0:00:10.619,0:00:17.538
Dirk, you said exactly the right thing[br]because I really want to hopefully inspire

0:00:17.538,0:00:21.086
all of you lovely and wonderful[br]young people here tonight

0:00:21.086,0:00:26.302
to have your own satellite systems[br]and start your own satellite networks,

0:00:26.302,0:00:28.951
or to start your own launch companies,

0:00:28.951,0:00:32.580
or to start your own satellite[br]manufacturing companies,

0:00:32.580,0:00:34.901
as our speaker just before has said,

0:00:34.901,0:00:41.635
"It is fabulous to work in this field."

0:00:42.615,0:00:46.072
I do love satellites. I always have.

0:00:46.072,0:00:52.041
And actually, I've been in satellites[br]since I was 5 years old.

0:00:52.041,0:00:54.916
And you might say,[br]"Well, how is that possible?"

0:00:54.916,0:00:58.828
But if you see that kind of funny[br]little thing there in the middle

0:00:58.828,0:01:02.343
which looks like a flying saucer,

0:01:02.343,0:01:07.314
I actually received it[br]when I was five years old.

0:01:07.314,0:01:10.356
And it was 1957.

0:01:10.356,0:01:12.635
And we just learned[br]that the first satellite

0:01:12.635,0:01:16.664
was launched in October 1957.

0:01:16.664,0:01:22.599
And for Christmas that year,[br]my mother and father gave me

0:01:22.599,0:01:25.905
this little flying saucer[br]with Santa Claus inside

0:01:25.905,0:01:28.093
to put on the Christmas tree.

0:01:28.093,0:01:32.789
How else could I not love satellites?

0:01:32.789,0:01:39.842
When I was 6, I was very fortunate[br]to make my own transistor radio.

0:01:41.072,0:01:43.530
So that was 1958.

0:01:43.530,0:01:51.312
You'll see later on, I think, 6[br]for girls is a good time to do science,

0:01:51.312,0:01:55.941
just as I did my first transistor radio[br]when I was 6, I'm hoping

0:01:55.941,0:02:00.606
that young women will now[br]with Raspberry Pi be also making

0:02:00.606,0:02:03.500
their own computers[br]and coding and programming,

0:02:03.500,0:02:05.149
when they are 6.

0:02:05.149,0:02:08.546
And when I was 8, my best friend -

0:02:08.546,0:02:12.254
I'm not sure that he thought[br]that I was his best friend

0:02:12.254,0:02:14.536
but he was definitely my best friend -

0:02:14.536,0:02:16.528
was 60 years old.

0:02:16.528,0:02:22.815
And he had the largest hand radio station[br]in the United States.

0:02:23.905,0:02:28.513
And I used to get to go[br]every single Sunday

0:02:28.513,0:02:31.707
and call around the world -

0:02:31.707,0:02:37.265
behind the Iron Curtain,[br]to China, to Russia, to Peru,

0:02:37.265,0:02:40.644
all from this hand radio station.

0:02:40.644,0:02:46.492
So, I got the bug of communications[br]at a very early age.

0:02:46.492,0:02:50.957
And when I was 10, in 1962,

0:02:50.957,0:02:55.111
my father came to my 5th grade class -

0:02:55.111,0:02:59.596
you know, it's like show and tell,

0:02:59.596,0:03:03.908
except for that fathers came in[br]and talked - and mothers did, too.

0:03:03.908,0:03:07.112
And my dad was in satellites,

0:03:07.112,0:03:10.825
he was the head[br]of military telecommunications,

0:03:10.825,0:03:13.931
and he had been lent to the White House

0:03:13.931,0:03:17.217
and to President Kennedy[br]for the space program.

0:03:17.217,0:03:22.539
And so, he said to[br]my class of 10-year-olds:

0:03:22.539,0:03:24.617
"We are going to have satellites.

0:03:24.617,0:03:26.252
And when we have satellites,

0:03:26.252,0:03:30.097
we'll have satellites[br]for education, for entertainment,

0:03:30.097,0:03:34.166
for communication,[br]for emergency preparedness,

0:03:34.166,0:03:39.138
and when we have wars,[br]we will have wars with satellites.

