WEBVTT 00:00:04.821 --> 00:00:11.038 position:50% align:middle ♪ [music] ♪ 00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:22.440 position:50% align:middle - [Scott] Throughout history, people have done things that are risky. 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:26.440 position:50% align:middle Even though it is a risky thing to be doing, and I think it's a lot more risky than some 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:27.340 position:50% align:middle people might think. 00:00:27.340 --> 00:00:29.870 position:50% align:middle So I still think it's worth it. 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:34.150 position:50% align:middle - [Woman 1] Astronaut Scott Kelly will try something no American has ever done before. 00:00:34.150 --> 00:00:38.380 position:50% align:middle This spring, he will leave for a mission and spend a year in space. 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:40.720 position:50% align:middle His twin is former astronaut Mark Kelly. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:43.590 position:50% align:middle - [Man 1] Genetically, the brothers are almost identical, 00:00:43.590 --> 00:00:48.450 position:50% align:middle so scientists will be able to measure how Scott and Mark change physically and emotionally 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:50.559 position:50% align:middle as months pass. 00:00:50.559 --> 00:00:51.900 position:50% align:middle - [Stephen] Warm up a little bit. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:53.260 position:50% align:middle This one's a bit of a Hail Mary. 00:00:53.260 --> 00:00:55.070 position:50% align:middle Here we go. 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:56.980 position:50% align:middle Boom. 00:00:56.980 --> 00:01:03.745 position:50% align:middle Astronaut Scott Kelly at the International Space Station. 00:01:03.745 --> 00:01:08.050 position:50% align:middle - [Man 2] Scott Kelly has been working toward this mission his entire career. 00:01:08.050 --> 00:01:11.890 position:50% align:middle He's been working toward this mission his entire life in some respects. 00:01:11.890 --> 00:01:20.310 position:50% align:middle - I decided that the challenges of staying in space for a whole year presented was appealing to me even 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:21.810 position:50% align:middle considering the sacrifices. 00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:24.900 position:50% align:middle - [Man 3] The human body was made for living in gravity. 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:28.930 position:50% align:middle Strange things happen to us when we spend long periods of time without it. 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:33.710 position:50% align:middle But that never deterred the former Navy test pilots from dreaming of becoming astronauts. 00:01:33.710 --> 00:01:41.590 position:50% align:middle - Pretty much anything we've ever put our mind to, we've been able to accomplish. 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:43.620 position:50% align:middle Doing pretty good. 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:50.140 position:50% align:middle I do feel like I've been up here for a really long time, and I look forward to getting home soon. 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:51.570 position:50% align:middle - [Woman 2] Interesting to watch. 00:01:51.570 --> 00:01:52.560 position:50% align:middle What a great… - [Woman 3] A cool story. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.550 position:50% align:middle - Great story and a fascinating experiment. 00:01:54.550 --> 00:01:59.880 position:50% align:middle - Space is still the most exciting thing I can imagine. 00:01:59.880 --> 00:02:06.130 position:50% align:middle And talking to someone in orbit still, it's like I am an astronaut right now. 00:02:06.130 --> 00:02:09.990 position:50% align:middle - [Man 4] Are you concerned about the physical toll that this will take on you? 00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:12.550 position:50% align:middle - I do think about the effects of radiation. 00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:18.460 position:50% align:middle You know, the reason I'm here is to learn more about it so someday, we can travel further from low Earth orbit 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:22.360 position:50% align:middle than we ever had before. 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:29.500 position:50% align:middle A year is not short, but it was very rewarding, it was enjoyable, it was something that I feel 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:32.461 position:50% align:middle privileged to having got to do. 00:02:33.628 --> 00:02:37.414 position:50% align:middle ♪ [music] ♪ 00:02:52.820 --> 00:02:53.830 position:50% align:middle Thank you very much. 00:02:53.830 --> 00:02:57.370 position:50% align:middle It is great to be here with all of you today. 00:02:57.370 --> 00:03:00.340 position:50% align:middle Actually, after a year in space, it's great to be anywhere with gravity. 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:06.050 position:50% align:middle You know, on the space station, I changed positions so many times, 00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:11.130 position:50% align:middle you would have thought I was running for president. 00:03:11.130 --> 00:03:18.070 position:50% align:middle So to those of you in the audience that do not appear to be aliens, like the ones from space, 00:03:18.070 --> 00:03:19.340 position:50% align:middle I'd like to say good morning. 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:23.760 position:50% align:middle The rest of you guys, I come in peace. 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:29.210 position:50% align:middle So on the space station, we have to learn to live with very little stuff. 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:35.330 position:50% align:middle I actually wore the same pair of pants for an entire six months in space, 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:38.360 position:50% align:middle but I'm adjusting to life very well here back on Earth. 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:46.390 position:50% align:middle I've only been wearing these pair of pants for a month now, so I apologize to you guys in the front row. 00:03:46.390 --> 00:03:49.770 position:50% align:middle You know, people often ask me, "What is the best part about flying in space and 00:03:49.770 --> 00:03:50.980 position:50% align:middle having the privilege?" 00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:53.340 position:50% align:middle Because I do believe this job has been a privilege for me. 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:57.160 position:50% align:middle But, "What is the best part about it? 00:03:57.160 --> 00:04:02.030 position:50% align:middle Is it the launch, the landing, the floating around in zero gravity? 00:04:02.030 --> 00:04:03.980 position:50% align:middle Is it looking out at planet Earth?" 00:04:03.980 --> 00:04:05.620 position:50% align:middle Which is incredibly beautiful. 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:09.340 position:50% align:middle "What is the best part about it for you?" 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:13.600 position:50% align:middle And for me, all those things are great, but really what I liked about flying in space and being 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:19.980 position:50% align:middle an astronaut working at NASA, is that it was a really, really hard, and challenging job, 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:23.000 position:50% align:middle a hard and challenging thing to do. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:27.430 position:50% align:middle And that's what I want to talk to you about today, is about doing the hard things. 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:28.640 position:50% align:middle Not the easy stuff. 00:04:28.640 --> 00:04:29.680 position:50% align:middle Anyone could talk about that. 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:35.910 position:50% align:middle I want to talk about the hard stuff and how I was able to do that in my career, certainly at NASA, 00:04:35.910 --> 00:04:40.780 position:50% align:middle but also a little bit in the U.S. Navy. 00:04:40.780 --> 00:04:49.650 position:50% align:middle And for me, doing the hard things involved some other skills, and other things I had to keep in mind. 00:04:49.650 --> 00:04:54.780 position:50% align:middle It was about always having a goal and a plan to get there. 00:04:54.780 --> 00:04:58.430 position:50% align:middle It was about taking risks, being willing to make mistakes, 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:01.737 position:50% align:middle at times even being willing to fail. 00:05:01.737 --> 00:05:07.450 position:50% align:middle It was about focusing on the things that I could control and ignore what I couldn't. 00:05:07.450 --> 00:05:10.750 position:50% align:middle It was about testing the status quo. 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:14.860 position:50% align:middle And about working as a team, because in my experience when I was able to put all 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:22.420 position:50% align:middle these things together, what I learned is that the sky is not the limit. 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:27.170 position:50% align:middle Cliche, I know, but absolutely true in my case, right? 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:33.780 position:50% align:middle So I told you the secret about my pants, and I'm going to share another one with you. 00:05:33.780 --> 00:05:40.590 position:50% align:middle And that is, when I was a kid growing up, I was a really, really bad student. 00:05:40.590 --> 00:05:43.290 position:50% align:middle You know, a lot of you might think, you know, that guy's an astronaut, 00:05:43.290 --> 00:05:47.130 position:50% align:middle he must have been the smartest kid in the class, the overachiever. 00:05:47.130 --> 00:05:49.180 position:50% align:middle That was not me. 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:52.910 position:50% align:middle I was a kid that, you know, from kindergarten through my first year in college, 00:05:52.910 --> 00:05:56.300 position:50% align:middle I sat in the back of the room, either looking out the window, 00:05:56.300 --> 00:06:01.380 position:50% align:middle or looking at the clock just trying to make it go faster for me to get out of the classroom as quickly 00:06:01.380 --> 00:06:03.990 position:50% align:middle as I possibly could. 00:06:03.990 --> 00:06:10.210 position:50% align:middle So being an astronaut was not something that I ever even considered, thought was possible, 00:06:10.210 --> 00:06:14.020 position:50% align:middle never even considered working at a place like NASA. 00:06:14.020 --> 00:06:21.210 position:50% align:middle I did grow up, however, at the…in New Jersey, height of the Apollo Space Program, 00:06:21.210 --> 00:06:24.090 position:50% align:middle and the TV show "I Dream of Jeannie." 00:06:24.090 --> 00:06:27.400 position:50% align:middle And because I didn't do my homework, I watched a lot of television, 00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:32.070 position:50% align:middle so space was something very exciting to me and important in my life. 00:06:32.070 --> 00:06:35.780 position:50% align:middle But never, like I said, in the million years did I ever think I could do 00:06:35.780 --> 00:06:39.140 position:50% align:middle something like being an astronaut someday. 00:06:39.140 --> 00:06:43.060 position:50% align:middle I do remember, though, the first time I said I wanted to be an astronaut. 00:06:43.060 --> 00:06:44.000 position:50% align:middle True story. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:50.380 position:50% align:middle First grade, boys' bathroom, standing next to one of my first-grade classmates, 00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:57.570 position:50% align:middle standing right in front of the urinal, and doing what first-grade boys do in there, 00:06:57.570 --> 00:07:01.350 position:50% align:middle both peeing on the floor. 00:07:01.350 --> 00:07:06.650 position:50% align:middle This kid turns to me, and he says, "Hey, Scott, what are you going to do when you grow up?" 00:07:06.650 --> 00:07:09.760 position:50% align:middle I said, "I don't know, play baseball for the Mets." 00:07:09.760 --> 00:07:11.450 position:50% align:middle I was a Mets fan. 00:07:11.450 --> 00:07:16.060 position:50% align:middle This kid says to me, he goes, "I'm going to be an astronaut." 00:07:16.060 --> 00:07:20.110 position:50% align:middle So I thought how cool that was, so I said, of course, "I'm going to be an astronaut, too." 00:07:20.110 --> 00:07:28.850 position:50% align:middle And he says to me, he goes, "You can't be an astronaut, because I'm going to be an astronaut." 00:07:28.850 --> 00:07:33.740 position:50% align:middle This wasn't my twin brother, Mark, by the way, who also went on to fly in space. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:39.710 position:50% align:middle I actually wish I could find this kid today, not to humiliate him or anything. 00:07:39.710 --> 00:07:43.270 position:50% align:middle Just kind of curious what he ended up doing. 00:07:43.270 --> 00:07:49.270 position:50% align:middle Like I said, I grew up in New Jersey, 1960s, '70s, graduated from high school in 1982. 