The Life Scientific: Ginger Kerrick

What do you do when your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut is grounded at the final hurdle?

If you’re physicist Ginger Kerrick, you go on to help run the missions instead.

After failing the medical of her astronaut application process, Ginger went on to become Nasa’s first non-astronaut CAPCOM and its first Hispanic female Flight Director. Across a remarkable three-decade career, she helped train the International Space Station’s first long-term crew, logged thousands of hours in Mission Control, and shaped future missions to the moon and Mars. All with her trademark determination and resilience – qualities forged through life experiences that might have derailed someone else entirely.

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Ginger reveals the highs and lows of life at Nasa, and discusses the future of human spaceflight: from the potential of AI, to missions to Mars.