0:03:39.138,0:03:42.962
We will have peace on earth."

0:03:42.962,0:03:48.289
Star Wars came about 20 years later,[br]so he was pretty good about that.

0:03:48.289,0:03:52.235
But you know, little girls[br]believe their fathers.

0:03:52.235,0:03:55.604
And I did believe my dad.

0:03:55.604,0:03:58.898
And when I grew up and I looked around,

0:03:58.898,0:04:05.048
I said: "Wow. Where are these satellites[br]doing all of these things?"

0:04:05.048,0:04:10.695
And actually, there was still[br]a lot to do and there still is.

0:04:10.695,0:04:15.358
But I started in the United States.

0:04:15.358,0:04:18.991
I am a classical musician,[br]I am a singer, actually.

0:04:18.991,0:04:24.386
At age 24, I was the executive producer

0:04:24.386,0:04:27.770
of the United States largest[br]classical music station,

0:04:27.770,0:04:30.453
Washington's Good Music Station.

0:04:30.453,0:04:33.462
And I thought: "My gosh, I am working[br]so hard on these programs,

0:04:33.462,0:04:38.234
and it's just ridiculous that only[br]the people in Washington can hear this.

0:04:38.234,0:04:41.480
I should put[br]these programs up on satellite

0:04:41.480,0:04:44.409
and send them over the United States."

0:04:44.409,0:04:47.206
Which is what I did,[br]and actually before Ted Turner

0:04:47.206,0:04:51.097
kind of created the first super station.

0:04:51.097,0:04:54.994
In 1981, I fell in love.

0:04:54.994,0:04:57.546
And the person that I fell in love with

0:04:57.546,0:05:03.684
was the ambassador of Luxemburg[br]to the United States.

0:05:06.864,0:05:08.777
(Laughter)

0:05:08.777,0:05:11.452
You'll see later on, he is very cute.

0:05:11.452,0:05:14.608
(Laughter)

0:05:14.608,0:05:17.505
I was very independent, though.

0:05:17.505,0:05:21.965
And I said: "Okay, I will marry you[br]but I am keeping my name,

0:05:21.965,0:05:24.407
I am keeping my nationality,

0:05:24.407,0:05:26.416
I am keeping my career,

0:05:26.416,0:05:27.630
I am keeping my money.

0:05:27.630,0:05:30.066
I didn't have any money[br]but I was going to keep it.

0:05:30.066,0:05:31.247
(Laughter)

0:05:31.247,0:05:33.357
But I said, "I will marry you."

0:05:33.357,0:05:36.252
And so we did get married.

0:05:36.252,0:05:39.523
But what I didn't know[br]was that actually Luxemburg

0:05:39.523,0:05:42.861
- you all know Luxemburg, little country -

0:05:42.861,0:05:50.286
was having a financial, and a steel,[br]and a broadcast crisis in 1982.

0:05:50.286,0:05:56.941
And it was so bad that Luxemburg could[br]not even become a member of the ESA.

0:05:56.941,0:06:03.612
That's really bad. Particularly for[br]what happened afterwards.

0:06:03.612,0:06:06.213
But we made it up.

0:06:06.213,0:06:08.581
Because I adored my husband -

0:06:11.971,0:06:15.411
I'm going to be very independent,[br]and I'm keeping everything -

0:06:15.411,0:06:17.042
I felt very bad.

0:06:17.042,0:06:19.752
I said, I have to do something[br]for his country.

0:06:19.752,0:06:25.938
And then I thought,[br]"What could I do for Luxemburg?"

0:06:25.938,0:06:30.569
And the only thing what I knew[br]how to do was satellites.

0:06:30.569,0:06:37.433
I wrote down on two pages[br]a note for the prime minister

0:06:37.433,0:06:39.806
and I gave it to him.

0:06:39.806,0:06:44.514
And six months later, February 1983,

0:06:44.514,0:06:49.711
he called me and he said,[br]"Candace, I need your satellite now."