00:07:49.270 --> 00:07:54.820 position:50% align:middle Our father was a police officer in our hometown of West Orange, New Jersey, 00:07:54.820 --> 00:07:56.680 position:50% align:middle right outside of New York City. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:02.450 position:50% align:middle And he was one of these very stereotypical, like, Irish cop guys that you'd see on television during, 00:08:02.450 --> 00:08:05.570 position:50% align:middle like, the '70s and the '80s. 00:08:05.570 --> 00:08:10.360 position:50% align:middle Once a year, he'd come home with a cast on his arm, tell my brother, Mark, 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:14.570 position:50% align:middle how he broke his fist fighting crime. 00:08:14.570 --> 00:08:20.340 position:50% align:middle Years later, we learned that there was a lot more bar fighting going on than crime fighting. 00:08:20.340 --> 00:08:25.390 position:50% align:middle And our mom was a secretary and a waitress and had all kinds of odd jobs when she could get them. 00:08:25.390 --> 00:08:29.870 position:50% align:middle But by the time my brother and I were becoming teenagers and needed less supervision, 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:36.420 position:50% align:middle she decided she wanted to have more of a career like my dad's and decided she was going to become a police 00:08:36.420 --> 00:08:43.660 position:50% align:middle officer in our hometown, which never had a female police officer before, 00:08:43.660 --> 00:08:47.320 position:50% align:middle very few in the state in the 1970s. 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:53.720 position:50% align:middle And she had to go through all the same tests and qualifications, particularly the physical fitness test 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:58.450 position:50% align:middle that was really designed for men at that time. 00:08:58.450 --> 00:09:01.210 position:50% align:middle And she wasn't a very physical person. 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:07.970 position:50% align:middle She stood all about, like, four feet, 13 inches tall, never did any exercise before. 00:09:07.970 --> 00:09:11.240 position:50% align:middle I never recall her doing any kind of exercise. 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:16.970 position:50% align:middle So to help her, my dad built this whole obstacle course in our backyard that she would have to do for this 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:22.660 position:50% align:middle physical fitness test, including building a wall that was seven feet, 00:09:22.660 --> 00:09:23.690 position:50% align:middle four inches tall. 00:09:23.690 --> 00:09:28.300 position:50% align:middle He actually built it an inch taller without even telling her. 00:09:28.300 --> 00:09:29.640 position:50% align:middle So she could practice. 00:09:29.640 --> 00:09:36.360 position:50% align:middle And I remember the first time she got to…tried to get over that wall, and she got her foot about a foot high 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.560 position:50% align:middle and just fell off into the dirt. 00:09:39.560 --> 00:09:42.070 position:50% align:middle And I thought, oh, this is done. 00:09:42.070 --> 00:09:44.640 position:50% align:middle It's not going to…no way she can ever get over this thing. 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:46.170 position:50% align:middle But she picked herself up. 00:09:46.170 --> 00:09:50.650 position:50% align:middle She brushed herself off and she admitted that she can't get over this thing now. 00:09:50.650 --> 00:09:54.440 position:50% align:middle But eventually, she'll be able to touch the top. 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:57.520 position:50% align:middle And once she can do that, she'll see how long she could hold on for. 00:09:57.520 --> 00:10:01.260 position:50% align:middle And she says, you know, "If I don't give up by the end of the summer, 00:10:01.260 --> 00:10:04.550 position:50% align:middle I am going to get over this wall." 00:10:04.550 --> 00:10:06.010 position:50% align:middle And she had to do some other tests. 00:10:06.010 --> 00:10:08.900 position:50% align:middle And we had this really long backyard. 00:10:08.900 --> 00:10:15.600 position:50% align:middle And one of the tests was carrying a 130-pound dummy 100 feet. 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:22.700 position:50% align:middle And at the time, I just happened to weigh 130 pounds. 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:28.450 position:50% align:middle And with a little bit of my help, not much, but really with a lot of hard work, 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:32.770 position:50% align:middle when my mom went to take that test, she got over that wall in half the time she 00:10:32.770 --> 00:10:34.170 position:50% align:middle was supposed to. 00:10:34.170 --> 00:10:41.580 position:50% align:middle Did better than a lot of the men did on this test just through her grit and hard work and became the very 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:48.240 position:50% align:middle first female police officer in our hometown and one of the first in the entire State of New Jersey. 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:59.060 position:50% align:middle And this is the first time in my entire life that I saw the value of having this goal you can't…you think you 00:10:59.060 --> 00:11:00.830 position:50% align:middle might not be able to achieve. 00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:02.240 position:50% align:middle A plan to get there. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:07.410 position:50% align:middle And then just working really, really hard at something that is incredibly 00:11:07.410 --> 00:11:09.430 position:50% align:middle important to you. 00:11:09.430 --> 00:11:16.000 position:50% align:middle Now, unfortunately, this did not inspire me to become a better student. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:22.630 position:50% align:middle And I still struggled throughout my years of school, meandered through middle school and high school. 00:11:22.630 --> 00:11:26.130 position:50% align:middle I graduated from high school in the bottom half of my class. 00:11:26.130 --> 00:11:27.510 position:50% align:middle Not proud of that. 00:11:27.510 --> 00:11:32.010 position:50% align:middle But I did go to college because all my friends were going to college and I didn't know what else to do, 00:11:32.010 --> 00:11:34.400 position:50% align:middle so I went to college. 00:11:34.400 --> 00:11:37.000 position:50% align:middle I actually went to the wrong school, though. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:43.810 position:50% align:middle Now, I don't mean I went to this school over here thinking that this one was a better fit for me. 00:11:43.810 --> 00:11:50.850 position:50% align:middle What I mean is I actually applied to and showed up at this college thinking that I was going to this other 00:11:50.850 --> 00:11:53.164 position:50% align:middle one over here. 00:11:53.164 --> 00:11:58.960 position:50% align:middle I am quite possibly the first person to ever go to the wrong college. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:05.560 position:50% align:middle And I get there and one of the first days, I say to my classmates, I'm like, "Hey, 00:12:05.560 --> 00:12:07.130 position:50% align:middle when's the football game?" 00:12:07.130 --> 00:12:10.270 position:50% align:middle And they're like, "Football game? 00:12:10.270 --> 00:12:12.960 position:50% align:middle We don't have a football team. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.570 position:50% align:middle That's that other school in Maryland." 00:12:15.570 --> 00:12:19.540 position:50% align:middle And I basically was doing the same thing I did in high school. 00:12:19.540 --> 00:12:20.920 position:50% align:middle I couldn't pay attention. 00:12:20.920 --> 00:12:21.970 position:50% align:middle I wasn't doing well. 00:12:21.970 --> 00:12:28.010 position:50% align:middle Eventually, I'm not even going to class anymore, but somehow, they let me live there at that college. 00:12:28.010 --> 00:12:33.340 position:50% align:middle And one day, I'm walking through the campus, and I just happen to go into the college bookstore 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:36.850 position:50% align:middle to buy, like, gum or something or a snack. 00:12:36.850 --> 00:12:37.400 position:50% align:middle Not a book. 00:12:37.400 --> 00:12:42.460 position:50% align:middle I was not a big reader at the time. 00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:46.730 position:50% align:middle But I walk in there and I see this book on the end of the aisle and it's got this really cool cover 00:12:46.730 --> 00:12:50.660 position:50% align:middle and title, has red, white, it looked very patriotic. 00:12:50.660 --> 00:12:53.730 position:50% align:middle It looked like it showed, like, motion in a positive direction, 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:55.790 position:50% align:middle which I guess I felt like I needed at that time. 00:12:55.790 --> 00:12:58.060 position:50% align:middle And I picked up the book, I read the back. 00:12:58.060 --> 00:13:06.280 position:50% align:middle I was interested enough that I took my gum money, purchased the book, went back to my dorm room, 00:13:06.280 --> 00:13:11.780 position:50% align:middle and just laid there basically for the next three days on my unmade dorm room bed, 00:13:11.780 --> 00:13:19.680 position:50% align:middle just fascinated by the stories of the fighter pilots that became the test pilots that became the 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:22.520 position:50% align:middle original Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. 00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:26.100 position:50% align:middle And the book was "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. 00:13:26.100 --> 00:13:28.780 position:50% align:middle And I recognized, you know, traits that these guys had. 00:13:28.780 --> 00:13:31.150 position:50% align:middle They were all guys at the time, not anymore, of course. 00:13:31.150 --> 00:13:33.000 position:50% align:middle But at the time, they were all men. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:38.980 position:50% align:middle But I recognized traits that they had that I felt like I had in myself, actually. 00:13:38.980 --> 00:13:45.420 position:50% align:middle With only one exception and that is I was a bad student, and I didn't do well in school. 00:13:45.420 --> 00:13:52.450 position:50% align:middle But I actually thought and believed that if I could just fix that one thing about myself, you know, 00:13:52.450 --> 00:13:59.140 position:50% align:middle maybe I could go on and graduate from college someday, maybe as an engineering major like they all were. 00:13:59.140 --> 00:14:03.340 position:50% align:middle Maybe I could go into the Navy and fly airplanes. 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:05.180 position:50% align:middle Maybe if not the Navy, maybe the Air Force. 00:14:05.180 --> 00:14:11.350 position:50% align:middle It's generally easier. 00:14:11.350 --> 00:14:16.070 position:50% align:middle Some Air Force, former Air Force people here. 00:14:16.070 --> 00:14:19.910 position:50% align:middle They generally like that joke the most. 00:14:19.910 --> 00:14:23.720 position:50% align:middle Maybe become a test pilot, maybe quite possibly even an astronaut someday. 00:14:23.720 --> 00:14:24.870 position:50% align:middle I actually believed this. 00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:29.110 position:50% align:middle And I know you might think, you know, 18-year-old kid reads book, 00:14:29.110 --> 00:14:32.410 position:50% align:middle decides he or she's going to become an astronaut. 00:14:32.410 --> 00:14:34.580 position:50% align:middle Well, that's a giant leap, right? 00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:40.300 position:50% align:middle But for me in retrospect, what it was, was a much more smaller manageable steps, 00:14:40.300 --> 00:14:42.460 position:50% align:middle just one built upon the other. 00:14:42.460 --> 00:14:48.140 position:50% align:middle I could never imagine really me going from college student to astronaut. 00:14:48.140 --> 00:14:53.470 position:50% align:middle But it's a lot easier to imagine a test pilot becoming an astronaut or a fighter pilot becoming a test pilot 00:14:53.470 --> 00:14:58.250 position:50% align:middle or a college student, you know, getting into the Navy and to learn how 00:14:58.250 --> 00:14:59.606 position:50% align:middle to fly airplanes. 00:14:59.606 --> 00:15:04.870 position:50% align:middle So I did something that was really hard at the time for me in an era where you didn't get much help. 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:10.250 position:50% align:middle You know, I probably had ADD or ADHD because it was impossible for me to pay attention. 00:15:10.250 --> 00:15:16.690 position:50% align:middle I actually remember, as a kid, my brother and I had…we slept in the same room 00:15:16.690 --> 00:15:23.020 position:50% align:middle in an old New Jersey house in the 1970s, or actually really in the late '60s too. 00:15:23.020 --> 00:15:26.040 position:50% align:middle And I can remember my bed was up against the window, right? 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:29.310 position:50% align:middle And I would eat the paint chips. 