we are here an honor to be with doctor Katie komen she is a nasa astronaut as
everybody knows
she's better to space shuttle missions and
lengthy stint on the international space station in 59 days I think it was that
some writers
months six months almost Wow while are also part of makers
that is a six-part documentary that's already in progress on PBS
and %uh BGB why you are in a significant in broadcast nationally
tomorrow night appropriately enough women in space thanks for making time
commencement sometime so it's great to have you nice to be here
course let me ask you the the segment you are part of focuses on the history
women in the US space program the Pioneers the early days
the mercury astronauts early sixties it was a boys club but it was awhile we we
were way behind the russians and he was 15 years
between the time valentina Tereshkova went up for the russians
who I think you've met have you not engine and when the first woman Sally
Ride
went up things have changed things are better for women in our program do you
think
well I'd say women are just into gold part of the program and have made some
some very large differences and changes that I'm very proud of
and when they're really cool things about this program
is that it really shows everyone
inevitably so what happened to me doesn't happen to them what happened to
me was I look at those pictures at the mercury seven
7 nice guys pose in front of an airplane and that picture did not speak to me
nothing in it said Katie this could be you and that's why it didn't occur to me
to be an issue until I Met Sally Ride in person in a
and pick symposium at MIT and
this way you know we have some 9-year-old girl out there watching this
program
and to a bunch of them they just think it's normal
to aspire to things like this but they're also saying that
it's not easy and you have to stand up for yourself in
the fact that things are hard doesn't mean that they're not meant to be let's
not because I know you've talked a lot about
education and the importance and you've got a undergraduate degree from MIT
a doctorate from U-mass Amherst and
they don't give those away easy you worked on hard to get
just to get into MIT is is an amazing thing but
then shot with the importance of education and interest in science and
math
for women to well first to say that
actually U-mass is the best place in the country for polymer science and
engineering
and it was why I was very honored and pleased to be there I think for women
it's still important actually they
because people don't suspect you might be that person you might wear
this suit you might have that degree it's actually pretty important to make
your credentials clear
and I tell them if you have a choice of going to
someplace that actually really speaks in terms over well I better take another
look at that person
unfortunately girls still mean that women
still need that there's not this assumption across the board when you
look at a woman that she could do
any job that you could think of when actually that's the truth you can up its
age 22 years since you were named
the astronaut corps its thirty years after that first
mercury 7 by janet was a boys club the NAG s the whole country was a more boys
than
we've change we've grown but a long way to go still not
not just nasa but society in general as you see it it will stay that their
is still a long ways to go in that I
Shah sandburg actually read a really interesting quote and in her book
where she said you know being a woman in science or engineering or one of these
fields like PBS's featuring in the makers
series of traditionally guy fields
where we've got women in them now as well that what it feels like to be in
one of those fields like running a marathon
in the people on the side of the road are cheering in sharing if you're a guy
they're going to go home go you can do it
and if you're a woman you're hearing things like how
American what makes you think a doing and there's just this little taste a bit
that makes you think
maybe I'm not supposed to so a series like this that looks at women in
politics in the military in
II on comedy in Hollywood
in space this kind of series that shows that
it wasn't easy women had to find ways to do things and it's okay to realize that
it's not just something that happens to you you have to make it happen you have
to recruit the help that you need
and that it's okay to be you and do those things
let's talk space program today and going ahead into the future design a vitally
involved and interested in that
there was a time in this country in the country's stopped for the early flight
sim even before you were born in some cases summer this
was but the obviously we changed we've grown
space when is much more common nobody knows the names of all the essential for
so many that we all lost seven at the first
brinkmanship did at that time i think im using the average American now what's
happening American spacecraft in
the girl Chi I don't know we we went to the moon
forty-five years ago amazing things are happening
there's talk of getting peopled mission
to mars in the 2013 is fifteen to twenty years from now
so 2030 says the date that we're talking about for that and that's what we're
were going for at the same at at the same time
what to think about how to get there and the things that need done
are those slow and careful steps that are actually just really necessary
they're not necessarily
really David and on for people but their vivid for us and we just had a recent
announcement I think it makes it a little more than that for the rest of
the country
and that is that we've been working for a couple years
