On 1 April 2026, the Artemis II mission launched four humans toward the Moon - the first crewed lunar voyage in over fifty years. I was in the flight control room in Houston from the moment the spacecraft escaped Earth's orbit all the way through to splashdown. And before those four people set course for the Moon, a woman's voice went around the room seat by seat, asking a single question: go, or no-go? Nothing moved until every console answered. Authority came not from rank or title - but from preparation and mutual trust.
In this keynote, I'll take you across that room and introduce you to the women who were sitting in those seats - each one a different STEM function, each one a different road in. And the woman who wasn't on the ground at all: the first in history to travel to the Moon, whose crewmate was orbiting Earth on the ISS at the very same moment. Two women in space simultaneously. Not competing for the same seat. Both there, because one woman's success had never been the other's ceiling.
Mission Control didn't ask women to play by rules written without them. It built its own. This is a talk about what happens when we do the same.
- Space
