think about a full moon rising and when you step outside and you see that full moon and you’re being bathed in Moonlight how it makes you feel I mean we have love songs and myth and you know and poetry and you know all of these things about being Moon Struck By Moonlight and the Earth is a thousand times more beautiful more brilliant than Moonlight and a massive transformative purpose is what you’re telling the world it’s like this is who I am this is what I’m going to do this is the dent I’m going to make in the universe welcome to the mindsets and moonshots podcast today I am very excited to be welcoming a friend an astronaut a scientist an incredible woman Dr cyan Proctor she’s a geoscientist a science Communicator an artist an entrepreneur and a commercial astronaut and Dr Proctor made history last year when she became the first
[00:01:01] African-American woman to Pilot a spacecraft I was actually at her launch and it was awesome as pilot of inspiration 4 uh she is the first uh pilot of an all civilian Mission as well to take orbit around the Earth on a falcon 9 operated by SpaceX her motto is called space to inspire where she encourages people to use their unique one-of A- kind strengths and passion to inspire those within their reach and Beyond which she most certainly has done she’s also one of the Explorers club’s 50 people changing the world uh a lot more bio that we’ll get into cyan it’s a pleasure to have you here thank you thanks for having me Peter yeah no I remember being at your launch and just just the it was an a inspiring uh not just for the mission itself uh but for how the mission came together what each member of
[00:02:00] this mission of four outstanding individuals represented and we’ve got a lot to talk about um we’re here to inspire people we’re here to talk about uh the mindsets that got you to space and uh some about your moonshot so uh you know let’s just begin with a little bit about you if you don’t mind uh tell us about uh young cion growing up where did you grow up how did you get interest in space when did that space interest begin what were the seeds planted there well uh Peter I have been chasing space literally my entire life I was born on the island of Guam because my dad was working at the NASA tracking station during the Apollo missions so my family was on Guam from 1966 to 1970 so they were there for the Apollo 11 moon landing and I was born eight and a half uh months after Neil Armstrong took the those famous First Steps so I am a moon
[00:03:03] celebration baby you know and my my family we my dad left working in the space industry a few months after I was born and we moved to Minnesota and my life in snow began but um I grew up with NASA memorabilia on my dad’s office wall including this uh autograph from Neil Armstrong that my dad got because after the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home they did a worldwide tour of all the tracking stations that helped that helped with that and so when Neil Armstrong came my dad was there and um and thanked my dad for all his help and that became a family heirloom and so I was inspired as a as a young kid I I mean I loved Aviation and airplanes particularly military aircraft and so I
[00:04:00] was watching shows like baaba black sheep and building you know um model airplanes and I was in the Civil Air Patrol and I saw my ticket to the Stars through the military you know you you go to the Air Force Academy you become an F-16 fighter pilot and then you become the shuttle pilot right how hard could that be um but you know like a lot of us who have that dream of one day being an astronaut it Slips Away while we’re you know um moving towards adulthood and so for me I got glasses when I was about 15 and back then you could not um be a military Aviator if you didn’t have 2020 Vision so I was just like well I’m never going to go to the Air Force Academy I’m never gonna fly so I’ll never be an astronaut you know that was the narrative in my head and so I went off and I became a geoscientist um and I I got my undergrad in environmental science I got my masters in geology and
[00:05:00] I got my PhD in Science Education and I began teaching at the local community college in Phoenix Arizona because I went to Arizona State University and I was traveling around the world and doing you know Outreach and geoscience and all of those things and then one day everything changed when somebody said hey NASA’s looking for astronauts you should apply well and we’re going to go deep in there hey thanks for listening to moonshots and mindsets I want to take a second to tell you about company that I love it’s called levels and it helps me be responsible for the food that I eat what I bring into my body see we were never designed as humans to eat as much sugar as we do and sugar is not good for your brain or your heart or your body and general levels helps me monitor the impact the foods that I eat by monitoring my blood sugar for example I learned that if I dip my bread and olive oil it blunts my glycemic response which is good for my health if you’re interested learn more by going to
[00:06:01] levels. Linker levels will give you an extra two months of membership it’s something that is critical for the future of your longevity all right let’s get back to the conversation in the episode but let’s take it back to your childhood cuz a lot of a lot of people a lot of kids um either have a environment of growing up that is filled with inspiration or they don’t and um and I know I me it’s interesting right my my world was my dad was a doctor and it was medical memorabilia all around sort of expected to become a doctor but it was the Apollo program and Star Trek that lit my fuse and I sort of split my my loyalty between my family and uh and the higher calling of space how uh was there any pressure from your family to go into Aviation or space was that um was that self-induced along the way um you know what’s interesting is neither of my parents had college degrees and so but
[00:07:00] my dad was you know like a hidden figure he was good at math he was able to you know bootstrap his way um into NASA and and helped contribute and all of those things so for both of my parents they saw particularly my father education as the way to opportunity and so my dad was very keen on me and my siblings going to college and getting a degree in stem science technology engineering and math you know you anything else you know the Arts or something or business my dad was like no you need to get a stem degree um and and so that luckily um I was always out um curious about the world my dad encouraged me to be an Explorer he supported my love of Aviation because not my parents were like we don’t know where you know you want to be a fighter P we don’t know where this came from but you know we’re going to support that and uh and they never what I give my parents
[00:08:01] credit for particularly my dad is that he never told me I couldn’t do it I mean back in the 70s and 80s there were no female fighter pilots it wasn’t allowed in the United States it wasn’t until the 9s that women could fly fighter jets in combat and do all of these other kinds of things um and there were no black female astronauts and my dad never said you know hey by the way do you know that there’s no black female astronaut no Role Models out there but I had like you Star Trek lieutenant ohura and I saw her Nelle Nichols and I was like wow I can be her I can track Across the Universe boldly go you know yes and um and my dad watched star track with me we watched every episode of The Next Generation together um and he just supported my love of being an Explorer and um and wanting to try new things but he did he did worry that I would never like um go
[00:09:01] down the rabbit Hall rabbit hole and become you know a master of something and I do know that interesting you know let’s take a second just to the parents out there listening uh advice uh to those parents to in Inspire their kids you know because it’s It’s Tricky if you push your kids too hard they can Rebel and um but is is the piece of advice you’re saying uh to support their native um uh dreams and not tell them that something’s impossible is there anything else you want to add to those those parents no I definitely think that it is about um letting your your kid um your child just have that imagination and um and and believe that they can do whatever it is that they want to do and and a great example of this is you know I I I’m running around I’m a I’m a tomboy I’m playing in the woods and I it and it’s night early 80s
