Speaker 1: My next guest is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: and global stem advocate. Oh and did I mention she
Speaker 1: will make history as one of six women on Billionaire
Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos is eleventh Blue Origin and S thirty one
Speaker 1: space flight on April fourteenth. Please welcome the one and
Speaker 1: only Miss Aieshabo.
Speaker 2: How are you? How's everything?
Speaker 3: I'm good.
Speaker 2: It's nice to finally meet you. First of all, I'm
Speaker 2: very very proud of you.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on all your success, and I'm especially proud because
Speaker 1: you're working in partnership with my alma mater, Wister Salem
Speaker 1: State University.
Speaker 2: Tell an audience about that, please, let's let's got a
Speaker 2: touch on that first.
Speaker 4: Listen, we couldnot go to space without Winston Salem. When
Speaker 4: I embarked upon this mission, it was important for me
Speaker 4: to conduct science and to do it with a world
Speaker 4: class institution like Winston Salem.
Speaker 3: I long admire their astropotany.
Speaker 4: Lab from when I was at NASA, and I am
Speaker 4: privileged to have the opportunity to genetically sequence plants face
Speaker 4: with them.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about this? I mean they say
Speaker 1: this is the lady's time. I mean with all the
Speaker 1: ladies going on this historic trip. Who'll be joining Tell
Speaker 1: an audience who will be joining you on this flight?
Speaker 4: Sure, I'm joined by Gil King, Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Carrie,
Speaker 4: Anne Flynn, and Amanda win.
Speaker 1: Now those ladies that elected to join you, what kind
Speaker 1: of advice have you given them? I'd like to know this,
Speaker 1: because you know Gail is usually one that gives advice
Speaker 1: now takes it. I know she's a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and she's so bossy. I say that affectionately. What are
Speaker 1: the kind of things you told her about what she's
Speaker 1: about to embark upon?
Speaker 4: Pleasant planning and preparation, right, I look at this similar
Speaker 4: to athletics. It's important to visualize. It's important to prepare
Speaker 4: and to be in the moment. We're getting ready to
Speaker 4: go on a journey that almost everyone who has gone
Speaker 4: on it has come back forever changed. And for people
Speaker 4: around the world who are writing me, who are engaging
Speaker 4: with the mission and seeing a little bit of themselves
Speaker 4: in us, it's important that we show up to.
Speaker 3: Meet the moment.
Speaker 1: Tell the folks out there about yourself in terms of
Speaker 1: who you are and how this all came to be.
Speaker 1: I mean, when we think about I mean there's a
Speaker 1: lot of aspirations. People are very aspirational in this day
Speaker 1: and age, but you don't see too often somebody engaging
Speaker 1: in this kind of stuff where you're going up in space, girl,
Speaker 1: you're going above the earth crying out loud.
Speaker 2: I mean, how did all of this come to be?
Speaker 3: I'm the person who never thought that I would be here.
Speaker 4: I started out as someone who wasn't high performing in
Speaker 4: high school. In fact, I went to my community sorry,
Speaker 4: I went to community college, and I didn't even apply
Speaker 4: to college after asking my high school guidance.
Speaker 3: Counselor what she thought I could do, and she.
Speaker 4: Said, I think you'd better be better be off pursuing cosmetology.
Speaker 2: And you know, I hold on cosmetology.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know I pause here because I'm looking
Speaker 4: at you and I'm looking at this and this was
Speaker 4: all it was all a dream. And I did not
Speaker 4: apply to college because I thought I wasn't smart enough
Speaker 4: to go. I did not have the dream of working
Speaker 4: at NASA because I thought that I couldn't make it.
Speaker 3: And so when I went.
Speaker 4: To school, I said, you know what, Aisha, You're in
Speaker 4: community college, but you have taken everything that someone else
Speaker 4: has told you about yourself to be true, and it
Speaker 4: is not.
Speaker 3: And so let's focus only on what it is that
Speaker 3: you want to do.
Speaker 4: And what I wanted to do was wake up every
Speaker 4: day and look at my face and be proud. I
Speaker 4: want to look in the mirror and say that my
Speaker 4: black was beautiful.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to live a life that was a testimony.
Speaker 3: And so I said I'm going to become a rocket scientist.
Speaker 3: And people laughed.
Speaker 4: I mean, they still laugh at me. Today's spoiler alert.
