astronauts story of grace and second chances.

an audible conversations. i am the assistant manager of the children and teens department of politics and prose. on behalf of everyone welcome to the event this evening. the official website for the guest this evening says that all. the only person drafted in the national football league to have flown in space. it speaks to the career in the body of experiences that have taken him from the gridiron and the administrator and beyond and when i say because i mean 250 miles above the earth beyond one in lynchburg virginia before going on to the university

football scholarship and played wide receiver with a bachelors degree in chemistry drafted by the detroit lions and helped force an early end to his playing career. in 91 he received a master's degree from the university of virginia. during this time he worked at the research center in the nondestructive testing creating fiber sensors for measuring damaged aerospace vehicles resulting in publications in numerous scientific journals as well as the job leading vehicle health monitoring team for the lockheed martin x. 33 launch vehicle program. he does so with that to be an astronaut in 1988 and has more than 565 hours in space including two missions to the international space station, atlantis as a mission specialist in 2008 and 2009. since then he was ahead of nasa

education and served as the cochair and science technology engineering mathematics, education task force developing the nations plan. it's the chair of the board and the collaboration learning about space. when he's not inspiring the next generation to explore stem two years he's pursuing his hobby as a photographer, musician and writer. his new book chasing space a story of grace and second chances came out last week as well as the young readers addition that is available so without further ado it is an honor and a privilege for me to introduce mr. leland. [applause] thank you very much.

this is like my first book signing and i'm so blown away by my friends and family and colleagues involve the people here. i've always thought about writing a book one day but i never knew the process or the thing that were going to happen in this whole process and i think it was in the 2001, april in 2001 my parents at the 35th wedding anniversary in lynchburg version you. my cousin phyllis and a friend of hers this was all in the book if you read the book but this is kind of when my life changed in a really dramatic way. her friend was this person did have a message for me and she

said something is going to happen to you. no one is going to know why this happened. she said you will be healed of this thing and you will fly in space and share the story with the world. i'm like okay. i have just come back from russia after for two years working with the first crew. so cooking, doing laundry, helping them get ready to fly in space and for those of you that don't know this, 99% of the time astronauts were other things we fly .01% so this service, the

peace we do to help others get ready was something i was told you're not going to fly that often you will help more people than you fly so that within 2000 they launched. i came back, stayed over there in december, we helped them with some communication stuff, i came home in january and now it was time for me to train so i was in line to do my first training in debates jalandhar water to drink to a spacewalk. there is a little styrofoam block about that big and it gets old road into the helmet so you can push your nose against it. genet said something's going to happen to you and no one is going to know why it will happen

and you will be healed and fly in space. during this event i'm going down into 6 million-gallon pool and i noticed that it's not in my helmet. i'm the kind of person to clear my ears i have to press my nose so you can do this maneuver thing in pop for years, i can't do that. so i'm frantically moving my jaw when i realize it's not in my helmet so we go down about 10 feet and i tell the test director to turn the volume up and i told him that it's not their. he said don't hurt yourself, try to keep going because there's probably 200 people supporting this training around. my friend who is one of my classmates on the other side and he's already down at the bottom of the pool ready to start his

training so i'm not going to hold him up. and i've been waiting for almost probably three years to do this training because it's the gateway to getting a flight assignment quickly. the two of us were going to probably get a signed pretty quickly if we demonstrate that we could do this type of training. as 20 feet i tell the test director to turn the volume up in the headset and i hear nothing but static and kind of white noise so they rush me out, get me on the back, pop my helmet off and the doctor walks over to me. how many people have read the book? so you know all this stuff. come on up here you can probably tell everyone. so the doctors talking to me but i don't hear anything. he touches my right ear with his finger and puts his finger back and shows me the blood coming out of my ear.

i'm like okay, we can figure this out, we can make this better. they rush me to the hospital. there's a doctor named doctor bobbi alford has an ear nose and throat doctor, world-renowned one of the best in houston. they wanted to go in and try to find out what happened. they operate, go in and start pressing on these two windows and a thought that there was something where the fluid is actually leaking out and they press on it and everything is intact. i have a picture in the book where all the doctors just have their heads down like i don't know what's wrong, and my sister is there.

