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okay start your interview

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hello uh rick

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hi this is wpkn 89.5 fm in bridgeport

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connecticut

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today live from the international space

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station

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i have astronaut nasa astronaut rick

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mastracchio waterbury connecticut native

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and graduate of university of

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connecticut

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good morning rick and thanks for being

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hello bridgeport welcome to the

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hi there rick can you hear me okay

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yes i can hear you loud and clear can

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you hear me

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yes thanks

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uh

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the expedition 38 crew brought something

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very special to the international space

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station

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the olympic torch can you tell us a

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little bit about your that very cool

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yes it was like our own little olympic

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relay uh

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the

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expedition uh or so i should say soyuz

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11 crew which was part of the crew that

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i was on we brought the torch to the

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international space station the soyuz 10

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crew then took that torch out on a

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spacewalk out eva outside the

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international space station and then the

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soyuz 9 crew

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landed with the torch about five days

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after we arrived so it went from soyuz

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11 to 10 to 9 and back to the

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back to russia where it will continue

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that's very cool

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uh you graduated from crosby high school

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in waterbury

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and

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you also attended the university of

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yes that's correct

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okay

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uh you also worked for hamilton standard

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can you tell us a little bit about your

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educational experience and work

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experience while you're living in

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okay yes after graduating high school in

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waterbury connecticut i attended the

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university of connecticut i got a degree

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in electrical engineering and computer

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science

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and coming once i graduated from uconn i

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went right to work with hamilton

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standard in farmington connecticut there

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we were developing guidance systems and

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flight control systems for various

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aircrafts and satellites and it was uh

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while i was there that i went to night

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school in hartford connecticut attending

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rpi a branch of rpi in hartford

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connecticut and after about five years i

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started applying as a nasa astronaut and

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i didn't get the job right away but i

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was called down to become

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an engineer at the johnson space center

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so i left

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waterbury area in 1987 to start my

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on your three previous special missions

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you spent a maximum of 14 days on any

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specific mission

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now you're going to be spending six

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months on the international space

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station

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how did you prepare yourself mentally

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and physically

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yeah that's correct six months up here

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is a long time well the training in

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itself kind of prepares us for this long

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time away from family and away from home

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and that we spend a lot of time

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traveling those two and a half years of

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training we spend a lot of time

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traveling in fact i spent over a year in

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russia star city russia during that two

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and a half years i spent uh maybe uh

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eight or nine weeks in germany and a few

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weeks in japan a few weeks in canada so

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we spend a lot of time away from home

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when we're training and that and for me

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i think it actually prepares us to be

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away from home for six months it was

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nothing for me to be away from home for

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two months so now

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i'm just away from home just a little

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bit longer than one of my training trips

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you've helped build the international

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space station you actually bolted

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segments of the station together

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that's very cool and now you're working

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there

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can you tell us what a typical day is

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like on the station

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what it's like to work eat and sleep in

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yeah well i could just talk about just

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today for example today was it's been an

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interesting day so far it's only about

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half over we were working and checking

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out one of our space suits that we did

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some repairs on a few months ago

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and then on the other side of the space

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station the japanese module they

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actually launched three small satellites

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from the japanese robotic arm and we got

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some great photos and video of that

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meanwhile there's a lot of research and

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science going on just off to my left

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just off camera there's a great

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experiment going on right here and

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that's that's happening around the clock

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basically experiments and research so

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it's it's a very busy place and it's

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rick you're basically free-falling uh as

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the international space station follows

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the curvature of the earth i know you're

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traveling at five miles per second

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and i'm watching you kind of look like

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you are kind of free-falling a little

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bit but

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i'd like to know uh what's the sensation

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well you know it changes when you first

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get here you get a you know it takes you

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a little time for your body to adapt

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it's quite a change coming from a 1g

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environment to a 0g environment if you

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will

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it takes time you get a lot of you get a

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lot of blood rushes to your head it

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takes several days for that to kind of

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your body to

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equalize all that

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of course there's the queasiness that

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you can get from like almost like being

