Meet Anastasia Medvedeva, a communicator marketer, and journalist. Born with a curiosity and passion for storytelling, Anastasia, also known as Stacy, has carved out a unique niche in the space industry.

She wears many hats, from organizing global Yuri’s Night events to consulting for space companies on translating complex space concepts into relatable narratives.

Anastasia’s journey is one of curiosity and perseverance.

Growing up in Russia, she was surrounded by a rich space heritage but struggled to find her place in the industry.

Through her work, she aims to make space more inclusive and accessible, advocating for the involvement of artists, designers, and communicators in a field traditionally dominated by engineers and scientists.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How Anastasia turned her love for storytelling into a space journalism career.

• The role of community building in the space industry.

• The importance of space architecture in future space missions.

• Insights into the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry.

• How she’s shaping the future of space through global events and education.

Quote:

“Unless you do the crazy, you’re not gonna be successful in space.” - Anastasia Medvedeva

Episode Links:

• Connect with Anastasia Medvedeva on LinkedIn

• Explore Yuri’s Night

• International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

• Space Generation Advisory Council

• Association of Space Explorers

Credits:

Production by CxS Partners LTD 

Executive Producer: Toby Goodman

Audio & Sound Design: Lee Turner

Artwork: Ryan Field

Find your place in the business of space: https://interastra.space

Always taking chances. Always. This is something that is really important for space. And all of the people who are successful, they have been told that they're crazy or that they're doing something insane, and people still do it. So unless you do the crazy, you're not gonna be successful in space.

Hi. My name is Anastasia or Stacy Medvedeva, and you're listening to the 'Your Business in Space' podcast.

I am a space journalist, communicator, ambassador for Yuri's Night Global, and I also organize Yuri's Night at IEC, the International Aeronautical Congress events, and in other cities and countries.

I also do space PR and marketing because space needs a lot of that right now since we no longer want the blue and white space, but we want something more inclusive and something more diverse. So everyone who's a designer, artist, or anything that's not engineering, you're more than welcome to join us here in the space community. As many space communicators and professionals, I have 2 jobs. I have a job which I have to go to every day, which is a 9 to 5 job, and then I have the space job. And the space job is basically what I make of it. I can have global events. I can do a podcast. I used to do a podcast series, which is called Space Pals.

You might be able to find it on YouTube and Facebook. I've also done a series of news shows for space, which is called Stacy's Spacey News. That's on Instagram and partially on LinkedIn. I also do consulting for space companies explaining to them how best to translate what they do into normal people language. Because while I was a journalist, I realized that space is very difficult to comprehend for the general public, because all space people think that space is about numbers and about data. Whereas for me, space is about a story of a human behind the rocket or behind the, ship or behind the technology. And I've had this dialogue with a lot of journalists who say that I am not representing space as they would assume because space is a male dominated industry. And then when I started coming up and asking people about their feelings of how does it feel to send a rocket off, or how does it feel to be a cosmonaut, or what kind of smell do you miss the most on the International Space Station? Some professionals were not falling for that because they thought that the most important thing is the amount of tons that a rocket is taking up.

So that's, something that I do, and the best part about me being me is that I can pick a project anywhere in the world, and I can help space grow not within a company, but within a community, which I'm also doing. I'm trying to build communities everywhere. And if anyone ever needs help building a community in their town, I'm here for you guys. Reach out. More than happy to help with that. Growing up, we're always told that we can do whatever we want and we can go wherever we want to be. But oftentimes, it feels like it's impossible because we're putting ourselves in these boxes where, you can be either this or that. And, you know, girls should be this or that, and boys should be this or that.

And what I realized is that when I was growing up, I didn't realize that I could do space because it looked like everything has been done in space in my country. We have the first person in space. We have the first female in space. We have the first satellite, the first this, the first that. And I just didn't know how to, you know, where to be first in this industry. And that's why I applaud so many people who come from countries that don't have a space program because they can be that first. To me, I became the first in doing Yuri's night. I also became one of the first observers, independent observers to the United Nations.

