I'm a nine-year old kid inside and my passion has been all my life to want to travel into space.

The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.

Without risks, there can't be breakthroughs.

My father, who grew up picking olives on the Greek island of Lesbos, was a doctor. So my family expected me to become a physician.

More than ever before in history, individuals can now band together to solve grand challenges. We face enormous problems, but we 'as individuals' have enormous power to solve them.

Back in 2007, I had the opportunity to meet Professor Stephen Hawking through the X PRIZE Foundation. In my first conversation with him I learned that he was passionate about flying into space someday.

I founded a launch company called International Microspace when I graduated medical school in 1989. We were trying to build a microsatellite launcher.