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on a constant roller coaster that takes

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a few days to get over for some people

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some people don't get it at all

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but it's great i mean once you your body

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adapts to it it's it's a blast you have

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to learn how to kind of move very slowly

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because if you push off too hard you

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know there's nothing to stop you you

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basically will go flying across the

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module it's very easy to injure yourself

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so it takes takes several weeks to get

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used to how fast or how slow you need to

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move around the modules but it sure is

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it sure is fun and i think the human

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body adapts to it pretty quickly in my

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you've been on three space shuttle

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my question is do you have any evas

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planned for this mission while you're on

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there are no american or u.s os eva's

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plan there are some russian evas we had

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the one with the torch just about a week

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and a half ago and there's another

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russian eva planned in uh i think a

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couple of weeks and then there'll be

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some

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after the new year but there's no u.s

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or american evas

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planned at this time but of course we

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are always ready to perform space walks

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if there's some kind of malfunction

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outside that we have to go out and

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replace a box or

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fix a connection or something like that

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you posted some wonderful images from

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the earth from of the earth from space

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through social networking is there a

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favorite place for you to look at on the

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well i haven't found a favorite place

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yet everything is pretty interesting but

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one of the things i really do enjoy is

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at night we see a lot of

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lightning storms and lightning

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is just a is just incredible to look at

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from above the uh from above the earth

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here because the lightning seems to

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dance

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around the whole sometimes the whole

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continent will be covered with a large

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storm and the lightning will just dance

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all over the place so i really enjoy

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that

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but you know looking at all the

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different islands and the landmasses and

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the beautiful colors of the ocean it's

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hard to pick any one favorite thing yet

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of course all of our listeners here in

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the local area of course fairfield and

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new haven counties would like to know if

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yeah it's a little difficult up here but

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uh yeah i'm always looking uh checking

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out the newspaper seeing how the team's

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doing and every once in a while they're

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rick thanks for being with us today our

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listeners in the greater bridgeport area

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and all of us at wpkn wish you a

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prosperous stay on the international

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space station and a soft landing when

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well thank you very much i appreciate

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all the great questions

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great thanks again rick and remember you

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can always listen to us

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live on the web at wpcan.org from the

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thank you very much

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the wpkn radio portion of the

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event

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please stand by for a voice check from

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station this is wrgb tv do you hear me

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yes i hear you

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good morning or afternoon or

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whatever time it is up there rick this

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is matt markham from wrgb in albany it's

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uh

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nice to talk to you and the first thing

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i have to tell you is that i've never

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actually talked to somebody in space

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before so it's very cool to be able to

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do this and

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do it especially with somebody who has a

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local connection of sorts

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you uh spend some time with rpi in

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hartford can you tell us a little bit

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yes i can after i graduated from the

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university of connecticut i was working

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in the hartford area at the hamilton

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standard at the time and i decided i

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wanted to go to

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get a master's degree and of course rpi

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the hartford campus

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was a was a had a great reputation and

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it was uh it was not far from where i

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was working so i started to go to night

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school there to get my master's degree

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and it was a great experience i really

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um this i understand is your fourth trip

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up there and uh you have something

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special with the i understand the

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well we brought the olympic torch with

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us on launch day

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uh obviously as part of the soyuz 11

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crew we handed it off to the soyuz 10

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crew who took it out on a spacewalk and

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then they

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handed it off to the soyuz 9 crew who

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landed about four or five days after we

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arrived so the torch has already been

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here and been returned to russia where

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it's continuing the olympic relay to the

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that had to be something of an

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incredible experience to be a part of

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and just looking at you and seeing how

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you're somewhat weightless up there what

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is that feeling like i think some of us

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might not even be able to imagine what

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well

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like i was saying earlier to the uh the

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other folks it uh it takes a while for

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your body to adapt it takes a couple of

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days for your body to adapt but once you

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do it is a blast to be able to float

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around to be able to move

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uh massive objects without any effort

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whatsoever it is uh it's the body does a

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great job adapting and once you do it's