all the communication i do in the hospital after the surgery goes through yellow legal pads so that's the only way i communicate with people. hey, what's up man. all of my friends are here. [laughter] so i have this legal pad that says we couldn't find anything. everything is fine, we don't know what happened to you. at that moment when everyone leaves, i am trying to figure out what's wrong and i start watching the movie good will hunting. show of hands so when he's a the janitor and solves a problem on the board and when he's kind of like coming back on the subway there's this music playing like this moment of satisfaction at

him solving a problem no one could solve and when i would hear it it would inspire and motivate me and i realized i couldn't hear when i watched the video of his sitting in the car feeling this euphoria and me not hearing the music that's when i slammed the laptop shot and started crying. and a friend of mine came in and wrote, because they couldn't hear what she said even though i started reading lips a little bit, she wrote remember what genet said. something is going to happen to you, you are going to be healed of it and you will fly in space. there will be her testimony. in that moment, i had this sense

of okay, i'm going to get through this. people are helping me, they are looking after me, my family, everyone is trying to help that i can't hear a bomb drop. i'm still completely deaf. slowly my hearing starts coming back. i'm still hearing impaired in my left ear so when i'm in an environment like this and all of you are talking i will probably look at your lips and focus more so i can understand what's going on, but the flight surgeons said i would never fly in space because we don't know what happened. we don't have the smoking gun so if we send you to spac sent yous happens again it could jeopardize the mission so they said very emphatically you will never ever fly in space and i said okay. i then tried to figure out my next step at nasa and that's

when i met some of my education friends in here. i came up to washington, d.c. to work this program called the educator astronaut program. we were going to hire teachers to become astronauts. we were getting people to nominate their teachers to be astronauts. and that was in 2003. i've been here for maybe six months or so. getting the team together, starting this program then we went on the road to start it off, february 12003. many of you know we lost space shuttle columbia. i was driving from dc back to lynchburg. i was driving back to see my parents and the head at the time at nasa called m me instead of e

orbiter shuttle is late. when we landed we have no fuel left so it is a glider coming in and it's pretty accurate it gets to zero and it should be on the ground. the countdown clock is now counting up and i said how late is it and she said it's late. so i turned around, i think i was on 66 going to go home i turned around and came back and everyone at the headquarters was assembling a team of people to figure out what happened. but the first thing we do is take care of our families so at that point i was told to drive out to washington virginia where davidavid crowned with a mission specialist on the flight where his parents live, i drove out there, it was nighttime, there were satellite trucks on the

side of the road and a state trooper was blocking entrance because a reporter acted as a florist to get the story and just kind of bum rushed out to get the story. they let me through. i walked in the house. i will never forget this moment it was transformative. i am going there to console to fanconsultsince the just lost tn such a horrific and tragic way and i walk in and out of david's mom thinks you're both crying and his father is in a wheelchair, i go over to hug him and he says something to me that just galvanized my spirit to make a difference and again i'm not flying because i wasn't qualified. he said my son is gone there's nothing you can do to bring him

back but the biggest tragedy would be if we don't continue to fly in space to honor them by carrying on their legacy. he'he is already thinking of the legacy of his son. then we start crying and i stayed there i think overnight trying to figure this thing out. so honor the legacy by flying. the doctors told me you're never going to fly so i tried to figure out how to honor this legacy because he just told me this thing that really impacted me. over the next few months, we fly in the nasa airplane to the different services around the country we are taking off and landing. the head of all of the flight surgeons is sitting beside me on every flight and i didn't think about. he's sitting there and taking notes we take off and land, i

squeeze my nose and clear my ears and so now it's about the middle of may and the educator is wrapping up the headquarters we are about to attend all of the applicants down to houston to go through the astronaut selection process and so my work in dc is done. doctor rich williams calls me in his office and says i've been watching what you've been doing, watching you clear your ears, i believe in you signs a waiver to fly in space. the moral of the story is you never know what's going to happen but you always have to keep going and believe in yourself and sometimes when you don't believe in yourself there's other people that do and i've always had people that

believed in me when i didn't believe in myself. it started at an early age. at this moment is kind of like a crossroads in my life without this piece of paper written by the surgeon i never would have flown in space. then the prophecy from this woman that i never met before, she said these words to me and that also gave me hope so that's kind of what this book is about, the little engine that could. curious george was my guy. [laughter]

