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HOFFMAN: Hello, and welcome to NASA Headquarters.
We have many guests here today
for a very, very special event --
Jay O'Callahan doing NASA stories,
the "Forged in the Stars."
It's a tremendous pleasure to be here.
And for those of you who are here for the first time,
it will be a very memorable morning.
I first met Jay O'Callahan
about two years ago in Massachusetts.
And one of the things that the NASA folks
know that we emphasize a lot
is the development of our workforce.
And we focus a lot on career development
in training programs,
and we focus a lot on supporting teams in mission.
But one of the things we also do is capture lessons
of success and also failure
as a way to reinforce where we're going towards the future.
The nature of the work that we do is very complex
and has a lot of challenge.
And so we find that sharing stories
is an outstanding way of capturing
some of the most important lessons that we deal with.
And as I was talking with Jay --
Obviously, Jay is a world-class storyteller.
He shares his stories and expertise around the world.
He's been called by TIME magazine a genius,
and having been with him
and having the pleasure of being with him for the last two years,
I can see that as it comes through.
When we started talking,
one of the things that Jay had shared with me
was a story of working with Bethlehem Steel.
And as that company was closing down,
the individuals of that community
felt the company was so important
that they wanted to capture a sense of the feeling
and the importance of that organization.
And so they had Jay come and share a story,
and I listened to that.
And it also happened to be the time of NASA's 50th anniversary
and the 40th anniversary of Apollo.
And anybody who's worked at NASA,
who's been a part of the NASA community,
I think, realizes that this is an incredibly special place.
And so it made sense to ask Jay
to come and meet the different folks at NASA
and to use his expertise to create a story
about what NASA is and what it means to us,
maybe in a way that we can't, for ourselves,
having been here and being so close to it, extend.
So, that's what we've done.
Jay has been to several of our centers.
Each one has been a special event.
I think what you're going to hear
is going to be a masterwork
which really captures the challenge, the inspiration,
the passion, and the competence that goes into what takes place.
And I know from the folks who have heard it up till now,
it's been a real blessing,
from the standpoint of being able to have us feel and see
the nature of what happens at NASA
in a way that maybe we haven't been able
to articulate ourselves.
So, without any further ado, it's my great pleasure
to introduce a colleague and friend
and a tremendous artist, Jay O'Callahan,
to NASA Headquarters and to Washington.
[ Applause ]
O'CALLAHAN: Oh, thank you, Ed.
Thank you all for coming.
This is like being full circle after Dr. Ed Hoffman,
who directs a very important leadership program at NASA.
After we met in Marshfield, Massachusetts -- my home --
we came down here to talk about
what the story might be about
and then, when the story was developing, came back,
and now this is the third gathering.
So, thank you.
A special thank-you to Lewis Peach,
who's been so wonderful,
and to Dr. Ed Hoffman.
So, the story...
"T" minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Lift-off! We have lift-off!
As Ed said, two years ago, I was here,
in a conference room at NASA headquarters,
and I was excited because I'd been commissioned
to create this story about NASA's 50th anniversary.
And Ed Hoffman said,
"What's Jay's mission statement?"
And somebody said, "You got to do a story
"about the International Space Station.
That's where it's at."
Somebody else said, "Whatever you do,
you got to do people in space and robots in space."
And Ed Hoffman said, "Jay...
I want you to write a love letter to NASA."
A love letter? Love letter?
NASA's an administration.
"Dear beloved administration..."
But still, it was freeing -- a love letter.
Flew off with Ed Hoffman, several others,
to Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas --
responsible for putting people in space.
And I was wondering, "Will these people I'm going to interview --
"astronauts, engineers, scientists --
"Will they be arrogant?
Will they be forthcoming?"
Well, they were very open, forthcoming.
I was about to interview
the Chief Engineer at Johnson Space Center,
and I thought, "This guy must be nervous -- the pressure."
At the time, his job was to land people on the moon
in 2020 to live,
then to land people on Mars to live.
I thought, "This guy's so tense,
he probably looks like an Erector Set."
But then he came -- Steve Altemus, 45 years old.
Had the grace of an athlete.
I said, "Steve, what brought you to the work?"
And he talked with his hands.
He reminded me of a halfback going out for a pass.
He said, "My great-great grandfather -- Bruegger --
"He built Lehigh University with his hands -- stonemason.
"That was the generation
that built the scaffolding for this country."
And he said, "We are building the scaffolding for space."
"Wow."
Then I was going to interview a manager, and I thought,
"He'll probably talk like a bureaucrat."
The manager turned out to be Judy Robinson.
I said, "Judy, what brought you to the work?"
She said, "Well, my father was German,
"and my mother was Austrian.
"When my mother was 14, that was the night of Kristallnacht.
"That was the night the Nazis
smashed the windows of the Jews."
She said, "My mother managed to get to this country,
but much of my family was lost in the Holocaust."
She said, "I grew up hearing the story.
"I got a PhD,
"and now I'm an advocate for the safety of the astronauts.
I'm paying this country back."
"Wow," again.
All these interviews.
Then we fly off to Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, California -- responsible for robots.
Robots -- what a bore!
But I was wrong.
The scientists, the engineers at JPL --
they were passionate about their work.
I talked to Rob Manning,
Chief Engineer for the Mars mission,
and Rob Manning -- he was a storyteller.
He said, "Mars is a mystery story.
Where did the water go?"
He said, "Mars and Earth may be twins,
"and it's even possible that part of Mars broke off
and brought life to Earth."
Then Dr. Ed Stone at Caltech -- physicist --
When Ed Stone was 36 years old back in the '70s,
he was the Chief Project Scientist
for the Voyager mission.
Well, Ed Stone talked about the solar system
in a way it seemed to open up like a flower for me.
So, I fly back to Massachusetts, thinking about these interviews.
A love story? How could I do a love story?
My job is to squeeze the interviews.
I've got 1,000 pages of interviews and E-mails.
I'm reading 40 books, taking a course in astronomy,
and I'm thinking my job is to squeeze 1,000 pages.
I'm beginning to turn into an Erector Set.
I'm getting so nervous.
I'm mowing the lawn one day -- old-fashioned mower --
and I stopped and thought about one of the interviews
at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.
It was with interns.
Now, these are college students who are interning at NASA,
then they're back in college, all the way through college.
I walked into that room.
Ed Hoffman was there. And I'll never forget it.
I thought, "Is this the future of NASA?"
The young woman sitting in front of me said, "I'm Sarah Rieger.
"I'm an engineering student at Georgia Tech.
"I'm doing something that's never been done here at NASA.
"I'm working on the new lunar lander.
It may have two motors."
I turned -- Daniel Araya, elegant young man.
He says, "My mother's Hungarian. My dad's Ethiopian.
"I've been an intern four times here at NASA.
"I come back 'cause of the people.
I hope to get a PhD and spend my life here."
The third intern --
wiry young man, Cecil Shy Jr., Afro-American.
And Cecil says, "When I was a little kid,
"I loved to make these toy cars with motors.
'Rrrrrr!' I was good at it."
And then Cecil says,
"High school -- I went to a career night
"and there's a model of the Mars rover,
and I thought, 'I can do that! Why not?'"
And then Cecil says,
"You know, I think of kids all over the world
"going to sleep at night, looking at the stars, thinking,
'I want to go there.'"
And Cecil says, "Why not?"
and I love that -- "Why not? Why not?
"Why not let go of squeezing 1,000 pages?
"Why not make a love story?
"Why not make a love story?
"Two lovers who will tell true stories,
true stories of NASA."
And the lovers sprang to mind --
Kate and Jack, in love,
but something's gone wrong with their love.
And so, my love letter to NASA is called "Forged in the Stars."
The time -- late October 2007.
The place -- Boston, Massachusetts.
On a bright, windy Friday morning,
a young woman, Kate DeCordova,
was running down a sloping sidewalk,
had a Red Sox cap on,
her black hair flowing out behind her.
