Dean chats with Inspiration4 astronaut and artist, Dr. Sian Proctor about seeing Earth from outer space, and her book, "Earthlight, The Power of Earthlight and the Human Perspective."
Send us your thoughts at lookingup@wvxu.org or post them on social media using #lookinguppodcast
Additional resources referenced in this episode:
- Book: Earthlight, The Power of Earthlight and the Human Perspective
- Poem: Space2Inspire
- Inspiration4 | Launch
- Super Bowl Ad: Join The First All-Civilian Space Mission | Inspiration4
- If This Isn't Nice, I Don't Know What Is, Kurt Vonnegut (2004)
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Dean Regas: It's nighttime, September 15th, 2021, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Four unlikely astronauts are strapped into a humongous rocket and about to blast off into space. The crew were all civilians, not your classically trained NASA astronauts or anything.
[Archival Audio: Inspiration4 Launch]: Our crew today, Jared, Sian, Haley, and Chris have been training for this journey pretty much ever since the announcement that they'd all been selected as crew mates for the Inspiration4 mission back in March.
Dean Regas: Jared Isaacman was an entrepreneur. Haley Arceneaux was a physician's assistant. Christopher Sembroski was an Air Force veteran. And Dr. Sian Proctor had a background in Earth sciences, art, and business.
[Archival Audio: Inspiration4 Launch]: To prepare the Inspiration4 crew for their mission, our teams at SpaceX have spent the last several months teaching the crew about orbital mechanics, how to live in microgravity, and even running simulations of what the full mission will look like while seated in Dragon.
Dean Regas: This mission was to spend three days orbiting the earth, going where very, very few had ever gone before.
[Archival Audio: Inspiration4 Launch]: Startup call at T minus one minute.
Dean Regas: What must've been going through their mind, right there on the launch pad as the countdown slowly approached. What would go through your mind before doing the seemingly impossible, unthinkable, and maybe fulfilling a lifelong dream?
Well, it just so happens we might get that insight from one of those astronauts. From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio. I'm your host, Dean Regas, and this is Looking Up.
The show that takes you deep into the cosmos or just to the telescope in your backyard to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great. My guest today is Dr. Sian Proctor, futurist, artist, geologist, author, and the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft. This one's going to be out of this world.
So, I'm really excited to talk with Dr. Proctor because I just love hearing about people and extraordinary situations. I've gotten some comments about this podcast, uh, you know, like from folks that are sensing a theme to many of the more recent episodes. Someone told me the show is, you know, kind of less about the latest astronomical discoveries and breakthrough space missions.
More about what it's like to be a scientifically minded person and explore in the 21st century. I was like, yeah, sure. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going for. I think what I gravitate towards is people who find their calling in life, you know, their passions and their moments and make the most of them, their curiosity and optimism.
It's, it's just like infectious and inspiring. And I can say this with 99 percent accuracy. That astronomers by and large are just huge kids playing with big toys that explore the universe. And they love it. I see this with science writers, authors, researchers, and definitely astronauts. I just love to hear how they found it.
And the surprising things it turned out to actually be.
Dr. Sian Proctor: Hi, I'm Dr. Sian Proctor, and I was the mission pilot for Inspiration4, the first all civilian mission to orbit. I was selected to go to space as an artist. So, I'm the first artist selected to go to space. Um, but I'm also the first woman commercial spaceship pilot and the only African American woman to ever be a mission pilot.
Dean Regas: Well, Sion, thanks so much for joining me today.
Dr. Sian Proctor: Thank you for having me.
Dean Regas: Now you have a rich background in so many earthly fields like, uh, geology, environmental science, art. What giant leaps brought you to become an astronaut?
Dr. Sian Proctor: Well, you know, I had been chasing space my entire life. I was born on Guam because my dad worked at a NASA tracking station during the Apollo missions.
In fact, I'm a moon celebration baby. I was born eight and a half months after Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. So, I just feel like I'd been chasing space my entire life, even though I'm a geoscience professor, because like a lot of us who dream of becoming an astronaut. That's a childhood dream that slips away, but I kept trying in different ways to get there.
Dean Regas: Now, hold on a second. I have never heard of that term of like a moon baby. Uh, that's a new one for me. So, uh, maybe I don't want to overthink it, but, um,
Dr. Sian Proctor: if you were born in March or April. Of 1970, then you are a moon celebration, baby. And I'm the youngest of four. I'm definitely a moon celebration.
Dean Regas: Well, uh, so you were chosen for the inspiration for mission.
Yeah, this was the first all civilian space mission. And how, how were you selected and what was the training like for this?
Dr. Sian Proctor: Yes. So, during the super bowl in 2021, they had a super bowl commercial that announced that they were going to go to space and that you could win a ticket.