[00:10:00] and the movie Rambo comes out and I’m like oh my goodness dad I want a Rambo knife my dad did not even hesitate he bought me this Rambo knife and now if you all know Rambo this is like a 12 inch knife with a compass on the end you know and here’s I am a 10-year-old running around the woods with this Giant Knife um but my dad was like you know if if this is something that you’re interested in we will try to figure it out and uh and do it safely hopefully um but fig out uh these Curiosities and uh and I I love that my mom was a bit more cautious he kind of wanted me to wear the dresses and you know I wanted to play ice hockey on the pond with the other kids and I had to do it in figure skates versus hockey skates but uh so there was some compromise there and and let’s take the other side of the equation for kids who are in high school or early college and they their parents don’t understand their passion
[00:11:02] um and how do you how do you advise them because in there you know a lot of a lot of us and I went to medical school to make my parents happy um I’m happy I did but that was the drive it wasn’t because it was inherently what I wanted to do at the time what’s your advice to uh to young adults uh uh who are sort of at odds with what their parents want them to do you know and and that’s really tricky because you want to to you know um fulfill those those wishes of your parents and you know I was the same way with my dad wanting me to become a scientist I and I think the thing is that um it’s it’s not easy but there are allies out there for you to find people who are passionate about the things that you love to do and you know it was a compromise with my dad um I was really into movies and acting and theater and um and so and I remember when I told him well I kind of want to go off to you
[00:12:01] know California and become an actress and he was like yeah that’s not happening um and but on the other hand he supported me by doing theater and you know he’s like if you go off to college and you you get a degree in science you can take all of these electives that are in theater and stuff and you can still find that community and be a part of it and so a lot of times we have to straddle two two loves or two communities and and the thing is society expects us to pick and say you need to be this and and and put labels on stuff but humans are conglomerates we have lots of different interests and we have lots of different passions um and and you can have that you just got to be able to understand how to better time manage your your interests and your loves and I think that we don’t put enough emphasis for you know young adults on how to successfully manage your energy right um
[00:13:02] and and how you apply your mental and physical and emotional energy in different areas um in a very healthy way I I love that let’s move forward now so you’ve got this spark for Science and and space and Aviation um when did it transition from a uh like a general uh p to a purpose for you when did it when did that that inflection point occur and then connect that point to you’re being an Orbiter on the earth because that’s a beautiful Journey well you know um it it when I went to grad school I didn’t know what I wanted to do like a lot of people my dad passed away when I was 19 and he was a big um point of inspiration for me and and I was lost during my undergrad um I was just kind of going through the promotions um and I when I graduated I
[00:14:02] didn’t know what I wanted to do I had a degree in environmental science and I moved back home with my mom in Upstate New York and I became a video editor for the the news because I had done these television production and theater so I ended up um doing the news as an editor and then um one day I woke up and said I’m going to move out west to marry a cowboy and I’m going to do that by going to grad school yep that’s exactly what I told myself and I applied to grad school and I went to Arizona State University and I didn’t know what I wanted to do I just said I’m gonna you know um go into Hy hydrology and uh and then the first week I arrived they made me a teaching assistant and they gave me you know my lab manual and my schedule and they said here are you gonna go teach these lab classes and I was like I don’t even have a degree in geology okay you want me to go into this classroom and teach and I walked in and immediately I fell in love
[00:15:01] with teaching and and I knew right then that I wanted to be a college professor and I was going to figure out how to do that let me let me let me pause there one second because that’s a really fascinating situation that um that uh the idea that uh trying new things even if you don’t know that they’re going to be interesting or if they’re scary or whatever you don’t act you didn’t actually know but when you tried it it it like it fit yeah I had no idea what I was doing and that’s one of the reasons why um I try to tell young people even you know seasoned adults uh like ourselves that you know don’t be afraid to try new things and you know school is a great way to try things out um to take classes when you don’t know what you want to do going back to school opens up opportunities for you to explore different things um in in in a relatively lowrisk environment
[00:16:00] particularly going to like a community college where you know the cost to take classes and and to get become part of a community um isn’t that as much of a burden and and so I that’s why I went moved out west and went to grad school I was like I gotta find myself and I could take these classes but walking into the classroom and it was like lightning striking and I was like wow I can do this amazing I love that so what happens next so I become a college professor and I am loving it I I I’m traveling around the world um you know as a geoscientist Explorer bringing back things to my classroom I finally I got my PhD in Science Education and I um I got my pilot’s license I got scuba certified you know um just fully invested in exploring our world and then one day um it was 38 um turning 39 a friend sent me
[00:17:02] an email saying NASA’s looking for astronauts you should apply and all of sudden you know this childhood dream manifests back to me and I’m like you know the first thing in my head was like um I’m just a college professor in Phoenix Arizona they’re never going to pick me but my curiosity and my nature of exploring I opened up the link figured out wow I’m actually qualified you know NASA was looking for somebody who was highly educated had and you got extra points if you’re scuba certified if you had your pilot’s license if you had cultural experience and spoke Russian and the only thing that I didn’t have was the Russian and I got up the courage to apply and the next thing I know I went through the 2009 selection process all the way down to the yes no phone call and so I was from thousands and thousands of people I ended up one of the 47 finalists that year and they they chose n people and it was a no and
[00:18:02] um you can imagine how devastating that was to get what year is this this was this was 2009 and I was 39 years old and so you can imagine I how devastated I was to get so close to that childhood dream and it be a no and um that impostor S Voice picked up and said you know oh they found out you’re not qualified you’re not good enough and so started to change my entire entire like mindset I said okay I will go back to school and I literally I enrolled in the University of North Dakota’s um for a M’s in space studies and then I told myself I would get my Advanced scuba I would get my commercial pilot’s license and I just started like um really tearing myself inside out to fit what I thought NASA was looking for um and then I stopped and said what am I doing I’m
