Astronaut Scott Kelly on Working in Space

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2017

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scott Kelly, a retired U.S. astronaut, spent 520 days in space over four missions. Working in outer space is a lot like working on earth, but with different challenges and in closer quarters. Kelly looks back on his 20 years of working for NASA, including being the commander of the International Space Station during his final, yearlong mission. He talks about the kind of cross-cultural collaboration and decision making he honed on the ISS, offering advice that leaders can use in space and on earth. His memoir is “Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery.”

Transcript

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0:35.1	I have a pretty nice view from my office, trees, the sky, some hills in the distance, but
0:41.6	it's nowhere near the view that Scott Kelly had. in the
0:45.0	distance distance, but it's nowhere near the view that Scott Kelly had. He could look out his window and see the graceful blue curve of planet Earth.
0:50.0	The retired NASA astronaut had that view for 520 days.
0:55.1	But Kelly wasn't up there just to look out the window.
0:58.0	He was up there to do his job.
1:00.5	On the International Space Station, he had to route cables for new docking ports, perform science experiments, work with astronauts and mission control centers from other countries, and yes, just fix the cooling system.
1:12.0	Kelly's role as Space Station commander required extraordinary
1:15.6	cross-cultural collaboration. It meant being prepared to make decisions in life or death
1:20.4	scenarios and it meant just getting stuff done and getting along with the crew.
1:26.5	Kelly may have won his insights in space, but he has management and career advice for those
1:31.1	of us who are stuck here on Earth. His new memoir is
1:34.2	endurance, a year in space, a lifetime of discovery. He was interviewed by
1:39.5	HBO Assistant Editor Josh Olegars, who as a kid dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
1:45.0	When you're in space does it feel like a job? Does it feel like you're at work?
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