[Archival Audio: Super Bowl Ad for Inspiration4]: This fall inspiration for launches as the first all civilian mission in space.
Dr. Sian Proctor: Now, I didn't watch the Super Bowl, but my phone started blowing up with people being like, you can win a seat to space. Um, you just have to donate to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. And I thought, oh, I can do that. What is this inspiration for?
[Archival Audio: Super Bowl Ad for Inspiration4]: Visit inspiration4. com
for your chance
to go
Dr. Sian Proctor: to space. So, I donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, thinking there was one seat available. Um, and that was the generosity seat. But luckily, I had been on Twitter, and I saw another post about the prosperity seat. For the prosperity seat, you had to do a little bit more work.
You had to open up a shop and show that you're an entrepreneur. And I had become a space artist during COVID. So, I started offering my art online and then you had to create a two minute Twitter video expressing why they should take you to space. And so, I not only do art, but I also do poetry. So, I wrote a poem called “Space2Inspire,” and I read that form as my entry. And I'm so fortunate that I won.
[Archival Audio: Dr. Sian Proctor reading "Space2Inspire"]: This is the poem that won his seat to space. Not kidding. Can't make this up. Via Twitter. You've got space. I've got space. We all have space to inspire…
Dean Regas: Well, and I mean, this had to have been like a dream come true. You'd already been doing these analog space missions.
Boy, it seems like a natural fit that you, you kind of seem like you've been training for this for a long time. And then it happens. What was that feeling like, uh, being on the launch pad too, especially.
Dr. Sian Proctor: Yeah, it was amazing because, you know, I had been preparing and you know, that's the thing when you don't give up hope you continue to prepare and so I was ready for the opportunity when the opportunity came, but I was ready in a way that I wasn't anticipating I was living in analogs and doing all these other things, but then it was the art and poetry that Actually got me there in the end.
And then you can imagine six months of training, you know, a lot of it was at SpaceX's headquarters because after my commander told me that I had won the prosperity seat, he then said, I want you to be my mission pilot.” And you know, I, you can imagine, I was like, 172. Wait, what does this mean to be the mission pilot?
That's typically reserved for military and now being a civilian mission, you know, I had never even entered my mind that I could be offered the mission pilot seat. And so, I had to go and train at SpaceX's headquarters in California on how does the dragon capsule work, the Falcon 9 rocket, all of those things.
And I can tell you the day that I got to the launch pad, most people ask me, was I afraid to go? And I'm like, nope. I was ready. I was like, like this. I'm ready to go. And the reason why is because I was terrified. It was going to slip through my fingers. Like, you know, I had six months of training. At first, I had my medical, you know, I was like, oh my God, they're going to disqualify me.
I'm in my fifties. I'm like, there's going to be something wrong. And then space X was like, you may have won a seat to space, but if you do not qualify as the mission pilot, you will not fly. So now I'm like, oh my goodness, what does that mean? I had to become a systems engineer in less than six months. I am not an engineer.
I'm a geoscientist. And then you can't get hurt. You can't get sick. It's COVID. So, there was so many ways that this could have slipped through my fingers. And so, the day that we strapped into the capsule and launched the space was the happiest day. I was so excited and ready to go.
Dean Regas: Oh man, that is so cool.
And, and, and you get to orbit the earth. I mean, it's indescribable. I'm sure. And, and I I've talked with, you know, several NASA astronauts about their experience and, you know, they always give the usual understated, Oh, you know, it's not a bad view kind of thing, but here I have you a real down to earth person, a doctor artist who experienced it, can you like wax poetic about what it was like to circle the earth?
Dr. Sian Proctor: Oh, it's amazing. I mean, our planet is stunningly beautiful. And, um, you know, I'm a geoscientist. So, I, I have big fan of the earth. You know, I got my master's in geology and thinking about earth processes and stuff. So, to get that. Orbital view and the overview effect was just mind blowing, but also to go as an artist and a poet, I think it added another layer because, you know, when I was there in low earth orbit, I realized that.
I was being bathed in earth light and, and that was a term that wasn't part of my vocabulary before going to space, which I find fascinating because I, you learn about sunlight, you learn about moonlight, but you don't learn about earth light. And, you know, as a geoscientist, I teach about the fact that the earth has.
a high reflectivity. But to be in low Earth orbit, you don't realize just how bright it is, and that you literally get bathed in all of that energy, all of that Earth light. And that, to me, was the biggest gift, was discovering Earth light for myself.
Dean Regas: Well, and that brings us to one of your more recent books called Earthlight, The Power of Earthlight, and the Human Perspective.
