A North Mississippi Town Is Paying Tribute To Hometown Hero And NASA Astronaut

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI)- The city of Winona is paying tribute to one of its very own in a big way.

City leaders are raising money to build a statue in honor of Colonel Donald Peterson.

The Winona man spent more than a decade serving as a NASA astronaut and is one of the first people to space-walk from the space shuttle.

He passed away in May of this year.

Some considered Peterson to be a family man, a friend, and a colleague, among others.

However, to the town of Winona, the colonel is viewed as an inspiration.

“He’s a hero, in my eyes and to a lot of people here Winona,” said Winona Mayor Jerry Flowers.

Taking you back in time and on a trip to space, this is from 1983.

This is when Peterson was a mission specialist on STS-6 on board Challenger.

In the video you can see Peterson space-walking, testing out the new space suits.

“He was on the first launch for the Challenger,” said Marcus Lawson, committee chairman for the Donald Peterson Foundation. “The challenger was actually a prototype, it was never supposed to fly but the new ship that they were building was delayed, so they decided to go ahead and put the Challenger in rotation, and once they did he was on the first launch.”

Before he ever entered into outer space, the Winona man first enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point.

There he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

Peterson went on to join the Air Force where he retired as a colonel.

Now, the city of Winona is looking to honor and remember the colonel along with all of his accomplishments.

“We’re looking at a full life-size monument, probably about 7 feet, it’s going to be bronze,” said Lawson.

“We’re putting together this area of public interest,” said Karl Oliver, District 46 State Representative. “We hope to draw people into our community that actually want to see this, they pass by and see this, and they want to pull over and look at this thing. It’s going to be a fairly large memorial tribute to him.”

City leaders are using this new monument to serve as motivation to the kids that they too can accomplish anything they put their minds to.

“Just history by it self it shows, especially the kids who are in high school and all across Mississippi, that you can become somebody as long as you have the work ethic and the will to do it,” said Mayor Flowers.

The proposed location for the project will be along Old Highway 82 and 51.

City leaders are hoping to begin construction by the beginning of 2019.

The total cost for this project is $150,000 thousand dollars.

The city now has a GoFundMe link for anyone who wants to help donate to this project.

If anyone would like to donate visit https://www.gofundme.com/colonel-don-peterson-memorial for more information.