00:15:29.310 --> 00:15:32.980 position:50% align:middle Which I've heard causes, you know, ADHD. 00:15:32.980 --> 00:15:36.840 position:50% align:middle So who knows if I actually had that or not? 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:42.080 position:50% align:middle So I did something really hard and that was, you know, becoming a better student. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:45.770 position:50% align:middle It took, you know, a little bit over a year, but eventually, I did better. 00:15:45.770 --> 00:15:48.800 position:50% align:middle I changed colleges, I changed majors. 00:15:48.800 --> 00:15:56.670 position:50% align:middle And about five years from when I read Tom Wolfe's book, I'm graduating from college with an engineering degree 00:15:56.670 --> 00:16:02.690 position:50% align:middle and a commission in the United States Navy and a slot in Navy Flight School to learn how to fly airplanes. 00:16:02.690 --> 00:16:11.660 position:50% align:middle I get in my white BMW 320i and head down from New York to Pensacola, Florida to go to flight school. 00:16:11.660 --> 00:16:19.910 position:50% align:middle And one of the first things I realized when I get there is I am not a particularly good pilot. 00:16:19.910 --> 00:16:23.530 position:50% align:middle I know it's hard to believe, you know, for a guy who landed the space shuttle. 00:16:23.530 --> 00:16:27.520 position:50% align:middle But I was not very good at this at first. 00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:34.080 position:50% align:middle And I've recognized, you know, throughout my career, how good we are when we start something has no 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:43.190 position:50% align:middle relationship whatsoever with how good we can become at anything with focus, hard work, and just never, 00:16:43.190 --> 00:16:46.020 position:50% align:middle ever giving up on yourself. 00:16:46.020 --> 00:16:50.020 position:50% align:middle And I know this for a fact, because when I was a young pilot in flight school 00:16:50.020 --> 00:16:53.110 position:50% align:middle learning how to fly airplanes, the guys that did really well, 00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:57.550 position:50% align:middle the guys with previous flight experience, they did really well in the beginning, 00:16:57.550 --> 00:16:59.540 position:50% align:middle those guys didn't become astronauts. 00:16:59.540 --> 00:17:02.890 position:50% align:middle And I know this for a fact, because sometimes I see them at the front 00:17:02.890 --> 00:17:04.869 position:50% align:middle of Southwest Airlines. 00:17:10.080 --> 00:17:15.060 position:50% align:middle Somebody work at Southwest Airlines here? 00:17:15.060 --> 00:17:20.440 position:50% align:middle So I was not particularly good at this, but I worked hard, didn't give up, and eventually, 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:20.930 position:50% align:middle I got better. 00:17:20.930 --> 00:17:25.580 position:50% align:middle You know, good enough to get assigned to fly, learn how to fly jet airplanes, 00:17:25.580 --> 00:17:27.900 position:50% align:middle which was what I wanted to do. 00:17:27.900 --> 00:17:29.520 position:50% align:middle Got my Navy wings. 00:17:29.520 --> 00:17:34.220 position:50% align:middle Didn't do great, but did good enough to get assigned to fly the F-14 Tomcat, 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:42.230 position:50% align:middle which was an airplane that was basically famous for being in a movie in the 1980s, you know, "Top Gun." 00:17:42.230 --> 00:17:45.940 position:50% align:middle Also famous for killing a lot of people. 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:49.730 position:50% align:middle Unfortunately, not the enemy, but the people that flew the airplane. 00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:54.190 position:50% align:middle Some friends and colleagues and almost myself on a number of occasions, 00:17:54.190 --> 00:17:59.040 position:50% align:middle including the first time I actually went to land the Tomcat on the ship, the aircraft carrier. 00:17:59.040 --> 00:18:02.760 position:50% align:middle And I can remember like it was yesterday, flying over that ship, 00:18:02.760 --> 00:18:07.330 position:50% align:middle looked like kind of a small postage stamp thing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 00:18:07.330 --> 00:18:09.650 position:50% align:middle We weren't in the middle, seemed that way. 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:11.430 position:50% align:middle And I fly overhead the ship. 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:16.580 position:50% align:middle I turned downwind, I put my landing gear, my flaps, my hook down, and getting ready to come in for my 00:18:16.580 --> 00:18:18.840 position:50% align:middle first arrested landing. 00:18:18.840 --> 00:18:26.020 position:50% align:middle And I landed so low that the arresting hook, the tail hook, actually hit the back of the ship, 00:18:26.020 --> 00:18:29.420 position:50% align:middle the part that goes down towards the stern of the ship, basically. 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:33.800 position:50% align:middle And I slid into that first wire and I stopped. 00:18:33.800 --> 00:18:37.610 position:50% align:middle I actually used to do this talk with my brother sometimes. 00:18:37.610 --> 00:18:42.830 position:50% align:middle But, and this is when he would say, "Well, that's crashing." 00:18:42.830 --> 00:18:45.080 position:50% align:middle It's close, probably as close as you can get. 00:18:45.080 --> 00:18:47.100 position:50% align:middle But I stopped, raised the hook. 00:18:47.100 --> 00:18:48.770 position:50% align:middle They started taxiing me forward. 00:18:48.770 --> 00:18:53.030 position:50% align:middle I thought I was going to the catapult again to do my next arrested landing, you know, 00:18:53.030 --> 00:18:54.640 position:50% align:middle on my way to qualifying. 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:57.810 position:50% align:middle And all of a sudden, I see these guys with chains come out and they chain 00:18:57.810 --> 00:18:58.670 position:50% align:middle the airplane down. 00:18:58.670 --> 00:18:59.970 position:50% align:middle They had me shut the engines off. 00:18:59.970 --> 00:19:01.750 position:50% align:middle I open the canopy up. 00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:02.750 position:50% align:middle I jump out. 00:19:02.750 --> 00:19:06.820 position:50% align:middle The instructor that grades the landings, he's standing right there. 00:19:06.820 --> 00:19:12.980 position:50% align:middle And the first thing he says to me is, "Are you sure this career is for you? 00:19:12.980 --> 00:19:15.800 position:50% align:middle You almost crashed, scared the crap out of us. 00:19:15.800 --> 00:19:17.470 position:50% align:middle We're not letting you do this again." 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:19.980 position:50% align:middle Get back in the airplane and they sent me home. 00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:23.500 position:50% align:middle And I had disqualified the very first time I tried to do this. 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:28.720 position:50% align:middle And I get back to the beach and over the course of the next couple of weeks, 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:35.450 position:50% align:middle the commanding officer of the squadron talked to me a few times and said, you know, "You really scared us. 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:39.760 position:50% align:middle We don't want you to hurt yourself or anyone on the flight deck. 00:19:39.760 --> 00:19:42.110 position:50% align:middle We're not sure we're going to let you do this again. 00:19:42.110 --> 00:19:48.270 position:50% align:middle How about you consider flying, you know, a big airplane that doesn't land on a ship, 00:19:48.270 --> 00:19:50.100 position:50% align:middle like a cargo plane? 00:19:50.100 --> 00:19:52.980 position:50% align:middle That would probably be easier for you." 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:58.910 position:50% align:middle So I had an option, you know, try to talk them into letting me try the harder thing 00:19:58.910 --> 00:19:59.970 position:50% align:middle or do the easier thing. 00:19:59.970 --> 00:20:02.690 position:50% align:middle And I didn't know if I could do the easier thing anyway. 00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:05.590 position:50% align:middle You know, I thought, well, what if I fail at that too? 00:20:05.590 --> 00:20:09.550 position:50% align:middle But then I thought, if I'm going to fail at something, I'm going to fail big. 00:20:09.550 --> 00:20:14.580 position:50% align:middle I'm going to fail at something I think I might not be able to achieve rather than something that's easier. 00:20:14.580 --> 00:20:22.360 position:50% align:middle At least that way, I'll know what I'm capable of doing, of accomplishing. 00:20:22.360 --> 00:20:27.260 position:50% align:middle You know, I think people that are willing to take risk and fail are some of the most successful 00:20:27.260 --> 00:20:27.950 position:50% align:middle people out there. 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:34.820 position:50% align:middle You know, oftentimes when we're successful the first time, you know, it could just be, luck, 00:20:34.820 --> 00:20:35.710 position:50% align:middle maybe you don't learn anything. 00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:42.020 position:50% align:middle But when you fail, that's when you learn what you need to do to become better. 00:20:42.020 --> 00:20:46.350 position:50% align:middle Elon Musk, who, you know, I'm a fan of for certain reasons, 00:20:46.350 --> 00:20:51.450 position:50% align:middle not a fan of for other reasons, but certain reasons, you know, he has this philosophy at SpaceX. 00:20:51.450 --> 00:20:56.430 position:50% align:middle When they were going to try to land that first stage of the rocket on the ship, they weren't ready. 00:20:56.430 --> 00:21:00.070 position:50% align:middle And he says to his employees, he goes, you know, "We're going to do this, we're not ready. 00:21:00.070 --> 00:21:01.710 position:50% align:middle We're going to fail. 00:21:01.710 --> 00:21:03.100 position:50% align:middle We're going to fail big. 00:21:03.100 --> 00:21:05.030 position:50% align:middle And then we're going to learn something from it. 00:21:05.030 --> 00:21:09.060 position:50% align:middle And in the end, it's going to put us ahead." 00:21:09.060 --> 00:21:12.900 position:50% align:middle So I decided to, you know, try to convince the guy to give me another chance 00:21:12.900 --> 00:21:14.450 position:50% align:middle at landing on the ship. 00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:18.380 position:50% align:middle And he hooked…he teamed me up with a RIO, like Goose in "Top Gun," you know, 00:21:18.380 --> 00:21:20.330 position:50% align:middle the guy that sits in the back. 00:21:20.330 --> 00:21:25.560 position:50% align:middle This guy was particularly good at, you know, helping people that had trouble landing on the ship. 00:21:25.560 --> 00:21:31.920 position:50% align:middle He was actually, seemed like more of a psychologist than a back seater, really. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.240 position:50% align:middle And we practiced on land for a while. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:37.980 position:50% align:middle And eventually he says to me, he goes, you know, "You're an okay pilot. 00:21:37.980 --> 00:21:39.830 position:50% align:middle You can fly this airplane okay. 00:21:39.830 --> 00:21:46.720 position:50% align:middle But what I recognize about you is you're too comfortable with the status quo." 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:49.930 position:50% align:middle And I don't even think I had ever heard that word before. 00:21:49.930 --> 00:21:50.640 position:50% align:middle I was like, "What's that?" 00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:54.210 position:50% align:middle He goes, "You're too comfortable with, you know, how things are. 00:21:54.210 --> 00:22:00.100 position:50% align:middle You're not making at least very, very small, positive corrections all the time. 00:22:00.100 --> 00:22:04.270 position:50% align:middle And because you're not doing that, pretty soon you're going to go from being a little 00:22:04.270 --> 00:22:07.500 position:50% align:middle off altitude airspeed heading, whatever you need to fly the airplane, 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:11.670 position:50% align:middle to really far off, and it's going to make it so much harder to correct back." 00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:17.180 position:50% align:middle He taught me if you're not making very, very small, positive corrections all the time, 00:22:17.180 --> 00:22:18.680 position:50% align:middle things are going to get worse. 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:24.580 position:50% align:middle We live in a dynamic world, nothing ever stays the same in this universe, right? 00:22:24.580 --> 00:22:26.190 position:50% align:middle Things are always changing. 00:22:26.190 --> 00:22:32.790 position:50% align:middle If we're not trying to make them at least a little bit better, they're going to get worse. 00:22:32.790 --> 00:22:40.490 position:50% align:middle So I went back to the ship with this new attitude that I actually took out the rest of my career and 00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:42.420 position:50% align:middle life until…since then. 