Mike Mullane

Mission Specialist aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery and Atlantis

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Mike Mullane Speaker Biography

US Air Force Colonel, Author and Mission Specialist Aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery and Atlantis

Colonel Mullane was born September 10, 1945 in Wichita Falls, Texas but spent much of his youth in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he currently resides. He was a child of the space race and in the late 1950’s embarked on his own rocket experiments in the deserts near his home. Upon his graduation from West Point in 1967, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force. As a Weapon Systems Operator aboard RF-4C Phantom aircraft, he completed 134 combat missions in Vietnam.

Education

Me holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and is also a graduate of the Air Force Flight Test Engineer School at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Space Shuttle

Mullane was selected as a Mission Specialist in 1978 in the first group of Space Shuttle Astronauts. He completed three space missions aboard the Shuttles Discovery (STS-41D) and Atlantis (STS-27 & 36) before retiring from NASA and the Air Force in 1990.

Space Hall of Fame

Mullane has been inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame and is the recipient of many awards, including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit and the NASA Space Flight Medal.

Books

Since his retirement from NASA, Colonel Mullane has written an award-winning children’s book, Liftoff! An Astronaut’s Dream, and a popular space-fact book, Do Your Ears Pop In Space? His memoir, Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut, has been reviewed in the New York Times and on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It has also been featured on Barnes and Noble’s 2010 recommended summer reading list.

Adventurer

Mullane has held a lifelong passion for mountain climbing, averaging nearly 500 miles per year of backpacking in the mountains of the West. Since age 60 he has summited Africa’s highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro; the glaciered peak of Mt. Rainier; and forty of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks.

Keynote Speaker

Colonel Mullane has established himself as an acclaimed professional speaker on the topics of teamwork, leadership and safety. He has educated, entertained, inspired and thrilled tens of thousands of people from every walk of business and government with his incredibly unique programs.

Mike and Donna Mullane married a week after his graduation from West Point in 1967. The couple has three children and six grandchildren.

Mike Mullane Speaking Topics

The Lighter Side of Spaceflight

In his program, The Lighter Side of Spaceflight, Astronaut Mike Mullane will take the audience on a uniquely revealing, captivating and hilarious space journey. Using spectacular video and slides he will answer everybody’s space questions: What does a shuttle launch feel like?…How does an astronaut deal with the incredible fear of launch?…How do you sleep, bathe, eat, drink, etc.?….What do you see from space?…And, of course, he will answer the top two questions that astronauts are ever asked: Number 1: How does the space toilet work? Number 2: Has he seen any UFOs or aliens? The answers to these questions and many, many more are lavishly wrapped with inside, hilarious stories and supported with amazing video. The audience will not only be thoroughly entertained by The Lighter Side of Spaceflight, but they will also find Mullane’s message on goal setting and achievement to be powerfully inspirational. Most audiences are shocked to learn how ordinary Mullane was. People assume, because he is an astronaut now, that in his youth, he was a superchild, destined for great success. That is not the case. Mullane uses slides and video to prove he wasn’t a child genius. He wasn’t a high school sports star. He didn’t date the homecoming queen. He wasn’t popular. (He shows a slide of the dedication pages from his high school yearbook…which are blank except for a single inscription: “You missed Korea but here’s hoping you make Vietnam”.) Yet, Mullane realized a lifetime dream of becoming an astronaut through the practice of “mapping the edge of his performance envelope”. Every individual and team have an “edge of a performance envelope” and individuals and teams find those “edges” (as team member, leaders, parents, spouses, etc.) through self-challenge and tenacity. (Mullane’s father was rendered a paraplegic at age 33 by polio and Mullane’s story of his parents’ response to that tragedy while raising six children is the basis of his message on tenacity and goal-achievement in the face of adversity). Mullane develops this philosophy of self-leadership: “Success isn’t a final destination. It’s a continuous life journey of mapping our performance envelopes through challenge and tenacity.” The Lighter Side of Spaceflight is remarkably inspirational and humorous. The audience will come away from the program with a renewed sense of their potential and the potential of their teams.

Countdown to Teamwork/Leadership/Safety

The actual program title will be selected during a pre-event teleconference with the Client to ensure it fits the objectives of the meeting. In the same teleconference Astronaut Mullane will coordinate with the Client, using the following outline, to tailor his comments to the meeting objectives. Please note that Mullane’s programs are lavishly supported with rarely seen NASA videos and photos making it very easy for any audience (including non-technical audiences) to follow and understand the message. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to be thoroughly educated, inspired and motivated by Mullane’s presentations!

