00:00The first time I was in Spain, I found myself crying openly on the sidewalk.
00:09I was a recent college graduate working my dream job as a NASA engineer,
00:16an aspiring astronaut, visiting my sister while she studied abroad here.
00:23I was staring at a newspaper headline.
00:27The words were clear, but I was in disbelief.
00:31We had lost the crew of the Columbia Shuttle, my astronaut heroes.
00:38My mind hoped that somehow something was lost in translation,
00:43that if I ran home, the papers would tell a different story.
00:49But no.
00:52Going to space is humanity's endeavor.
00:56And sidewalks around the world were all relaying the tragedy.
01:03Our ambassadors of Earth, riders of spaceships, had given the ultimate sacrifice.
01:10And the world mourned.
01:14Fast forward ten years to when I got a call that I could ride spaceships.
01:20I accepted that privilege with knowledge of its universality.
01:28Because that day, on the sidewalk, I learned that my heroes were everyone's heroes.
01:36I learned that the impacts of human space flight are well beyond the borders of the country that launches the
01:44rocket.
01:47When people leave our planet, the world takes them into their hearts.
01:52And with that is a responsibility.
01:55That is why, when my Artemis II crew was forming our core values, we adopted a slogan that was rooted
02:03in what I learned on the sidewalk.
02:06We go for all and by all.
02:09We set it again and again.
02:13We wove it into our mission patch.
02:16And we lived it in our interactions.
02:20Fast forward 13 more years.
02:23And I found myself crying again.
02:27This time from nearly a quarter million miles, nearly 400 kilometers away.
02:36The moon getting smaller out the window of the capsule.
02:40My husband and I were on a scratchy video call when he took up a serious tone that told me
02:48it was important to listen.
02:49Even over the noise of Victor exercising a meter away.
02:54He said something was happening, that people were coming together, no matter where they were from, their politics, their education,
03:06or means.
03:07He said we were making a difference.
03:11I listened again in disbelief.
03:14I dabbed the spheres of tears that had formed on my eyes.
03:20And I said, that's all we ever wanted.
03:32That's all we ever wanted.