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it's a it's a lot of fun i i'm really

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can you tell us a little bit about the

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oh sure you know the number one thing

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that we do up here is is we're

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conducting scientific research

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at any one time there are dozens of

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experiments going on during the six

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months that i will spend here hundreds

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of experiments will be will be performed

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in one way or another so on a daily

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basis we have different types of

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experiments going on sometimes we are

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the experiments ourselves where we're

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taking blood samples or different doing

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different kinds of tests on ourselves

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and sometimes we're kind of the

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technicians where we're taking samples

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in and out of a some kind of test stand

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and working with the scientists on the

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ground so it's a regular a daily basis

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now you can't quite run to home depot if

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you need to fix something up there so if

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something does happen that you need to

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either go

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outside or stay inside you know how able

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are you to actually troubleshoot and

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and perhaps fix things as you're trying

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well we do that pretty much on a regular

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basis i mean things this is a very

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complicated place with a lot of

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computers a lot of moving parts so

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obviously things don't always work

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properly and we have to repair them of

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course we have a great team on the

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ground that are experts in everything

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that's up here and they help us

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figure out what's going on and help us

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fix it but we also have a lot of spare

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parts we have all we have a lot of tools

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all the proper tools and with the tools

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and the spare parts that we have and

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with the smart folks on the ground we

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is there anything from home that you

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were able to bring with you to remember

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your family or what life is like here on

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earth that you can at least look at once

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oh yeah of course so we get to bring a

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very small amount of personal items i've

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got pictures of my family

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i've got

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some personal mementos i've brought up

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items for folks

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that i worked with and friends and

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families and things like that i got one

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thing that might be interesting to you

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it might be interesting to know that

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after i after i return in may another

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rpi graduate reid wiseman will be

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replacing me here on the uh

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international space station so

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reid and i got together and we contacted

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the folks

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at rpi and uh we're gonna keep this up

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here

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it must be nice to be able to share that

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kind of camaraderie with somebody too

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are there are there other

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rpi graduates who are in this program

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i think reid wiseman are the two only

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two active astronauts in the program

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can you tell us a little bit about how

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that experience with rpi

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made you

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that much

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better at what you do and how much more

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passionate perhaps about what you're

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well of course uh you know all the

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experiences you experience in life

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obviously

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help you become the person that you are

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i think my time both at the university

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of connecticut and at rpi

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helped me become a much better engineer

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and that gave me the confidence to apply

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to nasa i think it also gave me the

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qualifications that i needed to get into

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as an engineering program at nasa and

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then eventually gets selected as an

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astronaut so without my schooling at

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uconn and rpi of course i could not be

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the last question i think i would have

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for you is uh as somebody who has been

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where few men have been before

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what's one thing maybe you learned on

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the space station one thing you saw that

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really just kind of took your breath

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away that very few other people will

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oh that's a tough question i would have

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to say the best thing is probably my

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space walks when you go out on a

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spacewalk uh you know you're like your

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own little spacecraft out there and you

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have this great view through your visor

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and uh the views of the earth and just

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in

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and i will never forget those they were

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they were some some great views and i

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wow well it was a real honor to talk

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with you thank you very much for taking

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some time out of your day uh it was a

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real treat for us to be able to talk to

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somebody on the space station and and

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one other thing maybe i would ask you

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before i let you go um

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what's the rest of your day look like

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how do you how do you plan your day it's

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9 47 here in albany new york uh what's

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what's the rest of your day like up

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well we already had a busy day today

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it's kind of towards the end of our day

399
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up here uh we did some space suit uh

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checkout and repair this morning we also

401
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launched three small satellites off the

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japanese robotic arm we got scientific

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experiments going on so i've got a few

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more tasks for today but uh the day will

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all right well uh

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no rest for the weary then and uh and

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we'll let you go back and do some of

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that but uh sir it was a real real

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pleasure to speak with you and uh all

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the best up there uh we appreciate your

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time and uh look forward to you coming

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well thank you very much

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the event thank you

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thank you w

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pkn radio and wrgb tv station we're now