Transcripts


Transcript: Space4U podcast, Danielle Dallas Roosa

Written by: Space Foundation Editorial Team

Hello. I am Colleen Kiernan with the Space Foundation and you are listening to the Space4U podcast. Space4U is designed to tell the stories of the amazing people who make today’s space exploration possible. Today. We are joined by Danielle Dallas Roosa. Danielle is the granddaughter of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, and the daughter of F-16 fighter pilot, Jack Roosa. While studying communications at UMass Amherst, she interned at NASA HQ, MTV, and Premiere PR in London.

 

During Danielle’s internship at NASA, she noticed a fundamental lack of interest in the Apollo program and STEM among her peers. And this was a seed that was planted after graduating Summa cum Laude in 2014, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and producing. In the last four years, she has written and produced several films that have won awards at film festivals nationwide.

 

And just starred in a highly anticipated sci-fi movie. Danielle created the Back to Space idea to bridge her passions for space and the entertainment industry. She was currently pitching the Back to Space TV show to all major networks with Christopher Cowen, executive producer of the decade series on CNN and Hayma Washington executive producer of the amazing race and late president of the team television Academy.

 

Thank you so much for joining us today, Danielle. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. We’re super excited to have you today. And the first thing I really want to talk to you about today, and as we just mentioned, your grandfather was the command module pilot for the Apollo 14 mission. And your father was a fighter pilot.

 

So sounds like aerospace and space is been huge in your family. So how did the careers of your father and grandfather inspire your actual interest in space? That’s a great question. So I think, um, growing up in the Apollo community, you don’t really know that it’s, I mean, you know, it’s cool, but you don’t know how rare it is.

 

So, as I got older, uh, you know, I was around NASA and the Apollo community, my pretty much my whole childhood. And then, you know, my grandma, my dad is a fighter pilot, so we moved all the time. And I just, as I got older, I recognized that this is a very. Interesting and unique thing. Um, and I think what my grandfather and my father both taught me not verbally, but just through their actions and, and career choices is that you can really shoot for the stars.

 

If I do say so myself, you had, the bar is never too high. You can just shoot whatever dream you have, you can accomplish it. And I think that, that my dad. When he was four, he decided he wanted to be a fighter pilot. So he worked his whole life to do that. And my grandfather wanted to be a pilot and he worked his whole life to do that.

 

So any dream that you have just work very hard and, and you can do it so awesome. And you kind of mentioned, um, yo. With your grandfather was kind of through his career, taught you these incurs. He actually passed away when you were quite young. Um, from what I understand. So if you could ask him one thing about his time as an astronaut, what would you ask him?

 

You know, I’ve been thinking about this question for a long time, because I’ve been asked it before and I never have the right answer. I’ve never said an answer. And I’m like, Oh yeah, that’s exactly right. Because I think it would be a bunch of different things. You know, my dad actually, and I were talking the other day and he was talking about.

 

The contingency plans that they had to train for. And my grandfather actually trained for going home alone. Like if the other two got stranded on the Moon, he did train to leave them behind and go home. Oh, wow. Or if something happened to them on the Moon, you know, so I don’t know. I think personally, I would really like to know what it felt like to be alone while.

 

The others were on the Moon and just, she’s just, you know, orbiting the Moon. I would really like to know the emotional impact that would have, because that’s crazy. I mean, every war that’s ever been fought, every single idea conversation thing that you’ve touched is left on Earth. And you’re just looking back at Earth.

 

I mean, that has got to make a huge impact on you emotionally. So I would really want to, you know, he didn’t really talk about emotions much from what I’ve been told, but I would want to know. What that was like. Absolutely. Because those EVs, those spacewalks that were done were not 30, 45 minutes, they would take hours to do.

 

So I think that’d be a great question. I’d love to know, you know, the answer to that as well. There’s actually a beautiful documentary. I think you can actually find it on YouTube and it’s called dark side of the Moon, I believe, but it’s basically about the emotional impact of all the astronauts coming back after going to space and what changed for them.

 

And my grandfather was actually interviewed in it and it’s a real, all the Apollo guys interviewed in it and it was recorded forever ago, but it was, it’s a very interesting documentary and they all talk about a lot of them became really religious and, uh, others. Had they’re like, okay, well, I mean, what do you do after at 30 years old, you go to the Moon, like, wow.

