Auto Care Connect: 10 inspiring thoughts from astronaut Mike Massimino

Former NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino took the stage at Auto Care Connect in Phoenix, Arizona.on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Mossimino, a New York Times bestselling author, a Columbia University engineering professor, and a television personality, shared his journey from Long Island to NASA, illustrating it with colorful stories that painted a picture of perseverance and believing in the power of one's dreams.

The Long Road to NASA

Neil Armstrong was Mike’s hero. He saw the first lunar landing when he was 6 in 1969. At 8, he discovered he had a fear of heights and reconsidered becoming an astronaut.

He studied engineering in college and saw “The Right Stuff” and read the book, and realized his interest in the space program had never left him. He took a job at IBM in New York City. As he pondered his career, he still wanted to be in the space program but ruled out being an astronaut, seeing it as “kooky.”

He went to grad school and heard a NASA announcement seeking a class of astronauts. He submitted, and nine months later, he got a rejection letter. He applied again a couple of years later, toward the end of grad school. He got another letter nine months later and was rejected again.

He was offered a job at the Johnson Space Center in Florida. He tried again for a third time and didn’t get a letter, he got a phone call to interview. Of 120 finalists, he was again rejected and was medically disqualified when he failed the eye exam. They told him he would never be considered again because he was medically unfit. “That was really disappointing. I wanted to be at least able to try,” he said.

He discovered vision training, a system where a person could improve their vision. “They thought it was hocus pocus (then).” He saw an optometrist in Houston who specialized in vision training, and the doctor told him before examining him that it wouldn’t work—it was for kids. She had never seen a patient over 10 years old. He begged her for help, and it worked. “I picked up a  few lines on the eye chart,” he said. He submitted another application and was finally selected and taken into the astronaut program, where his first space mission, six years later, was working on the Hubble Telescope.

10 Inspiring Thoughts

Here are 10 inspiring thoughts from Massimino's keynote.

1. Always look to do things better. Even one minute of (saved) time is significant.
2. You never know where ideas are going to come from. Sometimes it's the new guy.
3. Three trusts: Trust your tools, trust your training, trust your team.
4. At least once a day, we should be amazed to be here and experience this beautiful place.
5. You find out who you are as a team, as an organization, as a community during those tough times.
6. The key to being a good leader is to find a way to care for and admire everyone on the team. Before having a challenging conversation, remember why you care about that person and why that person is important to your team.
7. Adhere to the 30-second rule: It’s OK to be mad at yourself, but cap your anger at yourself at 30 seconds, then it’s done and time to move on.
8. No matter how bad a situation is, no matter how hopeless it appears, you can make it worse. Don’t make it worse.
9. Stick to your job and don’t get distracted (from Neil Armstrong)
10. Keep that big picture in mind and just keep charging.

Three Fun Facts

1. The training pool for the Hubble Telescope space mission was 100 feet wide, 200 feet long, and 40 feet deep.
2. It takes 90 minutes to do one orbit. You get 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every orbit.
3. Mike sent the first Tweet from space (which was inevitably made fun of on SNL)