next on book tv former pro football player turned estimate leland melvin grit, grace and second chances. all right. everybody. my name is mark villa. welcome to our event this evening. the official website for our guest this evening that says it all. he is the only person drafted

into the national football league that has been flown into space. when i say beyond i mean 250 miles above the earth and beyond. he was a born in virginia. the foregoing onto the university of richmond. he was drafted by the detroit lions in 1986. who received his masters degree from the university of engineer. in the area of nondestructive testing creating optical fiber sensors for measuring damage. for the lockheed martin.

it has logged more than 565 hours in space including two missions. since then he was a pointed the have of nasa education and served as the cochair. a global collaboration and learning about space. when they're not expiring the next generation he is pursuing his hobby as a photographer, musician and a writer. his new book cannot desmet --dash mike came out last week. it is available in the children and teens

department. i want to introduce leland melvin. wow. this is my first book signing and i'm still blown away. i have always thought about maybe writing a book one day but i didn't really know the process or the things that were can happen in this whole process. and april 2001 my parents had at 35th wedding anniversary i was sitting in the car with my cousin phyllis and a friend of hers named jeanette suarez.

this is what my life change in a really dramatic way. her friend was this person who have a message for me. she said something will happen to you no one will know why this happened she said you were healed of the same and then you will fly in space and share the story with the world. thank you for that information. i will take that under advisement. i just come back from russia i was in russia for two years working with the first crew i was there crew support astronaut.

helping them get ready to find space. for those of you that don't know this. 99 percent of the time astronaut's are as supporting other people other missions other things. the service in this piece that we do to help others get ready was something i was told your neck in a flight that often but you will help other people more than you fly. that was in 2000 that they launched. i stayed over there in december. we hope it was that was a communication stuff and now it was time for me to train. i was in line to do my first training to good on the water and trained to do a spacewalk. there is a stifled block.

it's about that big. and is brokered into the helmet so that you can actually push you know to get it. this jeanette said something will happen to you. no one will know why this happened. during the training event i'm going down in this pool. and i noticed that it's not in the helmet. as i dive and stuff i need to clear my heirs so you can do this job maneuver thing. i am frantically moving my job when i realize realized this pad is not in my home. and then he said don't

yourself. i'm in a try to keep going because there are probably 200 people supporting this training rent he is on the other side and he is over down i had been waiting for two years almost three years to do this training. as a gateway to get a plate acerbic quickly. if we demonstrated that we could do this. i hear nothing but static in white noise and so they rushed me out. they get me on the deck. they pop my helmet off. in the dr. walks over to me,

how many of you have read the book? so the dr. is talking to me but i don't hear anything coming out of his mouth. and he walks over to me and he touches his right -- might rate your with his finger. the blood was coming out of my ear. i said okay were nasa that we we can figure this out. the rushing to the hospital there is a dr. named bobby alford. he is one of the best they want to go in and do the surgery to try to find out what happened. they going and they start pressing on this.

the fluid is actually leaking out of your window. i have this picture in the book i think all the doctors have their heads down. my sisters there. there through the yellow legal pads. all my friends are here. we can find anything. at that moment when everybody leaves he is sweeping on.

he saw this problem on the board. there is the music. whenever i used to hear that music i would be so inspired. i realize i couldn't hear when i watched the video of him sitting in the car kind of feeling this euphoria. and me not being able to hear the music. i can hear what she said right.

she wrote remember what jeanette said. you will be healed of it you will be flying in space. he will share your testimony with others. people are helping me they are looking after me and my family. so when i am in the environment like that. i probably focus more. they already know what happened.

they said very emphatically you will never fly in space. and that's when they have the education friends in here. we were going to hire teachers to become astronauts. they were nominating their teachers. getting the team together.

they went on the road to start off. i was actually driving from dc i was driving home to see them. you guys know dena lawson very well. the orbiter is late. the is a glider coming in. the counter clock gets to zero. it was now counting up. how holly is it. everyone at nasa headquarters was assembling that.

the first thing we do is take care of that at that point i was told to drive out to washington virginia where david brown he was the mission specials on the fight. i drove out there it was nighttime there were satellite trucks on the side of the road. a state trooper it was a blocking entrance to the mountains because of reporter had acted as a florist to get up there to get the story. they let me through. i walk in the house and i will never forget this moment. it was very transformative. i'm going there to console to parents had just lost her son i walk in and i hug david's mom.