 

I mean, that’s really hitting the bar really early in your life. So, but yeah, that’s what I would probably ask. Very cool. And so, you know, we’ve the father and the grandfather that are pilot and national and you chose to go into communications. That’s where your background is, and that led you to several internships, including NASA.

 

So. Two questions on this one, you know, getting an internship at NASA for one is the dream for so many. So for one, did you seek out that internship to NASA because of your background, but then can you also tell us a little about the experience and you know, how can other people find out ways to become interns for NASA as well?

 

Yeah, it’s a really interesting process that happens. So I’m actually dyslexic, believe it or not. And my dad is an aeronautical engineer. My mom is a tax CPA. She has like three degrees in tax. My sister’s a certified genius. And then I was just like, Oh my God. So actually it was pretty interesting because I didn’t really think that a career in the space industry was even possible.

 

I mean, I always thought about, I’d be like, that’s really cool. I would love to be an astronaut. I just didn’t have the skillset to do that. And, you know, I was thinking about it and in college, you know, you’re just, my mom was always very adamant about having internships.

 

And so she, you know, my dad suggested math and then I went through the whole process of it, you know, applying. And so when I got selected, it was a very extraordinarily life-changing moment for me, because I was able to use my, my skillset, which was communications. And apply that towards something that I’ve grown up hearing about, which is the space industry.

 

And the way that I did that, I was actually working on the Mars Curiosity Rover in headquarters in DC. And they were so kind to me where they let me, I mean, one day I was with the speech writer the other day I was shadowing Charlie Bolden the other day, my mentor, Bob Jacobs, who works at NASA. I mean, he would just bring me to every meeting and really let me experience all these different facets of communication.

 

And what I found so interesting. And I mean, I really did try and boil this down when I would talk to an engineer and it’s very cool and headquarters, cause each floor is a different division of, of NASA. And I would be sitting across from the guy who worked on. You know, the asteroids and trying to land on an asteroid, he was in charge of that entire mission.

 

And I say, okay, explain to me like I was a, five-year-old what you guys are doing. And then with him explaining it that simply I was able to go and write a press release that the American public could understand because not everybody is an engineer not. And I think that that’s something that I feel very passionate about.

 

Is taking a very complicated issue and boiling it down. So you don’t feel like you need six different degrees to understand it. And I think that that was a life-changing experience and I felt so empowered because I, and I felt closer to my grandfather than I think I ever had in my life before. I felt very passionate about that.

 

And that really did change my life because obviously you need to have some sort of intelligence to. Worked at NASA, but if you’re a cook, guess what? We’re going to go to Mars and they’re going to need a ton of food to last them for the missions. And that will be a viable career path in the future. So no matter what your skill set is, if you’re passionate about space, you can find that career path and apply that towards space exploration.

 

Absolutely. And I. I love talking to people like you who are not always, you know, the engineers and the astronauts, because like yourself, I’m a communicator. You know, my background is in marketing as my bachelor’s and the communication in my master’s and you know, the face of the nation, we recently launched the center for innovation and education.

 

And we’re talking about how there’s jobs for everybody in space. And, you know, we need people like you who are bringing that entertainment piece of it in and. Yeah. I don’t know how many people talk to engineers, but like you were saying, you took what an engineer was telling you and turned it into something that the American public could actually digest.

 

And that is super important because. Have you talked to some engineers, they seek at such a high level and it’s like, what did you just say? Smart. It’s so true. It’s so true. And it’s, and I think that it, you know, for me personally, there was also a sense of shame to it because I mean, my parents never made me feel like that to be clear, but like my parents were so smart.

 

My, my lineage is like really impressive. Why am I dyslexic? Like, why. Why can’t I understand this. Why can I, and I was lucky enough to kind of have parents that really accepted, you know, my skills that were different than, you know, what the rest of my family had, but they really did help foster that. But yeah, and I’ve always said, I said this once in a speech and I was like, that is the most corny thing to say, but it’s true.

 

There is a space for you in space and. I said it and cracked myself up and nobody laughed and it was stuck with me. But I think it’s funny where it’s like, you know, there is always an opportunity. And I think that this is very important too. It’s kind of like my grandfather, my grandfather was a very poor boy from Oklahoma.