having this spirit of curiosity and exploration and having it instilled in you in a very early age is something that was given to me through my community and parents. i will never forget my father was a school teacher at lynchburg team drove this and get all these different jobs. he did different things to make money to give me my piano lessons and clarinet and violin lessons. but the day that he drove the truck into our driveway is the day that i said okay this is enough you are going to be a bread delivery man now? the truck drove in, we looked at it and it smelled like gladstone and he said this is our camper and i said no that's not it is a

british rock. i didn't have a vision that he did. he was always doing things on the cheap to take care of his family and the bread truck was $500. i built bunk beds we sometimes had rolled out of the bed. i realized we spent countless summer's driving across the country.

it was a stor is a story of good second chances. the other most beautiful thing about my parents as they were both students at lynchburg virginia. my friends here retired in 2014 and most succum must succumb toy father who wasn't doing well. i got home on a sunday and my dad and i had this incredible conversation the most beautiful conversation.

then the next day he was gone and i was trying to figure out my life as an astronaut and administrator for education the identity was gone because i retired from that and moved back home and the reason i moved home was to be with my dad and he's now gone so that was a moment of trying to dig deep and understand the purpose of why i'm here and i've been told mark twain always says the most important is your life in the dathe dayyou were born and to ft why what is our purpose and then i was told when we had mark twain here he didn't really say that.

in this day and age with all the things that are going on a. so that is why i wrote this bo book. you will share your story come its family community not giving up, believing in me and believing in myself. i grew up not even knowing what it was and i was living in it everyday with piano lessons and building bicycles handprint trucks and all these different things.

and i think one of the things that's going to help us in the civilization is when we realize we are on this small marble together technically working together as one of civilization. but from the vantage point of the international space station, when station,when i look out ova and see my hometown from space is only 240 miles up from dc to new york. having these moments where i'm flying over virginia where it's one of my crew mates looking down my loan is probably eating down there and it shows you how

connected we are as a people and then flying over afghanistan and looking down seeing how beautiful it is but knowing what's happening. from that vantage point, it is simply stunning. i'm going to try to get you all signed up for a space mission. whatever the experience you have to do to see this, it's fundamentally changes you as a person to me you want to do better when you see the planet from that vantage point.

i was there with the first female commander of the space station so for the young ladies in here. to have that respect and that excellence she will be the longest-running u.s. astronaut with the length record and also spacewalks. they did one the other day.

we finished installing the columbus laboratory and when i first got the assignment, there was maybe 20 german flight controllers in houston to make sure everything was in place. i was now a signed to be there to install and i have been waiting ten years to install this module. there were these 20 guys and

they were like high-fiving me. as i start to walk out of the room, this one guy looks at me and says we've been waiting ten years. don't screw it up. [laughter] so in space my hand is on the rotational controller and i've now grappled the columbus laboratory. it's getting closer and closer to motion stops and i'm still pulling the hand controller and

i hear this, don't screw it up. you'll see on the computer monitor they need to pitch down a little bit. so she is watching all of this floating behind this kind of looking good in the hand controllers so slowly. all people in germany and europe are now celebrating.

[laughter] and they were not saying my name in vain. and i will never forget that moment. the other was to bring him home and transfer some of the things and i will never forget the night that we installed europe's baby i had this cognitive shift in my head. we will have to meet, and all my team has heard this story so they float over with this food and it's playing through the speakers and he's kind of floating up like a smooth operator and people are kind of around the table we come in and

sweep down with our vegetables and velcro them to the table and there's some hot sauce and felt out to the table we are all just about to have this incredible meal. that's when i look out the window and i think we can kind of see the virginia area and i just look around me and see who i'm breaking bread with. we've got to work together and do better and after that moment we get the rest of the task and it fundamentally changed me. i hope when you read the book you see that peace in their

because that is what everyone of us needs to do to make sure we are doing our part. these are little pieces i want you to hear why i put those in their independent dna in the book is like a future to make sure they have the tools they need and a lot of that is having access and being able to utilize the internet and if they don't have something in school lots of times they don't get their hands on these things i had when i was a kid so we created this website part of my team is here and we just kind of celebrated the

launch and it tells a story through the journey because i saw him doing these incredible things. people said he would be a good astronaut and i said really i don't see that. how is our time. can we do some questions now?

in the current political and economic environment it's almost the reactionary we don't want to fail. we want to do the best that we can somehow do we rekindle that spirit we have another hundred years of abundance instead of what we may not have. and i heard you on the radio the other day.

