Kayla Barron, whose passion for exploration has motivated her to both travel beneath the sea and fly into space, was born on September 19, 1987, in the city of Pocatello, Idaho. Her family eventually moved from the Gem State to the city of Richland, Washington. After graduating from Richland High School in 2006, Barron entered the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA). She graduated from that federal service academy in 2010 with a B.S. in systems engineering. Barron then went to England to attend Peterhouse, the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge, on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2011 with an MPhil (Master of Philosophy degree) in nuclear engineering.
Barron subsequently became one of the first women selected as submarine warfare officer candidates. After completing the Navy’s nuclear power and submarine officer training, she was assigned to serve as a division officer on the ballistic missile submarine USS Maine (SSBN-741). During this tour of duty, Barron took part in three strategic deterrent patrols and earned the rank of submarine war officer.
Barron’s next assignment involved serving as flag aide to Vice Admiral Ted Carter, USNA superintendent (and the current president of the Ohio State University). It was during this stage of her military career that Barron first developed a strong interest in becoming an astronaut.
“For me the dream of becoming an astronaut cemented itself pretty late in my life,” Barron said in a 2023 interview posted on the website Navyonline.com. “I met one of [Carter’s] classmates, former astronaut Kay Hire, and she was telling me about one of her shuttle missions where they were building the early space station — and I said, ‘You know that sounds a lot like a submarine in space.’ She looked at me and said, ‘That’s exactly what it’s like.’” Barron added, “That was the lightning strike moment.”
After being selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 22 in June 2017, Barron underwent two years of training. She had the distinction of being only the fifth female USNA graduate to be selected as an astronaut candidate.
Barron officially became the 601st human to travel into space when, on November 11, 2021, she and the three other astronauts of the mission SpaceX Crew-3 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS). This mission marked the first flight of the spacecraft Crew Dragon Endurance. SpaceX Crew-3 lasted a total of 176 days, two hours, and 39 minutes, with Barron and her fellow crew members finally completing the mission when Crew Dragon Endurance landed in the Gulf of Mexico on May 6, 2022. As a result of this mission, Barron traveled 75 million miles (120.8 million kilometers) altogether in space. In addition, she took two spacewalks outside ISS.
“I think the thing that’s most important to me is the inspiration of exploration,” Barron has since asserted in an interview for NASA. “I think we all have this innate sense to explore — whether you’re the one who actually gets to step on the Moon or not. I think it changes all of us to know that we can actually do things that would be unimaginable to the generations that came before us.”
A little over four months after the completion of SpaceX Crew-3, Barron took time to return to Richland and speak to a large gathering of students there about her career as an astronaut. “If you never try, you can’t succeed,” she told this group. “Seeking to join NASA was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It’s easy to close doors on ourselves but you have to be willing to take a chance, even if it means you may stumble.”
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Kayla Barron, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayla_Barron and https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/barron-k.pdf
A video featuring Kayla Barron is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjpz3G05bQc
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