 

Like he had no money at all. He was raised on a farm and he just wanted to fly. So he pursued that career path and he was a test pilot, which led into being an astronaut. So sometimes what you plan on doing that road of life kind of makes you go down different avenues and you end up in places that you never thought you would be, which for him was in space.

 

We’re just awesome because you know, there is such a small amount of people who’ve actually been to space and. No, that is something that you’re really trying to change. And we heard a little bit in your bio about how you, when you’re doing this NASA internship that people were saying to you, well, is it NASA dead?

 

You know, don’t, they don’t do anything anymore. And a lot of people had that perception, especially on after the shuttle program ended. And so that really inspired you to create Back to Space. So can you tell us a little bit about Back to Space and you know, what is your mission? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, when I was interning on the Mars Curiosity Rover, a lot of people would, I would post on social media probably too much to be honest.

 

Cause I thought it was people would be like isn’t NASA out of business. And I was like, Oh my God, it’s a government agency, not a business, but okay. And I think that, that was just really eye opening to me, was to see the misconception of what. And, and for me personally, you know, spending every day there and learning about how many different things, how many different, exciting telescopes to landing on an asteroid, to just everything, you know, and to go back my computer, open the worldwide internet and have my friends that are, are very intelligent people being like, isn’t that out of business, I was like, wow, there’s something that’s wrong here.

 

So pause that story for a second. Also after I graduated, I knew I wanted to go out to LA to pursue comedy and acting. So I was pursuing that and I happened to meet someone in an airport actually, where after I graduated, I graduated top of my class. And, um, you know, I graduated early. Let’s just say that.

 

And then I flew back to Massachusetts to do the whole, you know, ceremony. Cause my mom wanted the photo as well. Then I flew back to LA, but while I was attending the graduation ceremony, um, I turned to the guy next to me who also graduated top of this class. And he’s like, yeah, I’m working at Google. And then the other person was like, I just got a job, you know, an engineer at survey monkey.

 

And they were like, what are you doing? Like I’m working at Buca di Beppo in Santa Monica, but that is, it’s a terrible chain restaurant that is like, literally from a sitcom it’s awful. Um, and I was really confused as to what I was doing. I was like, did I make the wrong choice? So I was flying back from LA stopped in Dallas and had a conversation actually with someone waiting for my flight. And this person happened to be, his name is Jim Keys and he’s the past CEO of Blockbuster and 7-11. And he’s very passionate about space. So we just got on the conversation about space.

 

And we decided to work together. Actually, it was such a fate moment of fate. And, um, what originally, what we had decided was we wanted to put an Apollo astronauts back into space. So that’s why it was called Back to Space. We were going to use a commercial space platform in Tucson, Arizona, ironically, where I am from.

 

Yeah. And it was a weather balloon technology. And we had a bunch of Apollo astronauts, Charlie Duke, Al Worden, and, um, Walt Cunningham who attended the facility and had agreed to do this, Charlie didn’t agree. But he was like, yeah, this is cool. I’ll consider it. So, and we were going to make a documentary about that and that’s why it was called Back to Space.

 

We had pitched that to the networks. Then commercial space being commercial space, which is why I know we’re going to talk about soon, but the launch that took place, um, this past weekend, however, uh, at that point, a lot of the networks were like, okay, commercial space has been promising us that they were going to take off for now five years.

 

We don’t believe that it’s going to happen. And you know, the Apollo guys are starting to get older. So one thing led to another where we had to pivot, but the mission of, to space throughout all of that was to inspire the next generation of space explorers. And a reason for that is no lie, uh, full of actors, models, comedians at all the above writers, you know, and I would walk into a coffee shop and I did this once and I just went around and I was like, can you name three people who went to the Moon?

 

And about one person did it. And most of them said Lance Armstrong. And I was like, Oh my God, that’s not right at all. I mean, your physics is up there. So, um, I noticed that that was a problem. So throughout this process of trying to put an Apollo astronaut back into space and working on that, we kind of grew to be a much bigger mission, which was to use every sort of media platform in order to educate in a very fun and unique way, which is for the overall goal to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

 

And with that, I mean, I can go into the whole process of how we got the producers on board and all of that stuff. But basically once we had that mission, we really went out into space community and kind of started talking about what we’re trying to do. We have these student ambassadors who, um, a bunch of.

