I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. How do we leave fear behind?

It's a crucial question in this time of so much uncertainty. Well, who better to address this question than a NASA astronaut, Megan MacArthur?

She talks about risk, ambition, and how spaceflight is a family business in her

2020 conversation with TED Women curator Pat Mitchell. Welcome, Megan. Hello, Pat.

Thank you for having me. Let's go with the question that I think is probably coming up for many of us.

This is unusual. Husband and wife

met during your training, and in the year that you got married, you both flew into space.

Separately, you on the Hubble Telescope mission, and Bob on the mission to construct the space

station. And ironically, if your mission had gone

awry or needed help bob was assigned to be on the rescue craft you know launch day is for all

of us a time of great excitement yes but also anxieties about the risk and and the fear we might feel inside just watching.

How do you prepare for launch day?

Well, Pat, one of the most important things to focus on for me was really preparing my son

and making sure that he was ready and that he enjoyed the experience of watching his father launch

and complete this mission that he'd been training for really for most of our son's life.

So when we walked out onto the roof of the launch control center,

and we could see the rocket off in the distance,

and we're lining up against the rail, ready for the countdown,

and of course I got my arms around him, and we hear three you know, lining up against the rail, ready for the countdown. And, of course, I got my arms around him.

And we hear three, two, one, lift off.

And then we see the rocket carrying his father, you know, jumping off the launch pad.

And for me, it was this moment of just an outpouring of feeling and emotion that had been, you know, with me for such a long time.

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