his father, judge brown is in a wheelchair. he says something to me. i'm not flying because i'm disqualified. 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. and then we start crying. i say there overnight. what is try to figure this thing out. so honor the legacy by flying. the doctors have told me you're never going to fly. his father just told me this thing that really impacted me. over the next few months we

fly in the nasa airplane around the country. or taken off and landing. and the have of all of the flight surgeons he is sitting beside me on every flight. so now it is about the middle of may in the educator ask our program we are about to send all of the applicants down to houston for them to go through the selection process. and so my work in dc has done. and dr. richard williams calls me into his office. i've been watching what you are doing. i believe in you. and he signs me a waiver to fly in space. the more of that story for the

kids there. as you never know what can happen but he always had to keep going and believing in their cells. there other people that do believe in you. threat my life i've had people that believed in me. started i did very that fuel my curiosity. to help me. and this moment is kind of like a crossroad in my life as an astronaut. without this piece of paper. i would have never flown in space. the prophecy from this woman jeanette i never met before that also gave me the hope.

that is really what this book is about. the little engine that could. curious george. maybe they need to read it again. but having the spirit of exploration. it was him that was given to me through my community and my parents. to give me my piano lessons in my clarinet lessons and all of these lessons and things he worked hard so that i can get these things. but the day he drove a bread truck into our driveway was

the day i said okay this is enough. this is when i learned about vision. he said this is our camper. i did do not have a vision. what he did. he was always doing things on the cheap to take care of his family and the bread truck cost $500. over that summer i became an engineer. i build bunk built bunkbeds that flipped out from the side of the truck over the summer i learned what engineering and science was about. i also learned what it meant to have a vision for

something. to have this thing being converted into repurposed for something else. it wasn't until we painted that off the truck that i realized about the camper. we spent countless hours driving across the country in this bread truck that was now a keeper. the grit was always there. i was always seen after my mom and dad. the most beatable thing about beautiful thing about my parents was that they were both school to -- teachers for over 30 plus years. and i retired from nasa. and retired in 2014 to move back home to be with my father. i got home on a sunday.

i'm talking to him. i don't need a bath. having this conversation and it was beautiful. and then the next he was gone. i was trying to figure out my life as an astronaut all of the 24 years working with nasa because i have retired from it. the reason i moved home was to be with my dad. and he was now gone. that was a moment of really trying to dig deeper deep and

understand the purpose of my the two most important days of your life for the day you are born in the day you figure out why. what is our purpose. mark twain didn't really say that. figuring that why out. and as as a society in this day and age all of us figuring out why we are here that's why i wrote this book. it's a family community not giving them believing in up believing in me when i didn't

believe in myself as a journey of the steam education. i grew up not even knowing what it was but i was living every day. all these different things. i think one of the things that will help us as a civilization is when i realized that we are on the small blue marble together would always see this happening every day from the vantage point of international space station when i look out over virginia and i see my hometown from space to an and 40 miles up the distance from dc to new york not that far really. going around the planet every 90 minutes.

and having these moments where i am flying over virginia. it shows you how connected we are as a people and then flying over afghanistan and looking down to see how beautiful it is but knowing what is happening down there. from that vantage point it simply stunning. i will try to you all signed up for space x mission. he might be the lucky one to

get this. if you get an opportunity or through the experience you have to get to see this the changes you as a person to make you want to do better when you see our planet from that vantage point. my first mission i was up there dr. peggy whitson. for the young ladies in here i until you that experiencing peggy running the show large and in charge with all of these men was one of the most pitiful beatable things i have ever seen. to have that respect and excellence was just

remarkable. i talk to talked to her three months ago. she'll be the longest running u.s. astronaut in space. the number of space walks record. they just had one did one i think the other day. another thing that's in the book. i think i caught the space smorgasbord we had finished installing the columbus laboratory. when i first got the assignment there was maybe 20 german flight controllers in houston they were there working together with the flight directors and people to make sure that everything was in play. to install this european space

agency laboratory. they had found out that i was now assigned to be the root bike armed operator and they been waiting ten years to install this module. all the job security depending on me and sign it properly. i walk into this room and these 20 guys in there like high-fiving me and chest bumping me. we've been waiting all this time. as a start to walk out of the room. this one guy looks at me and he says we had been waiting ten years don't screwed up. don't screwed up. my hand is on the rotational hand controller. i'm birthing it from the space

shuttle. and there were starting to turn and position it to install it to the side of the space station. getting closer and closer and the motion stops. i'm still pulling in the hand controller. in the back of my mind i hear this don't screwed up. what happened were there indicators and they tell you basically severe like this you will see on the commute pewter monitor that these two are engaged. these two are not. so peggy whitson she's watching all of this kind of like floating behind this and i was moving the hand control so slowly.