 

Kids from all over the country applied, we had like 400 submissions. It was really awesome. And, um, these kids are, have a very close relationship. So basically what they do is they work very closely with us and we introduced them to the Apollo astronauts and they get an opportunity to talk to these American heroes.

 

And, um, we also partnered with Microsoft or something, so they were able to go and work at Microsoft. So. And everything we’re doing is just opening doors for these student ambassadors, with the ultimate goal of them going and talking to their friends about what we’re doing about what they’ve learned, because I firmly do believe that, you know, I was having a conversation with Charlie Duke and he was talking about how.

 

In some Texas school, there’s only a paragraph on the lunar landing and no one really cares about it. They just breeze over it. And I do believe that you can try and teach kids a bunch of things and say, Hey, learn this. There’s going to be a test on it. Or you can have one of their peers, very invested and excited about what they’re doing and that will lead them to talk about.

 

What’s going on with their peers and kind of spread the word of, you know, teach their peers. I don’t know if that was clear. I just kind of went on a huge tangent, but what I’m trying to say is the overall goal Back to Spaces to inspire the next generation of spaces, which is so great that you’re using.

 

Th these students as ambassadors, because what a better way to inspire your peers, then, you know, hearing it from someone their own age, where they still have that interest where it’s not your parents or your teachers where you kinda have the Charlie Brown,  kind of, uh, a thing, but to get excited about it from someone your own age, I think that’s super awesome.

 

Yeah. It’s definitely fun. Definitely eye opening too. And you have to hand it to the kids these days because the student ambassadors. That we work with. I mean, they have a packed schedule. They they’ve known what they wanted to do since they were two, basically. And I can’t imagine being a child right now because they have there so many extracurricular activities.

 

It’s crazy more power to them. So all these kids that we work with are incredibly intelligent and I’m very proud of being associated with them. Not the other way. I mean, I’m sure they do love to be a part of the Back to Space program, but they make us look good and it’s. More women than men, which I find really fascinating.

 

Um, that’s really awesome. So that’s great. How often do you, you said you had gotten about 400 applications. Do you do applications all the time or is there a certain point in a year where you take them? And then we have group one student ambassadors and those are at the beginning when we had the student ambassador program idea, Microsoft actually helped us with that idea.

 

We were able to. Get the word out and all these applicants applied, we selected them. And right now we’re working very closely with them. We don’t have a new application process quite yet because we’re still trying to every kid that applies, we want to make sure that we’re giving them our all. And I don’t think right now where we are, we can handle another group quite yet, but there will be another group soon.

 

Awesome. And I think that’s important too, that, you know, they’re wanting to make sure that you can fully help them because. That’s going to give them the biggest opportunity, really. So I think that’s great. Yeah. And actually a couple of them went to college and there’s this young woman and she is so smart.

 

She’s at, I think she’s at UT and she is just already interning at NASA. She published two books and she still makes time for the Back to Space program while in college. And I mean, this girl is just, her name is Katie and she’s just. Such a legend and I cannot, I’m just so excited to watch her and see where she’s going to go.

 

I mean, all the kids that are associated are just absolutely brilliant and yeah, it’s just fun to watch their careers blossom. That’s incredible though. Two books in college is a big debt I have published for sure. I know, I know that actually she announced her second book publishing before she went to college.

 

So crazy. And so, I mean, this girl and she’s, so yeah, I can go on and on about all the student ambassadors, I love all of them. But all in all, it’s pretty exciting. And now what we’re doing, which seems super random, but Back to Space, like I said, our mission is to inspire the next generation of space explorers in a way that I personally believe that we will be successful is by engaging every sentence.

 

So we’re actually building, we got an opportunity to build a lunar landscape experience and that’s, um, in Jacksboro, Texas, where this thing is awesome. I can send you some photos of it, but it’s basically like a, um, experience that you go in and it’s, uh, it’s a huge model of the Moon and using VR and AR you can walk through it.

