For as long as Amanda Nguyen can remember, she's been reaching for the stars. And as the first Vietnamese woman to go to space, she'll soon be among them.
"It has always been my dream to be an astronaut," Nguyen told ABC News' Juju Chang at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. "I have a connection with the stars, because it's what led my family to freedom."
Her mother's family were boat refugees from Vietnam who used the stars to help navigate their way to safer shores. Now, the daughter of those immigrants is set to make history as the first Southeast Asian woman to fly to space on an upcoming trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard vehicle, thanks to the nonprofit Space for Humanity that is sponsoring the journey.
"Being the first Vietnamese woman is to let every young Vietnamese girl know that we belong," the 32-year-old Southern California native said.
But it's a dream that was put on hold and almost didn't come true after she says she was sexually assaulted in 2013 while studying astrophysics at Harvard. The rape survivor was fueled by frustrations with how her own case was handled and started speaking out, dedicating her time and shifting her focus to fighting for justice.
"When I spoke up about my story, other survivors all across America had faced these issues too," Nguyen said. "How terrible is it to want to pursue justice, and yet, the rate of conviction is 1%. What does that tell survivors?"
In that moment, she said she felt she had to choose between her life's dream and justice.
"I couldn't live with myself if I chose not to pursue justice," she said.
Nguyen has been a major driving force behind both Congress and the United Nations unanimously passing rights for sexual assault survivors, including the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights.
"I let out this scream that was, I felt like a curse was lifting," she recalled of the moment President Barack Obama signed into law what she had been fighting for.
Nguyen still had dreams to shoot for the stars and when Space for Humanity said they would get her a ticket on Blue Origin she said she was overwhelmed with "profound gratitude."
"I am the dreams of my ancestors -- and I am so grateful that that part of me, to the girl who existed before I was hurt, the child in me who loves the stars, my mom, who crossed the ocean. I get to say to them -- we'll get to fly to space," she said referring to a recent tribute she wrote on the very topic.