the four indicators distill the motion out. i pulled one time. it was birth to the space station. they were not seen my name in vain. i will never forget that moment. that was my major task to do on this mission. the other was to bring them home . and a trance or some other things the night that we installed europe's baby was i have this cognitive shift in my head you guys go over it with that rehydrated vegetables and we will have the meat. all of my team has heard the

story. so we flowed over with this food and the airplane through the speakers rate. i think smooth operator's plane. and they're kind of floating up. people are kind of around the table. as a table over there. and we come in and swooped down with our vegetables and we velcro them to the table and there's some hot sauce there. were just about to have this incredible meal and that's when i look out the window and i think were coming over virginia and i think we can kinda see the virginia area and i just look around me and i see breaking bread with.

with to work together. after that moment we did the rest of our task and i came back home. and it fundamentally changed me. i hope when you read the book you see that piece of their because i think that's what everyone of us needs to do to make sure that we are doing our part to keep us thriving and so again these were all little points in pieces that i want you to hear from my heart why put those things in there. kind of the ending of the book is like the future of our little guys and girls and to make sure that they have the tools they need to take our places. and to be effective and a lot that is having access and been able to utilize the internet

and if they don't have something in school they don't get the hands on experience that i have we've created this website's demography that part of my team is here and we just kind of celebrated the lunch of the children's book. they would go into the menu. it tells the story through images and videos. i saw arthur ash during ashe doing these incredible things. even though everybody wanted to be neil armstrong walking on the moon. my journey to becoming an astronaut was never one of i want to be an astronaut it was people that said you'd be a

good astronaut and i said really, me. i don't see that. how is our time. should you some questions now. i am sam hancock. in the current political and economic environment is that it is almost the reactionary that we don't want to fail instead of most of americans we want to win. and we want to do the very best that we can not just for our country but for the earth. how do we rekindle that to the youth so that they are not seen that we want to be fearful about their but we embrace it and we carry it

forward in the future so that we have another hundred years of abundance and said to be being fearful about what we may not had. and thank you for being here. i heard you on the radio the other day. very nice job. when i went on the show. thank you very much. i think a lot of it were working and looking at our government to fix things. when i grew up i was not even think thinking about that. however we can get back home and i know a lot of kids don't have what i have.

but we as a community had to instill the sense of can-do spirit. whatever administrations in and office at the time. i do get is more grassroots where things get done and hopefully they can engender this type of spirit in the youth and the groups that need to get these things done to carry those messages forward. if enough people are shouting loud enough to say that we need to do these things and they vote in a particular way that is where the change happens. you can be apathetic at home and her hands up. we have to have a strong voice and lift up our kids and in spire communities and being

together as a community to make a change in a difference. i am in third grade. i've two questions. he wants to be in an engineer and nasa. if one thing you want to say to him well that be okay that the first syncing is to do is believe in himself. the other thing as serious to work very hard and be very

disciplined. science and engineering they are kind of exacting subjects in the more that you study it and learn it the better you will be at executing it. work hard time to eat his green beans and have fun. and to be curious. another question as how did you feel being up in space. when i first got the space after the eight and half minutes elapsed i got there i was strapped into my seat and i started seeing things floating around me.

i am still strapped in. and right when the engines cut off because my inter- ear that tells you what orientation you are in. that no longer works. i felt like i was doing a somersault even though i was strapped to my seat. i ended my seatbelt. i floated towards the front seat and a bounce into that one. like a ping-pong ball going back and forth. and then i have to get to work. my job was to take a video of the external tank. i started filming that. it went away. and i saw the beauty of our planet. the blues in the greens of our ocean. let about an hour later i got sick. something is happening here.

then i got back to work. i felt great i thought beautiful things. we have this great meal. it was incredible. it is an honor listening and speaking to you. are there any other questions. i can keep talking. both of you, not. what's your question. what's your question. once name is jake and one name was scout. jake is the run on the right

in my ear. knowledge of other ask other questions all the questions. are there any other questions. thank you for coming out everyone. this is really inspiring. yes sir. first off hey man. we have this president that is retracting semi- different things about climate change and so until recently they announced the thing about france and coming back about climate and then you having so much direct experience about the planet.