♫ Here comes the sun ♫
Checked her watch -- 8:30.
As long as she made the next trolley into Boston,
she'd be on time for mechanical engineering.
No one was late for mechanical engineering.
As she was running, she could smell the salt-sea air.
[ Sniffs ]
It reminded her -- last night,
she'd been pouring salt into the boiling spaghetti water,
and the phone had rung.
She had picked it up. "K-K-Kate, it's Jack."
She almost dropped the phone --
Jack Carver on the phone, her former fiancé.
Six months ago, in a fiery scene last April,
she had ended the engagement.
Here was Jack -- Jack Carver.
"K-Kate, something exciting has happened."
Jack Carver -- big powerful guy,
son of a Maine lobsterman,
getting a PhD in astrophysics at MIT,
but when he was nervous, he stuttered.
"Kate, you know the Sunday science series at MIT?
"Well, a Russian scientist can't make it,
"so my thesis advisor thought you and I
"could do the program on NASA.
"You know, it's their 50th anniversary.
"Kate, you've been an intern four times at NASA.
He's going to get The Boston Globe to cover it."
"Jack, you don't have to talk me into this.
It's great! When do we do it?"
"We do it Sunday, three weeks from now."
"I can't, Jack.
"I've got the GREs,
"the Graduate Record Exams, that Saturday.
"I'm sorry. I got to run. Bye.
Supper's ready!"
Kate's apartment mate and best friend was Cynthia Moss,
who referred to herself
as "the bony blonde from Minnesota."
Cynthia Moss had been a basketball star in St. Paul,
and now she was majoring in music,
and she loved every music,
everything from Chinese opera to Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Nobody ever called Cynthia Moss "sweet."
She had a temper.
When she was a little kid,
she looked at all of her friends and said,
"I'm gonna have a big party and invite nobody."
Her temper hadn't improved.
They sat down for supper,
and Kate made the mistake of saying Jack called about NASA.
Cynthia said, "Could we not talk about NASA today?
"It's my mother's birthday.
"She died of cancer
"'cause we lived near a toxic-waste dump.
"Kate, we've polluted the air. We're polluting the skies.
"Let's not talk about NASA today.
"Do me a favor, Kate.
"After supper,
"I want you to listen to a CD of 'Blind' Willie Johnson
singing 'Dark Was the Night.'"
"Blind" Willie Johnson -- black man,
sang in the streets of Dallas, 1920s.
"Dark Was the Night" -- the voice, guitar -- no words.
Kate was thinking of all of that as she was running,
and the streetcar went on by her.
It would stop 20 yards ahead.
She had to get the streetcar,
because no one was late for mechanical engineering.
So she lengthened her stride.
10 yards from the streetcar,
this yellow maple leaf was floating down.
The wind took it up, and she took a chance,
and she leapt way, way up and caught the leaf!
And now she sprinted for the car,
but the driver was closing the door.
A formidable woman on the trolley said, "Wait!"
He waited. Kate leapt on, showed her pass.
The woman said, "Please sit here."
The woman had a crown of white hair, pearls,
handsome wool suit, black walking stick.
She was clearly the empress of the streetcar.
"What a leap, what a catch. You're an athlete or a dancer."
[ Exhales sharply ]
"I was in a really good soccer team in high school --
Exeter Academy."
"Exeter Academy -- wonderful school.
Did you love it?"
"I hated it. [ Sighs ]
"My roommate's dad was running the World Bank.
My dad was running a little hardware store in Oklahoma."
"Did you stick it out?"
"Can I boast?" "Boast! Boast!"
"Senior year, I won a national science award,
"and I wrote and directed the senior play...
"about the planets.
"Everybody loved it, except the boy who played Pluto."
"I bet you're a young professor now."
[ Chuckles ] "Oh, I wish.
I'm 27. I thought by now I'd be at NASA."
"Oh, I love the Bahamas, too."
"Oh, no, the space agency."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What happened?"
"A bump happened.
"Instead of going to college, I went back home.
"Dad had a terrible stroke.
"It took Mom and me four years
"to put the hardware store on firm footing.
"But I decided I wanted three things out of college --
"the Atlantic Ocean,
"I wanted to be an intern at NASA all the way through,
and I wanted to write at least one other play."
"What's your dream?"
"My dream is to do well on the GREs
and then get the PhD and --"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What's your dream?
What's your dream?"
"Hmm.
Well, I suppose my dream is to tiptoe among the stars."
"That's a dream. That's a dream.
I'm Edith Whiteside."
"Kate DeCordova."
"Kate DeCordova -- Spanish name."
"Oklahoma -- pioneer stock -- English, Scotch-Irish."
"Well, Kate DeCordova, this has been a delight.
This is my stop -- Boston Museum of Fine Arts."
Kate got up to let her go,
and at the last second, Kate said, "Wait, Edith. Wait.
Here, please, take the leaf."
"You give me hope. You give me hope.
Today the mummies."
"The Egyptian section?"
"Oh, no -- members of the board, bunch of stiffs.
I'll take them on because you give me hope!"
Kate thought Edith Whiteside was wonderful.
She waved goodbye to Edith.
And as the trolley started, Kate was laughing inside.
And that's the way she used to laugh with Jack Carver.
She had met Jack three years ago.
There was a lecture on Saturn's rings
open to everyone at Northeastern University.
It was crowded and Kate looked up
and there was this big handsome guy --
curly brown hair, brown eyes, old windbreaker, dungarees.
He bent over and said,
"I just got off the lobster boat.
I'm afraid I smell wicked bad. Is it all right I sit down?"
Well, she was charmed with his Maine accent.
So after the lecture, they went across the street,
had pizza for an hour, laughed and laughed.
And she pointed out his Maine accent had disappeared.
He turned red.
"Well, the thing is, Kate, if I'm nervous,
I either stutter, or I pour on the Maine accent."
Halloween came, and Cynthia and Kate
had a big Halloween party in their apartment.
In the middle of the party, there was a knock on the door.
Kate opened the door,
and there was a big round mound of aluminum foil.
Someone was in the foil.
"Woof, woof! I'm the dog star."
Jack -- he was the hit of the party.
In the springtime, one of Jack's colleagues
invited Kate and Jack to go sailing
down at Pocasset at the edge of Cape Cod.
So, they started out on a little inlet.
Squall came up.
Kate shifted the wrong way,
and the boom knocked her into the water.
Well, Kate just swam over to the bank, climbed up.
But Jack -- he had dived in to save Kate.
He swallowed the water. He was choking.
She pulled him out.
When he was fine, she pushed him back in.
Well, she was laughing about all of that,
and she missed her stop -- Northeastern University.
The trolley was going down into the tunnel.
When she got out, she ran back,
but she was late for mechanical engineering.
She pulled the Red Sox cap down, went in the back,
and the professor... [ Sighs heavily ]
...said nothing,
because Kate DeCordova was the best student she ever had.
After class, Kate went out -- the leaves are blowing around --
got out her cellphone, and she called Jack.
"Jack, it's Kate. I've changed my mind.
I'll do the program at MIT."
"G-Great! Great! What happened?"
"I caught a leaf.
"Never mind.
I'll do it, and we'll bring Cynthia to it."
"D-Don't bring Cynthia. She causes trouble.
She still wearing the green wig?"
"She wears it to earth science class.
"Listen, if we're any good, she'll learn something.
What am I supposed to do?"
"All right, listen,
"you do three 12-minute sections on putting people in space,
"and I will finish with a lecture on robots in space."
"All right, Jack, this is the the way we'll do it --
"the next three Thursdays, 7:00, my apartment,
we'll run things back and forth.
Bye."
Then she thought of what Jack said --
he would finish with a lecture on robots.
One of the reasons she had ended the engagement
is because he had become a critical bore,
and it all started when he got that tweed jacket.
