Moonshot summary

In space travel, where the stakes are astronomically high, teamwork isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a lifeline. This is lesson number two that Mike learned during a particularly tough part of his training: the swim trials. 

When the United States was setting up its space program, it wasn’t sure if it would be better to get athletes and turn them into scientists, or find scientists and turn them into athletes. So, they did both. Astronauts for NASA are largely made up of two groups – soldiers and academics. 

Mike learned the hard way that in a high stakes environment, every decision can have monumental consequences. Whether it’s an office or thousands of miles above the earth, the importance of speaking up – even as a newcomer – is crucial. 

Before astronauts learn to fly a rocket, they need to learn to fly a plane. For his first flight, Mike was paired with an experienced pilot who’d logged hundreds of hours in the air. As the second pilot, Mike’s job was to relay air traffic control’s instructions to the lead pilot through the on-board computer. The first half of their journey went smoothly. It wasn’t until the return journey that things went sideways. 

Space is an unforgiving place. Every action you take carries immense weight, and small mistakes can cost billions of dollars, and if you’re not careful, your life. Of course, no matter how careful you are, mistakes happen. In that situation, the important thing is the recovery. That’s where the 30 Second Rule comes in. 

The rule is straightforward. When you make a mistake, you have 30 seconds to acknowledge it, briefly reflect on it, and move on. This approach is crucial in high-pressure environments like space missions, when dwelling on errors can be counterproductive and even dangerous. 

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission made a distinctive choice with their mission patch – against convention, they decided not to include their names on it. This decision was a symbolic gesture. The Apollo program’s success was built on the efforts of over 400,000 people and the support of numerous universities worldwide, illustrating the power of collective effort. The crew believed that the mission was a collective achievement, a milestone belonging to humanity rather than just the three astronauts onboard. 

This is an essential lesson in leadership – one that Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, learned through experience. Early in his career, during a lunar module simulation, Alan expressed his frustration with an engineer he was clashing with. The guy had wacky ideas he’d bring up in unrelated meetings. Maybe, Alan suggested, he should be removed from the team. 

In 2010, NASA invested $1.3 billion into it’s Commercial Crew Program, marking a significant shift in the field of space travel. This meant big changes in technology, including cockpit automation, that changed the role of the astronaut in the space program. Innovative technology developed by companies like SpaceX began to prove their value – more people travelling to space, more experiments being conducted, and a new era in space exploration. 

Our environment is constantly shifting, and sometimes our dreams change along with it. In Mike’s case, the realization that something fundamental had shifted was when he was offered a position on the ISS. Growing up, he would’ve given anything to go to space. Now, when he was being offered not just to go up again but to live up there for six months, he felt tired.