Hi. I'm Mike Mullane. I'm a former astronaut. I flew three times on the space shuttle.
Music.
I wanted to be an astronaut the first moment I heard the word, and I was a child of the space race.
I was 12 years old in 1957 when Sputnik was launched, and that certainly excited me about the idea of flying in space.
I was fortunate enough to be growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Great night skies out there.
I could go out and watch satellites coming across the sky and, and I wanted to be in one.
And of course, as soon as Al Shepard and Gus Grissom and John Glenn started making their rides,
I was glued to the TV and I wanted to do it someday myself.
Well, I had to consider another career path when I was told I couldn't be a pilot in 1967.
I graduated West Point in 1967 and I couldn't be a pilot because my eyes were bad,
and you had to be a pilot to be an astronaut back then. So I, my career path at that point was in the backseat of fighter jets.
I wanted to fly and that was, that was the only option I had to fly -- in fighters, in the back of fighters.
And I intended, ultimately, in some capacity to come to work at NASA -- obviously not as an astronaut, because I wasn't a pilot.
And then it was in 1978, '77, actually, NASA announced that they're selecting mission specialists for the Space Shuttle Program.
They don't have to be pilots, so that opened up that door to me again and I, soon as I heard that, I had my application in.
My parents were my inspiration in my life. My Dad was a hero and my Mom was a hero, and, and truly inspired me.
My Dad was crippled with polio in 1955 when he was 33 years old, never walked again. They had six kids to raise.
My Mom and Dad were, were true heroes; they stayed focused on the family, they,
they gave it all to make sure we all had a great education and gave us all the love and encouragement we needed.
So I can't speak highly enough about my, my parents. In my early life, they were my heroes. They were my inspiration.
And later, my wife was a great partner along the way to have this dream come true.
When I was chosen to be an astronaut, I was, I was thrilled beyond belief. I, i had come, I had been interviewed.
I was one of about 200 people that were interviewing for the first astronaut, first space shuttle astronaut group.
I went out into the desert, laid back on the hood of the, hood of the car and just watched the stars
and just dreamed that someday I was going to be up there and it looked a lot closer and when
I now had that call that I was going to be an astronaut.
It's a frightening experience, but at the same time, it is a, it is an incredibly joyful experience,
because it's something I had been dreaming about for 25 years. And there it was happening.
The hold-down bolts blow and I'm now on my way. And as scared as I was, I had a smile on my face during that ride.
One of the most memorable moments was seeing the Earth for the first time from orbit,
and it is a beautiful, beautiful, incredible sight to see this -- we don't see the Earth as a ball, we're too close to it.
It fills the windows, but we can see that it's curved, and it's black of space,
you've got the blue of the ocean, the white swirls of the clouds, and it was just breathtaking.
I, I wasn't prepared for it. I'd heard everybody talk about it, seen all the photos astronauts had taken,
but I wasn't prepared for that incredible beauty that your own eye is able to detect.
First of all, it was a very difficult decision, to decide that I want to move on in my life.
I had flown three times in space. The burden on the family was certainly severe; the fear factor for the spouse,
for my wife and for my children. I decided that, yeah, after my last, my third mission,
that that would be my last mission and I would go on and do something else.
Since I left NASA, most of my business has been public speaking. I do a teamwork and leadership program for corporations around,
around the country -- conventions, meeting, training, that type of, those type of meetings.
I've also written some, some books -- a children's book, a space fact book, a memoir of, of my life.
And so it's writing and speaking is what I've been doing since I left NASA.
So I tell kids, I tell adults: do your best because you don't know what's out in the future.
There's going to be opportunities that'll appear that you can't possibly imagine right now,
and if you do your best now, you're going to be able to take advantage of those opportunities.
So that's really an important life lesson there. I think, also, challenging yourself in the extreme. Don't be timid in your goal setting.
The only way you find out what you're truly capable of doing is if you challenge yourself in the extreme.
For anybody that is watching me right now that is a young person who's thinking someday of becoming an astronaut,
my advice to them is: make sure you get a great education.
But don't just concentrate on math and science, you've got to get a great education in all aspects.
The other thing is, do your best at everything constantly. It's going to count in your future, just as it did for me, just as it does,
does for everybody. Take care of the only body you're ever going to get. And just dream big, too. That's the other thing,
is make sure you challenge yourself. Set very lofty goals for yourself. Don't worry what other people have done with their life.
You have your own life. Challenge yourself. Set your own goals and work for them.