Leland Melvin: An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change
Leland Melvin: Egy űrhajós meséje a kíváncsiságról, perspektíváról és változásról
Leland Melvin is an engineer, educator, former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver. He shares his stories of perseverance and excellence to inspire communities for lasting positive change. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
on the set in the front,
for my dad, and my sister and my mom.
a szüleinek és a húgának,
move this way, we can't see the screen."
nem látjuk tőled a képernyőt!"
one giant leap for mankind."
de hatalmas ugrás az emberiségnek."
were walking on the Moon.
a Holdon sétáltak.
in Lynchburg, Virginia,
in a kind of somewhat racist town.
rasszista kisvárosban.
what I was going to do with my life.
hogy mihez kezdjek az életemmel.
they were educators,
all the kids in the neighborhood
az összes szomszéd gyerek ezzel jött:
an astronaut?"
and I don't see someone who looks like me.
és mindenki annyira más volt, mint én.
on Pierce Street
about his character, his discipline,
one of those moon guys.
a holdra-szállók közül.
he played in a band,
együttesben játszott,
a nővéremnek és nekem,
for my sister and I
with education.
into the driveway with this bread truck.
jelent meg a bekötőúton
while my dad's driving the truck."
a bread guy now."
kenyeres fiú leszek."
'Merita Bread and Rolls'
Merita Kenyér és pékáru",
to build this into our camper."
ebben fogunk élni."
the entire electrical system.
az egész elektromos hálózatot.
to a Coleman stove,
raktunk össze.
vacation launch pad, escape pod,
mentőkabinunk,
take us out of Lynchburg.
by some neighbors.
that didn't have fathers.
akiknek nem volt apukája.
that did that to his son.
and escaped from Lynchburg,
és elmenekültünk Lynchburgból,
éltünk át apámmal.
mountains' majesty.
in Myrtle Beach,
tengerpartján,
to be an explorer, at a very early age.
mit jelent felfedezőnek lenni.
an age-inappropriate,
munkavédelmi engedély nélküli
nem épp a koromhoz illőt.
explosion in her living room.
okoznom a nappalijában.
through a high school,
to play football in college.
focicsapatban játszottam.
because I'd already blown stuff up.
mert már sikerült robbantanom is.
they go work for NASA, right?
A NASA-hoz megy dolgozni, igaz?
"Leland, nagyszerű űrhajós lennél!"
"Leland, you'd be great astronaut."
I was like, "Yeah, me, an astronaut?"
"Na persze, én, űrhajós, mi?"
thing from back in '69?
még 1969-ben.
and I looked at it,
én ránéztem,
filled out the application
egy másik barátom kitöltötte,
like that be astronauts,"
lehetnek űrhajósok,
the application, and I got in.
én is kitöltöttem, és bejutottam.
what it meant to be an astronaut:
űrhajósnak lenni,
for this countdown:
"Atlantis," careening off the planet,
28 000 km/h sebességgel
and we're now floating in space.
és az űrben lebegtünk.
and float over to the window,
odalebegtem az ablakhoz,
to describe the colors that I see.
ami elém tárult.
medium navy blue, turquoise
középkék, türkiz,
to what I see with my eyes.
Columbus laboratory.
Columbus laboratóriumot.
for human research.
of the space shuttle,
and I attached it to the space station.
csatlakoztattam az űrállomáshoz.
10 years for this thing to get installed,
ezt a telepítést,
"Leland! Leland! Leland!"
az én nevemet skandálta!
this was our primary mission objective,
ez volt missziónk legfőbb célja,
the first female commander,
az első női parancsnok
to the Russian segment.
about the size of a football field,
and all of these modules.
mindenféle modullal telezsúfolva.
the rehydrated vegetables,
hozd a rehidratált zöldségeket,
of vegetables, all rehydrated,
zöldséges zacskókkal,
back to my mother's kitchen.
and barley heating up,
és árpa illatát,
from all around the world.
Asian American, French, German, Russian,
németek, oroszok,
kenyeret szegünk,
és napnyugtában gyönyörködünk.
"Hey, Leland, try some of this,"
and we'd go back and forth.
listening to Sade's "Smooth Operator."
a "Smooth Operatort".
blowing my mind, you know.
and I look down at the planet,
lenéztem a bolygóra,
Virginia, my home town,
Lynchburg felett,
épp kenyeret szelt.
we're flying over Paris,
is looking down at his parents,
borscht or something else.
where we see our respective families
amikor láttuk a családunkat,
együtt dolgoznak,
that little skinny boy,
rasszista Lynchburgből származó
soha nem gondoltam volna,
of being an astronaut,
with our own two hands.
amit saját kezünkkel építettünk.
do we open up our blinders
a szemellenzőnket,
és észrevegyük a változást.
and Russians fighting Americans.
