00:00Nos reunimos con Cristina Koch, Premio Princesa de Asturias de la Concordia 2026, para hablar de su carrera.
00:30So just a little bit to begin with, you've been among the few people who've gone to the space during
00:36your last mission.
00:37And how does that change your perspective in terms of life, you know, the conflict we have, the issues we
00:42have?
00:43Yes, it does change your perspective.
00:45I think every astronaut would tell you it changes it in some way or another.
00:48For me, looking back at Earth from the International Space Station, I had a feeling of how fragile our planet
00:54was.
00:55The Artemis Mission, from a quarter of a million miles away, looking out at planet Earth, it was so small.
01:00I was struck not even just by Earth, but by all of the blackness around it.
01:05And when you come back from space, you realize that this, everything we have, isn't something to take for granted.
01:13It's something that is our world to make the right choices in.
01:16And that although our problems might be big, so are we as a people.
01:22Yeah, talk about the absurdness there.
01:25You know, when you came back, you saw that, you know, Earth looking a little bit quite small.
01:30Yes.
01:30But then how does this change the way we look at how we behave as human?
01:34Because again, you're looking at terms of people putting their priorities first.
01:37Absolutely.
01:38And how they behave day to day.
01:40Yes.
01:40How does this change, you know, how we partake on our lives?
01:43Every single interaction is an opportunity to make a choice for the world that you want to see.
01:48And that is because there is such thing as a global scale.
01:53This isn't just some unchangeable background.
01:56It is something we can and necessarily do affect.
02:00So that means every single interaction, you're handling it a little bit differently.
02:04You're giving a little bit more grace.
02:06You're listening.
02:07You're not looking for differences.
02:09You're looking for ways that you're alike or different perspectives that can be both brought to a problem to make
02:14the world better.
02:15And again, it takes a lot of courage to even, you know, take on that holy mission going and coming
02:20back.
02:21But then there are moments when you felt frightened.
02:25How did you overcome all this until now you, you know, you're here with us?
02:29Well, on the Artemis mission, I didn't necessarily feel frightened very often.
02:34I feel that I was very aware of the risks that we were taking.
02:40But since fear in the moment doesn't necessarily help.
02:44So if I was afraid of, say, reentry, I would study reentry and I would put myself in the seat,
02:53literally, of what that would be like and think it through and be ready for any eventuality.
02:57You're looking at when you are just taking on your mission, you're up there.
03:02You look at, you know, the space being tiny.
03:04But again, you're looking at the continent of, for instance, Africa.
03:07Yes.
03:07Looking quite very small there.
03:09But then, you know, someone might ask, what does it take to, you know, even be in your position?
03:15We do look down on the world and we see how big it is.
03:19And so few of us get to see that view.
03:20But I think it takes a couple of different things.
03:23And the first of which is it takes authenticity.
03:25It takes you being committed to yourself and the things that give you fulfillment, joy, the things that you are
03:32your gifts and that you're good at, and the things that give you meaning.
03:36If you focus there, first and foremost, all of the other traits usually fall in line.
03:41Things like adaptability, being a good teammate, helping the people around you, contributing your skills even when it's hard, having
03:49the willpower to, you know, maybe put off gratification to do the hard work up front.
03:55I was just looking a little bit into you.
03:58You went to an exchange program in Ghana.
03:59Yeah, 1999.
04:011999, yes.
04:02And also we saw you hosting the Ghanaian flag.
04:04What's Africa to you?
04:06Do you have any relationship with Africa?
04:07I do.
04:08I went back to Ghana a couple of years ago to visit with the people that I met there and
04:13to see the country again.
04:15And studying abroad in some ways was like my first space flight.
04:19It was where my perspective completely changed.
04:22And the culture was so different that I didn't even know I had made assumptions about how the world works
04:28based on my home country and my home culture.
04:31Something that I really took away was how we approach happiness.
04:35I realized that so many people in Ghana that I met were in many ways happier than the people I
04:41saw in the United States that maybe had more material things.
04:44And from that time forward, I realized that happiness is a choice that we make and that it's all about
04:51appreciating what you have in the moment.
04:53You're looking at a time whereby we have this global competition in the space exploration in this case.
05:00But then how can we change the space exploration as a tool for cooperation rather than having these big league
05:07countries, you know, competing?
05:08Absolutely.
05:09I think that there's a healthy tension between competition and cooperation.
05:13And in some ways, this idea of competing can make us our best selves because we really have a reason
05:19to push ourselves more.
05:21But cooperation means that we can do more together.
05:25We can usually go much farther when we go together.
05:28And that's one reason why NASA is working on the Artemis Accords, which is a set of standards that we
05:34can all get behind so that when we do explore,
05:36we do it responsibly and we do it sustainably so that we can keep exploring together.
05:41Maybe talk about any other cooperation you have at the moment.
05:44What's cooking in the house between maybe different nations?
05:47Sure.
05:48Well, in the International Space Station, we have many, many countries that have contributed,
05:52whether it's through cube satellites or actual modules or astronauts, people on board the space station.
05:58I mean, hundreds of countries have been a part of the science and the technology development that we're doing there.
06:04And through these Artemis Accords, we bring more countries in.
06:08And then we say, what are your gifts?
06:10What are your strengths?
06:11What can you bring?
06:11And let's just do this more and more as a team.
06:15Maybe talk about the diversity here, because you've mentioned quite well that you've been working with people from different backgrounds,
06:22different nationalities.
06:24Maybe you think we need to actually diversify in terms of how we work.
06:28That NASA cannot afford to not be diverse.
06:31Diverse ways of looking at problems is absolutely necessary when you're doing something new and something with a lot of
06:37risk.
06:38Because the most dangerous thing in all of human spaceflight is failures of imagination.
06:45And the more imaginations, the more talent, the more skills that we have at the table to think about this
06:51problem together, the less risk we will take on as a group.
06:55So my crewmates were all fighter pilots.
06:59They approached problems very differently than I did as an engineer.
07:03And we would get to these solutions iteratively by they have idea, I have idea, we talk about our ideas
07:10together, and we find the best solution.
07:13Yes, maybe as you wind up, any plans for the future, personally or professionally?
07:18My plans for the future are to hand the torch to the next astronauts to go and continue this exploration
07:23mission.
07:24So not necessarily flying in space again myself, but watching as I'm proud of my friends as they do it,
07:30and hopefully contributing in other technical ways to the mission at NASA.
07:34I want to spend time doing things important to my family.
07:38I'm fixing up a sailboat that was very important to my family.
07:41And that's something special to me that brings that authenticity and that individual, that pride in oneself that I think
07:49is so important that we all have as well.
07:52Thank you very much.
07:53And that was Christina Koch for, she's been here with us, and I think for sharing all these details with
07:58us.
07:59Thank you.
07:59Thank you very much.
08:00Thank you.
08:09Gracias por ver el video.
