Inspiration4 mission pilot recounts how a poem she wrote as part of the “Prosperity” seat competition became the “JEDI Space” vision, and explains why combining creativity, science, and diverse representation is a prerequisite for the future of manned space
“If we want to open space to all of humanity, we must combine science, technology, creativity, and diverse representation – and not see art as a ‘nice addition,’ but as part of the essence,” said Dr. Sian “Leo” Proctor on stage at the 21st Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, held on January 28, 2026 as part of Israeli Space Week.
Proctor—an astronaut, geoscientist, educator, and artist—used the story of her flight on the Inspiration4 mission to argue that the next generation of manned space will not just be built on more computing power, more sensors, and more engines. It will also be built on culture, imagination, and the ability to tell a story that brings more people inside.
From childhood at the NASA station to a painful “no” that became fuel
Proctor said that space entered her life as a child in Guam, when her father worked at a NASA monitoring station. This experience made space something tangible, almost “neighborhood,” and not a distant dream.
She later reached an advanced stage in the astronaut selection process (in 2009), but ultimately received a negative answer. According to her, this was a sore point. But she did not stop. She continued to teach, research, and build a professional identity that connects science and creativity. Then, precisely during the Corona period, she decided to be much more “visible” as a poet and artist. She described it as a transition to a more authentic voice – one that she had previously tended to be modest about.
This is how she won the “Prosperity” seat through a song that became a vision proposal
On Inspiration4 – the first civilian flight to orbit the Earth with a crew of four civilians – the four seats bore symbolic names. Proctor was selected for the “Prosperity” seat as part of a Shift4Shop competition, which required setting up an online store and submitting a short video explaining why the candidate should fly.
This is where art comes to the fore: Proctor incorporated an original song called “Space2Inspire” into the video, and presented a vision she calls “JEDI Space” – a space that is Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive. She argued that this is not a “soft” message that comes after technology, but a condition for the question of who can even be part of this future.
The song was uploaded as part of the nomination submission for the Inspiration4/Shift4Shop competition, and from there it led to her selection for the seat.
Three days on the trail, “Domed Window,” and Earthlight as a way to explain life
Proctor described the experience in orbit: three days around the Earth in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, part of a trip that raised funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. One of the memorable symbols of the mission was the installation of a “cupola” in place of the docking adapter—a large window that allowed a wide view of the Earth.
From here she moved on to the “Overview Effect” – a change in consciousness reported by astronauts when they see the Earth as one sphere, without boundaries. Then she proposed a term she has been developing in recent years: “Earthlight” – sunlight that undergoes a “transformation” due to the presence of life itself. For her, it is an artistic-scientific way of talking about the unique signature of our planet.
According to the Israel Space Agency, her motto is Space2inspire, and her spacesuit from Inspiration4 is currently on display at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum – another sign that her story is being presented not only as an engineering achievement, but also as a cultural phenomenon.
“Renaissance Men”, Not Just Narrow Experts
She concluded her message by calling for cultivating “Renaissance people”: people who can move between science and art, between engineering and storytelling, between data and imagination. This, she argues, is the way to transform the space from a small club space into a broader civic-human space—one that also invites communities that didn’t feel the space “belonged to them.”
More on the subject on the science website
- Randy “Comrade” Bresnik of NASA presented at the Ilan Ramon conference: This is how the Artemis program returns humanity to the moon
- After the International Space Station: Axiom, Vast and Starlab compete for the commercial space stations of the next decade
- Risk management on the way to the moon
- The spaceship with the four civilian astronauts landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean
