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station this is houston are you ready

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houston station is ready for the event

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watr radio this is mission control

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houston please call station for a voice

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check

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station this is watr radio how do you

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watr radio we hear you loud and clear

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excellent

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and right now we're joined by rick

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mastracchio and colonel mike hopkins

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directly from the international space

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station currently orbiting 230 miles

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above the earth thank you very much for

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taking the time to speak with me today

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oh we're very happy to be here

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and uh let me just say a happy belated

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birthday to uh to rick yesterday was uh

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uh thank you very much i appreciate it

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uh so i gathered from reading your bios

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that you uh

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you guys didn't start out with the goal

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of being astronauts could you tell us a

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little bit about how you eventually got

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oh sure i'll start um yeah i'd really

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when growing up i was always interested

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in math and science but i tell you the

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truth i never knew i could be an

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astronaut

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i had graduated from the university of

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connecticut and was working at hamilton

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standard in farmington

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and i saw an ad basically i saw an

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advertisement in a magazine saying

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astronaut applications were being

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accepted and at that point i realized

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wow

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anybody could be an ax an astronaut with

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the right

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uh uh credentials so i sent in an

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application of course i didn't get

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selected as an astronaut but eventually

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uh nine years after that point i would

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and i i actually took a little bit

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different path so i

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studied engineering aerospace

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engineering in school and then went into

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the air force and i'm actually still

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active duty air force as you mentioned

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earlier and so i had the opportunity

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in the air force to test a lot of

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airplanes and actually worked in the

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pentagon a little bit and was you know

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kind of like rick though i i applied

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several times before i was accepted and

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okay um

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what do you think are some of the

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biggest benefits we derive from uh

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things like the international space

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station and all the the research and uh

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yeah i think uh there's there's a lot of

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benefits um both uh both real and and

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kind of in the spiritual sense of the

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exploration and and always having a

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human presence for the last uh what 10

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11 12 years we've had a a human presence

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in space constantly and i think that's

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pretty exciting and and that goes along

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with the human spirit

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from a science standpoint boy all kinds

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of science is happening up here and

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there's probably going to be over 200

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experiments executed while we're on uh

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during this this time on orbit uh from

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things like the alpha magnetic

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spectrometer which is out there looking

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for the origins of the universe

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to things like

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vaccines and and antibiotics and how

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they can counter bacteria that are

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actually resistant to antibiotics and so

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there's benefits uh for space travel as

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well as benefits for everybody down on

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and you're just you're doing a little

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more than just uh experiments and uh

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research you also uh are have to do

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quite a bit of maintenance while you're

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up there too i understand you uh had to

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do a couple of spacewalks in order to

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repair a cooling unit

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uh and these were not your first

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spacewalks obviously i guess the closest

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i've ever come to that experience is my

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one and only skydive from from ten

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thousand feet uh could you describe a

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little bit for our audience for my

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audience what it uh feels like to

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actually step out of that uh space

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okay i'll give it a try it's difficult

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to explain but uh

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i guess it depends uh a couple some of

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my spacewalks i stepped out of the hatch

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at nighttime and some of the daytime and

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i tell you nighttime is actually a

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little better because you don't have the

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the vision of the earth

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swinging by you constantly and

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distracting you but i tell you when you

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go out there you could really sense the

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motion of the earth as you go around the

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earth you can sense that motion

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and it's basically something that

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distracts you as you do your job so i

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basically try to ignore it but it's an

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incredible feeling to be out there it's

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an incredible feeling of freedom uh it's

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amazing how black

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space is at night time when the sun sets

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and we're just out there in the middle

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of nowhere doing our job and you look

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around a little bit and it's incredible

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sense of being so small out in the

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vastness of space

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it's got to be incredible i've i've been

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following your your twitter feeds rick's

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twitter ideas at astro rm and colonel

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hopkins id is at astro illini

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i-l-l-i-n-i and you both have been

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tweeting out some just absolutely

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amazing photographs i know rick has sent

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a really a really nice shot of downtown

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waterbury as they flew over and colonel

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hopkins has sent out just some

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absolutely beautiful pictures of the