>> i think a lot of this we are looking to the government to fix things and i knew when i grew up i wasn't even thinking of the government. i was thinking of the opportunities my parents gave me and what they instilled in me so however we can get back home and i know a lot of kids don't have what we have but we have to have this sense of can-do spirit. whatever administrations it offers at the time, they have their agendas and policies and things that i think that it's

more grassroots and hopefully you can engender this type of spirit and the groups that need to get this done to carry the messages forward to. if enough people are shouting loud enough to say we need to do these things and they vote in a particular way that is where it happens. we can't be apathetic at home and say we throw our hands up. we have to have a strong voice and in fire to communities and band together as a community to make the change. i am in third grade [inaudible]

i have a friend that wants to be an engineer at nasa. if there was something you could say to him what would that be? >> the first thing he needs to do is believe in himself. the other thing is to work very hard and be very disciplined. science and engineering is kind of an exact subject and the more you study it, the better you will be at executing it. so, work hard, tell him to eat his green beans. [laughter] he's got to be healthy and have fun and be curious.

another question is how did you feel being up in space? >> when i first got to space, about eight and a half minutes that launched to floating in space i got there and i was strapped into my seat and i started seeing things floating around me. i am still strapped in and right when the engine is cut off. in the orientation you are in that no longer works once you get to space so i felt like i was doing a somersault even

though i was strapped in my seat i undid my seat belt, pushed off my back and floated towards the front seats where butch was sitting and then i bounced into that one and went back and forth and then i had to get to work but my job is to take video calling back down to the planet so i started filming about and it went away and i saw the beauty of the planet, the blues and greens of the oceans and in about an hour later got sick. i saw beautiful things, got sick back at work, we had a meal and it was incredible. >> thank you. [applause]

any other questions? i can keep talking. come on up and ask questions. scout was like what are you doing. good question, sir. you are going to let your brother asked over questions?

there's so many things they feel about climate change and announcing france coming back about climate with direct experience about the planet and dealing with what we are today. ..

>> >> i see that indication

every day with all the documentary showing what is happening to our planet. but the data and does not lie so grass-roots effort so what do we do??. >> that is a very good question if they say this is about policy that is the law of the latent there are a lot of rogue sites that are keeping the data live so after this administration things return a different way pearl the knows how long this will last. i am hopeful but it is

making sure that they know what is killing non that this student in high-school chlorine to college will be at the forefront of the next in junior to help us figure out how to fix the solution. >> pharao have the answers. >> but you have a perspective. >> it is happening. i know is happening spirit there is a picture taken 1968 apollo eight went behind the moon coming back around we shot a pitcher of the earth rising it was the iconic pitcher in the '70s that you'll the environmental movement the epa started after that picture was taken.

2018 will be 50 years later some real working to see if we can try to change the course corrective because what will happen in the next 50 years? in 2068? behalf to read sure we are awake and using our voices to make sure we have day 2068 market >> what do you think about diversity of the astronaut corps in there was the big class taken that your?. >> 25 u.s. and six international and those minorities is that getting

better if the we can do to help and increased diversity?. >> i was one. [laughter] that is a very good question. has helped let people see though work going on for very long time with that diversity i had a chance to see catherine johnson a week ago i gave her copy of my book and if you would get the back there is a little quotation she was so proud to see a black man flying in space.

machine got john glenn going around the planet and if they get has done better. so any organization or society the leeway -- the only way to break that down is really to break bread to sit down and talk about what happened in your travel the door in your life without the same cultural background so to have those conversations in space i was insuring now was doing my part in the number of ways

of diversity so sometimes that final outcome with that negative not clasper to you have applied how many times? if i fly once but if at that point there are so many things that factory in with the engineering standpoint so many different pieces. >> is part of that getting more minorities to apply?. >> i remember when i applied. the massive illustrator to fly first four missions so

walking down the hall in washington d.c. and said you cannot get in unless you apply. so we have to make sure that people follow through with a final peace because so those that applied that current selection. so for those numbers to have risen, and those actually among -- applied? i was not going to do apply.

but president said he would be a grey astra and handed me an applicant -- application. my friend uprising gets in. oh and i think if that knucklehead can get it. [laughter] so between that time he threw back -- flew back to nasa with joan -- john young. he flew columbia, so when he told you to apply you should. a lot of people don't apply. they talk about but don't follow through.