0:06:49.711,0:06:53.025
Now, I am very worried,[br]because I can't see what the time is.

0:06:53.025,0:06:56.531
Thank you. Excellent. Keep it up there.

0:06:59.581,0:07:03.446
I was 30 years old by this point.

0:07:03.446,0:07:08.852
The Prime Minister of Luxemburg,[br]my husband's country, needed a satellite.

0:07:08.852,0:07:13.353
So, I went around Europe telling everybody

0:07:13.353,0:07:15.925
we were going to have a satellite system,

0:07:15.925,0:07:18.900
trying to get clients,[br]trying to get money,

0:07:18.900,0:07:22.856
trying to get frequencies,[br]orbital positions,

0:07:22.856,0:07:26.419
satellites, launchers.

0:07:27.859,0:07:30.803
A lot of people laughed.

0:07:30.803,0:07:36.900
In 1983, there weren't[br]any private broadcasters.

0:07:36.900,0:07:41.500
They weren't any private satellite owners.

0:07:41.500,0:07:44.871
There weren't any[br]private satellite dishes.

0:07:44.871,0:07:49.558
There was no advertising,[br]there was no paid television.

0:07:49.558,0:07:55.823
It was not allowed. There was not even[br]any venture capitalist to finance.

0:07:55.823,0:08:00.632
There were two people besides[br]the prime minister who believed, though.

0:08:00.632,0:08:06.698
One was the angel investor[br]who gave us our first million euros,

0:08:06.698,0:08:10.522
and the second one was Frédéric d'Allest.

0:08:10.522,0:08:13.792
And for those of you from ESA,

0:08:13.792,0:08:18.324
Frédéric d'Allest was[br]the president of Arianespace.

0:08:18.324,0:08:21.541
And in 1983, he told me:

0:08:21.541,0:08:28.737
"Candace, you bring me a satellite[br]and I will launch it for you."

0:08:28.737,0:08:32.471
And sure enough, December 13th -

0:08:32.471,0:08:37.365
not 11th, as they say here -[br]December 13th, 1988,

0:08:37.365,0:08:42.849
we launched the Astra satellite[br]on an Ariane.

0:08:42.849,0:08:48.262
And this was all of us in Karoo.

0:08:48.262,0:08:51.204
Now, normally I show this picture to say:

0:08:51.204,0:08:56.011
"Something is wrong with this picture,[br]which is that there is only one woman."

0:08:56.011,0:09:02.422
But they always say that the identity[br]of the mother is very easy to see.

0:09:02.422,0:09:07.639
So, we had a huge success.[br]And you know why?

0:09:07.639,0:09:11.184
Because we believed

0:09:11.184,0:09:15.948
- remember what I said about peace[br]and doing anything with satellites -

0:09:15.948,0:09:21.673
we made the footprint[br]of the Astra satellite

0:09:21.673,0:09:29.211
to cover all of Europe,[br]not Western Europe, all of Europe.

0:09:29.211,0:09:32.857
And the wall fell down in 1989

0:09:32.857,0:09:37.832
and we were the only satellite[br]who could cover all of Europe.

0:09:37.832,0:09:42.603
And we were amazingly successful.

0:09:42.603,0:09:47.809
Everyone wanted to have a satellite dish,[br]and they did, they had it.

0:09:47.809,0:09:53.909
So, two years later,[br]three years later, in 1992,

0:09:53.909,0:09:57.568
we were Europe's largest satellite system.

0:09:57.568,0:10:03.277
Now, that's wonderful[br]but it brings a lot of challenges,

0:10:03.277,0:10:06.727
and people who want to take you over.

0:10:06.727,0:10:11.979
And in 1992, the digital revolution[br]was happening.

0:10:11.979,0:10:16.263
And besides me on the board,[br]there were 11 bankers.

0:10:18.103,0:10:22.451
And risk is something[br]that bankers don't like,

0:10:22.451,0:10:26.025
and the unknown is something[br]that bankers don't like.