Speaker 4: I'm like, google me, I'll wait right. But they laughed
Speaker 4: because they didn't think that I could do it. And
Speaker 4: so I started my aerospace engineering degree with pre algebra
Speaker 4: in this community college. I went to Michigan Aerospace. I
Speaker 4: got a master's in space system's engineering. And then I
Speaker 4: went to NASA, and I said, I'm going to commit
Speaker 4: my life to telling people that being realistic is the
Speaker 4: most commonly travel path to mediocrity.
Speaker 1: I had the pleasure of meeting your wonderful mama. She's
Speaker 1: standing right over there. I see where she gets here.
Speaker 1: I see where you get it from. Okay, let me
Speaker 1: just say that very very complimentary, I might add, but
Speaker 1: here's the deal, wasn't it your dad that first mentioned
Speaker 1: to you or suggested that you might want to take
Speaker 1: this path. And if that is so, if that is so, what.
Speaker 2: Is it that he saw that you didn't see.
Speaker 1: At that particular moment in time that made him make
Speaker 1: that suggestion.
Speaker 4: Well, my dad, who's from the Bahamas, decided that when
Speaker 4: he heard what the guidance counselor said, he would go
Speaker 4: and give her a piece of his mind.
Speaker 3: He was told not to come back.
Speaker 1: So he did go and give her a piece of
Speaker 1: his mind, and they told him not to come back.
Speaker 4: Correct, okay, okay, said you know, you cannot allow others
Speaker 4: to define you in life. And I want you to
Speaker 4: know that you were smarter than what they think you are,
Speaker 4: and you were better. And so he would challenge me
Speaker 4: at the dinner table. He would ask me to write,
Speaker 4: like you know, write down equations and things, and then
Speaker 4: he would tear them up and he would tell me
Speaker 4: that the only thing that someone can't take from you
Speaker 4: is the stuff that's in your mind. And he said,
Speaker 4: are you sure you can do whatever it is that
Speaker 4: you put your mind to, So go do the math.
Speaker 3: I will pay for it. You'll take the class again.
Speaker 3: And so I started over the classes I was taking
Speaker 3: in high school that I didn't do well in. I
Speaker 3: started over in community college because he told me that
Speaker 3: I could.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking about it for along the way he
Speaker 1: had to see something is in terms of it's one
Speaker 1: thing to believe in you because he loves you daily
Speaker 1: and he believes that you have a level of intellect
Speaker 1: that they're underestimating. It's another thing important entirely to see
Speaker 1: a particular gift. You got to be gifted to do
Speaker 1: what you're doing right here, because so you're clearly a
Speaker 1: gifted young lady. I'm saying, did he see that expertise
Speaker 1: in math? Your interests elevated when it came to that subject.
Speaker 2: What was it?
Speaker 3: You know? I think he saw potential.
Speaker 4: Everyone needs someone who believes in them.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: One of the things I loved about the Venus Serena
Speaker 4: moving was that the father spoke power over them before
Speaker 4: they were champions. He was really deliberate about making sure
Speaker 4: that no one would tell them that they were going
Speaker 4: to be anything better than the best.
Speaker 3: And my dad, in that moment told me the same thing.
Speaker 4: It wasn't because I had previously demonstrated it. It was
Speaker 4: because he saw potential, and I grew into my potential.
Speaker 3: Heck, I'm still growing into it.
Speaker 4: I went from being at NASA to running two companies,
Speaker 4: to making education product to being on the show.
Speaker 3: Talking to you.
Speaker 4: I'm still learning how to do. But what I stand
Speaker 4: for is the dream. I stand for the idea that
Speaker 4: there is no dream too big and nothing too audacious?
Speaker 2: Was folks?
Speaker 1: Were folks derailing your dreams? Or was your actions derailing
Speaker 1: your dreams? Because you didn't believe you were as nearly
Speaker 1: as focused as you ultimately became, Which was the biggest
Speaker 1: impediment to you getting to where you are today?
Speaker 4: In your estimation, I think I was the biggest impediment
Speaker 4: because I had to learn how to think. I had
Speaker 4: to learn how to view myself as a computer that
Speaker 4: needed to be pushed new programming. Essentially, I control the
Speaker 4: narrative in my mind, and so if I consistently reinforced
Speaker 4: how I think and how I respond to the things
Speaker 4: around me, then I can change reality to be what
Speaker 4: it is that I wanted to be.