[applause] >> hello. you were the first astronauts that i met. i am just here to let you know this is part of your legacy i could not speak english then. and i was inspired and i am a scientist so we are part of the first high seas mission so they accuse so much so we can speak finally

with you. [applause] >> this is people coming together to get other people inspired then added say testament to my father and mother and thank you. >> what inspired you to write the book?. >> good question. sharing this message with me to share this journey with the world and also going said it would be best that

it was not perfected everything that i did when i graduated from high school almost ended up in prison with other things that have been so life is not always perfect jury ec but if it is meaningful or worth doing so that is the things i wanted to share and to see my journey. if that knucklehead can do it then i can do a. >>. >> i want to be the nba player. [laughter] and. >> are you good at math?

you need to count all your money. [laughter] make sure the you have your education the nfl did not plan al because i got injured soldiers have your education as your backup plan. and you can do anything. good luck. count that money. >> my name is bin actually getting to be a part of the program and then with a nasa

so they like into the 20 thirties but that is a ways away. but then incentive that got neil armstrong on the move? in with that science community so how do we keep them motivated? and to get to that goal. >> we are sending up our astronauts into space with so use. sova have that capability to develop over 45 days.

and to do some test runs. but the one way to get people to think about those in science to have stories like this told about the impact from what nasa has done. my uncle was a farmer in virginia. when you're going to play in space i said no we are looking. at your crops how to rotate your crops to have the better yield. that is what nobody knows about. but was is that benefit to the planet? if you turn on

the television you have 5,000 channels. it is so washout with all of that noise. and advocates to share the message of space and the future. so but if a 10-kilometer in diameter asteroid finds its way to our planet and does what it does to the dinosaurs? we know it is coming in five years what do we do? i bet everyone will be focused. [laughter] but it takes a crisis to see this impending doom. with sputnik and those that our afraid of the russians.

what is the moon shot? dead with education and science. but we get that message out. good question. >> what you want to be when you grow up?. >> want to be an astronaut. >> read the book. [laughter] >> i am not a scientist but they may technology teacher. is there room for me there at nasa?. >> there is room for everyone. now says education and to inspire this technology so i

don't know what opportunities are available right now. we haven't seen. >>. >> what is your name?. >> basal. >> do you want to go to jupiter? [laughter] >> would you want to go to jupiter?. >> yes.

>> why? because it is big? what else? has a lot going on. we have a craft going around jupiter right now so go to the nasa web site and find out what to know is to regulate that. thank you for your question. >> aid future rocket scientist right there. >> can you describe the first eight 1/2 minutes of your first mission? i will start three and a half hours before if you get into the

vehicle 3-1/2 hours before you now sit in the vehicle all of your notebooks and your flight data file. the main engines ignite then that comes forward to have these explosives holding down those entire pack of solid rocket boosters they are all connected together. those are broken apart.

so i end in of back right to make sure they all work properly but and we turned a little bit. and with that overhead window and where my friends are sitting. but i can see that connected to the ground and that the spirit is following us. and those polling three jesus -- 3 g's.

so it goes through your chest so if we lost the system where could we make it? or the shuttle in case it was divergency. and then the main engine it cut off. [applause] >> what is your name?. >> peggy williams.

and do you remember i will tell a? story. i grew up i was in this apartment and they were dr. jones's apartments. but dr. johnson live don pierce street he was a doctor the first black doctor to integrate and also a tennis coach you taught to arthur ashe and gibson. and the move from those apartments to where this was

athletes had been trained also and spencer of the harlem renaissance one of the first black aviators to petition congress for the tuskegee airmen. to know what was going on to get to where you're talking about. that is part of the dirty air friday in this book to find out the people who had an impact in my life. do your history. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> i'm my name is cefl and and i'm with tattered cover and i'm so glad to welcome you this evening and we are excited to