Leland Melvin: An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change
Leland Melvin: A história de curiosidade, perspectiva e mudança de um astronauta
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.
preto e branco da Sylvania.
on the set in the front,
acontecendo em frente à TV,
para meu pai, minha irmã e minha mãe.
for my dad, and my sister and my mom.
move this way, we can't see the screen."
não conseguimos ver a imagem."
one giant leap for mankind."
um salto gigantesco para a humanidade".
were walking on the Moon.
estavam andando na Lua.
in Lynchburg, Virginia,
em Lynchburg, Virgínia,
in a kind of somewhat racist town.
em uma cidade um tanto racista.
what I was going to do with my life.
o que iria fazer na vida.
they were educators,
qualquer coisa.
all the kids in the neighborhood
todas as crianças do bairro perguntavam:
an astronaut?"
and I don't see someone who looks like me.
e não vejo ninguém parecido comigo.
on Pierce Street
na Pierce Street,
about his character, his discipline,
o caráter, a disciplina,
e a capacidade atlética dele.
one of those moon guys.
he played in a band,
tocava em uma banda,
for my sister and I
para minha irmã e eu
essas coisas diferentes com a educação.
with education.
into the driveway with this bread truck.
com um caminhão de pão.
while my dad's driving the truck."
dirige o caminhão".
a bread guy now."
o cara do pão agora".
'Merita Bread and Rolls'
'Merita Bread and Rolls'
to build this into our camper."
isso em nosso trailer".
the entire electrical system.
todo o sistema elétrico,
to a Coleman stove,
a um fogão Coleman,
vacation launch pad, escape pod,
de lançamento, cápsula de fuga
take us out of Lynchburg.
nos tirar de Lynchburg.
by some neighbors.
aos cinco anos, por alguns vizinhos.
that didn't have fathers.
que não tinham pais.
that did that to his son.
que fizeram aquilo com o filho dele.
and escaped from Lynchburg,
e fugimos de Lynchburg,
mountains' majesty.
das montanhas roxas
in Myrtle Beach,
to be an explorer, at a very early age.
explorador, em uma idade muito precoce.
a ser explorador.
an age-inappropriate,
me deu um conjunto de química
e não certificado,
explosion in her living room.
mais incrível na sala de estar dela.
pelo ensino médio,
through a high school,
to play football in college.
para jogar futebol lá.
because I'd already blown stuff up.
porque já havia causado explosões.
no campo de treinamento.
fui trabalhar para a NASA.
they go work for NASA, right?
"Leland, you'd be great astronaut."
você seria um ótimo astronauta".
I was like, "Yeah, me, an astronaut?"
"Sim, eu, astronauta?"
e do Buzz em 1969?
thing from back in '69?
que analisei, mas não preenchi.
and I looked at it,
filled out the application
preencheu o formulário
like that be astronauts,"
como esse sejam astronautas,
the application, and I got in.
preenchi o formulário e entrei.
what it meant to be an astronaut:
for this countdown:
para a contagem regressiva:
"Atlantis," careening off the planet,
Atlantis, partindo do planeta,
and we're now floating in space.
e estávamos flutuando no espaço.
and float over to the window,
to describe the colors that I see.
para descrever as cores que vejo.
medium navy blue, turquoise
azul-marinho médio, turquesa
to what I see with my eyes.
Columbus laboratory.
de US$ 2 bilhões.
for human research.
of the space shuttle,
de carga do ônibus espacial,
and I attached it to the space station.
e o anexei à estação espacial.
10 years for this thing to get installed,
há dez anos por essa instalação.
"Leland! Leland! Leland!"
estavam assim: "Leland! Leland! Leland!"
this was our primary mission objective,
nosso principal objetivo da missão.
the first female commander,
a primeira mulher comandante,
to the Russian segment.
about the size of a football field,
o tamanho de um campo de futebol,
and all of these modules.
e todos esses módulos.
the rehydrated vegetables,
os vegetais reidratados;
of vegetables, all rehydrated,
todos reidratados,
back to my mother's kitchen.
à cozinha de minha mãe.
and barley heating up,
e da cevada esquentando,
from all around the world.
Asian American, French, German, Russian,
francês, alemão, russo,
quilômetros por hora,
a cada 90 minutos,
"Hey, Leland, try some of this,"
experimente um pouco disso",
and we'd go back and forth.
listening to Sade's "Smooth Operator."
a música da Sade:
blowing my mind, you know.
and I look down at the planet,
olho para o planeta lá embaixo
Virginia, my home town,
Virgínia, minha cidade natal,
comendo todos juntos.
we're flying over Paris,
estamos sobrevoando Paris,
is looking down at his parents,
para a casa dos pais,
borscht or something else.
"borscht" ou outra coisa.
where we see our respective families
em que vemos nossas respectivas famílias
that little skinny boy,
Lynchburg, na Virgínia,
of being an astronaut,
nos levado em uma jornada
with our own two hands.
com nossas próprias mãos.
do we open up our blinders
nossas vendas dos olhos
and Russians fighting Americans.
combatendo os norte-americanos.
living and working together.
vivendo e trabalhando juntas:
French folks, you know.
in harmony as one race.
convivendo em harmonia como uma raça.
the design of the modules,
no desenho dos módulos,
que nos tornou uma comunidade, nosso lar.
a community, our home.
and looking there,
passando lá em cima
para minha comunidade
that I'm living and working with,
estou vivendo, trabalhando
can do now, especially in these times,
fazer agora, especialmente nestes tempos,
the right perspective.
a perspectiva certa.
could I just chat with you for a minute,
gostaria de conversar com você,
algumas coisas aqui,
some things here.
we watch a lot of space movies
a muitos filmes espaciais
to ask you, though,
this movie the other day,
one of your colleagues,
um de seus colegas.
NASA wrote an obituary for him.
um obituário para ele.
that you're putting yourself in
writing my obituary,
shuttle flights that we've had,
de ônibus espacial que tivemos,
that killed everyone on that mission.
todos daquela missão.
and the risks that go along with this,
e os riscos que acompanham isso,
that's much bigger than ourselves,
muito maior do que nós mesmos
when we get into that vehicle
quando entramos naquela espaçonave,
of rocket fuel and go up to space.
de combustível do foguete
the Hollywood version --
I have to tell you.
told me that a few times.
me disse isso algumas vezes.
that was very powerful and difficult,
when you were five years old,
cinco anos e foi estuprado.
for you to be able to say those things,
is important for you to share that now,
importante compartilhar agora,
to talk about things that have happened,
especialmente para os homens,
que temos que ser muito fortes e duros
that we have to be so tough and so hard
que estão acontecendo conosco.
that are happening to us.
contact me and tell me that,
me contataram e disseram:
vou superar meu alcoolismo",
com eles, por causa do que eles sofreram.
that are going on in them,
this is part of storytelling,
essas histórias; é parte da narrativa,
whole as a community.
inteiros como comunidade.
you spoke about perspective shift,
sobre mudança de perspectiva,
we've been very slow to accept
para aceitar e poder falar a respeito.
so we thank you for that.
the amazing astronaut that you are,
to the TED stage, Leland.
ao palco do TED, Leland.
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