And, I'm also I think I could be the only Russian person who's publicly asked Elon Musk a question. So that all is really exciting to me that it doesn't matter where you grew up, but you can always choose where you want to be the first. So, yeah, guys choose that and choose dreams, not reality. I studied abroad and I studied in, I think, 6 or 7 schools. I've also done a couple of universities because to me, it's impossible to stay in one place for a long time. And for me, it's impossible to understand how a person could spend an x amount of time over, like, 5 years at one university. And since I was moving around a lot, I was meeting all of these different people, and I decided that psychology is something that I wanna study.

So my first master's is in psychology because that sort of gives you a glimpse into how people feel or, you know, I thought that way. Then when I did psychology, I decided that now I need international relations and environmental technologies. So I went to study to the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, and that was a very important move for me because there I chose space for the first time. The Diplomatic Academy was the place where I decided to write about space debris. And it was also a difficult decision because no one at the academy in Vienna, no professor, no one was able to consult me with space things. So I had to go to ESA, to the European Space Agency in Paris, while I was doing my internship at UNESCO. And if you don't know, UNESCO and ESA are across from each other, across the street from each other in Paris. So I just made a call to ISA.

I decided that I wanted to work for TV, so I emailed the TV station. And for some reason, I don't know why, they hired me. So it's all about the small things that you do, the emails and the phone calls. And please don't think that's the only email that I've sent. No. I've probably sent a 1,000 and one responded. And then I started my space journalism career from there. I was doing a lot of different news, and then I sort of picked space news as well.

And then the TV network, well, fell in love with space. I showed them the addiction, and I explained to them why it's so cool and why it's so important to show space and explain space to people. Because otherwise, it's just another launch. No one cares about launches anymore. We need to. Everyone has a passion and everyone does something. Someone does knitting. Someone does writing.

Someone does reading or riding a bike. I think that space is the most diverse thing. You can do almost anything. There is a bike on the International Space Station, so you can bike there. There is no end to the opportunities and the things you can do in space. And space is such a beautiful marriage between all of the sciences. I can barely think of anything that combines math, physics, biology, biochemistry, medicine, psychology, you know, you name it. Linguistics, everything is in space.

So if you're curious about anything, you could be curious about space. And if you're curious about space, you're cure you're curious about everything. That's why, I think space is so cool. And also, when you are in the space industry, when you talk to space people, we're all driven by something else. People outside of the industry are not as driven. So this drive also shows how much passion we all have, and that's motivating. When it comes to the business of space, the biggest misconception is that it's all rocket science. It's not rocket science.

Rockets are just one part of space. Of course, when you think of space or when I say that I work for space, they ask me, are you an engineer? No, I'm not. I'm a science communicator. And people have the misconception of the that there are limits within jobs that you can have in the space industry. When you while being a journalist and a TV producer, I've done a series of interviews of the most unlikely recognized space professions, which were people who work in Baikonur. Baikonur is a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. That's the place where, the Russian rockets launch from. And I had the pleasure of speaking to a lady who prepared the dinners to the astronauts and cosmonauts who were taking off to the International Space Station.

And I asked her several times, do you realize that what you're doing, your job is a space job? She said no. And then I explained to her that it's her food. It's her hands that create the food that the astronauts and the cosmonauts remember for the remainder of their stay in the ISS. Why? Because she prepares the meal they have before they launch. So she gives them that love, that caring. She sets the table and the people who go to the station, they say that they will remember that food because it tastes so much better than it does on the International Space Station. Imagine eating from tubes all the time. And here you have a hot meal just from the pan, from the loving hands of a lady.

Another guy was the guy who drives the bus that takes the astronauts and cosmonauts to the launch pad. I also asked him, do you understand what you do? And he's like, well, I just drive the bus. I'm like, no. Depending on how you drive the bus and when you stop or how you stop, that's 40 minutes the astronauts and cosmonauts have before they launch. So they're thinking about something. So you're giving them that space and you're letting them feel that. And that's the misconception. You can do anything in space.