[00:19:01] I’m driving myself crazy um and instead of seeing that no as a negative I mentally had to change that to a positive and I said you know what I’m going to celebrate that I was almost a NASA astronaut and when I did that I said look I was almost a NASA astronaut because of the life I was living so I’m going to go back to living that life as an Explorer and an adventurer and I and I dropped all of that and I went back to my normal life and I became an analog astronaut somebody who lives in Moon and Mars simulations for months at a time and that’s how I moved forward past that so I love this first of all the voice in your head the impostor syndrome is very powerful and it can devastate you and it’s so important to to recognize that and to you know to squelch that and for people who have that who have a big
[00:20:00] dream but they’re internal saying H you know you’re never going to make it this is not you know you’re you’re faking it and so forth what’s any advice for overcoming that imposter syndrome yes you know I have uh suffered from imposter syndrome my entire life it’s not something that goes away uh but you learn tricks to be able to combat it so that you can move forward in a healthy productive way and for me it’s you know my dad’s voice kind of comes back into play and you know what would my dad say he would say don’t talk yourself out of opportunity let somebody else determine whether or not you’re qualified you know go for it you know put your name out there and so a lot of times when that voice Creeps in you know I take a pause and and I have this conversation with it like okay where’s this coming from because Norm most of the time it’s fear-based you know you don’t want to get hurt in some way you don’t you know you’re worried about the risk um that’s involved but when you start to rationalize what the risk is and for me
[00:21:00] with the 2009 astronaut selection process I told myself you know well what a what the heck do I have to lose if if it’s a no in the end you know I’m still back where I was before I’m not losing anything um even though it was devastating to have that no come and that voice rear up again just to get me to apply I had to have that conversation and then once I got that no convers that no that voice read it up again and I had to you know go through that situation of um you know trying to get out of that rabbit hole because I spiral down that rabbit hole because of that no and I clogged my way back out um by reframing you know um the hurt that came from that no into a positive so beautiful let’s continue your journey so it’s 2009 uh you almost become an ass asra which is heck of an achievement I don’t think people realize your chances I mean I did the math when I was in
[00:22:01] medical school and never applied because I like there’s just no way and so I stopped myself right then but you know I I took that and flipped it into I’m going to invest my time and energy into driving commercial space um to open up and and that you know led to to X prise and the other other companies but and so it’s how do you it’s you flip that as well and I I just want to you know give people that that uh sort of Jedi Mind Trick if you would yes yes um the ability to flip and so once I did um you know that mental um Jag jog to the left right um that was needed and then the next thing that came along was in 2013 there was a announcement that NASA you know they were looking for um this NASA funded mission to go live in the high seas habitat as the first crew for four months to investigate food strategies for long duration space flight and I thought you know if I can’t you know be
[00:23:01] an astronaut out you know Among the Stars I can at least Advance human space flight here on Earth so I applied and I got selected and so I I was part of the very first crew to live in the the high SE habitat and it was for four months this was this wasn’t underwater or on the water this was on land on the big island of Hawaii and it sits about 8,000 ft and it was this new analog site um that was funded by money from NASA and and so because of that I fell in love with being an analog astronaut and so I lived in the high SE habitat we lived in at Mars desert research station um lunaris habitat and um and so I was doing these things now what’s interesting is that by the time 2019 comes along and um NASA puts out a call for astronauts again and um now I’m 49 9 years old and you know my friends are
[00:24:00] like NASA’s looking for astronauts again are you going to apply are you going to apply and as you become seasoned you know a little bit older your chances of becoming selected as a NASA astronaut dwindle particularly as a female and I was like no I don’t think I’m gonna make it as a NASA astronaut anymore but one day maybe commercial space flight uh I never gave up hope and I was I would say it kind of jokingly like oh well maybe one day you know commercial space light I will be able to go and uh achieve this dream not realizing it was literally around the corner yes yes not g you know there’s a there’s a great saying and I’m going to butcher it which is you know uh luck is being prepared and Lasting long enough it sure is and you know and I definitely had that that idea of um preparation and persistence you know um along with hope uh and so having
[00:25:01] preparation by you know becoming a geoscientist and education and analog astronaut and just always trying to look for new opportunity to advance myself and then um uh perseverance you know when you get the nose being able to have that grit and determination to move forward yes Martine rothblat who’s a dear friend know love Mar yeah she’s awesome oh we’re good we’re friends yeah and and one of her her saying is that I I love is no every no is a step closer to yes I have great friends because they always find opportunity and send it my way because they know I will apply one of the advantages of letting the world know what your moonshot is one of the advantages of letting your friends and family know secretly what’s in your heart what you desire more than anything else in the world is you create an army of scouts out there looking for things that can support you so I just I want everybody remember that yeah I I talk to a lot of kids about what I call science
[00:26:01] of opportunity how to manifest opportunity and it is absolutely what you just said people need to know what you’re passionate about um so that when that opportunity comes they think of you and so for the NASA astronaut selection process somebody sent it to me the high seas habitat somebody sent it to me um and the same with the inspiration for Mission it was announced during the Super Bowl that they were looking for people to be a part of the all civilian mission to orbit and I don’t have a TV so I didn’t watch the Super Bowl but boy I can tell you my friends were on it they were like you know you gotta donate the St dude Children’s Research Hospital you can win a seat to space and so I looked it up and I was like oh okay there’s this generosity seat and and so I donated to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital because inspiration 4’s um main goal was to do the largest fundraiser in St Jude’s history which was $200 million
[00:27:01] raise and so I donated but then I was on Twitter and you know you can people can love or hate Twitter but boy Twitter has opened up um magical opportunities for me and I noticed somebody posted a video about inspiration 4 and I was like what and you know they’re talking about the prosperity seat and I’m like there’s another seat and so I I did some digging and sure enough there wasn’t just one seat but was two seats and if you opened up a shift for shop which was uh my commander Jared ISAC man’s platform and created a twom minute 20 second Twitter video expressing why they should take you to space you could win the prosperity seat and oh boy there was some impostor syndrome in that but I um because during covid I became a space artist I decided that I was going to apply for the prosperity seat as an artist and a PO and I created an original poem yeah I