She hated that tweed jacket.
She got busy E-mailing friends, professors, NASA colleagues.
She asked one question --
"What do you remember most about NASA?"
Thursday night, Jack was coming up the stairs.
Cynthia and Kate
had a third-floor apartment in Jamaica Plain,
and Kate was pacing in the kitchen
because Jack could be so critical.
She heard Cynthia going down the stairs,
saying, "Jack, well done, Jack.
"Kate's got the GREs in three weeks.
"Everything rides on them.
"You've got her doing this dumb program on NASA.
Well done, Jack!"
A few seconds later, she heard Jack say,
"Oh, Cynthia, listen, I forgot.
"I found an apartment for you.
Just right -- it's on the dark side of the moon."
"Jack, I'm in the kitchen!"
"Oh," she thought, "what do you do with your former lover?
Do you hug? Do you shake hands?"
Jack came in. "Hello, Jack."
And there was Jack stepping into the kitchen,
the old windbreaker, dungarees,
and, luckily, he was carrying supper,
so there was a pizza box between them.
"Perfect, Jack, perfect. Sit down.
"Jack, we'll have the pizza later.
"I'm nervous, so I'm gonna just start.
"Imagine we're at MIT, all right?
"I'll say to the people,
"I'm Kate DeCordova, an engineering student.
"I hope to get a PhD and spend my career at NASA.
"I grew up in a little town in Oklahoma.
"When I was 5 years old,
"my dad and I were standing under the stars.
"And my dad, usually a very practical man --
"he ran a hardware store -- but that night, he was a poet.
"That night, he said,
"'Kate, Kate, the blackness and the stars --
"'they're not just above us.
"'They're all around us, Kate.
"'Kate, the earth is just a ball moving,
"the blackness and the stars all around us.'
"Well, that was magic to a 5-year-old.
"Tonight, I'm going to tell you three true stories of NASA.
"And the first story begins in 1948,
"in a working-class neighborhood in Oklahoma City.
"It begins with a 5-year-old boy running into the kitchen,
"saying, 'Mom, I heard a voice coming from way up,
"way up towards the sun.'
"'A voice?' 'Yes.
"It said I was gonna help people get to the moon.'
"And she said, 'That's a vision.'
"And she said, 'That's a vision,'
"because they were Cherokee-Osage.
"And their tradition is,
"they have come from the stars to the Earth.
"And she said, 'You have to work for it, J.C.'
"His Cherokee name was J.C. High Eagle,
"his name in the white world, Jerry Elliott.
"And working for the vision
"meant being good at physics and mathematics.
"And he did very well in high school.
"So, in 1961, 18 years old,
"J.C. High Eagle went to the University of Oklahoma.
"The world was opening for him!
"And he found many of the students didn't want him.
"'What's the Indian kid doing here?'
"Many of the professors didn't want him.
"'Listen -- you're a fine young man.
"'It's not your fault.
"'It's just that your people don't have what it takes
"to be engineers and scientists.'
"He was humiliated.
"But he had the vision,
"he stuck with it, and he did well.
"So, in 1966, he decided to go to graduate school,
"get a master's -- electrical engineering.
"But there was no money now.
"His stepfather died. His mother was working.
"So, J.C. High Eagle, this young man, went down --
"This is Norman, Oklahoma, where the university is --
"to the police station.
"He said, 'I want to be a policeman.'
"They gave him a test.
"He scored as high as anybody's ever scored.
"He became a full-time policeman and a deputy sheriff,
"which meant he could take two courses a semester.
"9:00 in the morning, 10:00 in the morning
"was electrical engineering.
"He would wear his uniform to class with a loaded gun,
"but it was Oklahoma.
"His mother called one day
"and said, 'J.C., you got a telegram from the army.'
"'Open it, Mom.'
"'You have to report...to the draft board for your physical.'
"He passed. Another telegram.
'Open it.'"
[ Sighs ]
"'You have to go to boot camp in 15 days.
"'You're going to Vietnam, so call your grandfather.'
"He called his granddad, a wise old man,
"at his granddad's wheat farm.
"'Hi, Granddad, it's J.C.
"'Listen, I'm going to boot camp in 15 days.'
"'They won't take you.'
"'No, no, no, no, I got the piece paper.'
"'I don't believe in paper. [ Chuckles ]
"'They won't take you.
"'Listen, I had a hard time
"'getting the calf born last night.'
"I had to hitch the tractor up and pull the calf out.'
"'Granddad, I'm going to boot camp in 15 days.'
"'They won't take you. Let me tell you about the calf.'
"He went on and on.
"J.C. hung up, called his mother.
"'He didn't listen to me, Mom.
"'He said they won't take me
"and goes on and on and on about the calf.'
"'He's my dad. I'm with him.'
"J.C. was furious.
"The two people he trusted most didn't listen to him.
"Well, the 15 days turned into 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 days --
"10 days to boot camp.
"He finishes electrical engineering.
"Walking down the corridor.
"There are students lined up outside the dean's office,
"and there on the bulletin board --
"'NASA interviewing today.'
"NASA!
"J.C. gets in line to get a uniform on.
"He says to the student, 'What do you got?'
"'You got to have a NASA application,
"'government application, and your résumé,
"or they won't talk to you.'
"No time for that.
"The line melts. He steps in.
"The NASA man is packing his briefcase.
"'What can I do for you, officer?'
"'I want to put people on the moon.'
"He looks at this cop.
"'I'm getting a master's -- electrical engineering --
"working my way through.'
"'Well, write down your name and your phone number.
"'I got a plane to catch.
"Don't call us. We'll call you.'
"The NASA man's gone.
"9 days, 8 days, 7 days, 6 days.
"5 days to boot camp, his mother calls.
"'J.C., there's a man -- Bernie Goodwin.
"'He's from NASA. He said he'd talk to you.
"Here's his phone number.'
"He calls Bernie Goodwin.
"'Mr. Goodwin, it's J.C. High Eagle.'
"'J.C., J.C.! [ Chuckles ]
"'I looked into your record. You're brilliant!
"'And you're full of fire.
"'You're the kind of person we want at NASA.
"'We want you to start Monday morning --
"Manned Space Center, Houston.'
"'I can't.' 'Why? The draft?'
"'Yes, sir, the draft.'
"'Well, you're a policeman.
"'You know possession's 9/10 of the law.
"'You come, we possess you.
"Who runs the draft?'
"'We have a colonel.' 'Well, we have a general.
"'Our general will talk to your colonel.
"Monday morning.' 'Yes, sir!'
"He goes home, tells his mother.
"She says, 'Call your grandfather.'
"'Granddad.'
"'I told you they wouldn't take you.'
"He gets his guitar, borrows his mother's car.
"He heads to Houston, Texas.
"He is hired as an engineer Monday morning.
"A few weeks go by, and Chris Kraft,
"who becomes the great Flight Control Director,
"smoking a cigar, one day comes over.
"'How do you like it here, son?'
"'I love it. I love the responsibility.
"One thing, though.' 'What's that?'
"'I'm used to reading books to learn. What should I read?'
"'Son, we don't read books here. We write them.'
"Well, soon enough, J.C. High Eagle is writing
"the Agena systems handbook.
"He is in flight control center
"for all the Apollo missions.
He is helping put people on the moon."
And Kate said, "That's it, Jack.
"That's a true story, Jack. Oh, wait. Wait.
"There's a coda. There's a coda. Coda, Jack.
"The coda is this --
"Apollo 13, soon to lift off,
"and J.C. High Eagle gets another piece of paper --
"jury duty.
"So he goes down to Houston, downtown.
"'Nobody gets out of jury duty with Judge Singleton.'
"Everybody's giving excuses.
"One woman says, 'Your Honor, you can see how pregnant I am.'
"'The baby will wait. What's your excuse?'
"'Your Honor, it's not an excuse.
