Hi, I’m Garrett Reisman
You might know me as a NASA astronaut who flew on all three Space Shuttles, spending a cumulative 107 days in space and performing 3 spacewalks. You might also know me as an executive at SpaceX where I helped Elon Musk prepare to send humans into space on the Crew Dragon Spacecraft and the Falcon 9 Rocket. And you might have seen me on the ‘Colbert Report’ or the ‘Joe Rogan Experience.’ But who am I really and how did this journey begin?
Childhood
By all accounts I was a typical kid, although a bit small and nerdy. I played little league baseball, poorly. It was a cause for major celebration if I hit the ball out of the infield and my whole family would go out for ice cream sundaes. My apparent lack of coordination along with my small stature made my dream of growing up to play center for the New York Knicks basketball team even more unlikely than becoming an astronaut. I joined the Cub Scouts but failed out of the Webelos before I could ever become a Boy Scout. (I just couldn’t handle the pressure of having to earn all those merit badges.)
Family
Becoming an astronaut and doing all these other things never would have happened without the support of my amazing family which consisted of a father who was an outstanding role model without even trying, a mother who offered steadfast unconditional support, and a sister who also was (and still is) my BFF.
My father, Robert, never pushed me to follow in his footsteps as a mechanical engineer, but I am sure I subconsciously wanted to be just like my dad. He was the greatest guy in the world and he was the funniest guy I would ever meet. His antics and stories are legendary. My father would pass away in 2002 never living to see me launch into space, but he was with me the whole time.
My mother, Sheila, was always there for me and my sister, never missing a sporting event or a school concert. But ironically she is afraid of flying. In fact, the only way I could get her to go flying with me was to point out that I was taking her husband and daughter up so she should hop in my rented Cessna lest she be the only one left…
My sister Lainie inherited my dad’s great sense of humor and has a real knack for getting people to like her which is easy to do. She became a very successful expert on economic development and has lived with her husband and two children all over the world. Our dad used to lament that he had one child who might be blown to smithereens on a rocket and one child who might be eaten by komodo dragons.
Education
Attending public schools in Parsippany, NJ, my education was top-notch and I never would have gotten to the launch pad without some amazing teachers and coaches. In particular, my high school physics teacher, Gerard Vandervoort, infected me with a love of science and my high school wrestling coach, Gary Vittorio, taught me the meaning of dedication and hard work.
Attending the University of Pennsylvania was a great learning experience and a ridiculously good time too! Penn professors Joe Bordogna and Bill Hamilton were the best mentors a student could ask for.
Then it was on to Caltech where I had the great fortune of having Chris Brennen as my Ph.D. thesis advisor. There is no way I would have made it to the launch pad without all of these amazing teachers, coaches, and professors.
Family - Now
While at Caltech I met my wife Simone, which was admittedly improbable. The women at Caltech have a saying – “The odds are good – but the goods are odd.” Nevertheless, love will find a way – and if that sounds saccharine, recall that I have been accused of being the world’s most romantic astronaut.
Simone has a Ph.D. in oceanography, so together we have more degrees than a thermometer shoved up the Sun’s butt.
We also have two amazing children, Buster and Bixby, and we all live happily ever after together in Redondo Beach, CA, and Orcas Island, WA.