0:10:26.025,0:10:32.983
And so, when the digital revolution[br]came about, there were three broadcasters:

0:10:32.983,0:10:39.360
Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Leo Kirch[br]and Mr. Berlusconi. (Laughter)

0:10:41.210,0:10:46.626
And they decided that they would like[br]to take over the Astra satellite.

0:10:47.736,0:10:51.475
And they told the bankers,[br]"Well, no problem.

0:10:51.475,0:10:56.788
15% return on investment,[br]we'll take over all of the capacity

0:10:56.788,0:11:02.103
and you would just have[br]to sit back and do nothing."

0:11:02.103,0:11:04.633
I tried to explain to the bankers

0:11:04.633,0:11:10.215
that the digital revolution was[br]going to bring untold opportunities

0:11:10.215,0:11:13.424
and we would have even[br]more wonderful channels

0:11:13.424,0:11:16.352
and more freedom of choice[br]and more diversity

0:11:16.352,0:11:20.254
and more celebration[br]of the European culture.

0:11:20.254,0:11:22.742
They didn't believe me.

0:11:22.742,0:11:25.625
They presigned an agreement.

0:11:27.515,0:11:32.047
I was so worried because[br]if you are working in space

0:11:32.047,0:11:34.303
- and we've seen that all tonight -

0:11:34.303,0:11:38.523
you have a responsibility[br]to your fellow man.

0:11:38.523,0:11:43.970
You have to make certain[br]that space is open for everybody.

0:11:43.970,0:11:50.432
And so, I went to the press and I said:[br]"A cartel was trying to take over Astra."

0:11:52.192,0:11:56.216
The dodoo hit the fan.[br](Laughter)

0:11:58.096,0:12:02.120
And it kept on going until one year later,

0:12:02.120,0:12:06.926
the chancelor of Germany called[br]the President of Luxemburg and said,

0:12:06.926,0:12:10.721
"Who is this Candace Johnson?"

0:12:10.721,0:12:15.798
And the President said,[br]"Well, why?" (Laughter)

0:12:19.058,0:12:21.955
He said, "Because"[br]- and he was pretty sure

0:12:21.955,0:12:25.569
that Leo Kirch was sitting[br]in the room with chancelor Kohl -

0:12:25.569,0:12:30.929
"she is not letting[br]Mr. Kirch and his friends

0:12:30.929,0:12:36.713
Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Berlusconi[br]take over the Astra satellite."

0:12:38.323,0:12:42.411
And Mr. Sander, the President, said,

0:12:42.411,0:12:48.624
"Well, Miss Johnson has always defended[br]the independence of Luxemburg

0:12:48.624,0:12:53.630
and the independence of Astra,[br]and we stand behind her."

0:12:53.630,0:13:00.910
I tell this story again because you can do[br]amazing things with satellites,

0:13:00.910,0:13:06.435
and even one person can make a difference,[br]if they're on the right side,

0:13:06.435,0:13:08.868
if they have the force with them.

0:13:08.868,0:13:10.912
(Laughter)

0:13:10.912,0:13:18.276
I want to also talk a little bit[br]more about peace because in 1995

0:13:18.276,0:13:24.429
the Astra satellite became the first[br]occidental satellite to ever be launched

0:13:25.879,0:13:28.000
on a Russian launcher.

0:13:28.000,0:13:31.385
And you know, this was[br]an American satellite at that time,

0:13:31.385,0:13:37.174
owned and operated by a European company,[br]being launched on a Russian launcher:

0:13:37.174,0:13:39.053
first stage over Russia,

0:13:39.053,0:13:44.070
second stage falling off over Siberia,[br]third stage over China,

0:13:44.070,0:13:49.960
and it was really international peace,[br]like my dad had said it would be.

0:13:49.960,0:13:53.036
If you're number one,[br]it's one thing to be number one,

0:13:53.036,0:13:55.962
it's another thing to stay number one.

0:13:55.962,0:14:01.917
And so in 1997, I architected a system[br]that I was certain that nobody

0:14:01.917,0:14:08.044
would ever take over Astra again[br]to become SES Global in 2001.