"'I am the lead -- the lead retrofire officer
"for Apollo 13.'
"'What's a retrofire officer?'
"'I calculate the re-entry angle of the command module.
"'If it's too steep, Your Honor, they burn up.
"'If it's too shallow, they flip off.
"They don't come back.'
"'I don't usually make exceptions.
"I'll make one in this case if you do me a favor.'
"'Yes, sir.'
"'Bring them back alive.' 'Yes, sir.'
"Apollo 13 lifts off.
"Everything is fine -- up and up and up, 200,000 miles up.
"J.C. High Eagle has finished his shift, gets into his car.
"He's driving out, turns on the radio.
"There's been an accident in space.
"Turns the car around.
"He runs into flight control center.
"Men are running around. Some men are crying.
"Something very serious has happened,
"but nobody knows exactly what.
"In the confusion, somebody says, 'They got to abort.'
"'No!' -- J.C. 'No!'
"He's afraid if they abort and the motor is damaged,
"the command module won't make it back.
"He says, 'No, we got to slingshot them around the moon.'
"He wants to use the gravity of the moon
"to help slingshot them back.
"And that's what they do.
"So, Jack, J.C. High Eagle helps people get to the moon,
"and he helps them get back.
Now, Jack, just tell me what you love about the story."
Jack got up and said,
"Well, for one thing, you're too dramatic."
"Tell me what else you love about the story."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
"I liked the part about the granddad.
"Only reason I'm at MIT is 'cause of my granddad.
"My dad wanted me to be a lobsterman.
"I mentioned grad school once.
"My dad said, 'You won't fit in, Jack.
"'You won't fit in. You're not their people.'
"So I went to granddad, and granddad said,
"'Go to grad school.
"'If you learn enough,
"you can take your lobster boat to the stars.'
"So, here I am, Kate, still trying to fit in.
"Let's have the pizza.
"Oh, Kate, Kate, Kate, would you do me a favor?
Next Thursday, don't be dramatic."
The next Thursday, Jack was coming up the stairs.
Kate was very nervous 'cause she was going to be very dramatic.
She thought about the very best and the worst of Jack,
and they both happened last April.
Last April, Jack showed up at her apartment.
He had a yellow rain slicker on, and he had one for her.
They drove down to Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Jack had a friend who had a lobster boat.
Kate and Jack went out, just together,
way out at sea in the lobster boat.
The stars were brilliant, but the sea was rough.
This was Jack's world.
He loved it -- spray coming over the bow.
Kate was terrified.
"Kate, Kate, I'm gonna tell you a story
that begins billions of years ago."
"Jack, condense the story. Jack --"
"All right, Kate, all right. You know Jupiter.
"You know how big Jupiter is.
"You could put 1,200 --
"1,200 Earths in the volume of Jupiter.
"You know the red spot on Jupiter?
"It's a storm that's been raging 300 years on Jupiter.
"The red spot's twice the size of the Earth.
"Oh, Kate, the moment I saw you, I had a red spot on my heart.
I love you, Kate! Marry me! Marry me!"
Well, of course she said yes. What a proposal!
Two days later, they were stuck in traffic in East Cambridge.
Jack had the tweed jacket on.
He was nervous.
They were going to a departmental party,
and he hated those parties.
Kate said, "Jack, isn't it wonderful?
"The whole solar system --
"Because of the solar wind,
the whole solar system is in a bubble."
"It's not in a bubble. It's a heliosphere.
"Would you get the language?
He-lio-sphere -- not a bubble."
"Jack, we have argued about your tone of voice for a year.
"It's demeaning. It's insulting.
I'll take the subway home. You go to the party alone."
She got out, and she slammed the car door.
She was angry about that tone of voice.
She was still angry two days later.
They had fought over that for a year.
So she biked from Jamaica Plain to Somerville,
ran up to the second-floor apartment, opened the door.
"Jack...
Here's your ring, Jack. It won't work."
And she left.
She stood outside the door, thinking, "What a coward I am.
"2 1/2 years, I can't stand there
"and talk about it and cry about it?
What a coward!"
And, finally, she got the courage up to open the door.
Jack was in the kitchen.
She never heard a cry come from a human being like that.
She couldn't face him because she would say she'd marry him.
It wasn't right.
She's standing in the kitchen, thinking of that,
and Jack came in -- old windbreaker, dungarees.
"Kate, you all right?"
"Yes, I was -- Oh, you brought éclairs.
"Oh, thank you, Jack. I love them. I love them.
"Sit down, Jack. Sit down.
"Jack, I've got a scene you're gonna love, all right?
"Now, I want Armstrong to tell his story,
so I've invented a character."
"Invented a character?!"
"Jack, it's a literary device. It helps tell the story.
"So, here's the idea.
"Armstrong's going into a nursing home
"to visit an old man.
"The old man's... [ Groans ]
"He's in a wheelchair, all bent over.
"He's a retired Admiral.
"So, the idea is
"that Armstrong's known the Admiral for years,
"but the last few times he's come,
"the Admiral has no idea who he is -- none.
"More than that, the last time, the Admiral didn't talk.
"So, the Admiral's wife says to Armstrong,
"'Give it one more try.'
"So, here's the scene.
"'Armstrong reporting for duty, sir.
"'Admiral?
Armstrong reporting for duty, sir.'"
"'Armstrong? Navy pilot?'
"'Yes, sir.'
"'Combat duty?' 'Yes, sir.
"'Korea, sir, North Korea.
"'I was down 500 feet, sir. My wing got sliced off.
"'I had to eject, Admiral.
"'The only reason I'm here -- the wind blew me
"into a rice paddy instead of the sea.'
"'Ah. What was your latest duty?'
"'Moon, sir.' 'Moon? Where's that?'
"'The moon, sir, the moon.
"Three of us, sir --
"'Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and myself.
"'Took us three days to get up there.
"'Now the question is, Admiral, can we land on the moon?
"'Never been done, sir.
"'So, two of us -- Buzz Aldrin and myself --
"we crawl -- really, we float into a lunar module.'
"'A lunar module? What kind of plane is that?'
"'It's an unusual flying machine, sir, very small.
"'It's like a cockpit -- gauges, switches --
"'some of the walls, Admiral,
"'no thicker than a sheet of aluminum foil --
"'triangular window for me, triangular window for Buzz,
"'circular window above us.
"So, we're standing, harnessed to the floor.'
"'Why are you standing?'
"'Because two seats would weigh 600 pounds, Admiral --
"'less weight, less fuel.
"'Oh, I should say, Admiral, just a couple of months before,
"'Tom Stafford was in a lunar module
"50,000 feet above the moon.'
"'Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
"'Stafford -- I know that name.
"He go to the Academy?' 'Annapolis.'
"'Yes, yes, yes.
"'Did you know Stafford's mother, when she was 6,
"came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon?'
"'I did not.' 'Well, it's true.
"'And she lived in a sod house.
"'So, now Stafford's 50,000 feet?
"Why didn't he land?'
"'His lunar module was too heavy, Admiral.
"Ours was the first light enough to land and hopefully get off.'
"'All right. Go ahead.'
"'So, we get permission to undock, sir.
"'This is a powered descent,
"'so the computer's flying us, sir.
"'We get down to 40,000 feet,
"'and then we're lurching like a drunk, like a drunk, Admiral.
"'Our radar kicked in.
"'The radar is right, but the computer disagrees,
"'so we're lurching,
"'and Buzz is trying to get the computer to agree.
"'And then -- "Broo!" -- a master alarm.
"'Admiral, this is serious. It could be an abort.
"'Luckily, there's a smart young guy -- Steve Bales.
"He says it's a go on that alarm.
"'And now, Admiral, the problem snowballed.
"'Our computer cuts out.
"'Houston's got nothing -- blank screens.
"'And we cut back in.
"'They get just enough information
"'to keep us going, sir.
"'Another master alarm.
