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hi I'm Karen Nyberg a NASA astronaut and

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crew member of the International Space

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Station the space station is an amazing

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laboratory where we are conducting

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valuable research to benefit life on

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Earth

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our work has led to advancements in

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telemedicine helping people in remote

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locations helping develop important

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vaccines and much much more as the

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mother of a preschooler it means a lot

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to me to know that our work in space is

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helping all of us on earth for more

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information about the benefits of our

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space research visit WWN ASAC of

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everybody NASA's Josh Byerly here inside

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Mission Control I'm joined by my friend

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nicole stott we're gonna be talking

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about you know the Sunday is Mother's

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Day and with Karen Nyberg the PSA that

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you just saw here on NASA television of

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course is a mom so we want to talk about

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moms in space so why not talk to a mom

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who has been in space how you doing the

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call I'm great thanks so let's talk

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about you know there are moms and dads

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obviously there's lots of astronauts

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having cosmonauts have have children and

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and family so how different is it to you

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know commit yourself to going up in

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space for five or six months and and to

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kind of prepare your family for that

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it's a little bit different than just

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taking you know a road trip right yeah

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it is it's quite a bit different but I

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think there's some common things like

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you know even if you were taking a road

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trip or planning a vacation that was

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going to be fun you're gonna be engaging

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your family and that in some way and I

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think and I see Karen doing this now -

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in preparation for her flight is you

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want to make sure that your family is

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involved with that that adventure that

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you're about to have that experience

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you're about to have and that's

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everything from the time that you're in

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training and exposing them to the

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different kind of training events that

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you participate in the different

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countries that you're visiting and and

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meeting those people knowing your

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crewmates so that they understand who

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you're gonna be spending your time with

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and where you're gonna be coming over

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visiting mock-ups and and just generally

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I think making them a real part of the

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whole experience how do you keep in

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touch with them I mean it's a little bit

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different than it used to be you've got

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you know phones and email and internet

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and things like that so does it make it

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easier it does I think and and I think

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that's something that you can get used

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to on the ground you know we travel

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quite a bit

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training and preparation so you already

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have to be kind of creative with the way

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you can

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indicate with your family and that's you

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know everything from Skype and to just

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email and phone calls and stuff but you

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know the station has a really beautiful

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setup for communicating with the ground

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and just like we do with the control

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center here we can speak to our families

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on a regular basis everyday multiple

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times if we wanted with the the

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satellite phone essentially that we have

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and through email like you mentioned and

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then while I was up there and I don't

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know now maybe it's even more frequent

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we had once a week video conferences

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with our family and and other folks if

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we we wanted to as well so I think we're

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really fortunate with the way the

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communication system is and and I think

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about family members that are on

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deployments military deployments and

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they have so much more of a limited way

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to communicate with their their friends

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and family and I think we're honestly

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pretty blessed to have what we do with

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station now so you flew up to the

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station back in 2009 as part of

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expedition 20 and 21 and you didn't 133

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back in 2011 yeah your son was seven

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back in 2009 now he's 10 was he

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mystified by it or is it just sort of oh

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yeah mom's an astronaut you know I I

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mean they got to get used to it at a

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certain point right yeah I think they do

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I think it's like any job a parent has

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you know sometime your kid is gonna

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really think it's great and other times

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it's gonna be like you know I could care

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less what you're doing you just need to

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go by being in that new you yo card or

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whatever whatever and but III was I had

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a really good time our family is I think

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into the space thing

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my son was I think excited about it and

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like we said just being able to engage

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them you know getting over here and

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getting to see the mock-ups and watch

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some of the the egress training that we

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do and out at the MBL and the big suits

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and stuff you know it's like it's like a

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kid getting to see the toys that their

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their parents get to spend some time

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with and then helping them understand

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what you're gonna be you know using that

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stuff more and I've given a number of

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presentations to my son's schools and

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others where he's come along with me and

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I think that he could do I probably

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actually I know he could do a better job

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getting up there and making that

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presentation and speaking very very

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knowledgeably about what

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comes on in the space program and the

