Scott “Kidd” Poteet Gives Out-of-This-World Assembly

Sean Ricard /  The Exonian

By ADELLE PITTS, LEVI STOLL, LEON XIE, ANDREW YANG, and GRACE YANG

On Feb. 14, retired Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet took the Assembly Hall stage, sharing how his dream to become an Air Force pilot propelled him to eventually lead the Polaris Dawn’s 2024 space mission. Poteet reflected, “I was just so amazed by the sheer power and control demonstrated by these fighter pilots. I was just like, ‘I want to do that. I don’t care what it takes, I am going to commit the time, energy, and resources necessary to achieve that goal — that was the fire that lit inside of me.”

But despite his career successes, Poteet’s path to the his dream was far from smooth. Ever since he was young, Poteet’s highly competitive nature drove him to participate in any sport or game that offered a chance at being the victor. This desire to win didn’t carry over into the classroom, though. “Unfortunately, that pendulum kind of swung a little too far and it resulted in neglect in the classroom — I was an absolutely terrible student, Cs and Ds throughout grade school,” he said.

For lower Hanna Wei, this perspective was refreshing: “I think he brought a really positive perspective that school isn’t everything you need in life to succeed. Mr. Poteet had many other talents and passions in sports and outdoor activities that were able to make him as successful as everyone else.” 

When Poteet first joined the Polaris Dawn program, he found himself among people who were well-equipped to handle the mental gymnastics of carrying out the operation. Unlike them, he struggled with motion sickness and a fear of heights — two terrible hurdles for an aspiring astronaut. Training sessions designed to stimulate the physical and mental strain of spaceflight pushed him to his limits.

During one procedural training session, Poteet was required to pilot a simulated mission with the captain incapacitated. “We failed miserably,” he admitted. “That was all based on the fact that I had a bad approach to the scenario where I was reliant upon these three individuals. I wasn’t pulling my weight, so I had to change that outlook, that perspective. It was my choice to change it — and I had to.”

His transparency about failure resonated with students. Upper Sebastien Sobeih noted how Poteet shifted his outlook: “I think he actually highlighted a lot of his shortcomings, like his motion sickness and fear of heights. There’s something you hear often about the military, where they’re seeking the ‘perfect human.’ He proved that you don’t need to have everything or the answer to every problem, and hearing how he overcame those challenges was impressive.” 

A part of making that change was recognizing one’s own strengths. For Poteet, it was his drive to win. “I was very competitive. I used that to my advantage to excel at athletics, I used athletics to get to college, and then once I got to college, I used outdoor education to get to my goal of being a fighter pilot. I achieved goals throughout my 20-year career that got me to go to space,” he said.

Poteet ran Division I cross-country at the University of New Hampshire before dropping out to pursue an outdoor education, which included hiking, skiing, and scuba diving, among other activities that took place outside the conventional classroom. Having to tackle the myriad of challenges posed by the outdoors, he was trained to deal with unexpected circumstances.

He continued, “When you are climbing a mountain, you are dealing with dehydration, sleep deprivation, you haven’t been eating very well, the pressure is changing, you are working through the team dynamics — that’s exactly what we experience in a capsule over multiple days.” 

Upper Owen Chen appreciated this balance of competitiveness and humility. “His story showed that while the desire to be the best is important, it must be balanced with the ability to recognize personal shortcomings and ask for help when needed.”

These experiences allowed Poteet to adapt to the intense fluid shifts in the body and erratic tumbling sensations that would come with his space mission. As fate would have it, the scenario in which Poteet had failed once before in training arose during the Falcon 9 mission: two out of four Polaris Dawn astronauts experienced space adaptation syndrome and were down for the count. A mission worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which intended to push the limits of commercial spaceflight, lay in his hands. Despite the challenges stacked against him, Poteet successfully steered the rocket into its orbit and, for the next five days, the crew conducted experiments and collected data before descending back to Earth.

Poteet’s story provided a novel perspective for students on the journey to becoming an astronaut. Senior Jackson Lyle was amazed by his dedication: “The biggest takeaway I had was that dedication can really take you anywhere. When he was talking about watching the F-16 fueling and thinking, ‘I’m gonna fly that one day,’ even though he was afraid of heights and had motion sickness, I realized how it was his dedication that brought him to such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He’s one of only 600 astronauts to ever live because of that.”

For many Exonians, Poteet’s journey reshaped their understanding of ambition and resilience. “He showed that it’s absolutely possible to achieve difficult things — both physically hard and mentally hard things,” upper Joseph Kim reflected. “It’s important to keep pursuit and persistence to strive to reach one’s passion.” 

“I was surprised by how much the assembly was about the idea of teamwork and how important each person is, even if you don’t seem that significant,” upper Neal Veeranna added. “Sometimes people forget or put themselves down, so I think this talk did a great job at letting people realize how much they’re worth.” 

Poteet advised students to use their gifts and hoped that his speech could inspire many to pursue their dreams. “We all have natural gifts,” he said. “But sometimes we’re required to develop skills that will help us pursue our goals. It’s gonna take hard work, you’re gonna have challenges, you’re gonna have obstacles, but if you choose a path that works for you, you can achieve those goals.”