The path that brought Lee Giat to this point started years ago.
Not that many years ago, to be clear: After all, Giat is only 23.
But Giat — a licensed pilot who went through astronaut training in Russia and has worked as a science educator at the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History — has packed a lot into a little over two decades.
Now, he’s aiming even higher: Next year, Giat plans to solo fly a small plane across South America to deliver technology, books, supplies and science kits to schools, a mission that will be a tribute to his father and provide the basis for a documentary.
That movie will be produced by Flying Ostrich Media, the videography company founded by Giat and business partner, Kenneth Smith.
The company has done video production work for Jacksonville companies like real estate brokerage Engle & Völkers, apparel brand Demons Behind Me and Turner Pest Control.
Flying Ostrich also has done work for space conglomerate Redwire and was involved with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 14 mission at Kennedy Space Center.
Flying Ostrich came together after Giat and Smith connected at the University of North Florida. While Giat was studying multimedia production and taking astrophysics classes, Smith was majoring in finance and serving as student body treasurer.
Both, though, had an interest in video production dating back to their high school days, which led them to make YouTube videos and a science fiction film and shoot wedding videos.
After graduating last year, they doubled down on the business, including doing real estate shoots and commercial work.
“In the past year and a half, we started taking it more seriously and really getting those bigger clients — shifting out of weddings into more corporate and more aerospace, especially with my network of aerospace professionals and influencers,” Giat said.
Giat’s aerospace connections started in childhood, flying with his pilot father at the age of 7. After getting certified by NASA as a public outreach astronomer, he worked as a science instructor at MOSH. In 2018, he was selected by Xploration Outer Space to go to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.
“We’re hoping to be the leading provider of video production services for aerospace companies in particular,” he said.
Flying Ostrich’s goal, he says, is to one day shoot a feature film on the moon — but for now, the focus is on something only slightly less ambitious.
Next year, Giat will take off in the “The Spirit of Science” to fly across South America, flying over some of the roughest terrain on earth and stopping at dozens of villages along the way. The flight is partially in honor of his father, who died when a plane he was a passenger in crashed last year.
At each stop, Giat will deliver science-related equipment, books and supplies and instruction — all with a goal of introducing the students to new futures.
The trip will be bankrolled in part by selling the eventual documentary, while supplies are being paid for with donations and merchandise sales through passageflight.org.
As well as having an impact on the lives of students, the project could also shape the future of Flying Ostrich.
"We're hoping the documentary kind of transitions us even further," Smith said, "so we're not only doing corporate video but we're also doing more creative such like documentaries."
The trip was to happen this year, but Covid restrictions pushed that back. Soon, though, Giat will head to Colombia — flying commercial, but bringing books, telescopes, model rockets and a NASA astronomer along with him to help with teacher training.
The goal remains the same.
“It’s helping kids who don’t know what’s possible,” Giat said. “They might not know how to become an astronaut or how to become a paleontologist or an agricultural engineer, or whatever it might be. But if they just have a few books, a few tools, they'll start to get the idea.”