"'It's a go on the al-- We get down to 7,500 feet.
"'We tilt over, and, sir, through the triangle,
"'I can see the Sea of Tranquility, Admiral,
"'where we're going to land.
"'We get down 3,000 feet.
"'We're going slowly, Admiral, maybe 48 miles an hour,
"'and then, 1,000 feet above the moon,
"'we are in trouble, Admiral.
"'The computer is flying us blindly into a crater, sir.
"'And the crater's surrounded with boulders.
"'We can bust up, sir.
"I start to fly this thing.'
"'About time, Armstrong.'
"'I get down, sir.
"'I'm -- I'm skimming over these boulders.
"'I'm down to 220 feet, sir.
"'I find a place to land -- 90 seconds of fuel, sir.
"'Houston knows nothing of this.
"'They know nothing about the crater, Admiral.
"'I've got no time to tell them.
"My heart is pounding away, and the place I've picked out --
"'it's no good, Admiral, it's no good.
"'I go to another place over there --
"'60 seconds of fuel left.
"'I start down, Admiral.
"'We're 100 feet from the moon,
"'but my rocket blast is kicking up the dust.
"'I can't see, sir.
"'We got 50 feet above the moon --
"'30 seconds of fuel.
"'The module -- We call it the Eagle, sir --
"'Well, it's drifting back, and I don't understand why.
"'And I'm wrestling with the sideways motion.
"'And the contact light turned on.
"'We're on the moon. [ Breathing heavily ]
"'I turn to Buzz. We haven't shaved in days.
"'We have these bubble helmets.
"'We shake hands. We're on the moon.
"'Houston, Tranquility Base here.
"The Eagle has landed.'"
"'And?'
"'Well, Admiral, the plan called for us to go to sleep.'
"'Asleep, man? You're on the moon!'
"'Exactly, sir. We couldn't sleep.
"'We asked permission to get out there.
"'They said, "Fine."
"'You can't believe how long it takes.
"'There's a check-off list, Admiral.
"'We got to get on the oxygen pack and get the hoses secured.
"'So, I'm doing that, and I look up in the circular window,
"'thinking I'm gonna see the blackness and the stars.
"'What I see, Admiral, way, way up there,
"'is the Earth, sir, the Earth.
"'It's bright, and it's beautiful, sir.
"'Then I look out the triangular window
"'at the surface of the moon.
"'Reminds me of the desert.
"'But there's no atmosphere, so there's a strange clarity.
"'Well, then I get on these boots, Admiral,
"'to give me traction when I step on the moon,
"and I thought of what I might say.'
"'You hadn't thought about it?'
"'I'm a pilot, Admiral. My job is land and get off.
"'It's not to say something.
"'But I thought of something,
"so finally I'm ready to open the hatch.'
"'I wouldn't want to be on the moon.'
"'Why's that, sir?' 'Mosquitoes.'
"'No, Admiral, it's a vacuum.'
"'I made a joke. I made a joke.
"You got no sense of humor? I made a joke. Go ahead.'
"'I open the hatch, sir, and I pull the D-ring
"so the television camera turns on.
"'And now hundreds of millions of people are watching.
"'It's very awkward, sir,
"'with the pack and the bulky suit, the boots.
"'So, I go down the ladder. [ Breathing heavily ]
"'I get to the last rung, sir. I've got a 3-foot jump.
"'We thought the legs would collapse,
"'but we landed so gently, they didn't.
"'Each of the legs has a big footpad, Admiral.
"'It's like a shallow soup bowl.
"'So I push up,
"'and I kind of almost float down to the footpad.
"'And then I jump back up to make sure I can do it.
"'And back down -- I'm on the footpad, Admiral,
"'not on the moon -- on the foot pad.
"'And one of the scientists said --
"'I think it was Tommy Gold --
"'said that the moon dust could be a mile deep.
"'I didn't want to go down a mile.
So I put one foot on the moon.'"
"'Solid.
"'"That's one small step for man,
"one giant leap for mankind."'
"'Pretty dull.'
"'What would you have said, sir?'
"'Oh, my wife likes Thoreau.
"'Thoreau would have said something like, uh...
"'"I didn't come to change things.
"I came to wake the neighbors up."'
"'That would have been very good, Admiral, very good.
"'So, I put my hands on the landing gear, sir,
"'and I put my other foot on the moon.
"Then I let go.'
"'That took guts. That took guts.'
"'It's like learning to walk again, sir,
"'because it's 1/6 gravity, and...
"'And then Buzz came out.
"'Buzz called it magnificent desolation.'
"'Ah, Aldrin -- I bet he wanted to step on the moon first.'
"'Yes, sir.'
"'Yeah.
"'If I'd been with you, I would have slipped you a Mickey.
"My wife wants to talk to you.'
"The Admiral's wife is a beautiful woman,
"maybe 10 years younger, wearing a red dress --
"former professor.
"She said, 'Neil, I'll never forget the day
"'the three of you lifted off --
"'the excitement, of course, and the sound,
"'but mostly the white fire that lifted you up.
"'I've thought about that ever since.
"'That white fire, Neil -- it seemed to cut through me.
"'It seemed to cut through time.
"'You know what I think the white fire was made of?
"'I think the white fire that lifted you up
"'was made of the passion and the effort
"'and the commitment of 600,000 people, Neil,
"'all of the [Sighs]
"'all of the engineers and scientists
"and all of the secretaries, security people.'
"'Yes, ma'am.'
"'And that white fire that lifted you up --
"'that was made of the hopes
"'of hundreds of millions of people
"'that you'd make it.
"'That white fire wasn't made just by great minds.
"'That white fire was made of every child who's ever wondered,
"'"Where does a frog go in the winter?"
"'"How could there be a bit of green and purple
"'inside an icicle?"
"'"Why does a crow sound different from a blue jay?"
"'And that fire that lifted you up
"'was made of the courage of Amelia Earhart
"'and the Wright brothers and Lindbergh,
"'Leonardo da Vinci.
"'That fire that lifted you up
"'was made by people 40,000 years ago, Neil,
"'who took torches and went into caves
"'and made paintings.
"That's the fire that lifted you up.'
"'Yes, ma'am.
"'And, ma'am, when we finished and got back here safely,
"'NASA sent us to countries all over the world,
"'and people would run up, ma'am.
"'They would never say, "You did it!"
"'They would say, "We did it! We did it!"'
"'Well, Armstrong, that was the high moment of your life.'
"'Certainly one.'
"'What do you mean, "Certainly one"?'
"'Well, Admiral, when I was at Purdue,
"'I fell in love with Jan.
"'That's quite a moment -- and three children.'
"'Ah. How are your children?'
"'My boys are fine, sir.
"'My -- My daughter died of a brain tumor
"before she got to be 3.'
"'Oh.'
"The old man reached out and squeezed Armstrong's hand.
"'My wife will see you out.
"'Oh, one thing, one thing -- you're a fine man,
"but work on your sense of humor.'
"'Yes, sir.'
"Out in the corridor, the Admiral's wife said,
"'I might not see his fire again,
"'but I saw it today.
"Thank you, Neil.'
"So, Jack, that's the second story.
What do you think?"
Jack got up and said, "Well, I think it's fine,
but I asked you, as a favor, not to be dramatic."
"Jack, I'm an engineer. I design things for a purpose.
"We are facing a general audience at MIT.
"And this is who I am.
"Now, Jack, what are you gonna do?
Run something by me."
"No, I'm not ready. I'm thinking. I'm thinking.
I'm -- I got to go along."
"All right. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
"Take two éclairs. Take two éclairs.
I'll see you next Thursday."
The next Thursday was the last Thursday.
Three days later -- Sunday --
they were going to do the program.
Jack stepped into the kitchen that Thursday
wearing the tweed jacket, shirt, and tie.
He had no gift.
"All right, Jack, this is the last true story.
