Speaker 1: Hey, if you like me and you get in the
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r oe dot Net. One of the hot features that voice.
I've spent ten years with those that have been featured
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r r oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Good morning,
n Eileen. How are you doing.
Speaker 2: Hi, I can hear you loud and clear. I'm doing great, Jero.
Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: I am so excited to share a conversation with you
because I spent my childhood tipping over doghouses and thinking
it was a spaceship and you actually got to do it.
Speaker 2: Well, good for you. That's how we grow the future
astronauts is by doing crazy things like you just mentioned.
Good for you.
Speaker 1: Well, what you have done here is that you've opened
up the door for so many people. Because the kids
in my neighborhood all want space, and I just look
at them and I go, you gotta be kidding me.
I just thought this was one of my things when
I was a kid. But that's all they talk about,
that's all they dream about and what they do up
in that sky and things like space Woman opens up
that platform.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, space is all about the future, and
that's why I see young people, you know, everywhere, even
around the world. They're motivated by space. You know, some
of its star wars and the you know, the cool
science fiction stuff that we see. But there's a reality
side of spaceflight, and that's yes, our NASA astronauts and
now we have commercial astronauts and more and more people
are having the opportunity to fly in space. And for
the kids, it's going to be much more likely for
them than my generation that they'll have a chance to
go into space someday. Even they might be able to
go as a tourist, they might be able to go
as a professional astronaut. Because space it's getting cheaper, it's
getting safer as time goes on, and you know, still
it's about exploration and that I think that it inspires
the kids.
Speaker 1: With your book Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars,
and that's one of those I've always wondered to you
know that, when you're up there and you're looking at
that gigantic, vast array of space, do you ever go
to a state like Montana that's're known for the big
Sky country and still see the beauty of what we've
got here on Earth.
Speaker 2: I honestly think I see more beauty here on Earth. Well,
having the experience of being in space. The first thing
I want to say is the Earth is round. It
is not flat, is some people are trying to tell me.
The space station and goes around the Earth once every
ninety minutes, and we get to see this beautiful planet
that we live on. Earth is it's a water planet.
It's blue and white in probably ninety percent of the
time when you look out the window, you see blue
or white. On some clear days you can see the continents,
you can see cities. You mostly see like bright desert,
and just the beauty the planet we live on a
like a beautiful oasis. Because when you turn and look
the other way, you see the darkness of space and
how much is out there that we don't know about,
And you look back at Earth and you're like, man,
I want to go back there after I do my
tour in space. I want to go back to Earth.
But the other thing, you know, being able to travel,
like you mentioned looking at the Big Sky in Montana,
and I also want to travel around the world and
see the places that I looked at from space. And
the last thing I'll say about that is the history.
Is you look back on Earth, especially the Middle East,
which is almost always clear, you think about the history
that took place, you know, kind of the cradle of
civilization and all the biblical history and all the wars
that took place down there, and you think about I mean,
I think you become more of a strategic thinker, and
you think more about humanity and our place in the universe.
So I don't want to get like too overly philosophical,
but that's kind of what happens to a person they
travel in space. It really changes you, I think for
the better.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that make you a time traveler or do you
feel like an archaeologist when you go that high up
and you can see everything, You've got a view that
most of us only get pictures of.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, when I was a little kid, I used
to love reading science fiction and I read I mean,
I checked these books out of the library and I
read science fiction. I wanted to be like a space traveler.
I would. Back in those days, it was Buck Rogers,
you know, I wanted to be book Rodgers. But now
that I'm older and I have been in space for
some strange reason, I'm interested in history and I just
want to read about, you know, I'm different periods of time,
you know, near history, you know, maybe the early days
of the United States, but also like the Roman Empire,
and you know what made them so big and great?
What made them fail? And you know, just learning about
like biblical history and how humanity like spread around planet
Earth and you know, why were we? Why are we explorers?
So I think it makes me a little more philosophical.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Eileen Collins coming
up next. The name of the documentary is Space Woman.
