What Are Some of the NS-31 Crew’s Reasons for Going to Space?

Each member of the crew has her own reasons for being part of this mission.

In a recent cover story for ELLE, many of the women expressed their desire to inspire future generations. For Perry, this includes reminding Daisy, the daughter she shares with fiancé Orlando Bloom, to “never have limits on her dreams and show her that any type of person can reach their dreams—no matter your background, your ethnicity, your economic situation, or your education level.”

As for King, who has been honest about her nerves, she told the magazine she hopes to encourage people to step outside their comfort zones.

“Once I do it,” she added, “then the doors will open for so many other people who thought, ‘Okay, I was one of those reluctant people, but now I’m here and I am really, really excited to go.'”

And Nguyen noted that, for her, it’s getting the chance to fulfill a “dream deferred.”

“I worked at NASA, I studied the stars—astrophysics at Harvard and MIT—but life got in the way,” she told the publication. “Gender-based violence is a big reason why so many women in STEM don’t continue on with their training, and I was one of those women. After I was sexually assaulted, I traded my telescope to fight for my rights as a sexual assault survivor. I drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, passed it in Congress and at the United Nations. And then, after 10 years, I was like, ‘I want to honor the person that I was before I was hurt.'”