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🚀 They cover everything that happens beyond this world

Ask anyone on the CNN space team what their favorite thing is about covering our galaxy and beyond, and you’ll get a similar response: There’s so much we still don’t know.

“I find the speculation, and the lack of answers, endlessly fascinating,” Space and Defense correspondent Kristin Fisher explained.

We caught up with Fisher and her colleagues Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles to find out what they’re covering this year and how they got their start. Here’s what they told us:

How did you end up covering space? Something to do with being the daughter of two NASA astronauts, I suspect? 

Fisher: When I was growing up, everyone used to ask me if I was going to follow in my parents’ footsteps and become an astronaut, including President Ronald Reagan. There was something about that question — that expectation — that made me want to do something different. I also, regrettably, took being born into a spacefaring family for granted. I didn’t realize how cool and unique it was until I moved from Houston to Boston for college. But with each passing year, the pull to help people understand and appreciate what I had once taken for granted became stronger and stronger.  

Kristin Fisher with her parents, astronauts Anna Fisher and Bill Fisher. 

What’s your earliest childhood memory about space? 

Fisher: It’s not just my earliest memory about space. It’s my earliest memory, period. My mom ran into my pre-K classroom on the day of the Challenger disaster. She grabbed me and hugged me. I could feel her panic. She’d just learned that seven of her friends had been killed and she was assigned to the next flight. There’s something about seeing your parent that scared that sticks with you.

How did you end up covering space? 

Strickland: Being in the right place at the right time. I’ve been at CNN since 2011, and in 2015 I joined the health team. Dr. Sanjay Gupta was reporting on NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s year in space, and I worked alongside (Gupta) on digital stories about how the human body reacts to long-duration spaceflight. It lit a spark in me, and then I was picking up every space story I could find, from discoveries of exoplanets outside of our solar system to the latest news from robotic missions on Mars. Working on those stories felt like coming home, and it still does.

Ashley Strickland in Cape Canaveral, Florida, reporting on the first two Artemis I launch attempts in August. 

What’s been your favorite space story you’ve covered, and why?

Strickland: I’ve been reporting on the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter, both currently on Mars, for years. They’re easily my favorite dynamic duo. It’s not hard to imagine these two robots working together like something from a buddy cop film as they search for evidence of life on the red planet. I was fortunate enough to go on a reporting trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2019 and see the rover shortly before it was packed up and sent off to Cape Canaveral before launch in 2020. Then the world shut down due to the pandemic. Despite everything, the two robots were still able to launch on their journey.

I’ll never forget the day they landed on Mars in February 2021, the way that the story changed. It became a story of hope — proof that despite everything, we were still capable of amazing things. We were united, watching these robotic extensions of humanity go to a place that we can’t follow yet. The stunning video of the landing captured by the rover, the cheers from Mission Control as it landed, and the first flight of a helicopter on another planet all lived up to the namesakes of the mission: Perseverance and Ingenuity.

You’ve written about the future of space tourism. If you could, would you ever go to space? 

Wattles: I think I’d opt out of a trip to space for myself — especially at current prices! I don’t feel a pressing urge to go, particularly for a long-duration stay. We humans are just so much better suited for life on Earth. That said, if the opportunity came my way, it’d probably be hard to turn down.

Jackie Wattles, reporting from the Blue Origin mission that carried William Shatner to space in October 2021. 

Can you tell me about the wildest launch you’ve covered?

Wattles: I have to hand it to the first Virgin Galactic flight in New Mexico and the first Blue Origin flight out of West Texas, each of which occurred within the same two-week period in 2021. Two billionaires, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, went to space on rockets their own companies built. The launch sites — two private spaceports in the middle of the desert — were in remote areas with limited housing options. And the early morning takeoff times meant pulling a few all-nighters. However, no matter what the mission is, adrenaline always kicks in when someone is entrusting their life to a machine that essentially uses a controlled explosion to blast you to supersonic speeds.

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📢  before you go

💻  Read: A recent CNN investigation revealed how the Coast Guard has allowed sexual assault at sea to go unchecked. The agency is now taking action following that CNN report.

🏖️  Explore: A seaweed blob twice the width of the United States is heading toward Florida. Here’s what you should know about why these masses happen and how they affect both humans and ocean life. 

🌏 Read: CNN’s first Beijing Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy, who covered the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, reflects on what’s changed in China since the 1970s.

📺  Watch: CNN will exclusively air the ceremony for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which this year honors comedian Adam Sandler, at 8 p.m. ET Sunday.

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- Written and edited by Erica Hernandez, Kyle Almond, Tricia Escobedo, Kimberly Richardson and Jessica Sooknanan