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right now scott kelly's seven months

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into his year-long mission on board the

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international space station uh getting

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in the habit of setting a few records uh

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during his time in space uh today scott

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kelly passing another american space

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flight record 215 days on a single

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mission this is actually a record that

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was set on by the expedition 14 crew so

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both scott kelly and mikano korninko

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breaking that record today

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that was set by former nasa astronaut

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michael lopez alegria and russian

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cosmonaut mikhail turin

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my colleague rob navies was able to

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catch up with lopez alegria from

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washington d.c where he currently works

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as an independent consultant so why

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don't we take a look

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215 days in space on your flight 213 of

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which were on the international space

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station

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did it seem like a marathon or did the

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time fly by how was it for you

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you know surprisingly it went by quickly

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i had flown three short duration

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missions on the shuttle before that and

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i was a little uh anxious about how it

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would be to have such a long flight

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afterward but the time really went by

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quickly and i think it's just the

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feeling of being part of a team and

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doing something that was important

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that obviously is there during a shuttle

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flight that really never went away on

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the station flight so it it went by very

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fast

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well as they say records are made to be

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broken uh scott kelly has uh

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whizzed by your 215 day mark uh what are

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we learning from these milestones that

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will be very important for nasa and for

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the future of human space flight

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rob as you know the iss is uh first and

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foremost the laboratory and one of the

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key things we're doing there is learning

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about human physiology as it adapts to

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zero g

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we have quite a few data points from

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folks that have been up there for around

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six months but um none beyond uh that or

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close to it at seven months so

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uh scott's gonna be obviously blazing

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new trails if we ever want to go to uh

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beyond low earth orbit to an asteroid or

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to mars it's going to be important to

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understand what the longer term longer

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than six month effects are

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also there's additional bonus that he's

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got his twin brother on the ground mark

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which is a really interesting

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possibility

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to investigate things too so i think

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there's a lot of great medical science

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return from this mission from scott

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mike when you were on board some eight

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years ago the space station was half the

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size

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as it is today this mammoth city in the

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sky if you will

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even for seven months in space did you

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ever feel confined i know you did space

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walks you were able to stretch your legs

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as it were outside of the station from

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time to time but did you feel confined

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did you feel uh that you were missing

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something that you needed up there

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you know it was really surprising i mean

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you're right it is a relatively small

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volume but

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you know at the time there were only

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three of us on board and we would go the

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entire day sometimes without seeing each

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other except at meal times because even

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though it's relatively small we still

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had more than one module to ourselves

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and if you had a task

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that was sort of concentrated in one

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place and the others had one in their

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places and it was not unusual to go the

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entire day without seeing each other so

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it never really felt that um

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tight to me like the cabin fever that

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you might expect it was actually pretty

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comfortable

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you know the day is coming in the not

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too distant future when astronauts will

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be pressing much further out of low

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earth orbit

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to explore the stars and walk on mars

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talk about the space station as that

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waypoint a technology testbed if you

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will

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from which future technologies are being

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developed that will be applicable for

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the future

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well aside from the medical things that

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i described a little while ago you know

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we are using

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this platform as part of the proving

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ground so there's the near

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earth low earth orbit environment then

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we'd like to expand that to cis lunar

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space and then finally go beyond

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you know on the way to mars or moon of

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mars eventually

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and so it is important not only to

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understand the human piece of it but

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also to develop the technologies

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particularly the life support things i

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mean what's

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nice in a way about the iss is if

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something breaks we have lots of spares

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and if we don't have something we can

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order it more or less

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from the ground that won't be the case

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on our way to mars we've got to really

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think about the reliability of the

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equipment and having the luxury to do

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that in low earth orbit is a great

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advantage with that i know we're taking

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advantage of now because of

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you know the sparing situation on the

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iss

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and as we talk about the future you

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can't talk about the future without

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talking about the youngsters of today

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with their eyes on the sky who may one

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day be the first humans to walk on mars

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what would your advice to them be

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well look you know when i was an

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astronaut i used to say study math or

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science that's the way to become an

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astronaut i think that's changing a

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little bit and and i would not only say

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to study math and science which are

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obviously very important to be a

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professional career astronaut like we

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have at nasa but there are opportunities

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to fly in space that are coming up via

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commercial companies

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that really what's important is to be

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successful in order to be successful you

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have to do what you like to do so follow

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your dream if that's math or science

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fantastic if it's not that's okay too

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follow your dream do the best you can

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and that's the quickest way to the stars

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and mike age notwithstanding you're not

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an old guy where would you like to be

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right now in line for a trip to an

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asteroid or perhaps to mars

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first

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i mean look you know everybody uh i i've

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i was very fortunate and and felt um

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accomplished to have been able to fly as

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much as i did and it's appropriate for

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us to you know hand the baton to the

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next generation

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seeing guys like shell and you know

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scott's a little bit older than that but

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to some degree

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taking the baton and running with it is

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really great and i don't

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i would love to be in a situation to fly

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again but i'm content

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those of us that have moved on um to do

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different things in life

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so i salute those guys and the ones that

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are in the core the eight that would

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just join the astronaut corps at nasa

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especially and wish them well and as you

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say you know it's

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it's the the people the first people to

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walk on mars are probably alive right

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now and that's an exciting thing to

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consider

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mike lopez alegria from washington d.c i

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want to thank you for your time today

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it's always great to talk to you and