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:45.100 position:50% align:middle But I went back to the ship, and I didn't do great, but I did good enough. 00:22:45.100 --> 00:22:47.510 position:50% align:middle And I wasn't the best fighter pilot at first. 00:22:47.510 --> 00:22:53.290 position:50% align:middle But eventually, I became good enough to become a test pilot, to go to test pilot school, 00:22:53.290 --> 00:22:56.620 position:50% align:middle become a Navy test pilot, graduated from that. 00:22:56.620 --> 00:22:59.270 position:50% align:middle I was working for…as a test pilot for about a year. 00:22:59.270 --> 00:23:06.050 position:50% align:middle And one day, I'm sitting in my office at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, 00:23:06.050 --> 00:23:07.890 position:50% align:middle where we do Navy flight test. 00:23:07.890 --> 00:23:12.230 position:50% align:middle And my cube mate, another test pilot, had this big stack of papers. 00:23:12.230 --> 00:23:15.550 position:50% align:middle And I knew, you know, this isn't a flight test report. 00:23:15.550 --> 00:23:19.310 position:50% align:middle And I asked him, "Hey, what is that you're working on?" 00:23:19.310 --> 00:23:23.600 position:50% align:middle And he says, "This is my astronaut application." 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:27.930 position:50% align:middle And I had not really thought about it much actually, because I didn't feel like I was qualified, 00:23:27.930 --> 00:23:31.120 position:50% align:middle I didn't have a master's degree, I didn't have a whole lot of flight test experience. 00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:34.200 position:50% align:middle But I said to him, "When is that due?" 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:39.010 position:50% align:middle And he says, "Tomorrow, I think." 00:23:39.010 --> 00:23:44.340 position:50% align:middle And I thought to myself, you know, this might be a good opportunity, right, 00:23:44.340 --> 00:23:47.900 position:50% align:middle taking some risk and getting rejected, because I'm not going to be able to fill 00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:49.670 position:50% align:middle out an application this big. 00:23:49.670 --> 00:23:53.330 position:50% align:middle I'm going to fill out a one-pager, I'm going to send it down to NASA, 00:23:53.330 --> 00:23:55.300 position:50% align:middle they will absolutely reject it. 00:23:55.300 --> 00:23:59.300 position:50% align:middle But at least they'll will know, A, there's this guy out here that, you know, 00:23:59.300 --> 00:24:01.050 position:50% align:middle is interested in being an astronaut someday. 00:24:01.050 --> 00:24:05.770 position:50% align:middle And I figured maybe 10 years in the future I might have a shot at this, right? 00:24:05.770 --> 00:24:09.050 position:50% align:middle So I figured, never hear another word about it. 00:24:09.050 --> 00:24:16.420 position:50% align:middle My twin brother, Mark, who had a much different path into the Navy than I did, 00:24:16.420 --> 00:24:22.510 position:50% align:middle because when we were going into high school, all of a sudden, he started doing much 00:24:22.510 --> 00:24:23.470 position:50% align:middle better in school. 00:24:23.470 --> 00:24:29.490 position:50% align:middle He went from below-average student to straight A's, somehow, over the summer. 00:24:29.490 --> 00:24:31.890 position:50% align:middle Never knew how that happened. 00:24:31.890 --> 00:24:37.160 position:50% align:middle And a few years ago, I said, "How'd that happen? 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:37.880 position:50% align:middle What did you do? 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:39.420 position:50% align:middle What was your mindset there? 00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:45.200 position:50% align:middle How did you become such a great student when we were, like, this our whole lives?" 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:49.940 position:50% align:middle And he says, he goes, "You don't remember when our dad sat us down right 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:54.810 position:50% align:middle before high school and said, 'We're going to start, you know, thinking about a vocational education or, 00:24:54.810 --> 00:25:01.170 position:50% align:middle you know, some kind of alternate career path for you two guys.'" And that's what motivated my brother. 00:25:01.170 --> 00:25:09.430 position:50% align:middle And I said, I was like, "No, I don't remember that at all." 00:25:09.430 --> 00:25:12.270 position:50% align:middle Probably only because there was a squirrel running outside the window. 00:25:12.270 --> 00:25:19.760 position:50% align:middle Had it not been for that squirrel, I'm pretty sure I would have went to Harvard. 00:25:19.760 --> 00:25:27.910 position:50% align:middle In any case, my brother, Mark, comes to me and he says, "Hey, NASA called me and they want to interview me 00:25:27.910 --> 00:25:29.170 position:50% align:middle to become an astronaut." 00:25:29.170 --> 00:25:31.560 position:50% align:middle I thought, oh, how cool is that? 00:25:31.560 --> 00:25:34.180 position:50% align:middle My twin brother might be an astronaut someday. 00:25:34.180 --> 00:25:36.650 position:50% align:middle I congratulated him, wished him well. 00:25:36.650 --> 00:25:40.340 position:50% align:middle Then he asked me, he goes, "Hey, can I borrow your suit? 00:25:40.340 --> 00:25:43.490 position:50% align:middle Because, you know, I don't have a suit." 00:25:43.490 --> 00:25:44.860 position:50% align:middle He didn't own one at the time. 00:25:44.860 --> 00:25:48.710 position:50% align:middle And I guess he knew I had recently been to a wedding or something. 00:25:48.710 --> 00:25:50.160 position:50% align:middle So I loaned him my suit. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:53.670 position:50% align:middle He goes down to NASA, comes back a week later. 00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:56.370 position:50% align:middle He gives me my suit back. 00:25:56.370 --> 00:25:59.580 position:50% align:middle Then a month or two goes by and eventually, I get a call from NASA, 00:25:59.580 --> 00:26:01.600 position:50% align:middle and they want to interview me too. 00:26:01.600 --> 00:26:06.630 position:50% align:middle I'm absolutely shocked that they would call me for an interview. 00:26:06.630 --> 00:26:12.660 position:50% align:middle And I tell my brother, Mark, and, you know, he's sort of happy for me. 00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:14.050 position:50% align:middle Not as happy as I was for him. 00:26:14.050 --> 00:26:18.720 position:50% align:middle I actually think he thought I would go down there and ruin his chances, I guess. 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:25.640 position:50% align:middle But anyway, I said, you know, "By the way, you got to buy me a new suit, right? 00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:29.149 position:50% align:middle Because how ridiculous would that look, me showing up in the same clothes?" 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:39.360 position:50% align:middle I'm the guy with the gum in his mouth, by the way. 00:26:39.360 --> 00:26:44.360 position:50% align:middle But he was a cheap Navy lieutenant and he said something I'm not going to share with you here, 00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:49.990 position:50% align:middle but it basically ended up with me having to wear the same suit to the interview. 00:26:49.990 --> 00:26:54.620 position:50% align:middle Which was actually kind of a blessing in disguise because you walk into this room and there's all these 00:26:54.620 --> 00:26:59.650 position:50% align:middle astronauts there, the Chief of the Selection Board, John Young, walked on the moon, Apollo 16, 00:26:59.650 --> 00:27:03.340 position:50% align:middle First Commander of the space shuttle, all these astronauts, engineers, like, 20 people. 00:27:03.340 --> 00:27:08.390 position:50% align:middle And the way this interview works is you walk into this room and basically you just tell your story and you can 00:27:08.390 --> 00:27:14.290 position:50% align:middle kind of get to talk first and then ask you questions about what you're talking about. 00:27:14.290 --> 00:27:22.510 position:50% align:middle The first thing I say is, when I walk into the room, I go, "Bet this looks really familiar. 00:27:22.510 --> 00:27:25.580 position:50% align:middle You've seen this suit before." 00:27:25.580 --> 00:27:28.920 position:50% align:middle So I have the only suit to be selected to be an astronaut twice. 00:27:28.920 --> 00:27:36.360 position:50% align:middle As my brother points out, probably due to some kind of clerical error. 00:27:36.360 --> 00:27:43.910 position:50% align:middle In any case, in 1996, me, my brother Mark, 33 other Americans, nine international astronauts show 00:27:43.910 --> 00:27:49.840 position:50% align:middle up in Houston, Texas to learn how to fly the space shuttle, which is, without a doubt, 00:27:49.840 --> 00:27:55.500 position:50% align:middle the most challenging, complicated aerospace vehicle ever built, 00:27:55.500 --> 00:28:00.960 position:50% align:middle the most challenging thing to operate, not even the most challenging airplane, but just thing. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:03.310 position:50% align:middle It's that complicated. 00:28:03.310 --> 00:28:08.070 position:50% align:middle And I get to Houston, and you know, for a kid that probably had, you know, 00:28:08.070 --> 00:28:11.130 position:50% align:middle ADHD or something, this was not easy for me. 00:28:11.130 --> 00:28:18.590 position:50% align:middle But I worked really hard at… To compete against all these people that went to military service academies, 00:28:18.590 --> 00:28:24.490 position:50% align:middle and I went to the State University of New York Maritime College, which no one's probably heard of, but, 00:28:24.490 --> 00:28:30.000 position:50% align:middle you know, to compete with these guys from Harvard and MIT and Yale and all these places, 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.860 position:50% align:middle my strategy was just to work harder than everyone else, and that's what I did. 00:28:35.860 --> 00:28:44.080 position:50% align:middle And almost 18 years to the day of when I read Tom Wolfe's book, "The Right Stuff" at 18 years old, 00:28:44.080 --> 00:28:49.590 position:50% align:middle I'm getting ready to fly in space for my very first flight as the pilot of STS-103 mission to the Hubble 00:28:49.590 --> 00:28:55.340 position:50% align:middle Space Telescope, the first American of 35 people in my class to fly. 00:28:55.340 --> 00:29:03.040 position:50% align:middle Ten other… Thank you. 00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:05.500 position:50% align:middle Ten other pilots in my class. 00:29:05.500 --> 00:29:07.630 position:50% align:middle And this was a mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. 00:29:07.630 --> 00:29:11.950 position:50% align:middle Hubble was spinning out of control at the time, right before Y2K. 00:29:11.950 --> 00:29:20.180 position:50% align:middle And NASA actually had this come back right before New Year's Eve because they were worried if we were 00:29:20.180 --> 00:29:26.120 position:50% align:middle in space over, you know, Y2K that the computers were going to divide by zero and 00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:27.210 position:50% align:middle I don't know what was going to happen. 00:29:27.210 --> 00:29:32.790 position:50% align:middle We were going to go through a wormhole or something, end up on the other side of the galaxy. 00:29:32.790 --> 00:29:36.650 position:50% align:middle Yeah, so I flew that mission, came back from that flight, and my second flight, 00:29:36.650 --> 00:29:41.810 position:50% align:middle I was assigned to be the commander of a mission to the International Space Station in 2007. 00:29:41.810 --> 00:29:46.950 position:50% align:middle Actually, had Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup was one of our crew members. 00:29:46.950 --> 00:29:50.850 position:50% align:middle So this was the teacher in space mission to the International Space Station. 00:29:50.850 --> 00:29:53.370 position:50% align:middle You get out to the launch pad of the space shuttle. 00:29:53.370 --> 00:29:58.120 position:50% align:middle You get out there about three hours prior to launch and the space shuttle is fully fueled. 00:29:58.120 --> 00:30:02.400 position:50% align:middle That giant orange external tank, fully fueled liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:04.140 position:50% align:middle two solid rocket motors. 00:30:04.140 --> 00:30:09.780 position:50% align:middle Basically, a bomb on the top of this hill which is the launch pad ready to explode. 00:30:09.780 --> 00:30:13.440 position:50% align:middle The place is completely abandoned of people with the exception of you and your crew. 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:17.460 position:50% align:middle There was seven of us, three or four people to help us get strapped in. 00:30:17.460 --> 00:30:21.940 position:50% align:middle We get inside the space shuttle about three, three and a half hours prior to launch. 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:23.810 position:50% align:middle They strap us in tight. 00:30:23.810 --> 00:30:26.630 position:50% align:middle They bolt the hatch closed. 