We are back with astronaut Eileen Collins. What does a
young adult have to do to get ready to go
to Mars? Because this is not going to take modern
day learning. It's going to be something that's very futuristic
and far out there. But what can they do as
students now? Because I want them to be like you.
I want them to take that spacecraft over to Mars
and not be an AI technically connected kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, so this is a really important message that
I it's also a very simple message. Go to school, yep,
listen to your teacher, do your homework, Yes, do your homework.
And for the for the kids that are older, like
when you get in high school, take math all the
way through twelfth grade. And I know many schools make
it optional, but math teaches you how to solve problems
and the way you kind of learn mechanically how to
solve problems in math class. But is you that will
transfer to everyday life because you will always face problems
no matter, it's just a fact of life. Do not
run away from your problems. But techniques that you learned
to identify a problem, describe it. What are the tools
to fix that problem? What order do you put them in?
That helps you? Now your question about going on to
be an astronaut and you want to travel in space,
I would say, take your math and science courses and
also read books. Our kids today they're scrolling on their phones,
you know, scroll, scroll, squirrells. I tell them scrolling makes
you dumb. Books make you smart. And also these kids
have anxiety, and I got well, that's because you're constantly
on your phone. Get a book. Goes in for boys
and girls, men and women. Get a book. Go sit
somewhere quiet and get lost in a story. You know,
something that will help your imagination, will help you become
a more creative person. And you know AI is going
to be out there. I think we need to use
AI for what it's good for, but it cannot affect.
It can't take over our decision making. What we need
is humans. We need to be make our own decisions.
Speaker 1: What is the magic that Hannah Berryman put into this space? Woman?
In the way of that there's such a connection. Did
you feel like that you were standing with your doppelganger
because it's almost like she knew you as you know you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Hannah and I are two very different people.
So Hannah Berryman is our director. We work together for
you know, well over a year putting this together. So
Hannah's more creative, you know. She she is the one
that brought the emotion into the film. Now me, Eileen,
I'm more of a I'm going to say, objective, procedural
kind of person. I wanted to let's tell the story
of the four missions. This happened, that happened. We did this,
We did that, you know, these people were involved. But
Hannah brought in like the families. How do the families
feel when their loved one launches into space after this
terrible Shuttle accident? You know, how do the kids feel?
How did the spouses feel? And so I mean they
hired a composer that wrote original music, and the way
the music is edited into the scenes really brings out
the emotion of what is it like to be an
astronaut and to be a family member? What is it
like to be a flight director? You know, what is
it like to be you know, we interviewed my prime
flight director, Paul Hill. We interviewed one of the Shuttle
program managers, Wayne Hale. Both of them have very interesting
personalities and their perspective on you know, what does it
like to fight? You know, my last flight was the
what we call the return to flight mission after an accident,
and that does get I want to say, kind of
a front and center attention in the film towards the end,
and it kind of brings out the I want to say,
the emotion of being an astronaut and being a family member,
of which I'm not a very emotional person, and that's
why we needed Hannah to be able to describe that
feeling because I have trouble describing it, but Hannah did it.
Speaker 1: Wow. Where can people go to find out more about
everything that you guys are doing? I mean everything, because
I believe that we're at that part in our life
where everybody needs an inspiration or a push forward and
you're helping to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I would say the easiest thing to do
is through our website, or you can just type spacewoman,
but Spacewoman dot film will take you to our website.
It shows you around the country the places that we're
going to be showing. It's also going to have some
cities that will be added. But if it's not nearby
or you can't make it, it will be going digital
where you could. You could buy it digitally in probably
the June time frame, and then it will be streaming
if you want to rent it. It'll be streaming after that.
And I think it's best in the theater, but the
story's great no matter how you watch it, and I
know you're going to love it.
Speaker 1: Wow, you got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. Eileen, the door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I love talking about space, and I
love inspiring people of all ages to learn about space.
And I'm glad we did Spacewoman to actually bring the
mission and bring the feeling of it to people so
they can understand. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks a lot.