 

You learn about every single aspect of space flight. Is going to go back to the Moon. So as a audience member of, or a guest of this experience or museum, you can kind of walk through and get all the stages and learn about every stage of space exploration. And at the end you suit up and you land on the Moon yourself, which is really cool.

 

That sounds like so much fun. We did something. Um, we’d had a VR experience for the Apollo 50th anniversary last summer at the Space Foundation in our museum. And they let me do one where you landed on the Moon, kind of like that. And somehow I didn’t get back on the spaceship and I got left on the Moon.

 

Oh no. It was horrible. And it was it’s funny because I knew it was fake. You know, I knew it was virtual reality, but as I stood there and I watched it fly away and I saw Earth in the distance, the emotion that I had was so overwhelming and it was so impactful to just be alone on the Moon. And I think that that’s really important too, because, you know, I think that, like I said, and I’ve said this a couple of times throughout our call, but you can really try and throw a book at a kids.

 

They read this and it’s just not going to work. But if you, if you really engage every sense, I think that that is a memory that is planted and stored in a much different way than if you just, you know, read something. So I’m very excited about this opportunity to work with Jacksboro, the city of Jacksboro and.

 

Make this come to life because I really, I think that this goes exactly to the mission of Back to Space and I’m beyond excited to see it come to life. Interesting. Kind of talking about, you know, using all the senses and emotions. There’s a, what a video on your YouTube channel, um, where you talk about emotionally inspiring people.

 

And when I heard that, I was just like, Wow. That’s a big, bold statement. How else do you feel like you’re emotionally inspiring people? You’ll how do you do that? Cause like I said, that’s not an easy task, I think by any means. So I think where that phrase comes from is we had an event with our student ambassadors, Charlie Duke, Al Worden, and Walt Cunningham went to this, this, uh, found in Texas.

 

And they were doing an assembly and all the student ambassadors would ask them questions. And then the, the school that we were at had an opportunity to ask the Apollo astronauts, some questions. And as I was, I was kind of the emcee of it. Just making sure everything’s going, according to plan, throwing the mic around.

 

And I saw these students who came in and there was a typical, Ugh, I hate school. This is stupid. Why am I here? And I zoomed in on them. And I was like, all right, this is who I’m going to focus on this entire time. Because I mean, I think for me personally, it’s, I’m I’m okay with the kids who are already engaged in space.

 

That’s great. I mean, and I can encourage that all I want, but what I really want is the people who aren’t interested in space, that’s who I want to tune into what we’re doing. So Charlie, Duke’s talking, you can tell they’re on their phones, they’re talking to one another, and then he starts talking about the re-entry and the heat shield and all these different really engaging, you know, as someone who’s never been to space.

 

Or even when you do go to space, I’m sure it’s, those are pretty important events that take place. I mean, these fields is not something you deal with every day. So, um, I’m looking at these students and they stop and they stopped what they’re doing and they’re listening, you know, Charlie was just talking about it and it’s just so engaging and it’s, so it’s like listening to a crazy Star Wars story or a Lord of the Rings saga.

 

And I really took that moment to heart and that’s always been stored away from me because it is an emotional thing going to spaces, you know, as much as the engineers and scientists are like, no, I don’t have emotion. It’s like, no, you do. And that is something that I think. Really stuck with those kids. I don’t know.

 

I didn’t ask them, but it seems so, um, and it stuck with me because I think, like I said, throughout the whole process of what we’re doing, we’re trying to engage every sense. And we’re trying to appeal to people who wouldn’t normally be interested in space exploration. And I think any time that you can use comedy or you can kind of.

 

Especially for me personally, a lot of comedy and it makes it relatable. And I think that the space industry as a whole is very intimidating. You feel like you need 16 different degrees to understand any of it, but you don’t, you can just tune in to what I’m talking about, or there’s many different YouTube channels that are way better than mine, that, you know, chop it up into emotional and digestible bites.

 

So. I think also another aspect of this is that space exploration is just cool. And I think that a lot of the times people do a terrible job of explaining a really cool subject in the most boring way. So that’s something that, you know, we try as, as well. And. I think that the Apollo astronauts, when they do talk, it is, it is emotional thing.

 

You know, looking at the Earth from space and looking back, it, it transforms you into, you know, a lot of astronauts talk about how they don’t understand. The internal conflict we as humans have, because when you’re out there looking back, we’re all humans, that’s all that matters. And that’s a big movement.