00:30:26.630 --> 00:30:29.560 position:50% align:middle They get away, they run away, they get about five miles away and it's just you and 00:30:29.560 --> 00:30:34.080 position:50% align:middle your crew out there on this fully fueled rocket that just seems like it's alive, 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:39.620 position:50% align:middle ready to launch off the pad and the clock is counting down towards zero. 00:30:39.620 --> 00:30:46.940 position:50% align:middle Two thousand switches and circuit breakers in the space shuttle that have to be all in the right position, 00:30:46.940 --> 00:30:51.870 position:50% align:middle all these systems, electrical systems, hydraulics, APUs that power the hydraulics, 00:30:51.870 --> 00:30:55.200 position:50% align:middle all the different engines the space shuttle has, the environmental control system, 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:59.500 position:50% align:middle the computers all have to be perfect. 00:30:59.500 --> 00:31:04.620 position:50% align:middle You know, whenever I see this picture, it kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. 00:31:04.620 --> 00:31:09.260 position:50% align:middle I was in the Cub Scouts and our den mother used to take us on field trips. 00:31:09.260 --> 00:31:13.210 position:50% align:middle And one time we go to Newark Airport to see an airplane. 00:31:13.210 --> 00:31:18.970 position:50% align:middle And I can remember like yesterday walking into that cockpit as a fifth grader looking around, 00:31:18.970 --> 00:31:25.520 position:50% align:middle seeing all these dials, knobs, levers, screens, whatever, and thinking to myself, 00:31:25.520 --> 00:31:32.290 position:50% align:middle there is no way I would ever be able to operate something like this, not possible. 00:31:32.290 --> 00:31:35.470 position:50% align:middle And a few weeks later she took us to where she worked. 00:31:35.470 --> 00:31:37.230 position:50% align:middle She worked at Burger King. 00:31:37.230 --> 00:31:42.890 position:50% align:middle She showed us the freezer, the fry machine, how they make the burgers and I thought to myself, 00:31:42.890 --> 00:31:47.700 position:50% align:middle oh yeah, I could see this. 00:31:47.700 --> 00:31:52.990 position:50% align:middle I was actually excited for working at Burger King someday, didn't...never thought about the airplane. 00:31:52.990 --> 00:31:59.420 position:50% align:middle So the clock is counting down towards zero at nine minutes, it stops, give you time to catch up if you 00:31:59.420 --> 00:32:02.270 position:50% align:middle happen to be behind in what you're doing. 00:32:02.270 --> 00:32:08.600 position:50% align:middle It's also the moment you think to yourself, man, this is really stupid, flying in space. 00:32:08.600 --> 00:32:09.840 position:50% align:middle You've never done it before. 00:32:09.840 --> 00:32:15.100 position:50% align:middle You don't know what to expect, but you can't get away, you're strapped and tight, the hatch is bolted closed. 00:32:15.100 --> 00:32:20.360 position:50% align:middle Plus, it would look really silly to be the first astronaut to ever run away from the rocket. 00:32:20.360 --> 00:32:24.260 position:50% align:middle Probably live in meme hell for the rest of your life. 00:32:24.260 --> 00:32:26.330 position:50% align:middle But the clock picks up at nine minutes. 00:32:26.330 --> 00:32:31.430 position:50% align:middle - [Man 5] [inaudible] copy, visors, and suit in two. 00:32:31.430 --> 00:32:35.790 position:50% align:middle - Six seconds, the main engine's, like, three giant main engines, a million pounds of thrust. 00:32:35.790 --> 00:32:40.140 position:50% align:middle But you don't go anywhere because you're bolted to the launch pad by these eight giant bolts. 00:32:40.140 --> 00:32:41.740 position:50% align:middle Then the clock goes five, four, three, two, one. 00:32:41.740 --> 00:32:43.450 position:50% align:middle At zero, those bolts are exploded open. 00:32:43.450 --> 00:32:44.690 position:50% align:middle The solid rocket motors light. 00:32:44.690 --> 00:32:49.390 position:50% align:middle And it feels like the hand of God is just lifting you off that launch pad and throwing you into outer space. 00:32:49.390 --> 00:32:54.780 position:50% align:middle And I know if you've seen this shuttle launch on TV, maybe in person or just here, 00:32:54.780 --> 00:32:57.670 position:50% align:middle it looks like the space shuttle lifts off slowly. 00:32:57.670 --> 00:33:02.210 position:50% align:middle When you're inside, there is nothing slow about this. 00:33:02.210 --> 00:33:04.280 position:50% align:middle You get the feeling you're going somewhere. 00:33:04.280 --> 00:33:10.420 position:50% align:middle You're not sure where you're going, but you know you're not coming back to Florida. 00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:15.150 position:50% align:middle With eight and a half minutes, you're flying around the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour 00:33:15.150 --> 00:33:16.120 position:50% align:middle in a vacuum of space. 00:33:16.120 --> 00:33:21.020 position:50% align:middle And people sometimes ask me, "Hey, what does it look like when you, like, 00:33:21.020 --> 00:33:23.970 position:50% align:middle punch a hole in the sky or fly through the atmosphere? 00:33:23.970 --> 00:33:25.060 position:50% align:middle However you want to describe it." 00:33:25.060 --> 00:33:27.010 position:50% align:middle I'm like, "I don't know. 00:33:27.010 --> 00:33:28.720 position:50% align:middle I don't know what that looks like. 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:29.590 position:50% align:middle I never looked out the window. 00:33:29.590 --> 00:33:34.300 position:50% align:middle Two flights, front of the space shuttle, launching off planet Earth, 00:33:34.300 --> 00:33:37.040 position:50% align:middle never even dawned on me to look out the window. 00:33:37.040 --> 00:33:40.550 position:50% align:middle You might wonder, well, how is that possible? 00:33:40.550 --> 00:33:44.920 position:50% align:middle Compartmentalization, something NASA taught me, the Navy. 00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:49.140 position:50% align:middle Focus on the stuff you can control and ignore everything else. 00:33:49.140 --> 00:33:51.880 position:50% align:middle And the stuff outside did not matter to me. 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:58.220 position:50% align:middle It was 2,000 switches and circuit breakers, all these systems, that is what I can control. 00:33:58.220 --> 00:34:00.830 position:50% align:middle And that's the same thing, you know, in your industry. 00:34:00.830 --> 00:34:04.680 position:50% align:middle There are things that you can control, but there are stuff like, you know, the economy, 00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:09.340 position:50% align:middle government regulations, all other kinds of stuff that if you can't have any 00:34:09.340 --> 00:34:15.010 position:50% align:middle influence on it, if it doesn't matter to your job, there is absolutely no point in paying attention to it. 00:34:15.010 --> 00:34:16.760 position:50% align:middle Even in our personal lives, I find that. 00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:21.250 position:50% align:middle There are a lot of things that happen in today's world I don't have any control over it. 00:34:21.250 --> 00:34:22.990 position:50% align:middle So why am I going to put my energy into that? 00:34:22.990 --> 00:34:27.750 position:50% align:middle Let me put my energy into something I can control. 00:34:27.750 --> 00:34:33.600 position:50% align:middle On my first flight, it wasn't until I was in space for about 20 minutes that I looked out the window, 00:34:33.600 --> 00:34:36.950 position:50% align:middle first time in space, and I said something to the commander, like, 00:34:36.950 --> 00:34:38.300 position:50% align:middle "What the…is that?" 00:34:38.300 --> 00:34:41.390 position:50% align:middle And he said, "Well, that's the sunrise." 00:34:41.390 --> 00:34:44.960 position:50% align:middle And as the sun came up, I just saw how breathtakingly beautiful our 00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:46.150 position:50% align:middle planet Earth is. 00:34:46.150 --> 00:34:50.130 position:50% align:middle Almost like someone took the most brilliant blue paint and just painted it on a mirror right in front 00:34:50.130 --> 00:34:50.780 position:50% align:middle of my eyes. 00:34:50.780 --> 00:34:56.870 position:50% align:middle And I knew right then and there, I would never, ever see anything as beautiful as our 00:34:56.870 --> 00:34:59.030 position:50% align:middle planet Earth again. 00:34:59.030 --> 00:35:05.590 position:50% align:middle On the second flight, we went to the space station, delivered some hardware, resupplied it, 00:35:05.590 --> 00:35:07.900 position:50% align:middle helped build the International Space Station. 00:35:07.900 --> 00:35:13.670 position:50% align:middle I came back from that flight, and NASA assigned me to fly what I used to call a 00:35:13.670 --> 00:35:15.620 position:50% align:middle long-duration flight of 159 days, I think. 00:35:15.620 --> 00:35:25.240 position:50% align:middle And this is when that mission was over that NASA and our Russian partners started talking about sending two 00:35:25.240 --> 00:35:28.010 position:50% align:middle people in space for a year. 00:35:28.010 --> 00:35:34.080 position:50% align:middle And somehow, they came up with me, the guy who couldn't do his homework, and a guy, Misha, 00:35:34.080 --> 00:35:39.300 position:50% align:middle that I used to call my Russian brother from another mother. 00:35:39.300 --> 00:35:42.280 position:50% align:middle Not so much recently, because he and I haven't been talking for the last 00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:42.890 position:50% align:middle year or so. 00:35:42.890 --> 00:35:47.530 position:50% align:middle He has a different opinion about what's going on in Ukraine. 00:35:47.530 --> 00:35:51.430 position:50% align:middle But in any case, we're going to spend a year on the space station because someday we want to go to Mars. 00:35:51.430 --> 00:35:53.430 position:50% align:middle And Mars is really far away. 00:35:53.430 --> 00:35:58.000 position:50% align:middle When we're in space for a long time, bad things happen to our physiology. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.700 position:50% align:middle We lose bone mass at 1% a month, and muscle mass at 1% a month if you didn't do 00:36:02.700 --> 00:36:03.360 position:50% align:middle anything about it. 00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:07.230 position:50% align:middle So, you know, after 100 months in space, you'd have no skeleton left. 00:36:07.230 --> 00:36:12.480 position:50% align:middle There's effects on our immune system, our microbiome, our vision, cognitive effects. 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:21.120 position:50% align:middle The effects of radiation that we get anywhere from 10 to 20 chest X-rays equivalent of radiation 00:36:21.120 --> 00:36:23.550 position:50% align:middle every single day. 00:36:23.550 --> 00:36:29.700 position:50% align:middle So, we're trying to understand, you know, how these effects impact our human 00:36:29.700 --> 00:36:30.030 position:50% align:middle health and physiology. 00:36:30.030 --> 00:36:34.390 position:50% align:middle Because when you get to Mars, you want to be able to work and be able to see and be 00:36:34.390 --> 00:36:35.430 position:50% align:middle able to function. 00:36:35.430 --> 00:36:43.300 position:50% align:middle But we also need to understand the procedures, the operational concepts to resupply the space station, 00:36:43.300 --> 00:36:45.750 position:50% align:middle so, you know, we're prepared to go to Mars someday. 00:36:45.750 --> 00:36:49.880 position:50% align:middle If you're on the way to Mars and the toilet breaks and you can't fix it, you're going to die 00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:51.590 position:50% align:middle from a broken toilet. 00:36:51.590 --> 00:36:57.510 position:50% align:middle So, in March of 2015, the second time in my life I'm launching in this place 00:36:57.510 --> 00:37:01.510 position:50% align:middle called Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, middle of nowhere, really. 00:37:01.510 --> 00:37:05.890 position:50% align:middle Which is a great place to be if you're launching into space for a year because you actually feel like you're 00:37:05.890 --> 00:37:08.250 position:50% align:middle already halfway there. 00:37:08.250 --> 00:37:11.310 position:50% align:middle And we get out to the launch pad, me and two cosmonauts, 00:37:11.310 --> 00:37:14.460 position:50% align:middle and the place isn't abandoned like it is in Houston. 00:37:14.460 --> 00:37:20.070 position:50% align:middle There's, like, 100 people at the base of this fully fueled rocket, all this vapor coming off of it. 00:37:20.070 --> 00:37:21.860 position:50% align:middle Fully fueled, you're trying to get to the crowd. 00:37:21.860 --> 00:37:24.840 position:50% align:middle Some of them are smoking cigarettes. 00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:25.640 position:50% align:middle Swear to God. 00:37:25.640 --> 00:37:29.490 position:50% align:middle Smokers, base of a fully fueled rocket. 00:37:29.490 --> 00:37:35.680 position:50% align:middle This is Russia after all, it kind of makes sense, I guess, in retrospect. 00:37:35.680 --> 00:37:39.720 position:50% align:middle So you want to get out of there as quickly as you can because there's an emergency escape system on the top. 00:37:39.720 --> 00:37:42.070 position:50% align:middle So I'm like, you know, let's go. 00:37:42.070 --> 00:37:43.510 position:50% align:middle Let's get up there in the elevator. 