"Then I want to hear everything you're gonna do.
"So, I'll say to the audience,
"The last true story begins in 1951,
"Columbia Point in Boston.
"Columbia Point is on a spit of land on Dorchester Bay.
"It begins with a 3-year-old girl on a tricycle,
"an adventurer.
"Christa Corrigan, Jack.
"Christa Corrigan -- she's excited and happy.
"Her family is together.
"Her dad, Ed Corrigan, is a Navy veteran,
"but he's had a hard time finding veteran's housing
"'cause he lived in Connecticut.
"So a friend at Boston College
"brought him to the house of James Michael Curley,
"the former mayor.
"Old Mayor Curley came down the stairs,
"patted Christa on the head.
"Two weeks later, veterans housing was found.
"So the family's together.
"And little Christa, 3 years old,
"bounced on the street,
"maybe because the buildings in Boston look like castles.
"Well, somebody said, 'Hey, Christa, get off the street!'
"A neighbor ran out and brought her home.
"Christa, 3 years old, loved music even then.
"And her dad, Ed Corrigan, loved playing the piano.
"So, Christa grew up singing, and her dad played the piano.
"In high school, she took up the guitar.
"She loved The Beatles and she loved Joan Baez
"and she loved Bob Dylan.
"And when was 21, she married Steve McAuliffe,
"and Christa McAuliffe blossomed in her early 30s.
"She was teaching American history
"at Concord High School, Concord, New Hampshire.
"One of her students said later,
"'Mrs. McAuliffe didn't stand for intolerance,
"and all the bullies knew it.'
"And that student said --
"He said, 'I remember the day she used the word "gay,"
"and said she knew gay people.'
"And the student said,
"'It was as if a rock was lifted off my chest.
"'At least one -- one person accepted me for who I was.'
"Christa, Christa McAuliffe was a fresh wind
"in Concord, New Hampshire.
"She raised money for the Y.
"She raised money for the library
"and for the hospital.
"She was in community theater, grandma green thumb.
"On the one hand, she volunteered to teach catechism.
"On the other,
"she was a receptionist for Planned Parenthood.
"But her greatest focus was her children.
"She wrote in her journal, 'How could two kids be so different?
"'Scott's 5 years old.
"'Last night -- He's so sensitive --
"'he turned off "Sesame Street"
"'because a cartoon cat was eating a cartoon mouse.'
"She wrote, 'Caroline is 3, and she doesn't ask.
"She demands.'
"A couple of years later, she wrote,
"'I brought Caroline along. I was getting my hair done.
"'So, I'm sitting there, getting my hair done,
"'looking in the mirror, thinking,
"'"Hmm, what ploy will Caroline use to get that woman talking?'"
"She saw Caroline turn and say, 'You have very nice pearls.
"'Where did you get them?
"I'd like to get pearls like that.'
"1984, the summer,
"Christa and Steve were driving through Concord, New Hampshire.
"President Reagan was on the radio --
"'We're sending a teacher in space.'
"And Steve said, 'You love it! You love space! Go for it!'
"She got the application, but she didn't fill it out.
"She was a procrastinator. Everybody knew that.
"Steve said, 'Are you going to fill it out or not?'
"So she sat down with her students,
"and they all filled it out.
"But the essay had to be done all by herself.
"Five times she wrote it.
"'In developing my course, The American Woman,
"'I learned that the journals of ordinary people
"'tell a fuller story of history.
"'Like the pioneers on the Conestoga wagons
"'who kept journals, I will keep a journal in space.'
"She mailed it February 1, 1985 --
"last possible day.
"What chance? What chance did she have?
"11,500 teachers applied.
"What chance?
"But she made the cutoff.
"114 teachers made the cutoff,
"and they were to fly tomorrow to Washington, D.C.
"So, that night, Christa wanted a good sleep.
"She got Scott settled and Caroline settled.
"She was going to go to bed, but there was a knock on her door.
"She opened it.
"And there was a nearly hysterical high school student,
"a young woman.
"'Please, can I come in, Mrs. McAuliffe?
"Please. I think I'm gonna kill myself!'
"She brought the young woman in. 'Can I call your parents?'
"'You can call them
"if you promise I don't have to spend the night with them.'
"She called the parents.
"They came, and they talked hour after hour.
"Finally, the parents left. The student's still there.
"3:00 in the morning, she gets her to sleep.
"Christa wakes up exhausted --
"cup of coffee, flies to Washington,
"and Christa McAuliffe is chosen to be the teacher in space.
"Brroom-boom-boom!
"Big parade in Concord, New Hampshire!
"BBC is coming, NBC, ABC.
"Christa's a star.
"Six months before the Challenger
"is to lift off with a crew of seven,
"including Christa, in Utah,
"Roger Boisjoly, an engineer for the Morton-Thiokol company,
"writes a memo to senior management --
"'If we don't solve this problem immediately,
"there will be a catastrophe, loss of life.'
"He's talking about the O-rings,
"rubber seals that seal the joints
"in the solid rocket booster -- been a problem for years.
"The hot gas blows by, or has blown by, the primary ring.
"If it blows by the secondary ring,
"there can be an explosion.
"Christa knows nothing of this, of course.
"Christa is worried about meeting the crew.
"She's getting the publicity.
"So, she meets *** Scobee,
"the commander of the Challenger mission --
"6'1", handsome, former Vietnam fighter pilot.
"And he says, "Christa, these are not firecrackers
"'that lift us off.
"This is the real thing.'
"She wins him over with her enthusiasm and her effort,
"and it's clear she's not in this to be a star.
"She is in this to teach.
"So he takes her aside one day --
"'Christa, this will always be remembered
"'as the Teacher in Space mission,
"and we're proud of it.'
"The Challenger is to lift off January 28th.
"Been several delays.
"January 27th, NASA calls Morton-Thiokol out in Utah --
"'Hey, listen -- Thiokol, gonna be cold in Florida.
"'Might be down to the low 20s. We safe to launch?'
"The manager says, 'No, I already talked to my engineers.
"'It's got to be 53 degrees or higher, you know.
"We're worried about the resiliency of the O-ring.'
"'Well, listen. Listen.
"We'll have a telephone conference tonight.'
"That night, 34 managers and engineers --
"NASA, Morton-Thiokol -- are on the phone.
"It begins with a long history of the O-rings.
"And a NASA man gets frustrated.
"He does not think
"Morton-Thiokol has proved its case.
"And he says, 'My God, Thiokol, what do you want us to do --
"wait till April to launch?'
"The manager says, 'Listen, NASA,
"'we'll be back on the horn in a minute.
"We're gonna talk among ourselves.'
"Four managers say, 'Well, listen,
"'we got to make a managerial decision,'
"meaning the engineers are excluded.
"So, Arnie Thompson, Morton-Thiokol engineer,
"runs forward and does a sketch.
"He's afraid the O-ring may not expand in the cold.
"He's not listened to. Roger Boisjoly comes.
"He's got two photographs
"showing the hot gas having blown by the primary ring.
"He's not listened to.
"The manager calls back --
"'Hey, NASA, listen, we changed our mind.
"It's safe to launch.'
"The next morning, the crew is woken at 6:20.
"There's a weather briefing at breakfast.
"25 degrees -- single digits, the wind chill.
"*** Scobee, the commander, leads them out into the cold,
"down the ramp.
"The press is cordoned off.
"A NASA quality-assurance man
"says, 'Christa, here -- take an apple!'
"'Save it. I'll eat it when I get back.'
"The crew is strapped in at 8:30.
"They're on their backs. There's a delay.
"Out in the cold, Ed Corrigan. [ Shivers ]
"He's waiting with his wife, Grace.
"They're cold, and they're waiting and waiting.
"11:38, the Challenger lifts up, and that white fire is perfect.
"It's beautiful, magnificent... for the first minute,
"and shortly after that, Ed Corrigan --
"he sees a yellow plume, and then he sees a fireball.
