When Carson was 12, she was invited by NASA to speak at the MER 10 Panel in Washington, DC. Carson was the youngest speaker at the MER 10 Panel. Carson has written about her passion for space flight for The Independent and has written and self-published her guide to becoming an astronaut, So, You Want to Be an Astronaut. She gives speeches around the world to inspire young girls to pursue careers in STEM. As of July 2019, Carson has given three TEDx talks. Carson has also collaborated with several companies to develop space-related projects including helping Horizn Studios develop space luggage and assisting with Final Frontier Design's spacesuit testing at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters.
Astronaut training
While frequently cited in the media as an "astronaut in training", Carson is not affiliated with any national space program. NASA has publicly stated that the organization "has no official ties to Alyssa Carson", and separately that "although Ms. Carson uses ‘NASA' in her website name and Twitter and Instagram handles, we’re not affiliated at all." In 2019 Newsweek corrected a headline that had implied that Carson's training was affiliated with NASA. At age 15, Carson was the youngest person invited to the Advanced PoSSUM Space Academy. Through project PoSSUM, Carson acquired a certificate in applied astronautics, which certifies her to complete suborbital research flights. At age 16, Carson became the youngest person to complete the space camp program run by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission. When she was 18, Carson received her pilot's license. Her training has also included water survival, g force training, micro gravity flights, obtaining scuba certification, and decompression training. Carson is the only person to have completed all seven of NASA's space camps. Her call sign at space camp is Blueberry and she goes by NASA Blueberry on many online platforms.
Film and television
In 2014, Carson was featured as the Youngest Female Groundbreaker on the Steve Harvey talk show. Carson was featured in the 2017 documentary, The Mars Generation. In 2019, Carson appeared on an episode of Ryan's Mystery Playdate.
Awards
In 2017, Carson was named one of nine Louisiana Young Heroes, an award given to exceptional high school students, by Louisiana Public Broadcasting. In 2019, Carson was given the LSU Women’s Center Esprit de Femme Award and was the youngest recipient of that award to date. Carson was honoured by Louisiana Life Magazine as a 2020 Louisianan of the Year in the science category.
