Marshfield native Linda Roehrborn is set to blast off into space as an astronaut for a commercial company. Credit: Contributed photo

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Linda Roehrborn decided she wanted to be an astronaut on Jan. 28, 1986.

The Marshfield native was in seventh grade, and she and her classmates were watching the space shuttle Challenger take off. Seventy-three seconds into its flight, the spacecraft disintegrated while Roehrborn, her classmates and the world watched, killing all seven members of the crew.

"I know it sounds kind of morbid," Roehrborn said in a phone call from her home in Cocoa, Fla., where she works as an educator for NASA. "But I just thought (the Challenger's seven-member crew) were so brave....And I thought they were the greatest people to follow their dreams and their passion, and I wanted to be like them."

Becoming an astronaut is not easy, and Roehrborn understood the challenges in making that dream come true. She joined the Air Force and rose to the rank of captain. She became a biologist and an oceanographer. But even as she took steps toward becoming an astronaut, the goal seemed to be moving away from her.

Until now. At age 43, she is on an unorthodox track into space. Roehrborn was chosen as one of 14 candidates for the PHEnOM Project, one of the world's first commercial spaceflight research programs that is training private citizens as scientist-astronauts. If all goes as anticipated, she'll complete the educational program by early 2018. Graduation will include a suborbital flight on a private spacecraft.

"I did kind of think the door was closed," Roehrborn said. "There were 16,000 applicants for NASA (in the last astronaut selection program). So I did not think I was ever going to see this type of thing."

Entering the private-sector space race gives Roehrborn a chance to get in on the ground floor of a new and exciting industry, she said, adding: "I feel like a pioneer."

The private project offers more people the chance to experience space flight, said Jamie Guined, the PHEnOM Project's principal investigator.

"It is through programs such as the PHEnOM Project that everyday people have the opportunities to contribute in a significant and meaningful way to the collective body of knowledge and understanding of the human exploration of space," Guined said.

Roehrborn developed her yearning for exploration and the natural world exploring the nooks and crannies of her family's strawberry farm.

"I would have to say my family's farm is one of my biggest influences," she said. "My family has always supported me, and even though I've moved away, that's the place I always want to go back to."

Roehrborn did a stint at NASA's Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., as a teenager, and by the time she graduated from Marshfield High School in 1991, "everyone knew I wanted to be an astronaut," she said.

She studied for two years at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County, then joined the Air Force in 1993 and spent four years on active duty. She transferred to the Air National Guard so she could go back to college and enrolled at Arizona State University to study biology, earning her degree in 2003. She went on to earn a master's degree in oceanography from Texas A&M in 2006.

"It kind of merged the Air Force and my love of the ocean, microscopic plants and animals in the ocean and also extreme environments," Roehrborn said. "I've loved the ocean and loved outer space. I didn't know how to incorporate the two together, but they are actually very similar. For example, it's much easier to practice weightlessness in the ocean."

As Roehrborn continued her career in the Air Force, she also became an environmental educator and researcher for the Galveston Bay Foundation in Texas. A few weeks ago, Roehrborn began a new job as an educator with NASA in Cocoa. To facilitate that move, she transferred to the Air Force Reserve.

The chance to go to space comes through the SeaSpace Exploration & Research Society, an organization devoted to support the study of the sea and space. The organization admitted Roehrborn into PHEnOM.

PHEnOM aims to work with private entities such as SpaceX, the rocket building company founded by Elon Musk, and Boeing, the aeronautical manufacturing and research giant.

Roehrborn pays tuition to participate in PHEnOM, which is an educational program. But she said it will place her in the front row for future private space exploration opportunities.

"I'm going to be learning and training with some great people, including retired astronauts," Roehrborn said. "Some of the classes will focus on HAM radio, human physiology in space. We'll be working with a company on designing space suits....I'm going to learn all this amazing stuff, and meet all these amazing people. It's just going to be something I've been dreaming about a really long time."

Email keith.uhlig@gannettwisconsin.com or follow him on Twitter @UhligK.

Follow Linda Roehrborn into space

When courses for the PHEnOM Project begin, follow Roehrborn's training at lindasweightlessventures.com.