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fact that as long as he's been alive

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there's been this space station up there

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with people living and working

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continuously so whenever you're out

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there and you're talking to them like

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how do you be mom how do you how do you

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you know check up on the schoolwork and

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make sure they're doing what they're

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supposed to be doing and have those kind

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of conversations yeah you know it's you

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have to accept the fact that your remote

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and you're not going to have that same

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you know that same level of hands-on

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kind of input that you can down here but

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I think it's kind of neat you just get a

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little bit more creative you know you

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use your phone calls in a way that I

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think you don't always want to be

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focusing on you know getting the

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homework done it needs to be kind of a

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bigger conversation that you have with

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them if they want I mean you know he

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might want to be going out and riding

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his bike when that phone call comes so

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you know you never know what's going to

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happen so he can't come to the phone

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yeah really sorry you know I'm in the

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pool right now but but yeah it's it's

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good because I think it forces you to be

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creative and but you can you can have

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those same kind of conversations you do

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here on the ground with them over the

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phone and and the fact that I have also

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you know just a really supportive

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husband who I know is he was engaged and

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and working all that while I'm not there

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you know makes it even even better and

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more comfortable as you know as a person

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who is been in kind of a detached or you

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know not nearby kind of position and

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he'd grown quite a bit by the time you

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get back he had and he was in the midst

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of losing you know those front teeth and

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everything I got back from my first

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flight and you know there was one still

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dangling he was making sure it didn't

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come out until I got home so I got to

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witness that yeah that's cool so as

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Karen gets ready to launch me you know

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you spent was it five I guess five

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months almost up there a little over

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three nine so is it does there come a

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time where you know time sort of stands

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still does it get easier after the first

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few weeks or does this beat up you know

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time kind of warps a little bit whenever

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you're out there so yeah you know the

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time actually went by fairly quickly for

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me I don't know if my husband and son

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would say the same thing with the

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perspective from down here but it goes

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by pretty quickly and I think it you

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know it kind of stays the same you know

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throughout I don't feel like it ever got

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easier to be away

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for my family that way I think that's

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the one thing that is just always there

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you know is that they're not going to be

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there with you and so I think you have

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to kind of go in but it may be accepting

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it is kind of a strong you know way to

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say it but just knowing that's the way

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it's going to be throughout and I

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remember after the three months when I

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you know my ride sts-129 got there to

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bring me home

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I remember thinking before they got

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there like wow you know I could I could

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stay up here another three months this

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is a beautiful place to live and work

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we're doing some really cool stuff

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but on the other hand I was happy that

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my ride got there on time for mine and

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my family's sick to know that per the

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plan I was gonna be coming home like

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like was planned instead of it just kind

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of dragons like not having a delayed

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flight yeah so whatever you take a look

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at you know being up there being away

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from your family and things like that

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the amount of time that you spend out

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there like how day you wonder you come

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back to how do you I guess readjust and

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also how do you how do you talk to your

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your kids about you know what you just

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did like how do you how do you

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articulate that with them well you know

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I think that's what goes back to again

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the the keeping them tied in throughout

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the entire experience I think is really

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important so it's not a you know a huge

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surprise to them what you've been doing

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or the kind of experience it was I think

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what you try to do is in the kind of the

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most exciting way maybe possible explain

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to them the things you can't you know

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you can't show in a picture or you know

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write down or you know really talk to

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them about but you know kind of that

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physical feel of being in space or that

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that view out the window and you know

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the kind of impression that can have on

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you and you know maybe trying to take it

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a little bit further and explain to them

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why getting to see something like that

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is important and why what we're doing up

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there is is so important as well and you

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know hopefully they can carry that on

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and you know share it with other folks

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to maybe go up there one that would be

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awesome thanks for sticking by us always

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good to talk to you Nicole yeah you too

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Josh thanks if you would like to learn

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more about Karen and theatre and the

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rest of the crew and Luca you can log on

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to the NASA website to the NASA I got a

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slash station these guys are getting

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ready to launch at the end of the month

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they're down there undergoing final

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preparations and their mission is going