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northern lights

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what are you using to to get these shots

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and more importantly uh what's your

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opinion regarding the value of social

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well i think social media is is huge for

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the the space program because it helps

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get the message out and it reaches

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people that probably haven't thought

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about the space program and don't

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realize

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um that we have had people up in space

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for the last 12 years and and what the

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international space station is doing so

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if we can pique interest in in what's

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happening up here i think that's a good

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thing i think it's great that uh that

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that people are out there and they're

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connected and they're sharing things uh

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some of these amazing experiences that

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i know

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we're just using standard off-the-shelf

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uh photo equipment uh from the space

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station's cupola windows

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oh so no no special high-tech equipment

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nope

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um now i know when you when you arrived

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at the space station you brought the the

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olympic torch with you

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uh did you are you following the

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oh yeah we have uh a feed from the

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ground almost uh continuously

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and we're also being uplinked uh videos

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of some of the sporting events so yeah

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we were watching uh

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the ski jumping last night where i was

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watching speed skating the day before

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that so yeah we're following it along

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it's hard because you know constantly

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working up here but we catch a few

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minutes a few minutes of it here and

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what would be one of your favorite

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yeah i tell you anything with the speed

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the downhill skiing and the speed

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skating are pretty exciting to watch i

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now you both flew in the russian soyuz

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to get to the space station how does

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riding in the in the soyuz compared to

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yeah i've flown on the shuttle three

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times now and on the russian soyuz

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vehicle it was my first time a few

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months back

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and it's quite a different experience

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the space shuttle is obviously a much

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bigger vehicle it actually leaps off the

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launch pad it accelerates much quicker

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off the launch pad the soyuz is a very

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reliable very efficient vehicle but much

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much smaller and of course it reaches

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the same velocity eventually but

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accelerates uh much slower off the

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launch pad both of them were exciting

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i understand you're going to be doing a

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live show from the the space station on

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national geographic channel in march

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just before you head home uh would you

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yeah that's correct uh mike leaves

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around march 11th or 12th or so and

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we'll be doing a live show from up here

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around march 14th i believe we'll be

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doing a couple of shows up here from up

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here and i believe it's about a two-hour

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show and we'll be doing three 10-minute

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live intervals directly from the space

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station here on the national geographic

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channel i know a lot of folks on the

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ground are excited about it we're

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excited about it and i think it's going

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to give folks some great insight on how

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the space station works and how we live

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great um well before we go rick maybe

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could uh could you share some of your

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oh yeah well i grew up on the east end

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of waterbury attended chase school and

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crosby high school

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i i can remember i used to play spend a

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lot of time at hamilton park in

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municipal stadium i played football uh

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for the the various leagues as well as

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high school league

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i spent a lot of time driving down up

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and down i-84 going back and forth to

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school and work and of course i think i

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had some great memories in waterbury i

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lived there until i was about 27 years

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old

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and i can't wait to get back and enjoy

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uh some hometown food and of course

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visit with all the folks

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well i'm not sure if you're aware of

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this but the crosby high school

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basketball team is now rated uh is

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ranked number 10 in the state so i'm

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sure you'd be excited to hear about that

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i want to thank you both very much for

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your time today and it's this has

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actually been an honor and a pleasure to

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speak with you both safe travels

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the watr radio portion of the

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event please stand by for a voice check

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from kspr tv

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it amazes me that that's still standing

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love it thank you so much larry and

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sherry gibson showing us

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isb check one two three four i speed

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check

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at least as we head into the next few

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days we're not going to see activity

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like that at least that won't harbor

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that we can hear you loud and clear

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over the next few days now as far as if

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you want to send in your pictures all

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you need to do is send us an email

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that's weather kspr.com or you can

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always chime in on our ksp or with our

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facebook page make sure you like it and

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then you can go ahead and post those

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pictures directly in our wall and i

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haven't seen a lot in a while so guys

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feel free to send those in back to you

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thanks lindsay kspr has a very special

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treat for you this morning we certainly

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do a truly out of this world interview

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joining us live from space is astronaut

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rick mustard mastery tino and astronaut

