Dr Nicola Fox

So let's go back to the beginning of your own story, Nikki. You were born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, in 1968, and your father, Eric, was an engineer at Vauxhall Motors. It's him you credit with introducing you to the wonders of space. How exactly did he do it?

So he had followed all of the NASA astronaut programs, Mercury, Gemini, and then of course Apollo. And it was just very important to him that I, in quotes, knew where I was when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. So obviously eight months old, I have no idea. But I know the memory, you know, that he came and gave me a running commentary throughout this. ... we were on a family holiday in Spain and instead of a bedtime story, you know, he had glasses on the nightstand showing me, well, this is the earth, the moon goes round the earth, the earth goes round the sun and you know I I would ask him to tell me more and so over the next few nights we would add other objects from around the hotel room to add other planets and he would often say just imagine what it must be like to work for NASA.

I want to talk to you about your mother, Doreen, because we've heard so much about your dad. She worked in a bank and I know that she played a big part in getting you where you are today. Tell me about her approach to bringing you up.

Mum was just a very empowering person and she doesn't get a lot of credit, I think, because you know my dad was the big space enthusiast and therefore it sort of follows that he would be most of the inspiration. But she was kind of that quiet, very steady force that was always there and always had the, you know, you can do whatever you want as long as you work hard enough was kind of her thing. ... She may not have dreamt of walking on the moon, but she would make sure that I had every opportunity that she could provide if I wanted to walk on the moon.

I know that when you got your current role at NASA, you described having what you've called a Wily Coyote moment. Walk me through that.

Oh my goodness, I did. Because I was obviously very excited about doing the job, but I described it as a mix of total joy and total paralyzing fear. My previous job, I had a wonderful deputy, and I used to liken myself to Wiley Coyote because I'm quick to come up with solutions and quick to want to implement them. And she is very calm and very, very grounded in the way she thinks. And so I would often describe it as I was Wiley Coyote. I'd run off the cliff and she would calmly reach out her hand, grab onto me, pull me back on and say, maybe we should think about this before you leap off the cliff. And so it was just sort of the extension of that metaphor. I no longer had her reaching over and stopping me, so I was like, Oh, I'm going, I'm going, I'm just going. ... And the head of science at NASA. Yes. And then, you know, the little Acme sign comes up and down he falls. Yes. So that was that moment.

[Your husband John died suddenly.] That is an experience that's going to change you. How did it change you?

So in in some ways it kind of made me realize that bad stuff happens to people, you know, and I think that sometimes you can go through life thinking bad stuff happens to other people and then it it happens to you and you know you realize you can survive it. That's one of the other reasons that Parker Solar Probe is so special, because I just started in this role and I literally was saying, how can I survive? And just with this sort of cast of thousands, it felt like, that cared enough to always make sure that I was okay. And then, you know, my kids are amazing. You know, my son at three and a half years old processed grief in the most incredible manner. One night we were driving home and there's a pizza van. And he said, mummy, do angels like pizzas? And so I said, Yes, I'm sure they do, James. I'm really sure they do. He goes, Okay, so we should order one and send it to heaven, and then we can follow the pizza truck. ... You know, this way of like, maybe the scientific method, again, you know, here's a problem. What can I do to deal with this?