with several commercial companies having them
figure out how they can build the next best craft that will take people
back and forth the International Space Station and so that's our Commercial
Crew
contract it was just awarded to the SpaceX company
and two Boeing for each of them to build a capsule
or in in this case there capsules on to go to the space station
that's the place that we're working right now and that's the place that we
are
accomplishing things have to happen before we go to mars
we have a water recycling system open space station
in it actually breaks down every few weeks
now the reason for that is not because it was poorly designed
or designed in a hurry or any other things it's because we're learning about
that space environment
things that we just didn't know these are lessons we have to learn before we
can go
to places like the moon and Mars in Greeley
settle their use those places as a hopping off point
to go further on to mars so it's a very exciting picture
right now even know it may not actually look that way we're not you not seeing
six people jump into a space capsule and take off from mars
the steps that were taken to develop this technology is those are happening
and that's what we want the young women up to date to be part of
and what about another there's SLs the Space Launch System
and if I'm not mistaken when the top program managers on that
is a woman that's that's one in the future thanks to get big heavy payloads
into orbit in
for its support things like Spacelabs in that sort of thing what I N it's going
to be our country's heavy lift
a program agencies may also take the O'Brien
and O'Brien is our new is our capsule it's being designed
to go to places like asteroids
man and Mars in those though if the ass to read and then
noon those are steps that are you further from North
or orbit you know if if my fist as the earth we're in orbit pretty close
and we need to be able to venture far enough to really
understand the conditions and yet close enough to be able to come back home
be no reengineer the systems that were working right and then
use that reengineering system to go to mars so or INS alas those they're really
really important for the country
the first test flight from Ryan isn't just a few months
I tell people to in 2014 and that's now
we've changed the way we look at space to some extent it seems I mean I'm old
enough to remember
that amazing night in 1969 when our guys walked on the moon for the first time in
the whole country stayed up all night
watched for hours and hours and hours number that november there was
Apollo 12 and nobody paid attention we we got no we coverage nigga sets we
americans we
we get it done we've done it now in there are several more
missions and do you have the sense that people
realize the excitement there is the possibility above
colonies on a place like the moon manufacturing the kind of things you do
we just get what could happen the same that still their inherent
in space I think that leaving the planet
is still so far from people's imagination that what it takes
is for them to actually should have experience
in touch a little about for that really to be meaningful
I'm just yesterday was that at an event with that Clinton Global Initiative
president clinton i talked to read weisman up on the space station
in this entire room I've basically a thousand people around the event
people came up to me afterward saying I couldn't believe that it was so amazing
to realize that we could do that
we've been doing that but it's not too attached to them and their allies that
bad person in space was talking to them
so we have to search in the space program for ways to make
the amazing things that we're doing right now six people living on the space
station
any one-time those things are real they're Parliament our
part of everyday life now for us we have to make them real
to everybody else said that they understand how far we've come
and how far we can still go I remember the first time
are men orbited the moon was Christmas Eve
and the Red the Genesis and we watched it live it was
amazing was it was like changing so many of the the people who've gone to space
that they talk about looking back at the
the little blue marble specially the ones have gone into deep space to the
moon
it seems to change people in a way it is you've seen my personal perspective
that's all very few that
you've spent those two flights in the shuttle
that's six months nearly on the International Space Station
what about for you when you look back and so this tiny little place in the
void
that we call home how did it affect tactic equal
I tell people all that if I could bring my family with me
I probably never come home there's just no reason really I loved it up there
and it's a place that is far enough away
to look back and have a big picture
and yet it's close enough to what's happening right down here
on the earth tend to make a difference here
and bringing that perspective what we see when we see one country
a risk is me when we see one planet
its its a very powerful feeling and we need to communicate that feeling too
other people here on the earth so that we realize that it's just one place
we are one group of people we happen to live in different squares and creates on
the planet but we have
one home to take care of one home that is part of a
bigger solar system and we've got other places to go
it's a it's a wonderful perspective I probably never will be the same
and I'm love to share it docked Katie common ancestor not
thanks so much for sharing some your time with us today we appreciate it
thanks for having me