Space explorers need grit, strength and resolve to navigate the hostile environments beyond Earth. This might explain why around 60 percent of NASA’s astronauts have come from military service. A smaller fraction have had medical experience. And Jonny Kim is among the fewer than a dozen in NASA’s history to share both backgrounds. After serving in more than 100 combat operations as a Navy SEAL in Iraq, he graduated from Harvard Medical School and then surprised his peers by following an emergency medicine internship with astronaut training. Kim, who explains that he’s someone “drawn to chaos,” applied to the astronaut corps almost on a whim, “not expecting to get in.” But of course, he did. And next March he will launch alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky on his first-ever spaceflight, an eight-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Scientific American spoke with Kim about his plans prior to the launch, the parallels between his work as an astronaut and his past careers and his winding path to NASA.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
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How are you feeling about heading up to space? Do you have a long list of things to do while you’re still on Earth?
I get asked quite a bit if I’m excited, but to me, that’s not the emotion I attach to it. I’m looking forward to the trip, and I’d say I’m excited to finally contribute to the mission, but I don’t feel particularly excited or anxious about the launch. That’s for a couple of reasons. One is likely my inexperience. But it’s also just my personality—the older I get, the more I have a flat-affect response to life events.
I do have a bucket list, but the items aren’t things I’m super passionate about so much as administrative or logistical tasks. The backdoor seal in our house is leaky, and it needs to be replaced. I’ve been meaning to pour some concrete for [constructing] outdoor sheds. My car’s tire pressure monitor sensor needs to be replaced. I am a big DIY-er, so I like to do a lot of stuff myself, and I could go on and on about that list of things.
It’s interesting; the last time I felt like this was before our first son was going to be born. I felt like I needed to have the nest ready: have the wallpaper up, the crib made and the house baby-proofed. Now I’m leaving my family, and it’s grown since then, so I want to get them settled in because I’m going to be gone for much of the year.
How do your kids feel about the mission?
I have three kids ranging in ages, and they each have a different response based on their maturity levels. The 13-year-old thinks it’s cool, but he also has lots of other things to think about at that age. He does recognize, in my absence, it’ll be pretty hard for my wife and feels a responsibility to step up around the home. And I’ve already seen some of that because I’m gone from Houston [in training] about 45 to 50 percent of the time. The other two, who are seven and nine, have some anxiety about the launch and about missing me.
What do you imagine you’ll have the hardest time adjusting to in space?
There’s a common phrase I’ve grown up with: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” I love that phrase because it allows some humility. I’ve never been in a microgravity environment for an extended period of time, so I imagine that will be the hardest thing to get used to. There are the day-to-day logistics of just getting from point A to point B or using the bathroom or eating in a new environment. But I also think a lot of the challenge would be maintaining connections with the people I love and care about on Earth. We get to do phenomenal things here at NASA, in the name of science and space exploration. But at the end of the day, we’re all just people: regular humans with families and duties at home. So the most challenging thing might not be the job itself, which I think will feel very regular and normal. I’m certainly a creature of habit, so I’ll be in my happy place, being busy and productive.
What sorts of experiments are you helping with on the ISS? And are there particular scientific questions you most want answers to?
There are so many different types of science that go on at the ISS—anything from fluidics to combustion research to bone health experiments. I mean, we, as human subjects, are part of a big science experiment. Astronauts help out with a variety of experiments, but we may not necessarily see [each one] from start to finish. We’re trained in multiple skills, which allows us to be rather plug-and-play, jack-of-all-trades up there—plumbers and mechanics, space walkers and lab technicians. Any astronaut can do a section of a procedure, so it changes often.
All of the experiments are interesting. The ones that examine the human body pique my interest most because of my interest in physiology but also because their answers affect our futures as space explorers. If we are to venture out far into the solar system or even past it, we’re going to need to know what space, with its radiation and microgravity, does to the human body and how we can counteract any ill effects.
How do you feel your experiences working as a Navy SEAL or as a medical doctor shaped you for your work as an astronaut?
To me, the technical perspective is the least important aspect. The human side is what matters. Those two occupations prepared me to be a good team player and taught me how to communicate—how to employ not only “hard” skills but also “soft” skills to unite the team toward a common goal. Those are skill sets you pick up as a team working on really tough problems. That’s why, when you look at NASA selection, many people have a history of working well in those types of environments. A degree from [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] or experience in a fluidics research project, that’s cool, but it’s not what makes a good astronaut. It’s about the human—the heart—and being a team player.
What prompted you to pursue this career switch?
