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When Lena was born, doctors were worried—not just about her, but about her mother, Carla, who was 22 and had Down syndrome. Lena’s father left when he found out Carla was pregnant, but Carla chose to raise her daughter alone.People doubted her—social workers, neighbors, even her own family. But Carla held her baby and whispered, “Watch me.”She didn’t have a degree or know how to drive, but she fed Lena every two hours, borrowed lullaby CDs, read bedtime stories, and put math charts on the fridge. She saved coins for science kits and, when Lena asked about her dad, she said, “You don’t need a rocket to go far—just a strong launchpad.”Lena went on to win her school’s science fair, intern at an observatory at 16, and graduate top of her aerospace engineering class at 21. On her first day at NASA, she brought Carla with her. The director told Carla, “Your daughter is one of the brightest minds we've seen.” Carla, tearful, replied, “I always knew she’d reach the stars—I just never thought I’d see them up close.”And every time Lena goes to space, she carries a photo in her suit pocket: her mother, young and glowing, holding her in a secondhand sweater.The world once told Carla she couldn’t raise a child.But that child now flies above the world… and still says:“My mother is the reason I got here."