 

A lot of people have when they come back. So I think that if you can emotionally inspire, if you can appeal to all the senses, you’re going to get a lot more positive responses. In my opinion. Yeah, I would definitely agree with you on that one. So we kind of talked a little bit and what you’ve discussed a little bit here that, you know, you’ve done acting and you’ve done producing, and you’ve had several short films that you’ve written and actually produced yourself that have actually won awards at film festivals around the nation.

 

Have any of these films then influenced by your love of space? It’s interesting. So I’m working on one now it’s a feature that is space-related, but I think more than anything, I think it’s the work ethic about space exploration that I’ve kind of, and the work ethic that my dad and my grandfather showed me that really, it’s not, they’re not directly related to one another, but I think that the way I approach life.

 

Is the same way that my father and my grandfather approached life, which is if you want something done, just go out and do it. And I think that that’s why I started producing. I had no interest in producing to begin with at all, but I was like, you know what? I just want to do this. So I’m just going to do it to the best of my ability and I’m going to do it myself, to be honest.

 

So I asked a ton of people to help me. And we all came together for a mission and we, we did it and it was a really beautiful process, but I think. Like I said, they’re not directly related to one another. However, they all require a team. They require a vision and they require hard work. So I think that that more than anything is the parallel between the two.

 

Definitely because it’s the same thing that you can’t go to space alone, which I think in the most recent years, we’re hearing more and more of, um, especially, you know, reflecting back on Apollo and you know, that it’s been 50 years and that there were so many people that went into it. But, you know, I know when you go to the movies too, you know, how often do we watch the credits?

 

Unless it, you know, there’s a sneak-peak scene at the end and you see how many people are involved and it just. It blows my mind. And I think if we had something like that for space too, that would show, you know, every single person that was involved, it would probably be just as long, if not longer than a lot of movie credits that we see.

 

Oh yeah. I mean, but that’s, what’s so beautiful about space exploration. I think, you know, I had an interview the other day and they were asking me, what is something about space that excites you? And I said, yeah, it’s about a team effort. I mean, Elon Musk could not have gone to space without NASA and not in the space right now without Elon.

 

And that’s kind of going to be the future of it. But with that, there’s so many different departments. There’s so many different people and it’s big and it’s beautiful and you know, something about uniting and a team. And, you know, I don’t, I think that that is so important. And a lot of people forget, yes, the Apollo astronauts did go to the Moon, but the vehicle that.

 

Transported them to the Moon and all, every single tiny minute detail of the Apollo program, the shuttle program, everything was it entire team behind that. So there are successes, everyone success. And I think that that’s very similar to Hollywood. I mean, we don’t, you know, we’re not going to, well, I don’t know.

 

Tom cruise said he was going to film a movie and at the end. So, you know, that’s the perfect blend of the two. So yeah, definitely is. And you just brought up, you know, Elon Musk and SpaceX. So we recently just saw American astronauts return a station from American soil. So that was historic because that’s a first in almost 10 years.

 

And then it was the first time on a commercial through vehicles. So how did that launch. Impact you, how did it feel to watch it? I was great. I mean, the name of my company is Back to Space and, you know, I ended almost every video with a very cheesy line of cars. It’s time to go back to the space, you know, we did it.

 

So that was really great. And you know, something that I found, you know, the world right now is not United. You turn on the news and depending on the news channel, it’s it just feels to me like there’s a lot going wrong in the world. And I think that, you know, on the Saturday that they launched the news was occupied with a lot of images of frighting and.

 

Images of people responding to the rioting and, you know, for those, for the launch, everything else stopped. I mean, according to the news, um, but I think a lot of people. Regardless of where they were in the world did recognize and did come together and watch the SpaceX launch, because that was really exciting.

 

And it united us for 30 seconds and minutes, eight minutes, you know, it, it doesn’t matter because for that moment, I do feel like we all looked up for a little bit and then we went back along, you know, to what we were doing, but. I think that space has especially is very prevalent. Now it does unite us because we all want, I mean, most of us want to get into space somehow and to see the, where space exploration will lead us.