0:14:08.044,0:14:10.451
We became the world's[br]largest satellite system

0:14:10.451,0:14:14.241
and we are still the world's[br]preeminent satellite system.

0:14:14.241,0:14:18.527
Over the years - I'm a satellady.

0:14:18.527,0:14:22.176
I did mobile telecommunications[br]with Iridium,

0:14:22.176,0:14:27.361
I did broadband internet[br]with Europe Online.

0:14:27.361,0:14:32.411
But you know, you have to go on[br]and so I got into cyberspace.

0:14:32.411,0:14:38.248
These are young women with Raspberry Pi[br]- all of you know about Raspberry Pi -

0:14:38.248,0:14:42.480
learning how to code and program.

0:14:42.480,0:14:46.092
And just recently, I was in Beirut.

0:14:46.092,0:14:49.840
That's the minister of education[br]showing the Raspberry Pi

0:14:49.840,0:14:53.862
and they will now be going[br]into the Syrian refugee camps

0:14:53.862,0:14:57.361
learning kids how to code and program,

0:14:57.361,0:15:00.887
so they can get out[br]of those refugee camps.

0:15:02.007,0:15:06.721
Two years ago, I told this story[br]and two young New Zealanders

0:15:06.721,0:15:09.789
came up to me and said:[br]"Wow! Candace, that's so neat.

0:15:09.789,0:15:14.075
We are going to try and get some[br]satellite capacity on Australia

0:15:14.075,0:15:16.991
to help us with our broadband internet[br]in New Zealand."

0:15:16.991,0:15:20.036
I said, "Don't be ridiculous.[br]Do your own satellite."

0:15:20.036,0:15:21.887
They are 30 years old.

0:15:21.887,0:15:26.106
We've created OWNSAT,[br]Oceania Women's Network Satellite.

0:15:26.106,0:15:32.032
It's going to cover all of those islands[br]with KA band and focused beams

0:15:32.032,0:15:36.750
from broadband internet[br]bringing Broadband PC's,

0:15:36.750,0:15:41.870
One Laptop per Child, eGovernment,[br]eHealth, you name it.

0:15:41.870,0:15:43.516
Climate change.

0:15:43.516,0:15:47.703
The climate is bringing[br]about terrible situations

0:15:47.703,0:15:50.697
where we need to save lives.

0:15:50.697,0:15:55.341
And I was on Tuesday in the United Nations

0:15:55.341,0:15:58.236
speaking with the[br]small island developing states.

0:15:58.236,0:16:03.550
Our satellite, Oceania Women's[br]Network Satellite and Kacific,

0:16:03.550,0:16:07.244
that is the satellite system[br]we will be using to save lives

0:16:07.244,0:16:10.281
for the island developing states.

0:16:11.351,0:16:15.419
I want to look just one minute[br]ahead in the future.

0:16:15.419,0:16:18.524
I'm excited, I am working[br]on a system today

0:16:18.524,0:16:23.349
that combines technology[br]from NASA and ESA.

0:16:23.349,0:16:28.275
It's the first ever optical[br]terrestial satellite system,

0:16:28.275,0:16:32.761
and it's combining the power of satellites[br]and the power of lasers.

0:16:32.761,0:16:36.781
It will be offering a totally integrated

0:16:36.781,0:16:41.520
global backbone network[br]for internet connectivity.

0:16:41.520,0:16:49.026
And we are looking at basically[br]blanketing the Earth with broadband

0:16:49.026,0:16:53.281
and maybe even connecting[br]to this Google Titan satellite

0:16:53.281,0:16:58.110
as the backbone to spread WiFi[br]around the world.

0:16:58.110,0:17:01.689
So, you can understand why I always have

0:17:01.689,0:17:06.477
my little satellite dish on[br]my Christmas tree every single year.

0:17:06.477,0:17:11.238
You're all invited to come. (Laughter)

0:17:11.238,0:17:16.998
And why children around the world[br]need satellites to dream

0:17:16.998,0:17:19.006
and to do impossible things.

0:17:19.006,0:17:20.393
Thank you so much.

0:17:20.393,0:17:22.503
(Applause)