"And then he sees debris of the Challenger
"flying out of the fireball...
"and then smoke and silence.
"'She's gone.
She's gone.'"
And Jack got up and said,
"Why the hell would you talk about death?
We got one hour at MIT."
"I am going to talk about Christa McAuliffe, Jack,
"because millions of people will never forget that moment.
"There was a writer.
"He was on the San Diego freeway at that time.
"He said, at the moment of the explosion,
"all of the cars slowed down at the very same second.
"Christa McAuliffe is the ordinary person.
"She's you. She's me.
"Maybe the best of us, but she's the ordinary person, Jack,
"and if I do this and if we do this,
"if we talk about Christa,
"then we talk about all of the Challenger crew,
"we talk about all the Columbia crew,
"we talk about Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee.
"We remember them all.
"And I do it because it's exploration, Jack.
"Exploration is dangerous. We forget that.
"Magellan set out with five ships.
"He died. Did you know? Magellan died along the way.
"One of his ships made it back, one out of five,
just under 3 years, with 22 of the original 280 people.
"And finally, Jack, it's science.
I have to have the courage to tell the truth."
"Oh, Kate!
"Kate, you're gonna have the courage to tell the truth!
"Kate's so courageous!
"We're in love 2 1/2 years.
"You walk into my apartment --
"'Here's your ring, Jack. It won't work.'
You didn't have the guts to stand there!"
"You're right. I'm scared, Jack. I'm scared.
"My mother was 18 years old,
"a freshman at the University of Oklahoma,
"and she was a brilliant pianist.
"Mom thought she might be great.
"Dad said to mom -- Dad was a senior.
"He said, 'Take a couple of years off.
"We'll get the hardware store going.'
"She did. Then I was born.
"My brother was born. Mom never got it back.
"You know what a horrible stroke Daddy has had.
"His mind doesn't work. You know that.
"He can't talk anymore.
"Mom's life is this --
she wheels Dad into the hardware store.
"That's her life every day.
"She has one free day -- Sunday.
"You know what she does at home? She washes the walls, Jack.
I think she washes the walls to make the walls disappear."
"Well, Kate, we're on Sunday night at 7:00.
Be there at 6:00 for a sound check."
The next night was Friday night.
Jack was in his apartment. There was a knock.
The door was flung open,
and in came Cynthia Moss, Kate's apartment mate.
She came right forward. They were eye to eye.
She said...
"I don't know what went on
"between the two of you last night,
"but Kate is very upset, and she's got the GREs tomorrow.
"I'm here to find out --
What are you going to do Sunday night at MIT, Jack?"
"Well, Cynthia, for your information,
"I might read a complete list
"of the accomplishments of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
"and explain a few of them
in a way even you could understand them."
"You condescending ***.
"What happened to you?
"You used to be fun, Jack.
"You'd come up the stairs singing.
"We called you 'the Pavarotti lobsterman.'
"I know what you're gonna do at MIT.
"You're gonna come out on the stage.
"You're gonna have your shirt and tie
"and your tweed jacket and your fake half-glasses.
"You're gonna hide behind the podium, aren't you?
"Then you're gonna stutter till everyone's sorry for you.
"Then you're going to bore us, Jack.
"Well, I'm bringing celery.
"You bore us, I'm gonna eat the celery.
"And if you dare to condescend, I'll throw the celery at you.
Don't ruin this for Kate!"
Sunday night at MIT,
quarter of 7:00, Kate was backstage.
She peeked out. It was a good house.
Cynthia was in the front row, wearing her green wig.
Something was in a paper bag on her lap.
Kate was nervous,
but she thought she did well on the GREs.
She heard something, and she turned.
It was Edith Whiteside.
"I read about this in The Boston Globe.
"You gave me a leaf. I give you a rose.
Take us to the stars!"
And that's exactly what Kate did.
She told everyone about being 5 years old
and her dad becoming a poet just for a moment --
"The blackness and the stars -- they're not just above us.
They're all around us, Kate."
The audience was intrigued
to hear about a 5-year-old Cherokee boy
who had a vision and had the courage to stay with it.
She told them the story, but then she told them
that J.C. High Eagle was an engineer 40 years at NASA,
and he's established a society to support and encourage
Native Americans to become scientists, engineers.
The audience was surprised
to find out how hard that first moon landing was
and what coolness was required.
And maybe even more important,
they heard people all around the Earth said,
"We did it! We did it!"
This was NASA's accomplishment, but it was also humanity's.
And, finally, they were honored
she told the truth about the Challenger and Christa.
So now it was up to Jack.
Jack came out on the stage -- shirt, tie, tweed jacket.
He stood behind the podium, had his half-glasses.
"L-L-L-L-Ladies and gentlemen... [ Breathing heavily ]
"...I thought I might read a complete list
"of the accomplishments of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
responsible f-for robots."
Jack took off the half-glasses,
took off the tweed jacket,
stepped out in front.
He seemed to expand.
"That sounds wicked boring, doesn't it?
"My first memory of the stars is when I was 5 or 6 years old,
"my granddad's lobster boat off Portland, Maine,
"4:00 in the morning.
"My granddad -- he said, 'Some people go to offices.
"My office mates are the stars.'
"My granddad taught me celestial navigation.
"I found out I was good with numbers.
"And my dad taught me piloting.
"Physics is the push and pull of things.
"It's like lobstering --
"you push the pod out, and you pull it in.
"You got to pay attention in both.
"I'm gonna tell you one story
"about the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"I selected this
"'cause it's a marriage of science and imagination,
"and it seems to me that's what NASA does best.
"So, the story I'm gonna tell you begins in 1965,
"when space exploration is new.
"It begins with fella named a Gary Flandro.
"Gary Flandro, a Caltech grad student,
"was working for JPL.
"So, Flandro is in his office at JPL, paying attention,
"and he...says, 'My gosh!
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!'
"Flandro realizes the outer planets --
"the gas giants -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune --
"are going to be lined up on one side of the sun
"in a way they have not been lined up for 176 years.
"They have not been lined up that way since Jefferson's time,
"and they won't be lined up for another 176 years.
"So, Flandro thinks, 'This is a time for a grand tour.
"Yes, a grand tour of the outer planets!'
"Of course, he knows all about gravity assist,
"meaning you take a spacecraft, come up behind a planet,
"and the gravity of that planet
"flings it forward at a tremendous speed!
"'A grand tour of the outer planets!'
"Scientists are excited.
"Now, remember, this is 1965.
"Getting to Mars is hard, a lot of failures.
"Mars, when it's closest to Earth --
"35 million miles away.
"When you're talking about Neptune,
"you're talking about 2 1/2 billion miles away.
"Is that possible? Nobody knows.
"And then Congress says, 'Cut it back.
"'It's too expensive. Cut it back.
"Maybe you can go to Jupiter and Saturn. That's it.'
"So, the engineers and scientists get busy
"designing and building two spacecraft
"that are going to be called the Voyagers.
"They only weigh about 1,800 pounds.
"Each looks like it's got a big television disk.
"But they work with great care, because what if --
"what if they build them so carefully,
"they get to Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus?
"Is it possible -- Uranus?
"They're going to lift off in 1977.
"Here's where imagination comes in.
"Carl Sagan, the astronomer -- he says,
"'Why don't we send a message with the Voyagers?'
"'What kind of message?'
"He talks to Lewis Thomas, the biologist,
"and Thomas says, 'Well, why don't you send all of Bach?'
"And he says, 'No, that would be boasting.'
"'Sound -- that's interesting.
"We're going to send pictures, but how could we send sound?'
"'On a copper record, gold-plated --
"It will last at least a million years.'
"'Sound. What kind of sound'?
"'We'll send "Hello."