00:37:43.510 --> 00:37:45.810 position:50% align:middle Get in this rickety elevator up to the capsule. 00:37:45.810 --> 00:37:49.180 position:50% align:middle We get inside the Soyuz, and it's about as small as it possibly can be. 00:37:49.180 --> 00:37:52.950 position:50% align:middle And you can fit three grown people in there, you're elbow to elbow, your knees are up your chin. 00:37:52.950 --> 00:37:55.950 position:50% align:middle It's hot, it's loud, your visor's fogging up. 00:37:55.950 --> 00:37:59.750 position:50% align:middle There's no countdown clock in the Soyuz like in the space shuttle. 00:37:59.750 --> 00:38:05.900 position:50% align:middle After a while, some guy comes up on the radio after a few hours and just says, "Ignition." 00:38:05.900 --> 00:38:13.580 position:50% align:middle And I could just picture one of the smokers with a match lighting this cartoon rocket. 00:38:13.580 --> 00:38:18.330 position:50% align:middle Soyuz does lift off slowly, actually, but still within nine minutes, 00:38:18.330 --> 00:38:21.370 position:50% align:middle flying around the Earth at 25 times the speed of sound. 00:38:21.370 --> 00:38:26.680 position:50% align:middle It takes about six hours to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station. 00:38:26.680 --> 00:38:32.860 position:50% align:middle Another couple hours, and eventually we open the hatch, and Misha and I float through that hatch together 00:38:32.860 --> 00:38:36.620 position:50% align:middle because we're in this together as a team. 00:38:36.620 --> 00:38:42.030 position:50% align:middle Thirteen other people will come and go over the course of the year, but every day, it'll be me and Misha. 00:38:42.030 --> 00:38:45.790 position:50% align:middle And I get inside the space station, I'd been there four years prior, 00:38:45.790 --> 00:38:49.050 position:50% align:middle the place looks the same, sounds the same, smells the same. 00:38:49.050 --> 00:38:55.500 position:50% align:middle Day one of a year in space and I think to myself, man, this is a stupid thing to be doing. 00:38:55.500 --> 00:38:57.960 position:50% align:middle Spending a year in space. 00:38:57.960 --> 00:39:03.990 position:50% align:middle I mean, this is probably the only job in the world that you can't quit. 00:39:03.990 --> 00:39:06.630 position:50% align:middle I mean, you could probably quit, but you're not coming home, 00:39:06.630 --> 00:39:09.070 position:50% align:middle so it probably wouldn't matter, right? 00:39:09.070 --> 00:39:11.350 position:50% align:middle Can't call an Uber. 00:39:11.350 --> 00:39:12.130 position:50% align:middle Not yet anyway. 00:39:12.130 --> 00:39:15.440 position:50% align:middle I think someday we'll probably have Uber Space. 00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:16.170 position:50% align:middle Not yet. 00:39:16.170 --> 00:39:17.690 position:50% align:middle You might wonder what the space station is like. 00:39:17.690 --> 00:39:20.500 position:50% align:middle It's really big. 00:39:20.500 --> 00:39:22.020 position:50% align:middle Weighs a million pounds. 00:39:22.020 --> 00:39:24.340 position:50% align:middle Put it on the ground it'll be cover a football field. 00:39:24.340 --> 00:39:30.000 position:50% align:middle Got these giant solar rays that take energy from the sun and power all of our hardware on board, 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:33.350 position:50% align:middle operates all the life support systems. 00:39:33.350 --> 00:39:38.110 position:50% align:middle We take our urine on the space station, we turn it into water to then drink, 00:39:38.110 --> 00:39:41.210 position:50% align:middle then we turn it into urine again. 00:39:41.210 --> 00:39:42.970 position:50% align:middle Then we drink it again. 00:39:42.970 --> 00:39:45.870 position:50% align:middle Actually, we drink it after we turn it into water. 00:39:45.870 --> 00:39:47.470 position:50% align:middle I know what you're thinking. 00:39:47.470 --> 00:39:51.570 position:50% align:middle That guy drank his pee for a whole year. 00:39:51.570 --> 00:39:52.940 position:50% align:middle Actually, I drank everyone's pee. 00:39:52.940 --> 00:39:56.790 position:50% align:middle It's all mixed together. 00:39:56.790 --> 00:40:00.090 position:50% align:middle But it does taste better than the water in Florida. 00:40:00.090 --> 00:40:06.940 position:50% align:middle You know, some of that water we use to make oxygen through electrolysis, 00:40:06.940 --> 00:40:09.790 position:50% align:middle scrub the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, all these things we're going to have to know how 00:40:09.790 --> 00:40:12.520 position:50% align:middle to do very, very well if we're going to go to Mars someday. 00:40:12.520 --> 00:40:16.790 position:50% align:middle Like I said, if you're on your way to Mars, the toilet breaks, you can't fix it, you're dead. 00:40:16.790 --> 00:40:20.920 position:50% align:middle A broken toilet, something as simple as that. 00:40:20.920 --> 00:40:24.270 position:50% align:middle The space station has two distinct sections. 00:40:24.270 --> 00:40:27.480 position:50% align:middle It's got a U.S. side, that's European and Japanese, 00:40:27.480 --> 00:40:31.890 position:50% align:middle very open, bright, scientific modules, very sophisticated. 00:40:31.890 --> 00:40:39.200 position:50% align:middle And then you float right into the upper, the Russian segment, it gets darker, narrower. 00:40:39.200 --> 00:40:42.850 position:50% align:middle In retrospect, a little bit more sinister looking, I think. 00:40:42.850 --> 00:40:47.410 position:50% align:middle But we share the whole place, astronauts and cosmonauts. 00:40:47.410 --> 00:40:53.330 position:50% align:middle Astronauts from around the world share this whole scientific laboratory that is mostly there 00:40:53.330 --> 00:40:54.180 position:50% align:middle to do science. 00:40:54.180 --> 00:40:57.660 position:50% align:middle And the type of science we do, it's the type of science that governments can do. 00:40:57.660 --> 00:41:01.380 position:50% align:middle You know, a company wouldn't do this because the return on the investment is so far in the future the 00:41:01.380 --> 00:41:02.510 position:50% align:middle shareholders wouldn't like it. 00:41:02.510 --> 00:41:10.540 position:50% align:middle But it's stuff in biology, chemistry, physics, material science, combustion, research, 00:41:10.540 --> 00:41:12.830 position:50% align:middle and a lot of medical experiments. 00:41:12.830 --> 00:41:19.000 position:50% align:middle Like I said, the reason we were up there so long is to understand our physiology and how that's affected 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:21.670 position:50% align:middle by being in space for that period of time. 00:41:21.670 --> 00:41:28.210 position:50% align:middle And one of the experiments that got an awful lot of attention was this twin study between my brother 00:41:28.210 --> 00:41:31.010 position:50% align:middle and I, Mark. 00:41:31.010 --> 00:41:34.130 position:50% align:middle Actually, he had left NASA, so he was a volunteer. 00:41:34.130 --> 00:41:36.950 position:50% align:middle He was actually, for a while, the lowest-paid U.S. 00:41:36.950 --> 00:41:41.860 position:50% align:middle government employee as a volunteer test subject. 00:41:41.860 --> 00:41:47.740 position:50% align:middle But it was mostly a comparative study between Mark and I, mostly in genetics. 00:41:47.740 --> 00:41:54.780 position:50% align:middle What they found, interesting results, 7% of my gene expression changed while I was in space 00:41:54.780 --> 00:41:57.410 position:50% align:middle as compared to my brother, Mark's. 00:41:57.410 --> 00:42:02.550 position:50% align:middle And, you know, our gene expressions change all the time, but they thought this was particularly a result 00:42:02.550 --> 00:42:04.990 position:50% align:middle of living in that environment. 00:42:04.990 --> 00:42:11.810 position:50% align:middle Also, my telomeres and I probably don't have to explain to you guys what telomeres are, 00:42:11.810 --> 00:42:12.340 position:50% align:middle but my telomeres actually got better. 00:42:12.340 --> 00:42:20.300 position:50% align:middle And the hypothesis was they would get worse, radiation, stress, microgravity really messes 00:42:20.300 --> 00:42:21.920 position:50% align:middle with your physiology. 00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:29.300 position:50% align:middle They actually got better than my brother's did while I was in space, which is interesting results when it's 00:42:29.300 --> 00:42:31.740 position:50% align:middle completely opposite what you're expecting. 00:42:31.740 --> 00:42:36.260 position:50% align:middle And NASA actually thought, well, maybe this is due to the very controlled diet 00:42:36.260 --> 00:42:37.880 position:50% align:middle and the exercise. 00:42:37.880 --> 00:42:40.080 position:50% align:middle And that was their conclusion. 00:42:40.080 --> 00:42:45.600 position:50% align:middle But six months after I got back, we learned that the Japanese had a telomeres experiment 00:42:45.600 --> 00:42:50.320 position:50% align:middle on the space station at the same time I was there on these little worms. 00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:54.050 position:50% align:middle And their telomeres got better too. 00:42:54.050 --> 00:42:59.970 position:50% align:middle And I never once saw these guys working out on a treadmill, doing any type of exercise. 00:42:59.970 --> 00:43:02.660 position:50% align:middle So there's actually more to this than we thought. 00:43:02.660 --> 00:43:09.240 position:50% align:middle What we think is a certain amount of radiation is good for certain things like your telomere length. 00:43:09.240 --> 00:43:10.660 position:50% align:middle It might be bad for other things. 00:43:10.660 --> 00:43:13.370 position:50% align:middle Hopefully, I'll never find that part out. 00:43:13.370 --> 00:43:24.010 position:50% align:middle But the best part, maybe the only good part about having an identical twin brother is the spare organs. 00:43:24.010 --> 00:43:28.560 position:50% align:middle On this flight, I had the opportunity to go outside for the first time and do the space walk. 00:43:28.560 --> 00:43:30.190 position:50% align:middle I had never done that before. 00:43:30.190 --> 00:43:33.440 position:50% align:middle And I'll tell you what, when you open the hatch and the Earth, 00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:38.920 position:50% align:middle there's 250 miles below, and you're going 17,500 miles an hour, 00:43:38.920 --> 00:43:45.160 position:50% align:middle there is nothing more important than what you're doing right now, which is basically holding on, 00:43:45.160 --> 00:43:50.430 position:50% align:middle making sure your tools don't float away, compartmentalizing as best as you possibly can, 00:43:50.430 --> 00:43:53.900 position:50% align:middle focus on what you could control, ignore everything else. 00:43:53.900 --> 00:43:57.770 position:50% align:middle Which is really hard to do, because the Earth is spectacular looking when you're 00:43:57.770 --> 00:44:02.910 position:50% align:middle inside the spacecraft, when you're outside, order of magnitude, more impressive. 00:44:02.910 --> 00:44:03.710 position:50% align:middle Scary, though. 00:44:03.710 --> 00:44:06.710 position:50% align:middle I mean, the Earth, despite its beauty, can be scary to look at sometimes. 00:44:06.710 --> 00:44:11.680 position:50% align:middle I remember on my first flight, one of the first times I looked out the window and 00:44:11.680 --> 00:44:14.610 position:50% align:middle saw Earth, I said to one of my more experienced crewmates, I was like, "Hey, 00:44:14.610 --> 00:44:16.390 position:50% align:middle what is that film over the surface?" 00:44:16.390 --> 00:44:20.450 position:50% align:middle And he goes, "Oh, that's the atmosphere." 00:44:20.450 --> 00:44:22.200 position:50% align:middle So small and fragile. 00:44:22.200 --> 00:44:28.160 position:50% align:middle It looks like a contact lens over somebody's eye is how thin our atmosphere looks from space. 00:44:28.160 --> 00:44:34.010 position:50% align:middle Parts of the planet almost always covered in pollution, Asia, Central America. 00:44:34.010 --> 00:44:40.890 position:50% align:middle The rainforest in South America looked much different in 2016 than they did in 1999. 00:44:40.890 --> 00:44:44.130 position:50% align:middle A lot less forest, a lot more burning fields. 00:44:44.130 --> 00:44:47.700 position:50% align:middle Actually, pretty scary stuff. 00:44:47.700 --> 00:44:56.040 position:50% align:middle So on this mission, I had the opportunity to do my own experiment, I guess you could call it. 00:44:56.040 --> 00:45:00.090 position:50% align:middle And we'll just show it. 00:45:00.090 --> 00:45:02.552 position:50% align:middle And then I'll explain it. 00:45:05.152 --> 00:45:09.926 position:50% align:middle ♪ [music] ♪ 00:45:19.770 --> 00:45:23.320 position:50% align:middle So it really was an experiment just to see if NASA had a sense of humor. 00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:28.850 position:50% align:middle And they did, sort of. 00:45:28.850 --> 00:45:33.790 position:50% align:middle But actually, the reason I did that is my brother, he says to me one day, I'm talking to him on the phone, 00:45:33.790 --> 00:45:36.640 position:50% align:middle he says, "I'm sending you a gorilla suit." 00:45:36.640 --> 00:45:38.290 position:50% align:middle And I'm like, "What?" 00:45:38.290 --> 00:45:40.360 position:50% align:middle He says, "I'm sending you a gorilla suit." 00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:43.300 position:50% align:middle I'm like, "Why?" 00:45:43.300 --> 00:45:45.890 position:50% align:middle He goes, "Well, there's never been a gorilla in space before. 