és az oroszok nincsenek jóban Amerikával.
living and working together.
együtt élnek és dolgoznak.
French folks, you know.
mindenféle emberek.
in harmony as one race.
the design of the modules,
a community, our home.
emlékszem az otthonunkra.
and looking there,
that I'm living and working with,
can do now, especially in these times,
főleg ezekben az időkben,
the right perspective.
a helyes látószögünket.
could I just chat with you for a minute,
hadd tartsalak fel még egy percre,
some things here.
we watch a lot of space movies
rengeteg űrhajós filmet nézünk,
to ask you, though,
this movie the other day,
one of your colleagues,
tehát az egyik kollégád,
NASA wrote an obituary for him.
a NASA gyászjelentést írt róla.
that you're putting yourself in
writing my obituary,
gyászjelentést írt volna rólam,
shuttle flights that we've had,
űrsiklós repülésünkből,
that killed everyone on that mission.
melynek során minden résztvevő meghalt.
and the risks that go along with this,
és a kockázatokkal,
that's much bigger than ourselves,
amikor abba a járműbe szállunk,
when we get into that vehicle
of rocket fuel and go up to space.
üzemanyagra, és felszállunk az űrbe.
the Hollywood version --
verzióját láttam –
I have to tell you.
told me that a few times.
that was very powerful and difficult,
és elég kemény téma,
when you were five years old,
for you to be able to say those things,
is important for you to share that now,
most megoszd velünk,
to talk about things that have happened,
hogy beszéljünk a történtekről,
that we have to be so tough and so hard
hogy legyünk kemények és szívósak,
that are happening to us.
amik történtek velünk.
contact me and tell me that,
hogy elmondja nekem:
az alkoholizmusomat,"
that are going on in them,
this is part of storytelling,
ez is a történetmesélés része,
whole as a community.
és egy közösségbe forraszt minket.
you spoke about perspective shift,
perspektívaváltásról szóltál,
we've been very slow to accept
amit nagyon lassan fogadunk el,
so we thank you for that.
ezért nagyon köszönjük, hogy megtetted.
the amazing astronaut that you are,
űrhajós lett belőled,
to the TED stage, Leland.
hogy felléptél ma köztünk.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Leland Melvin - Engineer, educatorLeland Melvin is an engineer, educator, former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver. He shares his stories of perseverance and excellence to inspire communities for lasting positive change.
Why you should listen
Leland Melvin served on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on mission STS-122 (2008) and STS-129 (2009), helping to construct the International Space Station. He also served as co-chair of the White House's Federal Coordination in STEM Education Task Force and as NASA Associate Administrator for Education. He can currently be seen as a judge on ABC's robot competition series "BattleBots."
"Houston, we have a problem." Melvin was 25 feet under water in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a six million gallon pool, training to perform spacewalks as a NASA astronaut when he called the test director and asked him to turn the volume up in his headset. He never heard a reply and was immediately hoisted out of the pool to learn that he was deaf. Emergency surgery resulting in only partial recovery to his hearing and led him to being medically disqualified to fly in space by NASA flight surgeons.
This is just one of the many career-ending challenges Melvin has overcome in his life. Before becoming an astronaut, he was drafted by the Detroit Lions to play professional football in 1986, but a hamstring injury thwarted his NFL career with Detroit and then later with the Dallas Cowboys. Through determination and perseverance, he ultimately traveled off-planet twice on Space Shuttle Atlantis to help construct the International Space Station, logging more than 565 hours in space. He's the only person drafted into the National Football League to have flown in space. The Pro Football Hall of Fame honored his athletic and academic accomplishments by placing his Detroit Lions jersey under glass in Canton, Ohio.
Melvin has a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's degree in materials science engineering. He worked at NASA Langley Research Center in the area of nondestructive testing creating optical fiber sensors for measuring damage in aerospace vehicles resulting in publications in numerous scientific journals. After hanging up his space boots, he was appointed head of NASA Education and served as the co-chair on the White House's Federal Coordination in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Task Force developing the nation's five-year STEM education plan. He was the United States representative and chair of the International Space Education Board (ISEB), a global collaboration in space. He holds five honorary doctorates for his service in education, the sciences and philanthropy.
Melvin's memoir, Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances shares his personal journey from the gridiron to the stars and examines the intersecting roles of community, perseverance and grace that align to create the opportunities for success. A young reader's version of the book is available here.
Leland Melvin | Speaker | TED.com