Speaker 1: How were you able to do that when you use
Speaker 1: the word reinforcement, Because I'm peeling apart some of the
Speaker 1: words that you're saying and you talked about reinforce, well,
Speaker 1: that means it was there, but something inside of you
Speaker 1: was willing to put forth the due diligence, the level
Speaker 1: of tenacity, etc. That you were not willing to do
Speaker 1: in the past. Was the inspiration there because you wanted
Speaker 1: to make your daddy proud? Was the inspiration there because
Speaker 1: you wanted to debunk and ultimately dismiss.
Speaker 2: What the teacher who referred you.
Speaker 1: To cosmatology recommended. I mean, when we think about the
Speaker 1: word reinforce, it emanates from somewhere, which was the motivation
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: I was tired of feeling bad. I want to feel good.
Speaker 4: When I woke up, I looked at my reflection and
Speaker 4: I didn't like what I saw. And when I really
Speaker 4: started to think of it, here was I had someone
Speaker 4: that loved me and thought I was so great, But.
Speaker 3: I didn't think that way.
Speaker 4: I didn't feel that way, and I could not feel
Speaker 4: good without taking control of me. And so I said,
Speaker 4: I am strong enough to overcome whatever challenges are before me, and.
Speaker 3: I do that every single day, even to this day.
Speaker 4: I wake up and before I start everyone else's day,
Speaker 4: I start mine, and I have affirmations, I have meditation,
Speaker 4: I pray and then I get going.
Speaker 2: Does meditation really work?
Speaker 1: I've been that's been referred to me on many many occasions.
Speaker 1: I'm going like this, it's kind of impossible. That requires
Speaker 1: me to shut up and just sit there and empt
Speaker 1: in my mind. And I just think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things in life I could pull off. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I could pull that off. Can you pull
Speaker 1: that off? How hard is it to learn how to meditate?
Speaker 3: Listen? I like to meditate when I meditated, like to
Speaker 3: do it in the Bahamas.
Speaker 1: Resident you know, I'm from Virginalis and now my family's
Speaker 1: from same time as Virginalais.
Speaker 3: Listen, I'm past how about that?
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: But I mean I look at you now, and we
Speaker 1: all have to just stand down and marvel at the
Speaker 1: accomplishments that you've achieved to this degree. When I think
Speaker 1: about what you're doing moving forward, particularly with this mission,
Speaker 1: and how it's going to resonate not just in America.
Speaker 2: But throughout the world.
Speaker 1: As you go and you talk to young ladies throughout
Speaker 1: the country, because I know you do, what are the
Speaker 1: kind of things you say to them?
Speaker 4: I tell them that space is for all and not
Speaker 4: for some I'm literally traveling with postcards that I've asked
Speaker 4: the students to write their dreams down on because my
Speaker 4: goal is to be a bedtime story. I want people
Speaker 4: to tell their children what it is that I did
Speaker 4: in the hopes of encouraging them to reach for the stars.
Speaker 1: But you're going to carry these postcards from the students,
Speaker 1: right And I wanted to ask you what they're going
Speaker 1: to symbolize.
Speaker 2: But you're taking them up in space with you. Yes,
Speaker 2: what you're doing.
Speaker 4: You know, thanks to Lauren and Jeff, they're going back
Speaker 4: to the very same students who wrote them, and so
Speaker 4: they'll be stamp flown in space and then they're going
Speaker 4: to bring space back down to Earth.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the significance of the American flag that
Speaker 1: you know you're going to take into space.
Speaker 4: When I first started working at NASA, I met a
Speaker 4: woman named Nancy Conrad. She's the wife of Pete Conrad,
Speaker 4: the third man to walk on the Moon. She became
Speaker 4: a very powerful mentor to me, and Pete's story is
Speaker 4: similar to mine. He was rambunctious and he didn't necessarily
Speaker 4: fit in the traditional mold of school. In the beginning,
Speaker 4: Nancy saw that I wanted to go to space, and
Speaker 4: she mentored me along the way, and when the mission
Speaker 4: was confirmed, she said, Aisha, I want to provide you
Speaker 4: with the symbol of the past, because you are the future.
Speaker 4: And she asked the museum a flight in Seattle to
Speaker 4: go and get Pete's flag that he took to the
Speaker 4: moon with him on Apollo twelve, and they sent it
Speaker 4: to me, And so I will have an opportunity to
Speaker 4: put that flag back in space, and then it will
Speaker 4: have been flown twice and his legacy and my legacy
Speaker 4: will be shared in the museum.
Speaker 2: How long you gonna be up there?
Speaker 3: Do you know long enough?
Speaker 2: Listen, that's vague, that's vague. I need specifics. You're gonna
Speaker 2: be in space? You know how long are you gonna
Speaker 2: be up there? In now?
