Endeavour undocked from the ISS two nights ago. That marked the end of a 12 day (or night for many of us) stint on console working the mission, and the end of what essentially becomes total immersion in a completely different world during that time. Six people left the planet to go on this journey, but many more of us left our normal daily lives behind and spent the last two weeks up on the Station in a sense also, focused on and dedicated to doing all that it took to make sure the mission was safe and successful in every moment. And even though we weren’t each on console 24 hours a day, the mental commitment and focus didn’t end for many of us when our shifts ended.
For me, as the lead for our group for this mission, that meant continuing to follow activities, process e-mails and instant messages and phone calls, and stay up to speed on what was happening on other shifts while I was home between shifts myself. To some extent that was a personal choice – not everyone puts in quite that much effort. But it was my last mission as a flight lead and I wanted to make sure I ended this part of my career with my best effort and that my team knew I was there to support them throughout the mission.
Something else happened, as it always does at least for me, during the mission. I became part of a tremendous group effort to extend ourselves beyond our normal limits, doing whatever it took to achieve a successful mission together. In this environment our normal ego boundaries were set aside (mostly) and we joined together in service to a greater good, a grander vision and purpose, to something much bigger and bolder than any one of us alone, to something that could only be accomplished if we all worked selflessly as one. For those 12 days I knew and felt, as I believe most everyone else does who works these missions, that what really matters and why I’m really here in this job and in this life is to commit myself fully to the service of this greater good, to helping extend our communal reach into the new, the challenging, the unknown.
In doing that I experienced the power of our interconnectedness with each other. Space travel is, among other things, a manifestation of our collective drive to extend ourselves, explore, and grow, and it’s a great demonstration of the fact that we accomplish all that most effectively when we’re all supporting each other in that ‘endeavour.’ To be able to consciously participate in and feel that can be a powerful, transformational experience.
The STS-130 mission ends when Endeavour lands, hopefully later tonight. But the bigger mission goes on, both outwardly and inwardly. Those of us who are fortunate enough to work in this business have been richly blessed to be able to experience these times of extraordinary unity, growth, and achievement fairly often. We’ve been given multiple tastes of how far we can go together when we join up to support each other in service to a collective vision of exploration and growth. With the Shuttle back on the ground, our larger mission remains to extend that experience and commitment to all aspects of our lives, encouraging and supporting each other on our own continuing individual and collective journeys.
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