Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1493016
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 49 move on. There's just so many possibilities. I'm excited to see what's next. We've only been searching for 70 years, which is a short blip of time in the grand scheme of the universe. Te: In your keynote, you talked about the apprehension for launching Artemis and whether it would actually work. Can you talk more about that? They absolutely did not know if it was going to work. The space launch system was delayed because of a number of errors over the past year. It would go to the launchpad, we would get on our com- puters and get ready to watch the launch, and then there would be a sensor error in the engine telling the engineers that it was actually much colder than it was supposed to be. "What's going on with the engines, is something happening?" They fixed the sen- sor and then it got back to the launchpad, but then they noticed some leakage from the hydrogen tank. Oh no, where is the leak? This is a problem. "What's going to happen? Is this going to blow up?" There were so many things that could have gone wrong because it was an entirely new rocket. Something that helps the space industry is reusing technologies. The Space Launch System, while it did use a lot of historic tech- nologies from the space shuttle, was put together in new and different ways, so it's an entirely new technology with different mov- ing parts. They have a checklist that they go through, and don't launch unless they're pretty sure it's not going to blow up. But space is hard, and there are so many variables. The Virgin Orbit just had a launch in the UK, and it was supposed to be the first orbital launch from the UK. They had a failure, and failure in the space industry is a common thing, unfortu- nately, because it is so difficult and there are so many moving parts. We are very used to failures and explosions, so anytime there's a new launch of something, we don't take it for granted. We're all just like, "Please, God don't let this be the one that explodes." Te: Despite the variables, it hasn't slowed anyone down. Yes, because you're pushing the envelope— you're doing new things. That's the beauty of the space industry, but that's also the scary part of the space industry. We are living through a renaissance in space exploration. We have more rocket launches per year than we've ever seen before. We have more payloads going into space than ever, and more money coming into the industry from venture capitalists. There are so many new companies to work at and so many dif- ferent types of jobs that one can take in this sector. Now is a really good time to get into the space industry. Te: We'd like to talk about your Netflix show. It looks like you're having a great time. What was it like to create and film the show? That show was such an adventure. I filmed at nine months pregnant, so it was hard in that aspect, but the kids on the show were