A partner’s different perspective is valuable, but the very fact that it is different means that it will require work, humility, time, and resources to incorporate that perspective. At times, this will require checking one’s pride at the door.

This was exactly what I experienced in space: immense gratitude for the opportunity to see Earth from this vantage, and for the gift of the planet we’ve been given.

At this point I thought ‘We made it,’ by which I meant ‘We survived.’ I also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true.

We essentially had to build a docking mechanism between the two capsules. We didn’t have to share a lot of data, and we did that at the height of the Cold War, which was pretty symbolic.” –Bill Gerstenmaier.

If we adopt the same collaborative mindset and practices that got to the moon and back, and that built the International Space Station, we can alleviate poverty – and do much more.

The ISS would not be the incredibly capable orbiting research facility it is today without either Russians or Americans, just as it couldn’t have been built without the Canadian arm used in its construction.

You can’t solve problems until you understand the other side.” –Jeffrey Manber.

Weightlessness was wonderful, and I was surprised at how natural it felt.

The ISS would not be the incredibly capable orbiting research facility it is today without either Russians or Americans, just as it couldn't have been built without the Canadian arm used in its construction.

I lay on my back, surprised at how calm and focused I felt, strapped to four and a half million pounds of explosives.