i was at the march for science. i believe that we have centers and data and your actually seen the changes in our environment on a daily basis due to the effects of those actually. the cows are producing because of our potential for red meat. the combination of methane and co2 from cars and all of these things are definitely impacting our planet. if you think about the oceans were talking about 2050 the oceans becoming sterile because of all of the co2 that's getting absorbed and creating a toxic environment.

for our wildlife in the ocean. i can see the amazon burning. because of the timing between the two missions i did not see i see that indication every day chasing ice. what's happening to my planet. that is a very good question. at the current administration said this is our policy that has a law of the land.

there is a rogue nasa website. after the administration things may turn a different way the administration who knows how long this is in can the last. make sure that the student that is in high school that's going to college is going to have that and be at the forefront. i don't have the answer. there are picture was taken in 1960.

we shot this picture of the earth rising. it was an iconic picture in the 70s. the epa started after it was taken. in 2018 will be 50 years after that picture was taken. to try to change the course correction. what is can happen in the next 50 years. we also had to make sure that we are awake. and make sure that we are using our votes to have a 26 date for our kids.

i want to know what you think about diversity in the astronaut corps it was a big class to take and taken that year. the number of minorities in nasa. i was one. i think the movie hadn't figures has helped let people see the work that has been going on for a very long time at nasa in general and the diversity i have a chance to see catherine johnson.

she wrote a little quote there. when she have calculated to get john glenn going around the planet. i think it's gotten better. any organization or that society. whatever the -ism is. his ability to break bread with people. what happened to you.

if they don't have the same cultural background. the people that are making the decisions in the astronaut corps. i was on the selection board two times. i was insuring that i was doing my part to make sure that the group of people coming in was as diverse. and number of ways. i think it is better and i think the final outcome we will bring in the last astronaut class. at that point there is some he thinks that factor in. there is 70 different pieces that are attached to it. do you think part of that is

eating more minorities to apply. i remember when i applied charlie bolden was a nasa administrator. it was actually in the first mission to the play. i was walking down the hall in washington dc. we want to make sure that people follow through for that final piece. i've heard of a lot of people after the martian. watching matt damon poop and make potatoes from his poop.

i'm sure the numbers have risen that were diverse. as a follow through that people apply. you need to apply. a friend of mine said he was at professor there. he applies and gets in. if that knucklehead can get in i will be there too. i applied and i got in. between the time of him getting in he flew back to nasa with john young he flew every vehicle known to humans in the space program.

he flew scs one in columbia. a lot of people don't apply. thank you for being inspiration. i am originally from puerto ricoand you are the first astronaut that i met back in 2003 when you visited my school. and it was as part of your legacy. i cannot go to talk to you because i cannot speak english by then. i was inspired with that.

nowadays i am a scientist and indicator. we were part of the first mission. and we are here with you to inspire. i can speak and finally with you. and that is really what it's about with people coming together as a community figuring out how to get other people inspired. i have that. that is a testament to my father in my mother. i just want to carry that on. my question is what inspired you to write the book.

when they share this message with me that i'm i may share this journey. i wasn't perfect at everything i did. after i graduated from high school. life is sometimes and always perfect. it's worth striving for. that some of the things i wanted to share to say hey i can do this also.

those are some of the reasons why i'm i am in sixth grade. i want to be an nba player. get all of your math down seeking count your money. so i will take your money from you and invest in something but make sure that you have your education so that if the nba career doesn't pan out. always had your education as your backup plan just in case it doesn't work out. good luck on your nba. thank you. cap that money now.

hi my name is ben. when you he saw people like neil armstrong. you actually got to be a part of that program. now the shuttle is gone. at least for nasa their plans and for putting someone on the moon was in the 2030s. had ecs without the political incentives that got people like this on the moon. it's not a problem for the passionate community. we still decide where money goes . so that we can eventually get to that gold.

we are setting up our astronauts now. we will have that capability to go for 45 days and so that has been built right now. i think 2017 or 2018 we will do some test runs. i think the one way to really get people to think about ones that are not and it science is to have stories like this been told about the impact of what nasa has done for people's lives. what good is nasa. you go over there played in space. were actually looking at your crops.

were looking at how you can actually rotate your crops to have a better yield. the only think of astronauts in space and the really expensive space station up there. as more messaging. that message gets so washed out with all that noise my advocates for sharing the message of space in the future and what if a 10-kilometer in diameter finds its way to our planet and does what it did to the dinosaurs. what do we do. we know it's coming in five years. what do we do. i bet you everyone is can be focused on that.

but it takes some type of crisis or something to really get people to wake up to seek that there is impending doom happening. people were afraid of getting killed by the russians. what is our new moment. the funding is there for nasa to explore. minus for education and earth science. what i can to talk about. it's getting that message out. read the book. hi my name is vicky. i'm not a scientist but i am a

technology teacher. there is room for everybody at nasa. nasa education when i ran for four years with some of my team here with all types of ways to engage and inspire with the technology. technology. with these different ways to engage i don't know what opportunities are available right now with the ways that the budgets have come out for 2018. thanks for coming. two more questions. can someone lower the mic for my friend here. ..