"'We'll just send "Hello" in 55 languages,
"'just "Hello," "Hello," and sounds of the Earth --
"'yes, yes, sounds of whales and sounds of thunder
"'and the sound of frogs and the sound of Morse code
"'and a baby crying and a kiss and -- and music.
"We'll send Mozart and Bach and Beethoven.'
"More imagination --
"they call across the country to the World Music Center.
"There's a Mr. Brown there.
"He says, 'You mean these things have got to go to the stars?
"'Then you got to send
"Kesar Bai Kerkar singing "Jaat Kahan Ho."'
"'Who's that?'
"'Kesar Bai Kerkar,
"'born in Calcutta, beloved in India.
"You got to get a record of her singing "Jaat Kahan Ho."'
"The doors opening -- not just Western music.
"They talk to Alan Lomax,
"who has spent a lifetime collecting ethnic music.
"Lomax says, 'Listen to this.
"'This is a Bulgarian shepherdess song.
"'This is the sound of people
"who had enough to eat for the first time.'
"The doors flung open -- music of the world --
"Australian horn and totem music,
"Pygmy girls' initiation song, Melanesian panpipe,
"Chinese chin music, Japanese flute music.
"But all of this takes time.
"And now the list -- the music list --
"must be closed in three days.
"They call across the country --
"'Mr. Brown, we've tried everywhere
"to get a record of this Kesar Bai Kerkar.
"We've tried record stores. We've tried libraries.'
"'Find it!' Now there's two days left.
"They call him back. 'Mr. Brown --'
"'Find it!'
"Imagination -- They call Indian restaurants all over the place.
"And one of them says, 'Yes, yes, yes, New York City,
"'Lexington Avenue, in the 20s --
"'there's an appliance store run by an Indian family.
"'Go into the appliance store.
"'You will see a card table with a madras cover.
"'Underneath the card table is a carton.
"In the carton is a record of her singing that song.'
They get it."
"And they get President Carter to send a message.
"He says, 'This is a present from our small planet.'
"And I like that. I like that.
"Seems to me, maybe we're growing up.
"Instead of taking everything from the universe,
"we're giving something back.
"So the Voyagers take off.
"One of them lifts off, August 1977.
"The other, September 1977, with 55 'hellos' --
'bonjour,' 'ciao,' 'ni hao,' 'shalom,' 'ahlan wa sahlan.'"
♫ Hello, hello ♫
♫ We want to say "hello" ♫
♫ We want to say hello to you ♫
"1979, a fly by Jupiter.
"And the scientists are excited.
"They discover that one of Jupiter's moons, Io,
"turns out to be
"the most volcanic body in our solar system.
"And another of Jupiter's moons, Europa, covered with ice.
"But underneath that ice may be a salt sea
"bigger than the Atlantic and Pacific put together.
"There may be life in Europa.
And the Voyager sails on."
♫ Hello, hello ♫
♫ We want to say "hello" ♫
"Saturn.
"And then, January 24, 1986, a fly by Uranus!
"Uranus!
"Four exciting days flying by Uranus!
"And on the fourth day, January 28, 1986,
"on the East Coast, the Challenger explodes.
And the Voyager sails on."
♫ Hello, hello ♫
"The Berlin Wall falls, the Voyager sails on.
"Nelson Mandela released from prison after 27 years,
"and the Voyager sails on.
"Two Russians, one American live in space 136 days.
"Living in space has begun.
Cooperation in space has begun."
♫ Hello, hello ♫
"The Hubble telescope is launched!
"Blurred vision. It's the joke of late-night television.
"The blurred vision is corrected,
"and now, through the Hubble telescope,
"we see objects 12 billion light-years away.
"We see the dance of the universe
"as it's never been seen.
"And the Voyagers sail on.
"February 14, 1990, Voyager 2 is beyond Pluto.
"Sends back a photograph of our solar system.
"In that photograph,
"the Earth is no bigger than the eye of a goldfish.
"It's a speck, and on that speck is everything we love.
"And the Voyager sails on.
"The Clinton years, Princess Diana dies.
"The year 2000, my dad, a lobsterman in Portland, Maine,
"he crosses the street, he collapses,
"he's dead of a heart attack.
"I had my ups and downs with my dad,
"but I loved him and I'm shaken.
"9/11, the whole country is shaken,
and the Voyagers sail on."
♫ Hello, hello ♫
"2003, I come to MIT, wondering, 'Am I good enough to get a PhD?'
"I'm scared to death.
"I meet a young woman, engineering student.
"We fall in love, and the Voyager sails on.
"2004, 2 rovers --
"Spirit and Opportunity -- set down on Mars.
"They're expected to go three months and stop,
"because the solar panels are gonna be covered with dust.
"Surprise!
"The wind on Mars blows the dust off,
"and rovers are going as I speak.
"2004, the spacecraft Cassini begins to orbit Saturn,
"and now we see the rings in Saturn
"as clearly as you see the grooves in a record.
"I get engaged. I'm a stuffed shirt.
"She calls it off and breaks my heart.
"My left fist is the sun.
"My right fist is the Earth 93 million miles away.
"The Voyagers aren't even in the room.
"They're downtown.
"The Voyagers are 10 billion miles from the sun.
"I'm sure you all know about the solar wind.
"It's really particles coming from the sun,
"streaming out at a million miles an hour and more,
"forming a great big bubble our whole solar system is in.
"Some people call it 'heliosphere.'
"'Bubble's' a better term.
"In six or seven years,
"Voyagers are going to leave the bubble.
"They're going to go to interstellar space.
"They're gonna reach the Oort cloud in the year 26000.
"They're gonna make the closest approach to the star Sirius
"in the year 296036.
"They're gonna pass -- they're gonna pass --
"the 12 nearest stars in the year 1 million.
"And who knows?
"Some civilization may find one of them
"and play the Golden Record.
"They'll hear Kesar Bai Kerkar.
"They'll hear Pygmy girls' initiation song,
"Melanesian panpipes.
"They'll hear Louis Armstrong and a Navajo night chant,
"and they'll hear Mozart and Bach, Beethoven.
"And then they'll hear 'Blind' Willie Johnson
"singing 'Dark Was the Night.'
"And maybe they'll say, 'These beings want to dance.'
"And I think that would be just about right.
"Seems to me, what we've been doing the last 50 years,
we've been dancing our way into the universe."
Jack finished. Silence.
Edith Whiteside stood up, began to applaud.
Kate never heard such applause.
Cynthia ran up onto the stage and hugged Jack.
Three weeks later,
Jack took Kate down to Gloucester
borrowed his friend's lobster boat,
and Jack and Kate went out, way out to sea.
The stars were brilliant, the sea was calm.
"Well, Kate --
"Kate, the blackness and the stars are not just above us.
They're all around us."
"They're inside us, Jack.
"All of the molecules in our bodies
"were forged billions of years ago,
"in generations of stars.
Jack, let's get married."
"You're serious?"
"Of course I'm serious. I love you.
"I'm scared, but I love you.
"I've even thought about the wedding food.
"I want pizza and éclairs.
And, Jack, I want to be married on Mars."
"Well, Kate, I'll take you on my lobster boat.
What do you think?"
"That'd be great, Jack.
Why not? Why not? Why not?"
[ Applause ]
[ Clears throat ]
Thank you all very much.
HOFFMAN: Thank you.
O'CALLAHAN: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
[ Chuckles ] Thank you.
HOFFMAN: Oh, Jay, that was, as usual, wonderful.
Thank you very much.
O'CALLAHAN: Oh, thank you.
HOFFMAN: It's a little gift...
O'CALLAHAN: Oh, that's wonderful, wonderful.
HOFFMAN: ...from NASA, with white smoke.
And thanks to our folks in printing and graphics.
And I also want to thank the NASA TV folks
and our guests here.
And especially Jay O'Callahan
for that wonderful, wonderful story.
O'CALLAHAN: Thank you, Ed. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody, for coming. Thank you.
[ Applause ]