00:45:45.890 --> 00:45:49.230 position:50% align:middle Of course, you have to have a gorilla suit." 00:45:49.230 --> 00:45:50.150 position:50% align:middle Launches on SpaceX. 00:45:50.150 --> 00:45:52.140 position:50% align:middle The first one blows up. 00:45:52.140 --> 00:45:53.870 position:50% align:middle Talked to him a few days later. 00:45:53.870 --> 00:45:58.420 position:50% align:middle He says to me, "I'm sending you another gorilla suit." 00:45:58.420 --> 00:46:01.310 position:50% align:middle And actually, towards the end of my flight, I… This guy's a U.S. 00:46:01.310 --> 00:46:03.130 position:50% align:middle Senator now, by the way. 00:46:03.130 --> 00:46:06.110 position:50% align:middle A lot of people think he smuggled a gorilla suit to space. 00:46:06.110 --> 00:46:08.310 position:50% align:middle NASA absolutely knew it was there. 00:46:08.310 --> 00:46:13.360 position:50% align:middle What they didn't like was when he sent the video to "NBC News." 00:46:13.360 --> 00:46:18.620 position:50% align:middle My boss calls…tell…sends me an email that day, chief of the astronaut office, former Navy SEAL guy, 00:46:18.620 --> 00:46:24.750 position:50% align:middle and he says to me, he goes…he emails me, he says, "Hey, give me a call." 00:46:24.750 --> 00:46:26.980 position:50% align:middle This is the day it was on the news. 00:46:26.980 --> 00:46:29.140 position:50% align:middle He says, "Give me a call later today." 00:46:29.140 --> 00:46:36.580 position:50% align:middle And so I call him and he says, "Hey, I saw that gorilla video." 00:46:36.580 --> 00:46:39.510 position:50% align:middle And I'm like, "Yeah?" 00:46:39.510 --> 00:46:42.300 position:50% align:middle And then he goes, "What else is going on up there? 00:46:42.300 --> 00:46:45.140 position:50% align:middle Are you doing okay?" 00:46:45.140 --> 00:46:50.070 position:50% align:middle Apparently, his boss said, "Hey, you got to call him about that gorilla video. 00:46:50.070 --> 00:46:50.790 position:50% align:middle Talk to him about it." 00:46:50.790 --> 00:46:51.600 position:50% align:middle So he did. 00:46:51.600 --> 00:46:56.990 position:50% align:middle Actually, the reason I did this and show it now is sometimes, I'll go to schools and there's always that 00:46:56.990 --> 00:47:02.900 position:50% align:middle kid that's one or two kids in the back of the room that can't pay attention to anything like me, like I was. 00:47:02.900 --> 00:47:06.880 position:50% align:middle Even an astronaut in their classroom, cannot pay attention. 00:47:06.880 --> 00:47:13.410 position:50% align:middle Well, there is one thing that is impossible not to pay attention to I've learned, 00:47:13.410 --> 00:47:16.910 position:50% align:middle and that is a gorilla in space. 00:47:16.910 --> 00:47:19.310 position:50% align:middle So I use it for the kids. 00:47:19.310 --> 00:47:22.870 position:50% align:middle So after being there… You know, on the space station, we have, like, basically three different 00:47:22.870 --> 00:47:24.020 position:50% align:middle main jobs, right? 00:47:24.020 --> 00:47:29.460 position:50% align:middle You might be the commander or one of the other crew members, but basically, you're the scientist, 00:47:29.460 --> 00:47:30.110 position:50% align:middle you're the engineer. 00:47:30.110 --> 00:47:37.470 position:50% align:middle We spend about a third of our time fixing things, about a third of our time just basic, you know, 00:47:37.470 --> 00:47:43.190 position:50% align:middle taking care of the house, maintenance, about a third of our time doing science experiments. 00:47:43.190 --> 00:47:44.420 position:50% align:middle But you have to do all the jobs. 00:47:44.420 --> 00:47:46.830 position:50% align:middle I mean, the space station never comes home, unlike the space shuttle. 00:47:46.830 --> 00:47:53.130 position:50% align:middle So not only you're the scientist, the engineer, you're the doctor, the nurse, perhaps the dentist, 00:47:53.130 --> 00:47:56.280 position:50% align:middle you're the IT person, you're the plumber, the electrician. 00:47:56.280 --> 00:47:57.050 position:50% align:middle You got to do everything. 00:47:57.050 --> 00:47:59.400 position:50% align:middle You got to fix a lot of stuff. 00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:03.920 position:50% align:middle But after being there for nearly a year, did a lot of science experiments, 00:48:03.920 --> 00:48:08.060 position:50% align:middle over 400 different experiments over the course of that year, some I was very involved in, 00:48:08.060 --> 00:48:11.490 position:50% align:middle some I didn't even know what they were, but eventually it's time to come home. 00:48:11.490 --> 00:48:15.660 position:50% align:middle And me and my cosmonaut crewmates, we get two…three of us back in the Soyuz. 00:48:15.660 --> 00:48:18.760 position:50% align:middle It's small, like I said. 00:48:18.760 --> 00:48:22.870 position:50% align:middle Close the hatch, undock, get about five miles away from the space station, 00:48:22.870 --> 00:48:25.960 position:50% align:middle and we fire the deorbit engine. 00:48:25.960 --> 00:48:32.620 position:50% align:middle And it only slows us down by a few hundred miles an hour, really, of our 17,500 miles an hour. 00:48:32.620 --> 00:48:35.750 position:50% align:middle Maybe slow you down by 400 miles an hour. 00:48:35.750 --> 00:48:39.900 position:50% align:middle It's enough to get you to hit the atmosphere, and the rest of that speed is taken out by friction 00:48:39.900 --> 00:48:40.570 position:50% align:middle with the atmosphere. 00:48:40.570 --> 00:48:43.760 position:50% align:middle Similar to how the space shuttle comes home. 00:48:43.760 --> 00:48:45.780 position:50% align:middle But the space shuttle's really big. 00:48:45.780 --> 00:48:50.370 position:50% align:middle You know, when you're in this 3,000-degree fireball, it's really far in front of you or 00:48:50.370 --> 00:48:53.440 position:50% align:middle behind you, very risky. 00:48:53.440 --> 00:48:58.880 position:50% align:middle I mean, three of my astronaut classmates died on Columbia, along with four of their colleagues. 00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:04.450 position:50% align:middle But still, you know, it's more like driving a Rolls Royce down Park Avenue 00:49:04.450 --> 00:49:09.510 position:50% align:middle as compared to the Soyuz, which is a much more medieval experience, actually. 00:49:09.510 --> 00:49:13.360 position:50% align:middle When the engines shut down on the Soyuz, the three sections are exploded apart, 00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:14.260 position:50% align:middle and you're in the middle one. 00:49:14.260 --> 00:49:19.500 position:50% align:middle And pretty soon you're hitting the atmosphere, and you're in this, like I said, 3,000-degree fireball. 00:49:19.500 --> 00:49:20.880 position:50% align:middle It gets hot inside. 00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:21.860 position:50% align:middle You're sweating. 00:49:21.860 --> 00:49:24.460 position:50% align:middle The window is actually burning to a crisp. 00:49:24.460 --> 00:49:27.230 position:50% align:middle Eventually, you can't even see out of the window anymore. 00:49:27.230 --> 00:49:29.800 position:50% align:middle Your head's like right here, right? 00:49:29.800 --> 00:49:36.330 position:50% align:middle It's kind of like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but while you're on fire. 00:49:36.330 --> 00:49:40.710 position:50% align:middle And as soon as you realize you're not going to die, it's the most fun you've ever had in your entire life. 00:49:40.710 --> 00:49:46.510 position:50% align:middle Had I hated flying in space for a year, I'd do it all over again for the last 20 minutes. 00:49:46.510 --> 00:49:50.050 position:50% align:middle And the parachute opens, and you're thrown around like crazy. 00:49:50.050 --> 00:49:55.440 position:50% align:middle And then eventually, you just drift gently down to planet Earth, 00:49:55.440 --> 00:49:56.700 position:50% align:middle and then you crash into it. 00:49:56.700 --> 00:49:59.480 position:50% align:middle It's like a car crash. 00:49:59.480 --> 00:50:02.740 position:50% align:middle It's actually pretty violent, believe it or not. 00:50:02.740 --> 00:50:09.560 position:50% align:middle This is not from my landing, that inside view, but the cosmonaut had to have his spleen removed 00:50:09.560 --> 00:50:13.530 position:50% align:middle after that normal landing in the Soyuz. 00:50:13.530 --> 00:50:17.600 position:50% align:middle Russian rescue forces show up and they open the hatch, and fresh air rushed inside, 00:50:17.600 --> 00:50:23.510 position:50% align:middle and it smelled almost like the first time I had ever breathed fresh air in my entire life. 00:50:23.510 --> 00:50:26.190 position:50% align:middle So space station air is not that great. 00:50:26.190 --> 00:50:28.580 position:50% align:middle Carbon dioxide's high, smelly. 00:50:28.580 --> 00:50:34.270 position:50% align:middle Pulled me out, didn't feel great, but I had this big smile on my face. 00:50:34.270 --> 00:50:38.950 position:50% align:middle Only because I was trying to look better than the two Russian guys I was with. 00:50:38.950 --> 00:50:43.710 position:50% align:middle They put us in these chairs, take us over to this big medical tent they set 00:50:43.710 --> 00:50:48.350 position:50% align:middle up in the high desert steps of Kazakhstan, middle of nowhere. 00:50:48.350 --> 00:50:53.670 position:50% align:middle And that's when you get to see how you can walk for the very first time after being in space where people 00:50:53.670 --> 00:50:57.260 position:50% align:middle often wonder, "Hey, can you walk?" 00:50:57.260 --> 00:50:59.332 position:50% align:middle My first walking experience. 00:51:10.070 --> 00:51:12.680 position:50% align:middle I feel like Jar Jar Binks. 00:51:12.680 --> 00:51:17.300 position:50% align:middle I said, I feel like Jar Jar Binks. 00:51:18.260 --> 00:51:20.110 position:50% align:middle I guess I thought he was an astronaut too, maybe. 00:51:20.110 --> 00:51:21.320 position:50% align:middle I don't know. 00:51:21.320 --> 00:51:25.160 position:50% align:middle You know, in 24 hours I'm back in Houston, Texas after being in space for a year, 00:51:25.160 --> 00:51:27.310 position:50% align:middle and I get to see my family for the first time. 00:51:27.310 --> 00:51:29.210 position:50% align:middle In some cases, over a year. 00:51:29.210 --> 00:51:35.150 position:50% align:middle And I go to the Johnson Space Center, do some medical checks, 4:00 in the morning, 00:51:35.150 --> 00:51:37.470 position:50% align:middle I get back to my house right near the Space Center. 00:51:37.470 --> 00:51:40.780 position:50% align:middle I wasn't supposed to go home, but I forced them to take me home, 00:51:40.780 --> 00:51:45.300 position:50% align:middle and I walk in the front door, out the back door, jumped right into the swimming pool because I had not 00:51:45.300 --> 00:51:47.710 position:50% align:middle had water around me in such a long time. 00:51:47.710 --> 00:51:51.210 position:50% align:middle It's something that Misha and I both craved. 00:51:51.210 --> 00:51:52.470 position:50% align:middle Jumped into the swimming pool. 00:51:52.470 --> 00:51:53.908 position:50% align:middle There we go. 00:51:59.820 --> 00:52:03.130 position:50% align:middle Oh. 00:52:03.130 --> 00:52:06.120 position:50% align:middle Man, that feels good. 00:52:06.120 --> 00:52:11.780 position:50% align:middle It felt great for about 30 seconds and then I, like, almost went into shock even though the pool was 00:52:11.780 --> 00:52:14.870 position:50% align:middle heated at, like, 90 degrees because I had not had any kind of water. 00:52:14.870 --> 00:52:16.680 position:50% align:middle It was just…it got really cold. 00:52:16.680 --> 00:52:19.690 position:50% align:middle But I came inside the house, had a beer and an apple pie that was sent 00:52:19.690 --> 00:52:22.380 position:50% align:middle from the White House. 00:52:22.380 --> 00:52:24.770 position:50% align:middle Both made there too, even the beer. 00:52:24.770 --> 00:52:29.680 position:50% align:middle Took a shower for the first time in a year, slept in a bed, which is great. 00:52:29.680 --> 00:52:31.720 position:50% align:middle You know, sleeping in space, comfortable. 00:52:31.720 --> 00:52:35.060 position:50% align:middle I prefer the heavenly bed. 00:52:35.060 --> 00:52:38.440 position:50% align:middle All those things were great. 00:52:38.440 --> 00:52:42.250 position:50% align:middle But the best part about coming back after being in space for years is knowing I think I had done the 00:52:42.250 --> 00:52:44.510 position:50% align:middle hardest thing I will ever have to do in my life, I hope. 00:52:44.510 --> 00:52:51.540 position:50% align:middle And then be able to share that experience with my family, my friends, and you folks here today. 00:52:51.540 --> 00:52:55.750 position:50% align:middle I learned a lot in my time at NASA. 00:52:55.750 --> 00:52:58.780 position:50% align:middle Actually, let me talk about how I felt first. 00:52:58.780 --> 00:52:59.970 position:50% align:middle I didn't feel great, right? 00:52:59.970 --> 00:53:04.470 position:50% align:middle I was nauseous, I was dizzy, I was sore and stiff. 