Speaker 4: Yes, So the entire flight will be like maybe eleven minutes, right,
Speaker 4: and yes, And it's great because one, that's enough to
Speaker 4: study how plans respond to microgravity.
Speaker 3: And two, my mom knows exactly when I'm coming home.
Speaker 1: Did you just finish saying that the eleven minutes is
Speaker 1: enough to study?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: Would you just say eleven minutes that's all you need.
Speaker 4: That's all you well, so when you're in microgravity, changes
Speaker 4: on the molecular level happen instantly, and so we're actually
Speaker 4: able to genetically sequence plants in that period of time.
Speaker 4: And this has implications for food security on Earth.
Speaker 1: We know, forgive this question, it's gonna sound a bit idiotic, maybe,
Speaker 1: but I gotta ask, because you know, we hear politicians
Speaker 1: all the time talking about taking us into space, they
Speaker 1: exploring space, what have you. Ultimately, one day we're gonna
Speaker 1: live on malls and stuff like that, and I don't
Speaker 1: pay You're the reason I'm paying attention to it now.
Speaker 2: You should. I'm going to be honest with you. If
Speaker 2: it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be paying attention to this,
Speaker 2: you understand, But you got me interested. Are we to
Speaker 2: take that and embrace that seriously?
Speaker 1: That that is an objective and an agenda for astronauts,
Speaker 1: and that's and everything in between as it pertains to
Speaker 1: this country, this world and things from an exploration perspective,
Speaker 1: they're really really plot to do this.
Speaker 4: Well, we've been studying various elements of space travel for
Speaker 4: some time.
Speaker 3: We say we humanity massive and what we've realized is
Speaker 3: that space is a harsh environment. No surprise there.
Speaker 4: But what we learn in space has implications here on Earth.
Speaker 4: So if you can grow plants in space, you can
Speaker 4: grow them here in food deserts. You can help make
Speaker 4: sure that people get access to the next generation of antibiotics,
Speaker 4: and you can also make sure that they get Wi
Speaker 4: Fi wherever they are.
Speaker 1: Got youa so you just utilizing that to bring it
Speaker 1: back to Earth to make sure we maximize our potential
Speaker 1: as a human race, as opposed to telling us were
Speaker 1: trying to move.
Speaker 4: The mall does what you tell them exactly space for
Speaker 4: the benefit of Earth?
Speaker 2: That moves me.
Speaker 1: I feel a lot better about that now, a lot
Speaker 1: more knowledgeable about it.
Speaker 2: How does one prepare for a spaceflight?
Speaker 4: Well, if you're an adrenaline drinkie like me, you have
Speaker 4: a lot of fun while doing it. I just had
Speaker 4: the opportunity to fly in L thirty nine, which is
Speaker 4: a fighter jet, and I successfully completed some aileron rolls
Speaker 4: and some high speed maneuvers and had a great time.
Speaker 4: But there is a commercial space flight regulation that kind
Speaker 4: of lays out preparation for space and so I've gone
Speaker 4: from flying an acrobatic aircraft to hypoxia training to these
Speaker 4: fighter jet and.
Speaker 3: High g forces six g's. I love it.
Speaker 4: I absolutely love it, and so it's important to physically
Speaker 4: and mentally prepare.
Speaker 1: I give you kudos not just for your accomplishments, but
Speaker 1: because of your bravery.
Speaker 2: Because they tried to get me up in the fire
Speaker 2: the jets years ago, and.
Speaker 1: I told them to go hell, don't even think about it,
Speaker 1: don't even think about coming my way with that nonsense.
Speaker 2: I'm comfortable on land. You understand I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: do that. So you're braver than me.
Speaker 3: But I got the hook up. I know a Bahamian
Speaker 3: who's a fighter pilot. He owns the aircraft. Let's go.
Speaker 2: No, yes, I'm not that brave.
Speaker 3: You can do it. No, I can do it. You
Speaker 3: can do it too.
Speaker 1: I know I could do it, but because of me,
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna be scared as hell when I'm doing
Speaker 1: at a heart attack.
Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think the fear is good. You feel
Speaker 3: the fear, you do it anyway.
Speaker 4: If people ask me, are you nervous, It's like, yes,
Speaker 4: I'm getting in a rocket and going up. But on
Speaker 4: the other side of fears, everything I've ever wanted will.
Speaker 2: This mission be carried. It will be, it will be.
