The First Astronaut to Summit Everest | Scott Parazynski

At age eight, Scott watched Apollo 9 launch from the surf off Cocoa Beach—and his course was set. Decades later, he would become the only person to have both flown in space and summited Mount Everest. In this episode, Dr. Eiman Jahangir sits down with Scott Parazynski—physician, retired NASA astronaut, and CEO of OnwardAir—for a conversation that spans five space missions, seven spacewalks, and two of the most demanding summits a human being can attempt. Scott opens up about the phone call that changed everything: being asked to fly alongside an American legend, and what it meant to become that person's crewmate, physician, and eventual friend. He goes on to share the story behind a dangerous repair mission, and what it felt like to be farther from the safety of the airlock than any astronaut before him, working on a live solar panel that could have ended everything. As the conversation continues, Scott also gets candid about the moment his dream was ripped away, pulled from a mission just months before launch, and how that setback led to a $45 million fix, a second chance, and a piece of the moon that ended up on the summit of Everest. That same rock led to something Scott never saw coming: meeting the woman who'd become his wife. Scott and Eiman go on to talk about the razor's edge between ambition and risk, why he chose emergency medicine as the ultimate training ground for space, the astronaut he quietly helped launch into his own career, and what still keeps him up at night solving problems, decades into a career most people would call complete. Order your own copy of Scott’s book, The Sky Below, at https://go.aheartforspace.com/theskybelow 00:00 Welcome to A Heart for Space 00:30 Meeting Scott Parazynski: Physician, Astronaut, and Explorer 02:34 Growing Up Abroad: From Tehran to Athens 06:54 A Childhood Shaped by Apollo: Watching the Launch at Age Eight 08:29 Taking Risks and Saying Yes: From Luge to Medical School 12:31 Choosing Between Two Callings: Medicine and Spaceflight 14:51 Mentoring Johnny Kim: Recognizing a Future Astronaut 19:11 Flying with a Legend: John Glenn's Return to Space 21:24 Too Tall for Soyuz: A Setback That Led to New Opportunities 24:53 The Most Dangerous Spacewalk: Repairing a Live Solar Array 29:13 Everest: The Dream, the Injury, and the Summit 32:21 How a Moon Rock Led to Love: Meeting His Wife 34:11 Comparing Extremes: Space vs. Everest 36:19 Into the Volcano: Descending into Masaya's Lava Lake 40:47 The Challenger Legacy: Honoring Loss Through Education 44:17 Staying Curious and Taking the First Step 47:14 Life Lessons from Jenna: The Power of Positivity 49:10 The Space Still Worth Reaching For: Innovation and Problem Solving Discover more about Dr. Eiman Jahangir, and preorder your own copy of A Heart for Space, now at https://aheartforspace.com/