As a kid, I, in fact, refused to go to medical school. My father wanted me to be a doctor, and I was anti that, very rebellious. So my path was very organic, not planned at all.
The only thing I had planned was to become a SEAL. That was my first real dream. And once I became a SEAL, I realized there was so much to do in the world and that the obstacles to achieving my goals were not as daunting as they seemed. It took me a lot of extreme life circumstances to realize it, but it was 180 degrees away from what I’d believed as a kid. I believed there were so many things I was incapable of doing, that weren’t meant for people like me. Now, there are glass ceilings and challenges along the way, but I’ve come to learn that with tenacity, you can change the world, and you can achieve what you truly desire. That’s what I learned from the SEAL teams, and it’s provided a foundation for everything that’s come since then.
My original inspiration for becoming a SEAL was to be a warrior, and I’ve since changed my definition of what that means. To me, a warrior is someone in pursuit of continued excellence in their craft, whether it happens to be in the military or in business or in medicine. It’s the code and discipline that are more important. And I’ve always wanted to help people. So while many people might see the choices I’ve made in my career as distinct, to me, they’ve been in pursuit of the same goal the whole time. I don’t think I’ve actually changed my career three times; I’ve just used a different vehicle to achieve what I’m passionate about.
What do you mean by “people like me”?
I think it’s just human psychology to search for evidence of someone you can relate to. It’s easy to focus on the color of our skin, our race. But to me, it’s more than that. It can be creed. It can be a number of things that help you connect with someone doing something. Seeing them changes your unconscious perception of what’s possible. I didn’t know of any astronauts that looked like me. The idea that I could be an astronaut never popped into my head. Same with being a SEAL. In addition to not having a lot of confidence, I just didn’t have big dreams. To me, dreaming is the most essential ingredient in any kind of success. We talk a lot about discipline and hard work, but the first seed, the prerequisite, is inspiration. I didn’t have that growing up.
And why did you want to be a “warrior” in particular?
Because it was everything I was not at the time. Warriors are courageous. They venture out into the unknown despite their fears. They’re disciplined. Those are all admirable aspects that, to this day, fire me up to think about. When I was younger, I applied that “warrior” code to a combat military setting, but its aspects are applicable to any facet of life.
Where did your interest in medicine come from?
It’s a sequence of serendipitous events. You’re 18, and you’re hungry to get out there, and it’s hard to wait. The Navy told me if I wanted to join as soon as possible, I had to be a hospital corpsman. That’s Navy-speak for a medic. I wanted another job that sounded way cooler, but I didn’t want to wait around. So through fate, luck, misfortune—I don’t know what to call it—I became a hospital corpsman. What I didn’t know as an 18-year-old kid was that all of the jobs you do before you become a SEAL are irrelevant unless you are a hospital corpsman. In that case, you become a SEAL medic. That led me down the path of specializing in combat medicine. I went on deployment, and I had the fortune of working not only with my teammates but also civilians. And after a lot of trauma and combat experience, I got very tired of the war. But I wasn’t tired of helping people. When my friends were wounded, I did everything I could to save them, but they ultimately needed the help of a higher-level caretaker. It felt like an obvious choice, becoming a doctor.
Did the emergency room environment ever remind you, albeit vaguely, of the conditions of war? I’m curious about whether there’s an aspect of that environment that you liked or wanted to take with you.
I’m definitely drawn to chaos. I’m also quite impatient. My wife likes to call me a “now” baby. I don’t like to wait, and I couldn’t think of any location better than an emergency room where sick people go to get [immediate] help. When you think about it from a density or per capita perspective, you get to do the most amount of good in a span of time as an emergency room physician. Helping people in their gravest time of need was very satisfying. You have a major hand in people’s lives.
You met a physician-astronaut while you were in medical school: Scott Parazynski. Did he inspire you to apply to train with NASA?
I had felt for many years that space represented the pinnacle of what humans could do. Scott planted a seed in my head and helped instill some confidence in me about flying. But it was a multitude of things, not just one thing. I applied during residency, not expecting to get in. But then I did.
Did it come from a place of “I want to keep pushing myself to do things I’m not sure I can do” or a feeling that this challenge was more fascinating than other challenges?
The personal or selfish side of me is always seeking to push myself. I love the concept of lifelong learning. I feel like the best label is “student.” I would never want the label of “master” because, to me, that means you’ve closed off your ability to learn new things. The bigger motivation, though, is what kind of impact I can have with my life. I think we all, as humans, want our lives to be meaningful. All lives are short. I want to make the most positive impact I can on the largest scale, so working on a team with people from so many different backgrounds, solving difficult problems, is amazing. I can’t think of anything better.