Speaker 4: It will be broadcast on blue Orgin dot com Wow
Speaker 4: on April fourteenth.
Speaker 3: You can tune in, whether in a classroom or you
Speaker 3: were at home.
Speaker 1: I want to go to a couple of other things
Speaker 1: before you depart, and I really appreciate you taking time
Speaker 1: out of your busy schedule onor to have you here.
Speaker 1: It means a lot to me that you hear, and
Speaker 1: it means a lot to me that everybody's gonna know
Speaker 1: even more about your story. You found it stem Board
Speaker 1: start up specializing in engineering services for federal and private
Speaker 1: sector clients without any outside funding, and twenty twenty it
Speaker 1: landed on the Ink magazine's five thousand list of the
Speaker 1: fastest growing privately owned US companies.
Speaker 2: How were you able to do that?
Speaker 3: A dollar and a very supportive dog, Really just that simple.
Speaker 3: I was telling people that, look.
Speaker 4: I'm going to found a company, and they didn't know
Speaker 4: any people who look like me with my background who
Speaker 4: had founded companies and were successful.
Speaker 3: And so I decided that if you tell me that
Speaker 3: I can't do it, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 4: And over the last twelve years, we've been recognized for
Speaker 4: hiring veterans.
Speaker 3: We received a higher vets award from the Department of Labor.
Speaker 4: We've had the opportunity to expand to five states, and
Speaker 4: we've been on the ink list now twice.
Speaker 3: I couldn't, They said, I can't. I did?
Speaker 2: You did? You did?
Speaker 1: You're also doing great work togain kids to consider STEM
Speaker 1: careers through your ed tech company Lingo.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that for a second, and who
Speaker 2: do you hope to reach?
Speaker 3: Well, it sort of became this year one trick pony thing.
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, I feel like genius is evenly distributed.
Speaker 3: Opportunity, however, is not.
Speaker 4: And so how do I take what it is that
Speaker 4: I have learned and my resources and bring it to
Speaker 4: students all around the world?
Speaker 3: And that was through Lingo.
Speaker 4: Many students had never been taught anything by a black
Speaker 4: woman that was technical in middle school or high school
Speaker 4: or college, and so we decided to make self paced
Speaker 4: coding kids. We started off by supporting Inroads and it
Speaker 4: bloomed from there. We in the last two years have
Speaker 4: delivered these kids into the hands of ten thousand students.
Speaker 4: But we stay teaches us for freshman computer science. We've
Speaker 4: been bought in ten countries, and I'm delighted to say
Speaker 4: that we've launched two new space themed lessons so that
Speaker 4: we can take this mission and we can take the
Speaker 4: inspiration and we can deliver that into skills that people
Speaker 4: can use to be employable in the future.
Speaker 1: My last question to you would be that I know
Speaker 1: you care about humanity, the human race. I know that
Speaker 1: you have a special affection for young ladies out there
Speaker 1: in this world trying to make it happen for themselves.
Speaker 1: But I imagine as a marvelous black woman, it's very
Speaker 1: very touching considering the connections to HBCUs and beyond what
Speaker 1: your accomplishments have meant and will continue to me to
Speaker 1: young black ladies out there in the years to come.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that for a second and how
Speaker 1: that vibes with your mission and your aspirations and life
Speaker 1: as you move forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I had the opportunity when I was at NASA to
Speaker 4: speak to Michelle Nichols. And if you know Michelle, you
Speaker 4: know her from Star Trek, but she also well she
Speaker 4: was the person who recruited the first class of African
Speaker 4: American astronauts with NASA. She used her star power to
Speaker 4: go out there and find many people who you read
Speaker 4: about in history, and for me, it's the story. I
Speaker 4: want to know that when I'm gone that I have
Speaker 4: left this place better than when I received it. And
Speaker 4: for women, girls, people, we don't just inspire black people.
Speaker 4: We inspire all people, culture, everything around the world. And
Speaker 4: so for me to be here in this moment, I
Speaker 4: want to let people know.
Speaker 3: While I would love it if.
Speaker 4: You become a rocket scientist, what I want you to
Speaker 4: take from this is do not allow anybody to define you.
Speaker 1: Aisha Vo, the marvelous Ishabo, good luck, continue to make
Speaker 1: all of us proud, because you're certainly making me proud.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1: My thanks to the one and only I should vo
Speaker 1: to all female Blue Origin NS thirty one space flight.
Speaker 2: Is scheduled for April fourteenth. Be sure to check it out.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much,