[00:28:01] created an original poem called my space to inspire or space to inspire and I read that as my entry as to why they should pick me and um and I I dropped the the um poem three days before the contest ended now oh wow yeah keep in mind part of the contest rules was that you had to go viral and one of the reasons why I had impostor syndrome was because I looked at who had entered and there were people with like you know a half a million followers there was somebody that had like five million YouTube followers who submitted videos I’m like oh my goodness I only have like 6,000 people following me on Twitter and and but I put it on and in three days boy I rallied Twitter and I got 70,000 views in three days and that was enough to get on the judge’s radar and then um I I won the prosperity seat how many how many Twitter followers do you have now I have oh good question about 70,000 Twitter followers now right so a 10x
[00:29:01] that’s great so an amazing story I love the fact that your friends and your community were the ones who sort of like came in and and in reinspect you didn’t go as a scientist you went in the realm of a a poet and an artist completely different from what you had spent 20 years and that’s just continuous growth is awesome awesome um what was the inspiration for a mission you want to just talk a little about the frame of that and and Jared yes so um my commander Jared isaacman amazing human being um he’s an adventurer uh and whenever he does something uh you know that’s unique um and uh inspiring he always you know attaches a charity to it and and so when he decided that he was going to do this all civilian mission to orbit him and his team were really
[00:30:00] thoughtful about how to put it together and so they they came up with this this idea of four pillars um because there’s four seats on a Dragon capsule and so the four pillars are leadership and he took the leadership um pillar as the commander and then he you know the choice of um charity it was is St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and he had the foresight to say I want to fly a Childhood Cancer Survivor to space and um and we’re going to call that the Hope seat you know so what more does a child need who is going through battling cancer than hope hope for a better tomorrow and that’s how they found my crew member Haley Arsenal Childhood cancer survivor at the age of 10 and L St Jude so much she went on to become a physician assistant at St Jude so she works there right now um helping kids get through their cancer um and so she got the Hope seat and then the other two were the giveaway seats um the
[00:31:01] generosity seats where if you donated to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital your name could literally be pulled out of a hat and then the prosperity seat where if you showed your entrepreneurial spirit and created that video expressing why they should choose you you could win that seat and the four of us came together in March of 2021 at the end we announced the end of March 2021 we announced to the world um that we were a crew and that we were going to space literally not about six months later incredible that was just just one of the most extraordinary missions um by the way I did put in a large amount of donations as well for that generosity se but for people who don’t know St judees is an extraordinary um philanthropy other than x prise it is and first robotics it’s the philanthropy I I my family support the most it goes uh to supporting uh the health care and
[00:32:01] treatment of children who’ve got cancer who can’t afford it and what makes St Jude so special is when you uh when you go there as a patient you never get build it’s all for free and you know yeah please oh I asked Jared um once you know why you know why St Jude and you know when he was saying how well you know he was debating between him and his team make a wish in St Jude um and make a wishes for kids who are you know have been diagnosed with you know they’re at the end stage of their cancer and um and and then you know and this is what I love about Jared is that he just is so thoughtful and he thought to himself well if I can help end Childhood Cancer then we don’t need make a wish and he said you know let’s let’s end Childhood Cancer and so he decided that he was going to put all of his effort toward that and and I just think um how thoughtful that is um because he could have just taken his friends you know he could have bought out the Dragon capsule
[00:33:01] and said I’m going to fly my friends to space but instead he said this is a first we’re going to do it right and this is how I want to set up this Legacy yeah um I’ve known Jared for 20 years uh I knew him when he was flying a Mustang around the world a little you know four seed aircraft and uh he’s brilliant he’s a sweetheart man just a a beautiful soul and very successful in the financial World which gave him his capital and he actually bought this Miss he paid for the entire private mission to orbit and then gave away the seats you’re right he could give it to his friends he could have sold the seats he could have done anything but no he Ser in service of humanity huge heart let’s talk about the mission when did it launch how long are you up there what was it like well I got to tell you the day I found out that I won my seat which was March 7th I’m going to be celebrating that every year for the rest of my life um uh Jared you know I got on Zoom I didn’t know and it was Jared and his um the mission
[00:34:01] director kid were on there and I’m like hi Jared and he’s like you know and Jared doesn’t beat around the bush he’s like um yeah I want to let you know that um we picked a winner and it’s you and you know that’s the Willy Wonka moment you’re like oh my God what um and then the next thing out of Jared’s mouth was basically and you know I think you should be my mission pilot and I’m like say what I’m like wait wait what um and and it was this kind kind of like lightning strike twice moment where Not only was I going to be an astronaut but I was also now going to be the pilot of the spacecraft you know those two dreams as a kid of being a pilot and an astronaut coming true in one stroke and um and so the next six months I spent training and then on September 15th we launched into orbit for three days amazing amazing how would it feel like what was the ride on the Falcon 9 and dragon like was it smooth was it rough
[00:35:01] no it was smooth you know and I was expecting like kind of what you see in the movies where they’re you know kind of being jostled around a lot but you know Jared and I both had a task you know as a p Mission pilot I was laser focused on my screens um and making sure that the flight computer was doing what it was supposed to be doing and just giving Jared’s situational awareness um just in case something went wrong and I don’t you know discre wasn’t shaking I had no problems with like you know um that ride but a lot of times people are asking me like well what did it feel like I’m like well I was so focused that you know I was because I I wanted to make sure that I did my job and I did it well particularly as a black female in a first you know you want to make sure that that you keep that door open um for those to follow behind you and um but I can tell you the re-entry back to Earth man that was a ride because um going up was pretty smooth nothing went wrong
[00:36:01] everything just it it it happened just like we were trained in the simulator um we actually joked because when we were going to simulator training uh which was very intense 99% of the time we never did a normal one there were always alerts and things going wrong because they wanted to make sure that we could be trained on any scenario and the SpaceX team that’s supporting us could also be trained for any scenario so we do these simulations that are like in real time um and neither the crew nor the um you know Mission Control know whether or not there going to be alerts going off and so we you know we were always dealing with alerts so to have one go you know go our actual Mission lift off and go and make it to orbit with nothing going wrong we’re like wow this is great you know um but re-entry back into um the Down to Earth was wow that is intense
