LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Remember when you were little at school and you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up? You might have heard answers like doctor, astronaut, Navy SEAL. For some people, one of those would be enough. Jonny Kim has been all three. And right now he's in orbit hundreds of miles above us.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Are you ready for the event?
JONNY KIM: Houston, this is Station. I'm ready for the event.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: NPR MORNING EDITION, this is Mission Control, Houston. Please call station for a voice check.
FADEL: Station, this is Leila Fadel with NPR's MORNING EDITION. How do you hear me?
KIM: I hear you loud and clear. Welcome to the International Space Station.
FADEL: It's the latest chapter in a pretty remarkable career. It's also become somewhat of a light-hearted joke turned viral meme among other Asian Americans who see Kim as an Asian American mom's dream. Kim is a self-described private person, so I ask him what it's been like to be the subject of these viral memes.
KIM: You know, it's light-hearted. It's fun. I don't take it too seriously. But I do think, though, that there's perhaps some value that's lost in even light-hearted tropes or stereotypes like that. And one of our jobs as astronauts is that human connection - and I think sometimes we lose sight of that. The world could use so many more stories of vulnerability and failure and growth and redemption. And sometimes, you know, I wonder if just some of those memes and jokes kind of lose sight or kind of condense a story that I think everyone can relate to - of struggle, of growth - and into a one-liner. So, you know, I think it's funny. But sometimes I wonder if that's the right story that we really need to be hearing today.
FADEL: What would you want people to know that's beyond this joke? What were the struggles along the way that you would want people to know about?
KIM: Having the confidence in finding your identity is, I think, a voyage that everyone has to take, and believing in yourself and having dreams, you know. I think the ability to dream is one of the most important things we need to do. Oftentimes, we talk about inspiration and hard work, and those are absolutely very, very important. But it always starts with a dream. And sometimes - well, not sometimes - there's a lot of people out there who don't have those dreams, either because they're born in unfortunate situations or they're facing challenges or they're going through mental health challenges - I mean, there's just so much struggle in the world.
And I think it's important to recognize that we oftentimes are all having our own internal battles, and to never, ever sell yourself short. That's, like, for me, one of the biggest things that I've learned along my journey is that there are always going to be glass ceilings in the world everywhere. That's never going to change. But the one glass ceiling you can never break through is the one that you set on yourself. And oftentimes, I think the lowest glass ceiling that a lot of us have is the one we set on ourself.
FADEL: Kim didn't know what he was going to be as an adult, and he didn't imagine three different careers, but he had a clear motivator - the drive to serve others.
KIM: You know, I certainly didn't have any of that journey planned. Since being a young boy, I've always been really, really drawn to wanting to make a difference. And I think we all kind of look for meaning or how to derive value in each of our own lives in our own way. And during my time in the SEAL teams, I became really passionate about this idea of helping people in a really direct way. And that drew me into medicine, especially because I had some experiences as a combat medic overseas. And I really just dived into it and saw a lot of the benefit I was able to do, and it touched me in a way that made me feel I could do that for the rest of my life.
Being an astronaut was really never on my radar. It was something that I kind of accidentally stumbled upon. But when I had the seed planted, I realized that a lot of the same motivations for my desire to be in the military or to be a physician, which was to make a positive impact, they were completely consistent with that idea. And so the idea of being aboard the International Space Station, showing our science, our research, technology, demonstrations, but most importantly, making that human connection, that is able to inspire people on a scale that I think makes a positive difference in our world.
FADEL: So you're talking to us from aboard the International Space Station. What are you working on?
KIM: There's a lot of things we work on each day. You know, I kind of divide a lot of the things that we do on a daily basis as science and research, technology, demonstrations, but also a lot of maintenance. The International Space Station is a national lab, but it's also our home. And just like in any home, things break - the toilet might stop working or the air conditioning might be a little ratty. And so a lot of times, we are maintaining our home.
From the science perspective, the hope is that a lot of the research we do here enables us to venture further for deep-space exploration for these multi-year missions - whether they're to the moon or Mars - and in order to do that safe and successfully, we need to know as much about how the human body reacts to microgravity.
FADEL: Your kids must think this is so cool that you're in space?
KIM: No, they're actually quite over it (laughter). But, you know, I think that's healthy. My son's just asking me when I can play video games with him again. And so kids are kids, but I'm so proud of them, and I know they're proud of me.
FADEL: And really quick, what's next? The moon? Mars?
KIM: I'm very passionate about public service. And one of the reasons why I love NASA and our international collaboration, it's a way for me to work with one of the largest collections of public service workers, and so I want to just keep doing what I'm doing here. No specific intentions or plans, but we'll see where this voyage takes us.
FADEL: That's Jonny Kim. He's currently on an eight-month mission in space aboard the International Space Station. Jonny, thank you so much for speaking with us.
KIM: You're welcome. And goodbye from the International Space Station.
FADEL: Bye.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEACH HOUSE'S "SPACE SONG")
FADEL: That is so cool. Jonny just literally floated out of frame.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEACH HOUSE'S "SPACE SONG") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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