Normalization of Deviance

Mullane will use the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster as an example of how a World-Class team can be victimized by incremental deviances from teamwork, leadership and safety best practices. Challenger was a result of a catastrophic failure of the O-rings, Criticality 1 components used to form pressure seals between the four propellant-filled segments that comprise the twin solid fueled rocket boosters. Even though there were multiple instances of leaking O-rings in the 24 missions preceding Challenger, launches were never suspended to give engineers adequate time to address the problem. In hindsight, the serial justifications over a 4 year period to continue launch operations, reveal an incremental creep from best practices, i.e., a normalizing process. Challenger proved to be a ‘predictable surprise’. The following lessons will be extracted from the story of Challenger: Normalization of deviance is rooted in decision-making while under job-related or personal pressures. Everybody is vulnerable. Procedural compliance will always be the best defense. Make it a religion. 1. Maintain situational awareness. Have a questioning attitude. 2. Risk has no memory. Risk is not diminished by the frequency at which one is successful in taking the risk. 3. Beware of this thought process, ‘These are exceptional circumstances. I must take the short-cut. Next time I will do it right.’ One successful safety short cut provides this false feedback: The absence of a negative consequence suggests a risk previously believed to be absolute is, in fact, manageable. One short-cut opens to door to more. 4. Set challenging but attainable goals. NASA’s shuttle launch goal of 24 missions per year proved to be unattainable and pressures that resulted from that goal were significant factors in the tragedy.

Responsibility & Accountability

Mullane will introduce this discussion with a personal story from his USAF flying career. At the time of the story, Mullane was a very experienced Weapons System Operator from the backseat of the reconnaissance version of the F-4 Phantom jet fighter but making his first flight in a swing-wing, supersonic F-111 jet. Ultimately, he and the pilot had to make a last second ejection from the crashing jet. This crash was due to crew error…including Mullane’s failure to speak up at a critical moment in the flight. From this story he will develop these lessons: 1. See something, Say something. Do something. 2. We’re all in it together. In hazardous operations, the actions/inactions of a single individual can endanger everybody. Take each other’s back. 3. One person with courage forms a majority. You count. You are unique. You might see something safety-related that nobody else sees. Never be a ‘safety passenger’ and assume somebody else will ‘take care of it.’ 4. Leaders: Empower your teams so everybody does count. We all contribute to the safety culture of a team and will be accountable for our contribution. In hazardous operations, you may not get a ‘do-over’. OWN your safety responsibility.

Mike Mullane Books

Do Your Ears Pop in Space?: And 500 Other Surprising Questions about Space Travel
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Liftoff!. An Astronaut’s Dream
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Red Sky: A Novel of Love, Space, & War
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Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
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Mike Mullane Videos

Mike Mullane Speaker Testimonials

I wanted to say thank you! The feedback I got from the director, deputy director and across the lab was fantastic. I was really inspired and touched by your clear, humble and accessible style. I relate deeply to your experience of having to doggedly work to continuously improve to achieve success. The spirit and message of your presentation is so important and true. I hope that it touches others here (Los Alamos National Laboratory). It has given me a boost. I aspire to one day turn out like you.

- Los Alamos National Laboratory |


I am sure it comes as no surprise that your presentation at the DOE’s Leadership Development Institute gets the highest marks among all of the sessions and presentations….Thank you for making a valuable – even critical-contribution to the success of the LDI. National Training Center

- Department of Energy |


It was a real honor to meet you today, and thanks again for speaking at our conference (and for signing my plethora of items). We had a great breakout session after your departure discussing some takeaways from your presentation, and I’m happy to say that the message was very well received and taken to heart by our attendees. I haven’t read through our feedback forms yet, but hallway conversation already points to a great review from all in attendance. Thank you for your service to our country above and below atmosphere, and I hope our paths cross again one day.

- LyondellBasell Logistics Services Providers Safety Conference (Rail, Truck, Barge) |


- I'd just like to take a moment and thank you on behalf of the BCEIA board of directors and organizing committee for your contribution as keynote speaker at our Bettering Environmental Stewardship & Technology (BEST) conference last week in Whistler. Your speech was very engaging, and we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our attendees. Afterward I overheard several attendees discuss the phrase "the normalization of deviance" - very inspiring. We truly appreciate your time and effort to support our conference. I would also like to thank you for the donation of the proceeds from your book signing. That money will be put to good use supporting our various initiatives including our scholarship awards.

- Bettering Environmental Stewardship & Technology (BEST) conference |

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Recent Books

Do Your Ears Pop in Space?: And 500 Other Surprising Questions about Space Travel
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Liftoff!. An Astronaut’s Dream
Purchase Book

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