Anything. You just again, you need to have a passion and bring it to space. There are cakes being sent to the International Space Station. So if you're a baker, you can also bake for the station. Anything. To be successful in space is to persevere because every step that you're making space, you have to make decisions that might affect your other career. There are easier paths in space. Especially for women, there are better recognized paths for space.

There are not that many countries in the world that can actually allow people to go to space. So it's only the European Union. It's, Russia. It's China. It's India. It's the US. Right? And the partners of the International Space Station. So it's a bigger percentage of countries that do not go to space than the ones that do.

And we don't we barely think of that. Because if you have that dream being from a very small Ireland country, for example, your path to space is going to be much longer than for anyone else. So that's again perseverance. And not being afraid and always taking chances, Always. This is something that is really important for space. And all the people who are successful, they have been told that they're crazy or that they're doing something insane, and people still do it. So unless you do the crazy, you're not going to be successful in space. The best advice for having a business of space or doing anything in space is about building a network.

And don't forget to start doing that early on because you never know where your contacts go or how your contacts will be able to help you or support you. When I think of doing Yuri's night today, I can tell you that every all the things that happen for Yuri's night, they happen through people whose phone numbers I have or who I have already met on LinkedIn. And building a brand, your own personal brand, is very important in space. So those are the 2 things. You need to think of your of how you're being seen in the space industry and, who you meet and how you meet. Today, it's very easy to create a network going through the Space Generation Advisory Council, going to the International Space University. Very important, listen to podcasts, because podcasts explain to you how the space world works and who to meet if you're interested in this or that. So we have a lot more, navigation in the space industry.

So, yes, build a network and make your name and passions known. I see the International Aeronautic Congress as the best way to see what's the next height in space. So it used to be deep space. It used to be space debris. It used to be robotics. And the next thing I'm seeing that's gonna come is space architecture. Why is space architecture so important? Because we have a rise of private space stations. All of those need to be designed and they need architecture behind them.

I love the, the negotiations and the discussions architects have. For example, do we need a ceiling and a floor on a space station? Why would you need that? Or should that be in the beginning of the capsule? Or, you know, as we are used to, on the top and the bottom, what is the top and the bottom? What kind of light do we need? Imagine living on Mars. There's less sun. There's less energy. Like, it it's different. How do you make people get their circadian rhythms, you know, kept on that there? That's also about architecture, and that's architecture and medicine. So if you are currently doing architecture, think about these things because if you have only, say, 10 square meters per person as a habitat, how do you build that habitat? You can't bring it in blocks. You can they're talking about origami things.

So yeah. Right now, biggest thing for me is space architecture. That's why I'm theming the Yuri's Night in Milan with space architecture. And if you're not thinking of how people are actually gonna live in space, you should start now because these things, they matter. To me, the most important thing right now is storytelling. It's always been storytelling because I like creating stories, narratives, and I also like to create, visuals in my head before I make anything happen. The same happens with IEC and, Yuri's Night Junior IEC. I'm super excited about this one because it's in Milan.

And I have to say that I'm legitimately obsessed with the Renaissance right now, and the Renaissance happened where it happened in Milan. So what I'm doing with Yuri's Night is I'm getting those two notions together. I'm inviting everyone to celebrate space, science, heritage, and the future of space at Yuri's Night, where we're going to have a trip throughout the years from Galileo, from Da Vinci, from let's take Schiaparelli as well and all the other incredible people who've lived in in Italy and celebrate them today. And let's showcase how we've changed, how the science has changed. And in order to show the biggest difference between Leonardo building the first thing with wings and Galileo having to fight for what he saw true and what we now know is true. We're going to see how, again, architecture plays in. Because those people were thinking of it and they were dreaming of it and they were fighting for it, and we get to live it. So let's live it together.

Let's build a habitat in Milan during Yuri's night. And let's, see how we as a species, as a multinational, international crowd can be celebrating a very important milestone for humanity, the space flight together at IC.

I'm Stacy, and you've been listening to 'Your Business in Space' podcast. All the ways to connect with me are in the links in the show notes. To discover more, head to interastra.space

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