TIP127: LIVING IN SPACE & WHAT’S NEXT

W/ NASA’S TIM KOPRA

24 February 2017

In this week’s episode, Preston and Stig talk to NASA astronaut, Timothy Kopra.  Tim comes with an extensive background in leadership, engineering, business, and extreme experiences.  During our interview, Tim shares his stories of traveling to space.  He had the opportunity to travel to space on two separate occasions and during our discussion, he talks about the unique difference between traveling to space in the retired US Space Shuttle and also traveling to space in a Russian Soyuz Rocket.

Tim is a graduate of West Point, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the London Business School.  He has lead combat operations in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm before becoming an Astronaut with NASA.  Once at NASA, Tim was a crewmember of Expedition 20, which launched on 15 July 2009 and docked with the International Space Station until 11 September 2009.  During this mission, Tim conducted a spacewalk outside of the international space station to assemble a Japanese robotic arm.  During his second flight to space on the Russian Soyuz, Tim spent a total of 244 days in space.  During this flight, he conducted an additional 2 more spacewalks outside of the international space station.  During our interview, Tim provides detailed descriptions of what this experience was like and how it impacted his life.

At the end of the interview, Tim shares some of his thoughts on what billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are doing in the private space industry.  He also discusses what implications this might have for the future and how NASA might be a part of this tremendous joint partnership.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • Why billionaire Elon Musk thought it was easier to start up a space company than making the cut to become an astronaut at NASA
  • How it literally feels to walk around in space and why it’s very different from what you see in the movies.
  • Why big goals are empowering and how to model your behavior to achieve them.
  • Which impact billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have had on the space industry and if we’ll ever colonize Mars.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

Preston Pysh  0:00  

We Study Billionaires and this is Episode 127 of The Investor’s Podcast. 

Today’s episode is brought to you by https://www.freshbooks.com/ 

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Intro  0:35  

Broadcasting from Bel Air, Maryland, this is The Investor’s Podcast. They’ll read the books and summarize the lessons. They’ll test the waters and tell you when it’s cold. They’ll give you actionable investing strategies. Your hosts, Preston Pysh and Stig Brodersen!

Preston Pysh  0:55  

Hey, hey, hey, how’s everybody doing out there? This is Preston Pysh. I’m your host for The Investor’s Podcast. And as usual, I’m accompanied by my co-host Stig Brodersen out in Seoul, South Korea. 

I’ll tell you what, folks, I have been waiting a few months for this interview because I am super pumped. Tim Kopra is an astronaut at NASA. He has probably the coolest stories of any person you could possibly meet in your entire life. 

So let me just set this up for you. So I’m at the Army Navy Football game back in December, which I want to add, Army won. It’s been a very long time since that happened. I’m at a tailgate and I’m there talking to some friends. And there’s just this gentleman standing next to me and I don’t know who he is. One of my friends introduced me to Tim. He says, “Hey, Preston, this is Tim. I want you to meet Tim. Tim just got back from space in June.” 

And I’m like, “How many people get introduced as ‘Oh, he just got back from space?'” kind of like he just came back from his grandma’s house, you know, just a couple days ago. So I’m like, “Hi, Tim, nice to meet you.”

So we start talking. Turns out, Tim went to Columbia Business School. He went to London Business School as well, for some time. He went to Georgia Tech. He went to West Point. And so we had a lot in common just talking about the investing side. But for me, I was so interested in talking to him about all these adventures that he’s had in space. 

I said, “Tim, you’ve got to come on my podcast, the show is all about famous investors and studying billionaires, but we have to make this thing work.” We’re going to talk briefly about Elon Musk, and some of the things that they’re doing. Also Jeff Bezos with his space company, and how that integrates into NASA. So we can kind of wrap up this billionaire theme. But the thing I really want to do is let him tell you guys some of the most amazing stories you’re ever going to hear in your life. 

So Tim, with that, thank you so much. And please tell everyone down there at NASA thank you so much for helping us set up this interview because I am super pumped to talk to you today.

Tim Kopra  2:57  

Preston, it is actually our pleasure to be able to connect with you and I’m very grateful to have the job that I’ve had here at NASA, working as an astronaut. It’s really been a boyhood dream that turned into a tangible goal. If you think about it, it’s kind of a ridiculous goal to have to become an astronaut. So I just feel really grateful that things have worked out and I’ve had a chance to go to space a couple of times now.

Preston Pysh  3:18  

Well, you talk about how difficult it is to become an astronaut, and a lot of people might not realize this, but that was the whole reason Elon Musk started his own space company was because he looked at the stats of how hard it was to become an astronaut. And he realized, you know, “I think it might actually be easier for me to start my own space company, and go to space that way, than to actually go through the rigors of becoming an astronaut at NASA.”

So quickly tell everybody what the numbers are on this, like for all the people that apply, how many actually make it to where you’re at and how many are in the astronaut corps right now?

Tim Kopra  3:52  

You know, I’m on the selection committee for this next class of astronauts that we’ll pick and we’ll probably announce this summer. It started out with 18,000 applicants, whittle it down to several thousand that had the basic qualifications, down to 600 that had the references checked, 120 came to NASA, and now we brought it down to 50. And we’ll pick 10 out of that 18,000 that applied.

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