[inaudible conversations] >> a lot going on, a lot of radiation. we have a craft going around jupiter right now but in a highly elliptical orbit, it swoops in, get the data and swoops back out, it is called juno. go to the nasa website, take a look and find out what juno is doing, i think you will like it. thank you for your question. >> welcome. [laughter and applause] >> a future scientist right

there. our last question. >> can you describe for all of us the first 81/2 minutes of your first mission? what was going through your mind? >> let me start with the 31/2 hours before. i will be quick. you get in the vehicle, it is 31/2 hours before and you are now sitting in the vehicle, you have this chiller hooked up to keep you cool as you are sitting in the seat. all of your notebooks and things and flight data file getting ready for the launch. 3, 2, main engine start, main engines big night and tilt the entire stack of the shuttle forward. that is the weighing --twang.

as it lines backup we have these explosives bolts holding down the entire stack of solid rocket boosters and the external tank, the solid rocket boosters and external tank are at bolted together to keep the shuttle in play so those are broken apart explosively and you are going somewhere, hopefully into space. we are launching up. i am in the back right looking at the computer to make sure everything is working properly. my head is moving so much all i can see is green light on the computer. we turn a little bit. now i can look through a mirror on my wrist out the overhead window back down toward my family. curtis and mike and maia are sitting, where my friends are sitting, i saw you guys down

there. but i can see the plume connected to the ground and know that these people with their spirit are following us into space. 2 and half minutes solid rocket boosters jettison, we are pulling 3g's, laboring to breathe a little bit, you are on your back so the cheese are coming through your chest. you are going through the check systems. if we lost an engine where could we make it? zaragoza, spain, different locations to land a shuttle in an emergency. than about 81/2 minute mark, we hear main engine cut off and you are now in space. that was how it happened. good question. [applause] >> thank you so much for coming

out. one more question? [inaudible question] >> really? what is your name? >> peggy williams. >> peggy williams. so peggy miller williams remembers when i was born in lynchburg, virginia. do you remember we lived in doctor johnson's apartment? can i tell this really quick story? this will be really quick. i always wanted to be the rash. i grew up -- arthur ash. i grew up in these apartments on fifth street, doctor johnson's apartment, they have johnson, if you drive down fifth street you see johnsonville. doctor johnson lived on pierce street. he was a doctor, the first black

doctor to integrate the hospital where i was born. also a tennis coach who taught arthur ash and althea gibson. he came to train in lynchburg. we moved from doctor johnson's apartments to pierce street, 5 blocks from where this clay-court was in lynchburg where two stellar athletes were being trained. also on pierce street there was and spencer of the harlem renaissance, she was a poet. her son was chauncey spencer, one of the first black aviators to petition congress to get money to create tuskegee airmen. i had three levels of integration that i didn't even know what was going on in lynchburg to help me get to this podium to talk about chasing space. that was part of the journey of writing this book, to find out

people that had an impact in my life, lynchburg, i didn't even though. so do your history, go back -- thank you for coming. thank you. thank you so much. [applause] >> he will be signing books if you will line up here, he will be happy to sign books. [inaudible conversations] >> on c-span2 booktv in prime time hits the road tonight starting at 8:00 eastern we feature programs from our local content vehicles. some of the places we visit our hyde park, new york, wilmington, north carolina, edgar allen poe museum in richmond, charlottesville, virginia. booktv in prime time all this

week on c-span2. >> booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you. tweet us twitter.com/booktv or post a comment on our facebook page facebook.com/booktv. booktv continues talks on space exploration, astronomy professor chris impey talked about his book "beyond: our future in space," a look at the next generation of space exploration. >> we want to introduce you to chris impey. what do you do at the university of arizona? >> associate dean of the college of science and professor of astronomy. >> how long have you been here? >> guest: 30 years. >> host: what does that entail being what you are? >> guest: i keep a little piece, i teach online classes, over 100,000 cute my