Fireside Chat with Beth Moses, Astronaut and Virgin Galactic’s Chief Astronaut Instructor
Beth Moses was the first in our virtual Fireside Chat series. She was working from her home (as mandated by the governor) in New Mexico, headquarters for Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic’s base for their commercial operations. With all the uncertainty and negativity surrounding COVID-19, she had such an inspirational message not only talking about her trip to space, but also about humanity’s capacity to solve problems, which once seemed unfathomable. She also had a message for young people who aspire to be astronauts.
Beth Moses is a professional astronaut and astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic, a publicly-traded space tourism company. She flew to space in 2019 to test the customer cabin of SpaceShipTwo during which she became the first and so far only human to float weightless at a standstill above the Earth. Formerly part of NASA, she now leads Virgin Galactic’s cabin test program and will train all SpaceShipTwo astronauts for their flights.
Beth is also the world’s first female commercial astronaut and the recipient of FAA commercial astronaut wings #007, having been the seventh person in history to serve on the flight crew of a commercial spacecraft.
Here’s the full recording:
Here’s a short video message she had for the adults and kids in the audience on how to stay safe during COVID-19 with small actions. Knowing that process and procedure matter as mistakes cost lives, she gave a simple but memorable message:
Here’s a summary of 3 of her answers to questions:
- What was it like to see Earth from space?
“I only had a brief moment to look out the window before I had to get on with my tests. That first moment when I saw Earth from space, my jaw just dropped and I literally said out loud, ‘the limb of the Earth’ which means the curve of the Earth.
I could just see the curve of the earth below and it was beautiful…It feels timeless. You sense that you are looking out over infinity. You’re looking out at the black of space that is just super deep. It’s dark. It’s matte. You can sense that it’s sort of eternal like you’re looking out over infinity, then the earth below you catches your eye and it is bright and super high-definition.
I’ve been in human space my entire career. I’ve seen millions of IMAX movies and images and photos of the earth from space. They’re beautiful but they don’t do it justice when you’re really looking down on it from space. It is bright and glistening. It’s Mother Earth in every sense.
From Apogee (the highest point during flight), I could see halfway up the US. I could see half way down Mexico. I could see out over the Pacific Ocean. On the day we flew there were no clouds. There was snow on the mountains below us. If you’ve seen snow in sunlight, imagine seeing that without looking through the atmosphere, but just seeing the bright glistening parts of it. Earth was really wearing her diamonds. It was so so beautiful.”
2. What did this flight mean for greater humanity and can you comment on the challenges facing people at home today?
“There are challenges on earth today, challenges literally in your home town. But humanity is resilient and can do amazing things when we put our minds to it. We can solve global problems. If you think back roughly 100 years ago, there was no such thing as an aircraft and no such thing as climbing on a commercial airplane. Roughly 50 years ago, there was no such thing as NASA or a government space agency. 25 years ago, you might not see someone like me in a role that I’m currently in as an astronaut.
Yet today, I’ve flown this test flight — 575 humans have been to space, including 65 females. We’ve created an International Space Station with researchers on board. Right now, three of them are there with a few more getting ready to launch. We’ve solved big health crises in our past like we’re seeing today. We’ve solved global planetary climate issues so I really think we have it in us inherently to succeed and thrive collectively in a cooperative way…I think the more world leaders get to space, they would get it in a fundamental way that many humans do now. If we could lock the world leaders into SpaceShip Two and have them hold hands and look out at Earth at that magic Apogee timeless moment, the Earth would probably be a better place as it was really surprisingly magical.”
3. What message do you have for kids at home who aspire to be astronauts someday?
“If you want to be a professional astronaut, you need to study hard. You probably need to go to grad school, but you can start just by doing well in school right now. I bet most of you have online school now maybe some of you even have optional online school. Do the optional work. Study hard. I’ve lost count of how many all-nighters I’ve spent in my life in school, at NASA, and at Virgin Galactic. Hard work pays off… Human space programs need every type of expertise. It’s not just engineers and scientists who work at Virgin Galactic or NASA, it’s also lawyers and graphics artists. Every profession you can imagine is needed by the aerospace industry so if you have love for a certain profession and you love space, there’s a natural match for you.”
Hope you can join us for our next Fireside Chat, register on the ACTAI Global website!
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ACTAI Global is a community of Athletes, Conservationists, Technologists, Artists and Innovators that bring their collective knowledge, energy and social capital together in ‘active gatherings’. The community supports projects benefiting environmental conservation and economic empowerment via entrepreneurship. Together we have brought to life a marine conservation area with Mission Blue, supported other conservation organizations such as Ocean Elders, Virgin Unite, Sea Shepard Conservation Society, and Lonely Whale, and catalyzed gatherings around the world including Australia Based WestTechFest, the Necker Blockchain Summit, and the Extreme Tech Challenge.
