Jane Poynter Wants to Take You to Space — and She's Not Doing It Like the Billionaire Boys' Rocket Club Poynter sat down with Entrepreneur to discuss 30 years in the male-dominated aerospace sector and her latest endeavor, Space Perspective, the company striving to send more people to space than ever before.

"I'll never forget, I had to write an essay when I was 16," Space Perspective CEO and co-founder Jane Poynter tells Entrepreneur on International Women's Day. "And the topic of the essay — and this was a national essay, this wasn't just given by my teachers — was Would you like to be a nurse, a teacher, a veterinarian or a wife? I don't have any problem with any of those four particular professional choices. However, it was very limiting."

Fortunately for the scientific community, Poynter didn't let the narrow expectation of what a woman should be keep her from pursuing her talents and passions. As one of the first and few women pioneers in space exploration, Poynter's career has been packed with groundbreaking discoveries and impressive milestones — from the research that came out of the two years and 20 minutes she spent living in Biosphere 2 during the early '90s, up through her latest endeavor: the launch of Space Perspective, a company that aims to give more people than ever before the life-changing experience of space travel.

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