[00:37:00] because you hit that you hit the atmosphere like a bullet and you’re used to being weightless and I remember we got to about three G’s and Harley goes oh what is this as we felt the pressure on our chest because of that elephant starting to sit down on us and snuggle in and by the time we got to a sustained 6GS you know you’re pressure breathing going okay this is cool six G six the gravity of Earth on you it’s like having it’s like having a 600 pound person on your chest it is and but we we were trained for it um and uh and and it just everything about that experience was magical and amazing and I’m so filled with gratitude I I’m so thankful that you went because it’s a beautiful it’s it’s a beautiful model for uh giving others hope for their dreams right it’s that’s it’s everything um I want I don’t
[00:38:02] want to spend too much more time on this but I have to ask you your top three moments in orbit and what was it like to be in the Koopa and what was the Koopa there which I was excited about you know um my top three moments are um well it it’s definitely getting to the point where we were strapped in and ready to go and I remember you know when we get down because a mission can get scrubbed and a lot of times they do because of just various reasons and you’re you’re strapped in and you’re so excited and um everybody’s watching and uh and it’s counting down and you get to 10 minutes and you’re like I think we’re gonna do this you know and then you get to two minutes and you’re like oh right we’re gonna do this and I was people asked me was I ever afraid and I told them no because I I was afraid that the something would go wrong before I got the opportunity to go to space um you
[00:39:00] know it was covid we couldn’t get covid we I mean SpaceX literally said you get sick during you know quarantine or covid we’ll fly sandbag in your spot you’re like oh my God don’t fly the sandbag um and you can’t get hurt and you have to qualify for the seat even though I won it SpaceX was like yeah you won your seat but you got to qualify if you don’t qualify for the mission pilot seat we’re not going to send you you know so there’s all these stressors um that you have to get through and then by the time we got down to that you know 10 3 2 one I was so happy it was actually going to happen yes that we were lifting off so that was one of my most joyous moments and then um um when we opened up the Ford hatch to the kPa um and we’ll talk about that in a minute what that is that was just the most beautiful magical moment and um absolute that’s my absolute favorite moment of the entire space flight and then then splashing down splashing down was my Phoenix
[00:40:01] Rising moment my becoming moment it was like I did it you can’t take it away from me you know like I beautiful just so happy that um the hero’s journey was was complete it was yeah so most human SpaceX missions have been going to the space station go to orbit um you dock with the space station and you go and you’re inside the space station um and this one was different um and you had an added benefit of a a large viewing Port called the Koopa so explain that please yeah you know I love SpaceX because um they said yeah you’re not docking to the International Space Station we did what was called a free flyer Mission and they said you know since you’re not docking how would you like you know a giant window at you know where you normally dock to the international space station under the nose cone through what’s What’s called the Ford hatch and of course we’re like
[00:41:02] uh yes please create this giant window and I got to give them credit because in a very short amount of time they you know created and um and space rated the Koopa which is a giant Dome um window so it’s Dome shaped and nothing but um a viewing portal so you can slide up into it and have this amazing view of our planet um and to give you some context there’s no orientation in space um so you know you there’s no up or down or anything but our our spacecraft was pointed down at the Earth so when you went up in the coupa sit at the top of our spacecraft so the KOA the window was pointed down at our planet um but for me um because I was looking down that was that was up to me so the Earth was above me when I would slide SL into the Koopa and and I just remember was opening the fort hatch
[00:42:01] and we just got flooded with Earth Light um the reflected light from our beautiful gorgeous planet and when we slid up there for the first time I was one of the first people to go up there because I had to do this task and I was just like oh my goodness this is amazing you could see the entire circumference the sphere of the Earth because the size of the window we were in and how high up we were none of us expected that arguably you had a much better view of the earth than anyone on the space station did yes because we were higher yeah and and also the uh the large volume of the Koopa allowed you to to not just put your face up against a flat window so you prob you probably have the best view of any space astronaut other than those who went on a spacewalk um that’s awesome that’s absolutely true
[00:43:00] and you know and I wasn’t you know when we talk about the overview effect um what I wasn’t prepared for even though I’m a geoscientist and I know that the Earth has a high reflectivity I was not prepared for Earth light oh my goodness wow there was a book written a book written in the 1980s uh again someone who I knew well Frank White who wrote a book called The overview effect and and Frank had gone and interviewed astronauts uh who had been to space and the commonality independent if you were back then a Soviet cosmina or a European spasa or us astronaut it was seeing the Earth Without Borders it was spaceship earth it was a a beautiful sort of psychological impact that one had so that’s what is called the overview effect and it’s uh it’s still persistent yeah and I just want to say that I think you know a big component of the overview effect why we have trouble reproducing that here on Earth when we show somebody a photo from that same vantage point of
[00:44:00] our beautiful planet they don’t get that same sense and I believe it’s because of Earth Light um and the reason why if you think about Moonlight think about a full moon rising and when you step outside and you see that full moon and you’re being bathed in Moonlight how it makes you feel I mean we have love songs and myth and you know and poetry and you know all of these things about being Moon Struck By Moonlight and the Earth is a thousand times more beautiful more brilliant than Moonlight and when I was up there floating in the kubala and being bathed in Moonlight I mean in Earth Light um it was transformative and I think that there’s a key there just the way you know that reflected light impacts you um and the psychology of that experience that’s that’s gorgeous hey everybody I hope you’re enjoying this episode I to tell you about something I’ve been doing for years every quarter or so having a FLOTUS come
[00:45:01] to my home to draw Bloods to understand what’s going on inside my body and it was a challenge to get all the right blood draws and all the right tests done so I ended up co-founding a company that sends a fonus to my home to measure 40 different biomarkers every quarter put them up on a dashboard so I can see what’s in range what’s out of range and then get the right supplements medicines peptides hormones to optimize my health it’s something that I want for all my friends and family and I’d love it for you if you’re interested go to myli force.com back/ Peter to learn more let’s get back to the episode I want to bring us back to our mindsets uh how do you define the difference between a passion and a purpose cion you know I think um when it comes to your something that you’re passionate about um it’s something that you enjoy doing but it’s not something that you’re you have an
[00:46:03] innate drive to have to fulfill and and and I think purpose when you find your purpose um there is something that is deeper that is calling you to continuously come back to this right um that you’re like no no you know because there’s a lot of things that can distract you there’s a lot of um especially when it comes to passions as you learn new things and meet different people you can have these passions that that pop up um but purpose is persistent purpose is driven um and and when you know and a lot of times when we talk about finding our purpose and and it was funny because the reason why I chose and you can have purpose I think for different stages of your life um I I believe when I walked into the classroom and I became you know I and as a TA I found purpose as a teacher and I
