00:00Hi, my name is Nicole Stott. I'm a NASA astronaut, an aquanaut, an artist, and most importantly, a mommy, and
00:06really happy to be here on the Isle of Man.
00:10I am the co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation, and I work with my amazing partner in Purpose.
00:16I'm Christina Korp, astronaut wrangler. I'm the founder of Space for a Better World, where we connect the space curious
00:22to the space serious.
00:23I'm also a mom of two kids, and we are partners in Purpose.
00:27We're really excited to be working with a lot of the kids around the island.
00:31We've got some amazing projects going on, and really grateful to Love Tech and to River for, I don't know,
00:39just making it possible for us to be here.
00:41I mean, I grew up loving flying. I wanted to know how things fly, and that evolved into, if you
00:46want to know how airplanes fly, why would you not want to know how rocket ships fly?
00:50And I ended up working for NASA as an engineer.
00:52I always thought being an astronaut was cool, but I really thought the space program itself and the work that
00:58was being done was really important and wanted to be a part of that.
01:01And then later it got to wear a wag and maybe consider the astronaut thing.
01:04And when I really discovered how much the work that we do in space is all about improving life on
01:13Earth, that made it even more attractive to me.
01:17You know, one of the things that the space program, human spaceflight especially, does really well is, I don't know,
01:23demonstrates that these things we think are impossible really aren't.
01:27And, you know, we want kids to believe that, that anything is possible.
01:30I mean, look at me. I, you know, I never would have dreamed I'd be sitting here wearing the blue
01:34jacket with you, right?
01:36And, you know, stay curious, be passionate about something, and it's amazing the opportunities that can open up for you.
01:44And, you know, the Isle of Man is like this hotspot for all kinds of space activity already that's going
01:49on,
01:49whether it's, you know, the company that makes the little tiny mirrors and optics for, you know, rovers on Mars
01:56or the ejection seats for all of the, you know, military aircraft around the world,
02:02or it's, you know, companies that are providing the real estate in space to satellites.
02:08And, you know, it's pretty impressive.
02:10And there's even one that's putting, you know, data centers on the moon.
02:13I think it's already here, and every day, no matter where you are on the planet, we're benefiting from what
02:18space does for us.
02:19And I think the island is a place where, across the board, as this kind of little, I don't know,
02:25I think about the island like a spaceship, almost.
02:29You know, it's a place where you could really demonstrate all of the best of everything, and that includes the
02:35stuff that's coming to us from space.
02:36I never thought I would work in space in a billion years.
02:40I was a singer. I was a professional singer. I was in a band with my family, and eventually ran
02:45a media company, record label, production company, radio show.
02:48And so I never even thought about space as an avenue for me, and then I answered an ad in
02:54the Hollywood Reporter magazine to work for Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon on Apollo 11.
02:58So I fell into space at the top, and I thought it was just a job I'd do for a
03:03year or two, and now it's been 18 years, and I'm an old space veteran.
03:07But what it really did was make me a space believer.
03:10And I think, you know, the thing that I think we share is, and in space, is curiosity, not giving
03:16up.
03:17There's a lot of things about those aspects of space that I really admire.
03:21And the thing I wanted to say, like, for people in the Isle of Man, I came from a small
03:25town in South Dakota.
03:26I may as well have been in another country.
03:28Nobody was talking to us about space.
03:30Although there's probably space, you know, stuff going on where I'm from, but I can relate to, like, even on
03:36a small island like this, of coming from a place you would never expect someone like me getting to work
03:41with astronauts all over the world.
03:42So it's possible for anyone.
03:44I think it comes down to the people that you've got to spend the time with.
03:48You know, the program itself, the space station program, is the best example we have of how you can bring
03:54people from all over the world together on, like, a higher mission.
03:59The mission of the space station is off the Earth for the Earth.
04:02And I'm like, holy moly, that's fantastic.
04:04And, you know, then on top of that, I think there's the, you know, kind of the hindsight appreciation of
04:10what is going on there and how I experienced it.
04:14And that really comes down to what, you know, one of the things we'll share today, too, which is that,
04:18you know, we live on a planet in space, right?
04:20We're all Earthlings.
04:22You know, these guys get tired of hearing it, I'm sure.
04:24But it's like, you know, and the only border that matters is that thin blue line of atmosphere.
04:28And it really reinforces, I think, how important it is for us all to accept our role as crewmates and
04:34not passengers on our planetary spaceship.
04:36Well, I mean, what's interesting is I did not, I don't like doing math.
04:41I took the bare minimum of math and science.
04:43I come from a family of musicians and artists.
04:45So, you know, I'm a perfect example of I came into space and they really needed my skills.
04:50And I realized, too, how much people think that job, you just have to be a scientist, engineer, or an
04:56astronaut.
04:56And the reality is any job, every job you have on Earth, we have in space.
05:01And if you think about anything to run a company or run anything, those are space jobs.
05:07And so we want to help shift people's thinking about that.
05:10And then creativity is a big part of it, too, because I think a lot of people are surprised that
05:14most astronauts, most people who work at NASA or the European Space Agency are also artists or creative in some
05:20way.
05:20And so we really want to promote that a lot because there's this perception that they're all just technical geniuses.
05:27Yeah, geniuses.
05:28But there's really, it's also the creativity is really critical to problem solving, playing instruments, doing art, crafts.
05:35Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that comes out of that is it's, you know, it's a
05:39message we share a lot is, you know, we want you using your whole brain.
05:42Right. And that involves all the talents that you have, whether they're technical or creative, you know, you need to
05:47bring all of those together.
05:48And it's really cool to discover that, you know, all of our colleagues in one way or another have something
05:55both, you know, perhaps science or technical in their lives and also something super creative as well.
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