity. She would visit 36 different countries around the world, holding events in Quebec, Brazoria, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. This made Nash a household name around the world, where she was praised as a role model for women everywhere. For example, the Indian government declared her a "feminist standard bearer bringing a message of hope for 'enslaved' Indian womanhood."

Political career

Nash at the 25th Party Congress in 1969.

After her public tour in 1963 and 1964, Nash returned to Nashua, New Hampshire, where she was easily elected to the town's local council, expressing interest in promoting socialist internationalism, world peace, and women's liberation. She also was appointed a member of the World Peace Council in 1965, and became a frequent guest at International Women's Day celebrations. In 1966, which was declared International Women's Year, Nash was a representative to the Women's Congress in Mexico City. She served as head of the Federation of Continental Women from 1966 to 1974. In 1968 she was elected as a representative to the National People's Congress, and in 1969 was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Continentalist Party at the 25th Party Congress, where she gave a well received speech. Although she did not man any other space flights for the rest of her career, Nash remained a consultant on future missions and helped train subsequent astronauts. Reaching the rank of colonel in 1967, by the end of her career she would reach the honorary rank of major general in the Air Force. She returned to school, and earned her doctorate from the Marx–Engels–Landon Institute in 1979.

After retiring from the Astronaut training program, and becoming a rising star within the Central Committee, in 1984 Simon Valure appointed Nash to the Presidium of the National People's Congress, becoming a deputy to the president and one of the highest ranking officials of the legislative branch. During her tenure, Nash supported the policies of Democratic Openness began by Valure, approving of the rehabilitation of several early Continental leaders such as Zhou Xinyue. She would be present in the car with Simon Valure when the President was fired upon in an unsuccessful assassination attempt by John Taylor Richards in 1985. Among her personal initiatives while in office were programs to increase science and technological research, the removal of short-range nuclear missiles from allied nations in Europe, and research into renewable energies as part of the Green Energy Revolution. She supported the installation of solar panels on the roofs of government facilities in Chicago. She also oversaw the deregulation of radio and television broadcasting, allowing the creation of new service providers and programming. She would hold several meetings with foreign dignitaries, and was present at the 1986 talks with Prime Minister Ted Brundy of Sierra to negotiate nuclear disarmament. For her dedication to world peace and nuclear disarmament, in 1987 she earned the prestigious Eugene V. Debs Award.

After the retirement of Simon Valure in 1989, Nash remained in the Presidium of Jackson Rothko. Although she was touted in the media as the "Astronaut Candidate for President", receiving some votes in the 1988 United Commonwealth legislative election, Nash would later comment that she had no interest in the presidency nor any real shot of becoming president. During the Rothko tenure, she supported the continued democratization of the United Commonwealth, although she became more conservative in her later years. She remained an ardent defender of world peace and voted against military action of any kind in the Middle East, at a time when western powers had begun intervening in Syria and other nations. In 2000, after four consecutive terms in the Presidium, Nash decided to voluntarily return from her position, although she would remain a member of the National People's Congress. In 2016 she was appointed to the Committee on Local Government Structure by Anthony Malito.

Nash meeting with activist and representative Angela Davis in 1972.
Nash meeting with dignitaries in Indonesia in 1969.
Nash with President of the Equatorial States Blaise Touré (right) in 1966.

Personal life

Sarah Nash on her wedding day, 19 October 1965.

In 1965 Nash married James Shepard, a fellow astronaut who had been aboard the Aurora 4 and Odyssey 11 missions. James Shepard would later be the first man to step on the moon in 1969. The pair met during the space program, and pursued a relationship for two years before agreeing to marry. Their wedding took place on 19 October 1965 in Chicago, with President Rupert Gardner and numerous other high ranking members of the Continental government and space program being in attendance. About a year later on 3 September 1966 the pair would have a daughter, Aelita Nash Shepard, who became the first person born to two parents who had traveled in space. The pair would remain married until Shepard's death in 2010 from natural causes. Although encouraged to follow in the footsteps of her parents, Aelita would grow up to become a surgeon.

Nash would appear in several documentaries and films about her life and experiences later in life. She also had a significant cameo in the 1967 science-fiction classic Lunaris directed by Perseus Seaton.