Doing a space walk. It is one of the most rare human experiences. To leave your spaceship and go outside, so that you are alone in the universe with Earth distant and the universe around you. That is amazing.

If you haven't learned to ride a bike by the time your peer group has, then suddenly it's an embarrassment and you'll avoid opportunities where you're expected to ride a bike. And then it starts shaping your behaviour. Reading is much subtler, but much more destructive if you have not - for whatever reason - learned to read by the time you should.

By looking at the difference between perceived danger and actual danger, you can fundamentally change your reaction.

If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you're setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time.

Every single day you're the result of what you did on the days prior.

Scientific literacy is one of the underpinnings of everything I do. It's why I work with schools. It's why I teach at university. I do a lot of outreach to try and improve general scientific literacy, but the core of all scientific literacy is just literacy.

Spaceflight isn't just about doing experiments, it's about an extension of human culture.