You know, this book, it's been kind of referred to as a space philosophy, but I think maybe it goes a lot farther. Yeah. How do you describe that a little bit more and your work there with that book?
Dr. Sian Proctor: Yeah, you know, I have been a community college professor for 26 years, and I never thought I would write a science book, but when I came back from space, I just felt like people needed to know about Earthlight.
They needed to know the science behind it, the fact that Earthlight is life. And so, I wrote this book, this coffee, I would call it a coffee table science book, um, with nice, beautiful pictures, well laid out. But it's all about the science of Earthlight and how. Our planet fundamentally transforms sunlight into earth light.
And if it didn't do that, then life wouldn't exist because sunlight is the full electromagnetic spectrum and most of that can kill you. And so, our planet does an amazing job of reflecting and refracting and scattering and changing that. Sunlight into Earth light. The analogy for me is like we live in Earth light, and I think about like a fish in water.
Does a fish know what's in water until it jumps out of the water? And so, for me, I had to go into low Earth orbit to really understand that we live in Earth light.
Dean Regas: So, if you were to do it all again, you know, what would you tell yourself before you go? What would you do differently before, during, and how can you make these lifelong dreams last longer?
Dr. Sian Proctor: That's the thing, you know, I would first request at least five days. Three days is not enough in space. So, if you go into space, definitely request five days or more. And the reason why is simple. The first day you get up there and you're like a deer in the headlights. You're like, Oh my goodness, I'm floating.
And everybody has some form of space adaptation where, you know, your fluid shift, your, your spine elongates. Um, your face becomes puffy and nasally. You might get a headache. Your back might ache, and you might feel nauseous. So, you're really adapting the first day. And you're just kind of like, wow, this is incredible.
And then the second day you start feeling better and you're, you're functioning, but you're not 100%. And then the third day you wake up and you are humming. You're like, this is amazing. You know, and you're, you feel your best. And then space X says. It's time to come home because it takes like half the day to pack up all of the cargo correctly, get into your spacesuits, do all the things that you need to do to come home.
So, you know, you got to have a couple more days in there so that you can have some more fun and and look at the earth and also see the stars and do all of those things. So that's the one thing that I would change. And it's really interesting because you said, you know, this dream come through and it really does feel like a dream.
Your brain has no way of categorizing the experience you just had. So, when I came back, you know, my brain was like. That must've been a dream. So, it feels like the best dream you ever had. So, think about the dream that you had where you woke up suddenly and you were just so bummed that you were awake.
You want to go back to that dream. You're like, oh, you try to go back to sleep, but you can't. That's the way it feels. And that's why you kind of have this longing to go back there. You want to make sure that it was real, you know? And yeah, I would want to go back.
Dean Regas: Well, Dr. Proctor, this has been a lot of fun.
Thanks so much for talking about your experiences up in space and on earth. It's truly inspiring.
Dr. Sian Proctor: Thank you for having me. It's been a real joy. And you know, would you go to space? Oh yeah.
Dean Regas: Yeah, in a second, but only for five days!
Dr. Sian Proctor: but only for five days. (laughs)
Dean Regas: Wow. Well, the part of my interview with Dr. Proctor that, that struck me the most was when she described the moments of pure joy and awareness about being in the present, fully appreciating the end of the journey on that spacecraft, looking out that window. And that she realized that this was the fulfillment of a dream to be in space. So, I like to think about what.
Uh, the great American novelist, Kurt Vonnegut wrote and said about something his uncle Alex would do.
[Archival Audio: Kurt Vonnegut]: What uncle Alex found objectionable. About so many human beings is that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy.
Dean Regas: He, he would stop in moments and just appreciate them, appreciate these moments in life that were especially good. And he would burst out with this phrase-
[Archival Audio: Kurt Vonnegut]: -Wait a minute, stop. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
Dean Regas: If this isn't nice, what is? Now, astronomers and astronauts largely live in the future, like they're preparing for future research, future eclipses, future missions. When I actually get to that future moment and it is the present, I really want to do what Dr. Proctor did in orbit, what Kurt Vonnegut's uncle Alex did so much and darn it, I want to appreciate it. And you know what, if talking about Dr. Proctor isn't nice, I don't know what is.
Looking up with Dean Regas is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio. Kevin Reynolds and I created the podcast back in 2017. Ella Rowen and Marshall Verbsky produce and edit our show and try to simulate Mars missions for me. By turning the temp down to like minus 170 degrees in the studio. Chilly. Jenell Walton is our vice president of content, and Ronny Salerno is our digital platforms manager. Our theme song is Possible Light by Ziv Moran. Our social media coordinator is Hannah McFarland, and our cover art is by Nicole Tiffany. I'm Dean Regas, keep looking up!