[00:47:01] followed that for 20 plus years you know educating people about geology and sustainability um but when I in 2020 during lockdown when I became an artist and a poet I found my authentic voice and I found a new form of purpose and that is one of the reasons why I chose actively to apply for the prosperity seat as an artist and a poet because it wasn’t definitely not the sure bet you know especially since I was only an artist and a poet for a year interesting yeah but that’s that that level of authenticity is a really powerful message here because you could have tried to fake it as a scientist or would some other field that had a higher probability cuz I agree applying for uh for that seat on the inspiration for a mission as a artist and a poet where you’ve been that for just a short period
[00:48:00] of time would have been a much riskier bet but it was authentically you it was absolutely authentically me um you know at 50 I found my voice I was labeled early as not a good writer you know and that um and that has kind of been a a psychological barrier uh and um and then you know and and and you know as kids you get tracked as you know your stem or your arts and you know and so early on I got tracked to the stem side but I was always looking at the people at the art side and just thinking oh I have no Talent I’m not I I I can’t do art I’m not an artist I can’t do any of that and you get these labels that you put on yourself and then being in covid we found ourselves in a very stressful situation living at home I was going through my marriage was breaking up and um and you know there was all this uncertainty and some people turned to baking and others to cooking and others to you know
[00:49:00] musical instruments and stuff and I decided that you know I wanted to spread joy to people and I was sending out postcards of scientists and somebody said well where’s your postcard I want to see your original art and I said in my head I’m like I’m not an artist and then I thought or am I and so I started off easy with collage Arts because I was like well I can’t paint or draw I will cut things out and stick them together make pretty things and I did and people loved it so then I thought oh well maybe I can paint and so then I started painting and then I started um doing you know online drawings and it and as I did that and shared shared this with the people around me and got feedback and and love and support um that’s what you know and and my art goes with poetry when I do a piece I wrote write a poem about it and and that just fueled me and I was like this is the happiest I’ve ever been I got into flow when I did Art
[00:50:00] I reached flow states where hours would just pass and I’d just be so um happy and just um just within at the the moment and um and I I’ve just loved it ever since so when you’re when you’re guiding someone to find their purpose uh one hint then first of all what we just summarize is like is it authentic for you yes and the second thing is you know do hours pass are you in flow is it joyous and and effortless those are the hints that you found your purpose oh yeah absolutely you know I found myself just and and and I wasn’t creating art and um and poetry for others I was creating it for myself I was Finding so much joy in the um the exploration you know when we talk about being explorers you know we often talk about exploration for human it discovering something new for Humanity but exploration is really personal it’s about discovering
[00:51:00] something new for yourself and and I was in such Joy at the explor explorative process of learning about art and poetry um and and then being able to express things that I couldn’t say for 20 years as a black female feeling you know um that I couldn’t you know express myself properly for fear of lashback and rejection and all of these things um and then I could but I could express that through ART and poetry so it was this new kind of like breath of fresh air to let out all of these things that I’ve been thinking about um in this new creative way I want to hit on something that uh you said earlier and talk about a curiosity mindset for a moment um you know I want to go back to the conversation around you entering the classroom as a TA and and heading towards a professorship and discovering that
[00:52:02] purpose that you would not have otherwise discovered had you not been thrust into that situation and then discovering your your passion turned purpose in art because of the covid lockdown um I want to hear your thoughts around having a curiosity mindset and how that Curiosity mindset can lead to discovery of purpose oh I believe that wholeheartedly um you know when you have uh a curiosity mindset what it does is it enables you to get past the fear the Curiosity overcomes the no I can’t do this because you know um and and those examples are when they handed me that that um lab book and my schedule and said yeah you’re going to go teach and I didn’t I didn’t even have a degree in geology I’m like wait well you know I only took one class in geology right um and I was like uh okay okay but I was
[00:53:02] curious enough and uh to be able to go and say okay I’m GNA figure this out because curiosity is about figuring out things that are happening around you or things or challenges that you have to take on and and so I was like okay I’m going to figure this out and then when it came to you know but that’s an that’s a situation I was thrust into and and to some extent um you know I also put myself in the position to be thrust into that by applying to grad school and you know wanting to be you know the funding to be able to afford it and all of those things and and then co uh you know covid none of us had this this choice but we had to you know you had to figure out how what is your coping mechanism and um and opening up that again that Curiosity box and saying okay you know let’s try
[00:54:00] something new here what is it what am I feeling what’s calling me you know um and and being able to embrace that and um move forward with that Curiosity and a lot of people it’s like Alice in in Wonderland a lot of people like well why would you go down the rabbit hole you know or or Neo are you gonna take the red pill or the blue pill you know and a lot of us have that safety mechanism of that fear of change or the unknown but boy Curiosity has opened up so many doors for me go down the rabbit hole I love that I love that message you know the opposite just to to structure it is if you don’t embrace your curiosity mindset if you don’t take risk what’s the result of that oh it you know I think you will end up with a lot of um sadness and regret and I’ve seen it you know um particularly as you get older and you see um friends or family members um who you know may be suffering in some
[00:55:02] ways with depression um and um kind of that loss you know they they retire after a career that’s been you know doing kind of the same thing for 30 years and and and they have this kind of like loss because you say well what are you going to do in retirement and just kind of like well I I don’t know you know um because along the way you know that child curiosity of diving in has kind of been faded or or beaten out of them um and and their ability to imagine possibilities are no longer there and and and it just makes me so sad um when I see that uh and that’s why you know you try to get kids to invest in lifelong learning and that Curiosity never ends um you know it’s from it’s from Cradle to grave yeah I I let’s let me put an exclamation point on that you know the Curiosity mindset is valid through the entirety of your life and it I think is tied to being alive if you
[00:56:02] stop being curious if you stop asking why if you stop trying new things if you growing then it’s a message the universe to stop life yeah you know I and and our world is so amazing in so many ways amen yes people wake up this is the most extraordinary time ever to be alive it is I mean it is a is literally a Willy Wonka um our Starship Earth is a a magical experience all around you every single day and you know and again I I I just can’t express enough to anybody that’s listening that exploration and curiosity doesn’t have to be for others it’s for you and your own Discovery and your own Joy I had a conversation with uh another uh great amazing writer and podcaster uh Tim Tim Urban who he said you know uh taking risk is is critical
