Human beings, part of our nature, part of who we are,
our identity, is explorers.
Because every time we explore, we improve our lives and our situations.
It's just natural.
My name is Mike Fincke, and I'm the pilot for NASA's SpaceX
crew 11 mission to the International Space Station.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the mighty Steelers.
And it was a great time to grow up.
Lots of great educational opportunities.
A time that was tough economically,
but, a place where we knew that dreams could come true.
When I was, like, two and three years old, my parents would wake me up
from whatever nap I was taking to watch moon landings.
We did many moon landings
back in the late 60s and early 70s, and that made a big impression on me.
So I knew that back then, even when I was, like, three
that I wanted to be an astronaut.
I wanted to go walk on the moon.
I wanted to go explore space.
So I learned to read so I could read more about space.
And the more I read, the more excited I became.
When I was in high school, I didn't know what engineering was.
I knew what math and science were. Physics.
I was kind of good at that. Math.
I took a leap of faith and went to an engineering program
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.
Thankfully paid for by an Air Force ROTC
scholarship and then hustling with side gigs on the weekends.
And I got to study airplanes and rockets, two of my favorite things.
So I was able to graduate from MIT with two degrees.
And then, the summer after graduation,
I had a really wonderful opportunity to study in Soviet Union.
Fortunately, I'd studied Russian language, so I knew enough Russian,
to go with some colleagues.
And we spent the summer at Moscow Aviation Institute studying cosmonautics,
And then I spent, the next year
at Stanford University getting a Master's in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
I love the space station. I helped build it.
I helped the first modules get ready here on planet Earth and have had the
the joy of living aboard the space station for two long duration missions so far.
We've learned from the International Space Station that space is a great place
to really understand more about the universe.
When we are aboard the International Space Station,
we’re still gravitationally connected to planet Earth, but we're freefalling.
So like, we're in microgravity. So you take that Big G out of the equation
and then you can find out what's really going on physically.
We're also outside the atmosphere.
So we can look to the universe beyond us without atmospheric interference.
When I'm on a spacewalk,
I can look out to the whole universe, and I can see how small our planet is
and how big and wonderful the rest of the universe is.
And it's calling to us.
We need to explore
and go see the whole universe that's out there.
Space exploration is something that really speaks to me as a person, right?
We all kind of have our passions.
And for me, since I was like 2 or 3 years old,
I wanted to go to space. Explore space.
And I've had a chance to do that.
Half my life I've been an astronaut. I've really, really enjoyed exploring space.