Dr. Scott Parazynski, Astronaut, Physician, Inventor
Today, my guest is Dr. Scott Parazynski, a physician, astronaut, and tech CEO, recently inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. He is a widely sought after keynote speaker on innovation, risk management, mentorship and leadership under extreme adversity. A graduate of Stanford University and Medical School, he went on to train at Harvard and in Denver for a career in emergency medicine.
In 1992 he was selected to join NASA’s Astronaut Corps and eventually flew 5 Space Shuttle missions and conducted 7 spacewalks. He is a prolific inventor/product developer, and serves on the Boards of several companies. He is Founder and CEO of Fluidity Technologies, focused on the development of revolutionary input devices powered by machine learning to intuitively move through physical and virtual space.
In this candid conversation, Scott shared the real stories behind his medical path to the stars, his nerve-wracking mission with his childhood hero, and why he finds entrepreneurship even harder than being an astronaut.
1. A Medical Path to the Stars. Scott revealed that he grew up in the shadow of the Apollo program, deeply inspired by his father who worked on the Saturn V boosters. Knowing that becoming an astronaut was a long shot, he decided to attend medical school because he wanted to be a healer, while strategically recognizing that NASA was actively recruiting physicians for the space shuttle program. His training as an emergency physician ultimately provided him with the crucial resilience and comfort in life-or-death adversity that was perfectly suited for the stressful environment of the astronaut corps.
2. The John Glenn Mission. Over his impressive 17-year career at NASA, Scott flew on five space missions and conducted seven spacewalks, including leading the first joint U.S.-Russian spacewalk while docked to the Mir space station. However, his third flight was uniquely stressful because he went to space alongside his boyhood hero, 77-year-old Senator John Glenn. Scott jokingly noted the mission had a “high pucker factor,” realizing that as the crew’s physician, if anything happened to the iconic first American to orbit the Earth, Scott might as well not come back home.
3. The Entrepreneurial Reality Check. Despite his incredible feats in space and even summiting Mount Everest—experiences he chronicled in his autobiography The Sky Below—Scott admits that being an entrepreneur is actually the most challenging thing he has ever done. While he initially held the simplistic notion that inventing a great product was the hardest part of a startup, he quickly learned that coming up with the idea is actually the easiest part. He discovered that the true difficulty of business lies in the complex execution required to bring it to life, such as building a strong team, fundraising, manufacturing, and navigating supply chains.
4. Innovating for the Future. Today, Scott channels his passion for solving complex problems into multiple business ventures rather than retiring. He currently works with Fluidity Technologies to develop intuitive three-dimensional flight controllers that hold significant promise for both surgical robotics and new electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Additionally, he is actively engaged with Community Wellness, a remote patient monitoring and telehealth company driven by his core philosophy that healthcare should focus not just on how long a person lives, but on how long they live well.