[00:57:01] for finding your purpose right and he said it beautifully here where passions come and go they take you in different directions but when you find your purpose you lock in and if you’re not exploring and you’re stuck in the experiences you have then how could you possibly find something else right so it’s the it’s that uh curiosity that says let me try that try that and try that and it’s interesting right you might never you think you know what you want to do but you’re locked into the experiences you have until you try a multitude and then oh my God this is really fun I never thought of myself as a teacher or an artist or an astronaut which you have for many years but that’s awesome well I gotta say you know um one of the things that we we don’t talk about too when we’re when we’re willing to take risk and opportunity is the ripple effect because boy boy I tell you
[00:58:00] I I am blown away by how I will take that risk and I will try something new and as a result it creates this new Ripple of opportunity that I never would have imagined you know it opens up new uh you know I meet new people and as a result of meeting new people I find out about new things and then when I find out about new things I get new opportunities and suddenly I am just like in this whole new realm um and you’re just like wow how did I get here and and but there there are the breadcrumbs and each those breadcrumbs it’s literally like throwing a rock into a a pond you know except for you throwing it out to the universe and there literally is a vibrational Ripple impact that goes out and pops up all of these new opportunities as a result of that first you know um step into explor ation and you know curiosity and doing uh something new yeah that’s that’s
[00:59:01] beautifully put do you have a way of describing your purpose today yes you know what is that I I’ve been a a geoscientist um I’ve been in love with our planet you know my entire life I I love looking at Maps as a kid and trying to figure out where I am and you know just exploring the skies above and the ocean below and and uh and the land and and but I’m very passionate about how we come together uh and create you know what I call a Jedi space just Equitable diverse and inclusive space for all of humanity and and when I think about what unites us because I you know I have this social um idea of a Jedi space but then as a scientist looking at you know climate change and some of the wicked problems that we have you know and how do do I unite Us and how do I you know um take this experience of you know seeing our planet from this
[01:00:01] perspective and uh and then I decided that you know we’re United under one sky and one by one ocean so I’m starting a nonprofit called one sky one ocean and it’s to um bring awareness um and build community around that idea that we are connected um by what we’re doing when we look out to the stars and what we’re doing and how we’re solve as solving for space also solves for Earth and then you know when we’re thinking about solving for Earth um you know the number one thing is that we live on a water world and our oceans are precious and our hydrologic cycle is the the engine that drives you know uh pretty much everything uh on our planet and so I want to bring that message to the world yes and let me just I want to slow it down for folks Jedi space is just Equitable diverse and inclusive and it’s
[01:01:01] you know that is you in so many ways it is it is beautiful and yeah can I read my poem my winning poem I would love to I was I was gonna leave that for for the end but we’re close to it so yes I would love to hear your poem and then I want to hear where people can go to follow you on on Twitter and get involved in what you’re up to yes please I would love to I’d be grateful for um this poem um won me my seat to space and I got to tell you um I was mulling over like what am I going to do how you know for my video to win the prosperity seat and then in the middle of the night it just kind of hit me that I wanted to write this poem and it just flowed out of me and it’s called space to inspire you’ve got space I’ve got space we all have space to inspire that’s why we dream of going higher and higher but what is space if you can’t breathe let’s stop sucking out the air of our
[01:02:01] Humanity we have a moment to seize the light Earth from space both day and night we have Jay for justice to ignite the Bold we have e for Equity to cut past the old we have D for diversity to end the fight we have eye for inclusion to try to make it right a I space to Rally behind a universal Force so big it binds inspiration to change the world A New Beginning for us to hold it’s not about you it’s not about me it’s about space to inspire for all of humanity science technology engineering and math sending us out on the Explorers path but don’t forget the Arts the heartbeat of time consider sending a poet who who knows how to rhyme so let us drop the mic and close the capsule door but
[01:03:00] please make sure Dr Proctor on board my space to inspire is what we need inspiration for for all of humanity a it’s beautiful thank you thank you for that it’s and when it’s right it’s right and when it flows and it’s right it flows out of you it’s effortless right you’re absolutely inflow and it’s effortless and uh so beautiful I I love the the path it’s it really is because I I love the writings of Joseph Campbell um and it’s a hero’s journey facing your own fears and taking your own path um against the odds which makes it that much more exciting for everybody to follow um if you were going to say uh you’ve had a moonshot and uh that you will have other moonshots in your life um I want to ask you about that and then we’re going to close out I’m going to be asking you uh if you were going to have
[01:04:01] the ability to Define an xprize that was going to be funded you know a a a goal that uh the world should try and achieve a measurable goal I’m going to come back to that in a minute just giving you a little bit of advanced warning uh but uh your past moonshot uh how would you define your your last moonshot that you took and where do you want to go next you know um becoming an astronaut moonot in itself it’s it’s a moonshot um and and you know it was one of those things where um I felt driven you know like I said I was chasing space my entire life um and to and to help manifest that um into a reality um and and to do it in a way that you know I never would have imagined as a kid um it just it it makes it so special and and
[01:05:02] and what I want people to know is that you know don’t give up hope you know you have these childhood dreams don’t give up hope um even as a seasoned individual you know don’t give up hope because you know live that life all the way to the end um because you just don’t know when that moonshot is going to be there um for you to literally grab uh hold of and and you got to just keep moving forward towards that so if I could just just to again put an exclamation point on that the things that would have had to have to come together to enable your mission right Elon building SpaceX and the Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule and getting that human qualified and going to orbit and then offering it Jared ISAC uh being successful in his business and then having a heart of goal to open up and make seats available those two
[01:06:01] things were prequisites in one sense and your passion inspiration and your friend or friends telling you about the inspiration for Mission and that coming together so you’re being persistent on this dream and all those other things coming together led to that moonshots fulfillment but if you had given up like most people probably would have right I’m getting too old I the background the voice in your head it’s you have no idea the conspiracy of good stuff going on in the world coming together to enable your moonshot oh it’s so true um you know and that’s why I’ve always been looking you know I’ve always been looking for these opportunities um for that reason and I and I think that that’s one of the reasons why you know when we talk about that Curiosity mindset and um and and putting yourself out there and letting people know about your passions um and it you know it’s about being an active
