John Herrington: When you're in the shuttle or in the space station, you don't realize which way's up or down by the feel of it. You realize it by the sight of it. If you're not looking at the entirety of what's around you, you're looking at one little thing, your mind will go and flip you upside down instantaneously.
My name is John Herrington. I'm a former NASA astronaut and I want to welcome you to the Kennedy Space Center. The human race went to the moon from this place. That's the excitement of being here at the Cape.
My path to become an astronaut started when I went to the Test Pilot School, got an advanced degree in aeronautical engineering, applied a couple of times to NASA, and the second time, I got a really neat phone call to be interviewed, and I thought if the only thing I do in my career is interview to be an astronaut that's cool. I really honestly never thought I'd get selected.
I'm spending a week at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center talking to folks from all around the world. I think I have a chance to educate people. One, what NASA is doing, what NASA has done, how I became an astronaut ,and hopefully, that resonates with them and they take it back and go, “Wow, I didn't understand that before.”
The mission I flew on in space was STS 113 on the space shuttle Endeavor in November, 2002.
Announcer: This is John Herrington, our first Native American in space.
John Herrington: My primary mission there was to do three space walks. The thing that I feared most out on the spacewalks was making a mistake.
People have this impression of what an astronaut does. They've done everything perfect. They'd been top of their class. They've had the best grades, but not everybody. I made my share of mistakes in space. The thing was when you make a mistake, how do you overcome the mistake? I share that story with others. Then they'll take ownership of it and go, “I know what he's talking about.” That's why I like doing it.
What was that one moment space and it changed my perspective? It was being on the end of the space station looking out over the edge of the Earth and the vastness of the universe asking myself, what else is out there?
Announcer: We'll see John here. He's going to go over the edge and this is what it looks like on the edge of the universe.
John Herrington: That's a sight you don't see every day. Frame a picture in your mind. Remember it. I'll remember that for a lifetime.
They call it the overview effect, and one of the things you realize, you can look down at where you grew up and you can see all the places you went, but you can't see any of the people and you can't see the details of that. It made me feel really small, made me feel really insignificant, but I realized this is a very unique thing we have here on the Earth.
I'd say, let's fix our planet. Let's use whatever exploration technology gives us to make our life here a better place. I've lived in space. I've lived under water for 10 days in the Florida Keys. I rode a bike across the country, so I've seen the world from three different really unique perspectives. It makes you appreciate it that much more. What can we do to make this world a better place? That's the future of space.