Teenage 'Astronaut Abby' Raising Money to Teach Kids About Space

Soyuz Launches And Docks With International Space Station (Image credit: NASA)

A 15-year-old girl wants to go to outer space, and you can help her get there.

Abigail Harrison wants to be the first astronaut to go to Mars, but first, she is going to see her mentor, astronaut Luca Parmitano, launch to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in May of this year. Harrison is hoping to raise $35,000 through the crowdfunding website Rockethub.com to help her travel the United States, bringing her experience in Kazakhstan to kids around the country. "Astronaut Abby" (Harrison's nickname) wants to get other teens and younger children involved in the sciences through her trip.

You can contribute to Astronaut Abby's campaign through Rockethub. So far, she has raised $8,140 of her $35,000 goal with 40 days left to go. She is also chronicling the project on her Astronaut Abby website and via Twitter @AstronautAbby.

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Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a Staff Writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also served as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight. Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. Miriam is currently a space reporter with Axios, writing the Axios Space newsletter. You can follow Miriam on Twitter.