00:53:04.470 --> 00:53:10.530 position:50% align:middle I would stand up and when I would stand up, I would feel all the blood just rushing out of my head 00:53:10.530 --> 00:53:11.200 position:50% align:middle down to my ankles. 00:53:11.200 --> 00:53:13.190 position:50% align:middle My ankles would swell up like water balloons. 00:53:13.190 --> 00:53:17.600 position:50% align:middle I would go…if I didn't know what the cause was, I would immediately have gone to the emergency room, 00:53:17.600 --> 00:53:22.300 position:50% align:middle because my heart and cardiovascular system was so deconditioned. 00:53:22.300 --> 00:53:25.230 position:50% align:middle You can imagine, you know, our heart is pumping against gravity all the time and 00:53:25.230 --> 00:53:31.320 position:50% align:middle when you don't have to pump against gravity anymore, I lost 25% of my heart mass over the course 00:53:31.320 --> 00:53:32.260 position:50% align:middle of the year. 00:53:32.260 --> 00:53:34.070 position:50% align:middle Like I said, nauseous, dizzy. 00:53:34.070 --> 00:53:39.130 position:50% align:middle I was…had hives and rashes anywhere my skin had touched anything with any kind of pressure because I did not 00:53:39.130 --> 00:53:39.880 position:50% align:middle have any pressure. 00:53:39.880 --> 00:53:45.430 position:50% align:middle It was almost like an allergic reaction to pressure. 00:53:45.430 --> 00:53:47.980 position:50% align:middle Cognitive effects from being in space for a long time. 00:53:47.980 --> 00:53:52.620 position:50% align:middle There's actually one good thing that happens to us physically when we are in space for a long time. 00:53:52.620 --> 00:53:56.540 position:50% align:middle After about a few months, over the course of a few days, 00:53:56.540 --> 00:54:02.290 position:50% align:middle all the calluses fall off your feet because you're really not using your feet much anymore. 00:54:02.290 --> 00:54:05.780 position:50% align:middle Actually, kind of, it's a little gross when you take your socks off and you get this big cloud. 00:54:05.780 --> 00:54:14.690 position:50% align:middle If you're ever in space for a long time, don't take your socks off around your crewmates. 00:54:14.690 --> 00:54:16.380 position:50% align:middle Really bad manners. 00:54:16.380 --> 00:54:18.430 position:50% align:middle But eventually, you have baby feet. 00:54:18.430 --> 00:54:20.790 position:50% align:middle Like really, really soft, super soft feet. 00:54:20.790 --> 00:54:26.530 position:50% align:middle And when I was…after my first long-duration flight, no one knew I was an astronaut or anything. 00:54:26.530 --> 00:54:29.110 position:50% align:middle I go to one of these massage places because it was so sore. 00:54:29.110 --> 00:54:32.870 position:50% align:middle You know how at the end of the massage they sometimes, you know, rub your feet? 00:54:32.870 --> 00:54:37.280 position:50% align:middle This masseuse says to me, she goes, "You have the softest feet I've ever felt 00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:39.620 position:50% align:middle in my entire life." 00:54:39.620 --> 00:54:42.390 position:50% align:middle And all I said to her was, "Thank you. 00:54:42.390 --> 00:54:45.580 position:50% align:middle I'm very proud of them." 00:54:45.580 --> 00:54:48.410 position:50% align:middle Then I just left. 00:54:48.410 --> 00:54:55.580 position:50% align:middle She's probably still talking about that bald guy from 13 years ago with the really soft feet, maybe. 00:54:55.580 --> 00:55:04.050 position:50% align:middle You know, I learned a lot at NASA in this privilege of a job and a career that I've had. 00:55:04.050 --> 00:55:07.620 position:50% align:middle You know, learned a lot about diversity, right? 00:55:07.620 --> 00:55:12.180 position:50% align:middle When I was in the Navy, basically, this was not the current Navy, 00:55:12.180 --> 00:55:15.150 position:50% align:middle but the Navy in the 1990s, it was a bunch of middle-class white 00:55:15.150 --> 00:55:16.360 position:50% align:middle men flying airplanes. 00:55:16.360 --> 00:55:22.170 position:50% align:middle And it wasn't until I got to NASA that I got to work with a much, much more diverse team, 00:55:22.170 --> 00:55:26.940 position:50% align:middle people from different cultures, different countries, different languages, different educational systems, 00:55:26.940 --> 00:55:30.000 position:50% align:middle different sexual orientation, different races, basically different whatever. 00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:36.690 position:50% align:middle You know, what I learned is, when everyone's the same and has the same background, 00:55:36.690 --> 00:55:39.730 position:50% align:middle they look at things through the same lens and the same perspective. 00:55:39.730 --> 00:55:44.650 position:50% align:middle And when you have people that are different and just evolved and developed, you know, 00:55:44.650 --> 00:55:48.690 position:50% align:middle in a much different environment, they have different solutions to problems. 00:55:48.690 --> 00:55:50.410 position:50% align:middle They have different perspectives. 00:55:50.410 --> 00:55:59.250 position:50% align:middle It really was like a superpower at NASA, I think, our very, very diverse culture that we had. 00:55:59.250 --> 00:55:59.970 position:50% align:middle Learned a lot about leadership. 00:55:59.970 --> 00:56:02.950 position:50% align:middle You know, people used to say to me, "Hey, what kind of leader are you? 00:56:02.950 --> 00:56:06.090 position:50% align:middle Are you like George Patton or, you know, George Washington?" 00:56:06.090 --> 00:56:10.820 position:50% align:middle And I was like… You know, which are much different kind of extremes. 00:56:10.820 --> 00:56:13.100 position:50% align:middle And it wasn't until I left NASA that I thought about it. 00:56:13.100 --> 00:56:16.960 position:50% align:middle And for me, you know, leadership and decision-making was very much dependent 00:56:16.960 --> 00:56:18.670 position:50% align:middle on the situation we were in. 00:56:18.670 --> 00:56:24.230 position:50% align:middle You know, sometimes I would just recognize my crewmates knew more about some particular thing than I did, 00:56:24.230 --> 00:56:26.030 position:50% align:middle and I would just defer to them. 00:56:26.030 --> 00:56:28.570 position:50% align:middle And I would say, "You decide what we're going to do. 00:56:28.570 --> 00:56:30.970 position:50% align:middle You know more about this than me." 00:56:30.970 --> 00:56:36.310 position:50% align:middle You know, other times I would…you know, we would vote on things if it was really, you know, 00:56:36.310 --> 00:56:40.700 position:50% align:middle something minor that seemed like a democracy was better. 00:56:40.700 --> 00:56:48.280 position:50% align:middle You know, as the commander of four different crews in space, you know, sometimes I would just get everyone's 00:56:48.280 --> 00:56:50.340 position:50% align:middle opinion and I'd make a decision. 00:56:50.340 --> 00:56:54.800 position:50% align:middle Very rarely though, very rarely, was it the time to be the dictator. 00:56:54.800 --> 00:56:59.300 position:50% align:middle You know, one person deciding what to do and just telling everyone else. 00:56:59.300 --> 00:57:02.420 position:50% align:middle And that was always in an emergency, fire, depress. 00:57:02.420 --> 00:57:08.470 position:50% align:middle If there's a fire in space, right, you can't run out to your neighbor's house and call the 00:57:08.470 --> 00:57:09.490 position:50% align:middle fire department, right? 00:57:09.490 --> 00:57:13.740 position:50% align:middle You gotta deal with it by yourself and you can't leave. 00:57:13.740 --> 00:57:18.100 position:50% align:middle Those are the type of things that take…took that, I think, style of leadership. 00:57:18.100 --> 00:57:25.610 position:50% align:middle So for me, leadership was very much a, you know, situationally dependent thing. 00:57:25.610 --> 00:57:30.610 position:50% align:middle You know, learned a lot about planet Earth, incredibly beautiful, but also, you know, 00:57:30.610 --> 00:57:33.850 position:50% align:middle our planet has challenges. 00:57:33.850 --> 00:57:35.720 position:50% align:middle I'm a big believer in going to Mars. 00:57:35.720 --> 00:57:39.650 position:50% align:middle Unlike Elon, I don't believe Mars is a lifeboat for Earth. 00:57:39.650 --> 00:57:41.060 position:50% align:middle I don't believe we're all going to Mars. 00:57:41.060 --> 00:57:44.350 position:50% align:middle I don't believe many of us are going to live on Mars, at least anytime soon. 00:57:44.350 --> 00:57:46.710 position:50% align:middle We gotta take care of this planet. 00:57:46.710 --> 00:57:51.540 position:50% align:middle You know, sometimes people say, "Well, why don't we go to that nearest Earth-like planet, 00:57:51.540 --> 00:57:57.790 position:50% align:middle the closest one that the Kepler planet finder found, or James Webb found?" 00:57:57.790 --> 00:58:03.400 position:50% align:middle If we went as fast as we possibly could, it would take 80,000 years to get there, 00:58:03.400 --> 00:58:05.450 position:50% align:middle the closest place. 00:58:05.450 --> 00:58:11.240 position:50% align:middle The people that arrived would be a different species than the ones that left. 00:58:11.240 --> 00:58:15.380 position:50% align:middle They'd be like Gumby with really soft feet, maybe. 00:58:15.380 --> 00:58:16.790 position:50% align:middle And of course, teamwork. 00:58:16.790 --> 00:58:19.740 position:50% align:middle I mean, flying in space, team sport. 00:58:19.740 --> 00:58:27.260 position:50% align:middle And I just don't mean that your team on board, I mean everyone that supports the crew, 00:58:27.260 --> 00:58:33.580 position:50% align:middle the instructors, the engineers, the scientists, all equally as important in my mind because it's not 00:58:33.580 --> 00:58:37.870 position:50% align:middle one individual that makes anything challenging or hard happen. 00:58:37.870 --> 00:58:39.890 position:50% align:middle It is a team. 00:58:39.890 --> 00:58:44.180 position:50% align:middle So when I was leaving the space station, it's a place I've spent over 500 days of my life on, 00:58:44.180 --> 00:58:49.960 position:50% align:middle worked the majority of my working life on the ground on this program, and I'm looking out the window 00:58:49.960 --> 00:58:53.860 position:50% align:middle in my Soyuz, and I'm looking at the Truss, the part I could see out the window as we're 00:58:53.860 --> 00:58:54.480 position:50% align:middle back and away. 00:58:54.480 --> 00:58:59.830 position:50% align:middle And I'm thinking, you know, we built this International Space Station while flying 00:58:59.830 --> 00:59:05.930 position:50% align:middle around the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour in a vacuum, in extremes of temperatures of plus or 00:59:05.930 --> 00:59:11.050 position:50% align:middle minus 270 degrees, built by an international partnership of 15 different countries, 00:59:11.050 --> 00:59:14.930 position:50% align:middle different languages, different cultures, different technical ways of doing things, 00:59:14.930 --> 00:59:17.960 position:50% align:middle connecting modules together, some of which had never touched each other 00:59:17.960 --> 00:59:18.760 position:50% align:middle before on Earth. 00:59:18.760 --> 00:59:24.100 position:50% align:middle The first time these rooms are being connected, built in different countries, 00:59:24.100 --> 00:59:28.000 position:50% align:middle they're seeing each other in space, put together by astronauts and cosmonauts 00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:30.800 position:50% align:middle in these impossible-to-work conditions. 00:59:30.800 --> 00:59:36.530 position:50% align:middle The space station, this is the hardest thing we've ever done, harder than going to the Moon, in my opinion. 00:59:36.530 --> 00:59:38.940 position:50% align:middle And if we can do this, we can do anything. 00:59:38.940 --> 00:59:41.670 position:50% align:middle You know, if we want to go to Mars, we can go to Mars. 00:59:41.670 --> 00:59:46.410 position:50% align:middle If we want to cure cancer and put the resources behind it, I truly believe we can do that. 00:59:46.410 --> 00:59:51.830 position:50% align:middle You know, fix the problems with our environment, you know, challenges we have in this country, 00:59:51.830 --> 00:59:53.100 position:50% align:middle right now and around the world. 00:59:53.100 --> 00:59:57.490 position:50% align:middle You know, challenges in your industry, or even your personal lives. 00:59:57.490 --> 01:00:03.480 position:50% align:middle After spending a year in space, I was absolutely inspired that if we can dream it, 01:00:03.480 --> 01:00:09.440 position:50% align:middle we can do it, if we have a goal and a plan, if we're willing to take risks, make mistakes, 01:00:09.440 --> 01:00:14.400 position:50% align:middle at times being willing to fail, if we focus on the things that we can control and 01:00:14.400 --> 01:00:18.630 position:50% align:middle ignore what we can't, if we test the status quo and we work as a team. 01:00:18.630 --> 01:00:20.670 position:50% align:middle Because teamwork makes the dream work. 01:00:20.670 --> 01:00:22.310 position:50% align:middle We can choose to do the hard things. 01:00:22.310 --> 01:00:27.040 position:50% align:middle And if we do that, then the sky is definitely not the limit. 01:00:27.040 --> 01:00:28.603 position:50% align:middle Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. 01:00:28.603 --> 01:00:30.657 position:50% align:middle Thank you.