 

And I think that that is a very uniting factor. Absolutely. And it’s funny because astronauts go to the space station, you know, every six, nine months or so, you know, a few new ones head up there. And I can say, I don’t know of anyone who’s ever watched. Well, that’s not fully true, cause I know a lot of, um, quote unquote space nerds, but the average American citizen to ever watch.

 

The opening of the docking and the astronauts actually coming on board. And I just have so many people on social media watching. You know, these, these astronauts actually come on board, the space station and, you know, I agree. It was just, it was nice to see that own, that moment of unity. And if people being excited by, you know, what had happened and just kind of remembering that, you know, we do this all the time, but you know, this one was a little extra special and it was just great to see people.

 

We’re coming together and, you know, get back in this space and just have that unity. I know, I thought that was really special to see that even the next day, people were still excited and watching what was happening to those two. Yeah. And I think, you know, it’s pretty interesting because it kind of parallels the Apollo 11 launch.

 

There, there were protests in the streets everywhere when Apollo 11 launched and, you know, I think that that’s important. So remember that, because I mean, after that we landed on the Moon and we did something incredible. So I think the past is a good indicator of the future. And, you know, I think that this is a huge, huge leap for America is great.

 

Absolutely. And you know, where did you see human space flight in, you know, 25, 30 years? Personally, I would love to do a show in space. You know, I just personally would love, I would, you know what I would love, I would love because I think that this is something that a lot of people, I mean, conspiracy theorists are brewing like crazy for some reason right now.

 

And think that the world is flat. But you know, I think a lot of people don’t understand space. And like I’ve said multiple times on this call, it’s so unobtainable. But I think that if space becomes more accessible, And the sense of, it’s not just millionaires going out there, but you know, these are things, this is more integrated with our society in our, in our day-to-day life that I think a lot of people would be more excited by it.

 

And I would really like to get back to the Moon. I would really like to go to Mars because I feel like with space exploration in general, you learn more about, or so I would like to see that I would like to see space more accessible and, and excite more people. And so from what you just said, it sounds like I heard you would be interested in actually going to face yourself.

 

Absolutely. Sorry. I had this really weird dream about three years ago and I will never forget it. I asked him was like, Hey, you’re going to go to Mars. And I was like, Oh my God, it’s so exciting. And they were like, but you can’t see your family. You know, this is a one, one ticket trip. You’re going one. And they were like, would you do it?

 

And I said, I thought about it. And I said, no, I don’t think I would. I’d love my, my family too much. My, my friends. But if we’re talking about going to space for, you know, or to the Moon or even Mars, and then coming back, hell yeah, I’m in I’m 100% in. Awesome. Well, hopefully we will see you in the next 25, 30 years.

 

Actually having that chance and take it that one step further doing a show in space or doing a show on the Moon or on Mars. Yeah. Oh, we should do the office, but in space where the office is. The office is just a space capsule. That sounds absolutely. So we will keep our fingers crossed for you, um, that, that happens and shoot even the next 20 years, maybe even sooner, you know, who knows maybe next year, let’s aim high.

 

There you go. Hey, that’s like, that’s how we started. You know, you were saying that there’s no bar that’s ever too high, so set it and work for it. Yeah, I’m just going to start building rockets in my backyard, tell our listeners where they can find out more about the of space program and how they can get involved with you.

 

Yeah, the YouTube channel is where we’re most active. It’s youtube.com/Back to Space. If you just look up, Back to Space, we do a weekly videos about a plethora of topics, but they’re, they’re mostly fun and engaging and also backtospace.com, which lays out pretty much everything that we’re doing, everything that we’ve done.

 

And, um, Some of the exciting opportunities, like the television show that we’re working on, which with some amazing producers. So working on all of that, and you can check that out at backtospace.com. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Danielle, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you.

 

I had a blast. Thanks so much. Absolutely. Well that will conclude this episode of the Space Foundation’s Space4U podcast. You can subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review on Podbean. Apple podcasts and Google Play. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And of course, visit our website www.spacefoundation.org, where you can also learn about the various ways you can support the Space Foundation on all of these outlets and more.

 

It is our goal to inspire, educate, connect and advocate for the space community because at the Space Foundation, we will always have space for you. Thank you for listening.


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Space4U Podcast: Danielle Dallas Roosa – Back to Space