That's really unfortunate... I always admired her as an astronaut and a woman of science. I guess it just reinforces that you don't really know what famous people are like when they're not in the public eye, and that even former astronauts can be Terrible Bosses.
Yep. She's got a laundry list of accomplishments that qualify her for the moniker of "Modern Renaissance Woman", but of course that doesn't mean she's required to have a pleasant personality to go along with all that.
Last year, on BBC Earth, I was watching a series in which Chris Hadfield was part of a team of former astronauts conducting tests in the UK to find qualified applicants for the space program. The idea was that the group of them would go through a battery of tests and would gradually be eliminated until they had a final group of 3... which would be whittled down further to a winner (the others could re-apply later if they wanted, after taking steps to remedy whatever had prevented them from winning this time).
Part of the tests were psychological, and were conducted both simultaneously with the other tests and partly via interviews. Now I understand a comment Hadfield made about testing for compatibility in a crew. He said it hadn't been stressed as much during the tests for shuttle crews, and as a result there had been a few contentious incidents. He didn't name any names, but now I guess I know at least one of the names he wasn't naming (I don't recall if he and Payette were ever part of the same mission). What puzzles me about her shuttle missions is that if she's always been so difficult to deal with, why did they let her go up more than once? He did say that they were putting more emphasis on psychological and compatibility testing now because they're searching for the best candidates to train for a manned Mars mission.
This is a shame. It was so refreshing at first to see a GG who was genuinely interested in science and who openly encouraged women and girls to consider the sciences when choosing their advanced education programs and later careers. Her speech at the science symposium where she belittled astrology doesn't bother me at all - I was glad that someone was speaking up about that.
It's sad that she let so many people down in other ways, though. And in the end she didn't even have the grace to offer an honest apology. She used the typical disgraced politician's excuse for her resignation: "I'm leaving to spend more time with my family."
Nope. She left before she got thrown out. At least the Queen didn't have to be involved in this any more than just a notification that she'll be getting a new vice-regal representative in Canada at some point this year.
And what really annoys me about the commenters on CBC.ca is the number of twits who belittle her just because she was an astronaut. They're entitled not to respect her, but have some damn respect for the job itself. It's not an easy one.