[01:07:01] participant in our world um in a good way you know and and because good things come from that yeah beautiful is there a moonshot you’re heading towards something big and bold that you’re you know scares you a little bit but uh is worth dedicating the next decade to oh yeah um well it’s it’s absolutely um this idea of getting people to embrace a Jedi space just Equitable diverse and inclusive space you know um we’re writing The Narrative of human space flight right now Jared did a great job of exampling you know what a Jedi space could look like um but I want people to understand you know that um when I talk about a Jedi space it’s not about out of space it’s about your space uh I talk I have two models one is space to inspire which is your unique space to inspire those within your reach and Beyond but how do you make that a Jedi space how do you um think about you know
[01:08:02] creating a just Equitable diverse and inclusive space for yourself and those around you and I feel like that we can do this and this could be measurable particularly in the space industry you know the the space industry recently came out with a Dei pledge you know um diversity inclusion and you know um and I was like whoa you need to add that J in there because if you don’t have the just part you can recruit um women and people of color and people with disabilities but into the workforce um into your company but if your company isn’t just then they won’t stay you will keep them for a year maybe two but the longevity of having them be a part of your organization will disappear because they will not feel like it’s a just working environment you know and we’re talking about things where you know sexual harassment doesn’t occur um and and you know and if it does that there are just ways of dealing with those
[01:09:00] kinds of things and discrimination and stuff like that that you have a platform that elevates you and um and your purpose uh and and that we need that and as we go to the Moon Mars and Beyond you know my moonshot would be that we make you know that we push the space industry to to create a Jedi space and we can measure that you know how many people are we um you know allowing access to go to space What are the demographics you know when we’re talking about um people who can afford to do it you know and I love the fact that blue and virgin have followed Jared’s lead in giving away seats to people or helping people win seats to space people who would not normally get the opportunity it’s a interesting point to reflect on is that in the next decade or two we’re going to
[01:10:02] be moving Humanity off the planet irreversibly and it’s going to happen once and how we move off the planet matters yeah right so it’s uh the future of Humanity’s language laws ethics um diversity all of that will will be set you know if it’s one religion and one geologic or one political uh point of view that goes out and dominates it’ll be that you know in other words if you think about even as we’re here in America in the United States um it was because the you know European settlers from uh most of the English uh UK Empire dominated uh that we speak English uh there was a push back 700 years ago or
[01:11:02] longer uh where China almost dominated sailing the planets we’d be spinking Mandarin right now so it’s like who’s going to lead the way and what level of justice and diversity and inclusion do they bring as part of their ethos in that fashion absolutely and that to me is because we haven’t had it that’s a moonshot yeah you know and if you look at the history of space exploration it hasn’t been a Jedi space it’s been very exclusive and it’s been very competitive um and and so you know it it’s a heavy Hall to cre make um that Star Trek uh you know I love to mix my metaphors but a Jedi Space is really about that Star Trek generation yeah you were recently with me and Ana anari a dear friend another fellow female private astronaut uh we had our space adventure trip as part of the X prize
[01:12:01] and we were searching for you know prizes uh you know X prizes challenges to solve and we also spent a night with Rod Roddenberry the son of Gene rotenberry the creator of Star Trek and we were talking about how inclusive and diverse Star Trek was in the 60s way out of ahead of the world and is even more so now it’s a it’s a beautiful thing oh it really is and so that’s one of the things where you know I see myself um over the next you know the rest of my life talking and pushing for you know that Jedi space beautiful so you know the X prise um we look for a large measurable objective goal to solve a Grand Challenge out there and I know implementing Jedi uh space is one but is there an X prize of some else that you would love if you know if I could snap my fingers and say okay it’s fully
[01:13:01] funded uh uh what is a a challenge that you would love uh solved that people have to go and build something or do something to demonstrate oh you know I would love to see um something you know there are people working on these kinds of things but uh again it’s the the ocean um you we’ve got to do well the the manufacturing of plastic and the the the infiltration of plastic throughout our planet is we need to treat that as a disease it’s a disease that we need to cure um you know and how we get that mindset that you know we all know that we can’t go down that road or and keep going down down that road of plastics so what is the replacement and how do we rapidly we’ve got two things
[01:14:00] that we need to do we need to get off the plastic that we’re using so what is the replacement the P the pet plastic that that survives for hundreds and thousands of years in our oceans doesn’t break down gets into the fish yep and and so we need to like and then we need to clean up the mess that we’ve created as a result of it so those two things need to but you know a lot of people say well you know the the manufacturers of products are like well people are buying you know this so they they they don’t obviously don’t care but we don’t have a choice you know we we people are going to buy what’s convenient and on the Shelf if you put it in glass we’re going to buy it if you put it in plastic we’re going to buy it you know and we really need you know um industry we need to hold industry um to this new standard so how do we create um a new you know what’s the next thing that is going to take us away from plastic sustainably
[01:15:01] and um can be implemented globally and quickly and then what is the cleanup that goes with that for the mess that we’ve created great great ex prise reinvent a container uh material that’s biodegradable and sustainable yeah that can be widely adapted because again it’s about how do we take something that is uh prolific you know within industry um of how we packaged goods and stuff and then um and and how can we help industry move away successfully from that current model I love that and the other half of it how do we clean up the oceans that we have do them in concert you got to do that those two things together those are great X prizes and great moonshots that’s been an incredible conversation Dr cion Proctor artist uh and Explorer and astronaut and engineer uh and just a
[01:16:02] great person and an inspiring individual uh cyan thank you for what you’ve done thank you for being an example thank you for putting your heart and your soul out there to inspire others to follow your footsteps thank you thank you Peter I’ve enjoyed our conversation and thank you for using your space to inspire those within your reach and Beyond thank you and where do people follow you on Twitter or how do they get involved in your projects yeah I’m on Twitter and Instagram Dr drram Proctor um and you know I have a patreon and I have my books my space that it’s called space to inspire and people can buy it I self-published it on Amazon so any help is always appreciated beautiful an have a beautiful day looking forward to seeing you again very soon thank you my friend bye [Music] bye [Music]