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michael hopkins gentlemen thank you both

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for being with us this morning just

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now before we get to it i want to start

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yeah thank you very much it's great to

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be with you nasa since

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that's right we're going to work with a

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delay here i'm sorry about that rick

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we're going to start with you you've

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been with nasa since the early 90s

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you've been in three space flights and

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you've spent more than a month in space

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and currently you're serving as the

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flight engineer on iss for expedition 38

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and mike you're a colonel with the

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united states air force and more

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importantly you are a missouri native

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grew up in richland missouri and in 2009

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you were selected as one of 14 members

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to be a part of the 20th nasa astronaut

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class mike i'm going to start with you

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we spoke with you back in september and

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while you were training training in

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russia for this mission you told us this

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was going to be a very busy mission with

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more than 200 experiments to be done

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standard maintenance on the space

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station and even the olympic torch

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making a stop into space how are those

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yeah the experiments are going fantastic

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they just keep going too every day

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there's a lot of experiments that are

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happening uh even while we sleep such as

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the alpha magnetic spectrometer which is

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out there looking at the origins of the

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of the universe and then when we have

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resupply vehicles come up we get we get

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a lot of new experiments on those as

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well such as when the orbital supply

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vehicle came up we had some ants on

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board and we got to observe their

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behavior in the microgravity environment

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so

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christmas eve both of you conducted a

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spacewalk to fix a malfunctioning punk

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module on the cooling system for the

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international space station i understand

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there was some concern about a spacewalk

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because a previous one didn't go so well

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how did this one go and kind of explain

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okay yeah we did a series of space walks

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and the concern was that a previous

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spacewalk last summer uh one of the

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astronauts started getting water in his

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helmet but of course uh nasa is famous

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for solving problems and the smart folks

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on the ground got together and figured

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out ways

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to uh to fix the suits that we have up

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here and to avoid any problems if we did

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get uh water in our helmets so we

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weren't too concerned about the about

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that happening

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the space station coolant system

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basically had a problem with a valve and

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we had to go outside and replace a large

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800-pound uh box if you will and the

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spacewalks went perfectly we got two

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spacewalks one to pull the old one out

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and one to install the new one and

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everything went very well

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describe to us the feeling if you will

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from i guess stepping outside and being

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able to see more of more of space what's

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it like being outside of the space

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yeah it's it's truly an incredible

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experience uh for me these were my first

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uh spacewalks rick is very experienced

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with that but you know when you first uh

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are going out that hatch for the for the

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very first time it's just this whole mix

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of emotions it's uh

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you're very excited you're very nervous

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you're very focused you've it's uh it's

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an extremely intense environment and

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when you when you first step out and you

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get to see the earth without any

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obstructions without any windows around

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you or anything just through your your

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face mask

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it's it's unbelievable

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and uh so it's it's a very exciting but

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again probably the most intense thing

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that is certainly awesome and i'm

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noticing how you guys are kind of just

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letting the microphone float around

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there which brings me to my next point

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what's it like experiencing the

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weightlessness of space can you explain

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it's difficult to explain uh how what it

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feels like uh it's probably the best way

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to best analogy i can come up with is

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floating in your pool when you're

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floating in your pool

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yeah you know you're very free and

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that's the best analogy i can come up

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with but

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i like to say that you know space is a

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place where uh the impossible is easy

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but uh some of the easy things become

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much more difficult because we don't

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oh my gosh i'm so jealous i would give

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like a pinky finger probably a whole

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right hand to be up there with you guys

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tell me what it's like i know it's

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amazing honored to be in space but it's

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it's kind of cramped i would imagine on

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the space station does it get lonely and

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was the last time uh either of you guys

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yeah you know uh the space station is

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actually actually quite large and and so

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there's a lot of space and as we're

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working throughout the day you'll go

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you'll go hours without maybe seeing one

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of your crewmates um in terms of the

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loneliness from the family and

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everything the uh the nasa and the other

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organizations do a great job of keeping

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us in contact with our families we

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actually are able to talk to them just

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now what's next for you guys

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there's a lot going on so after we're

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done with this interview i'm sure you

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have some more interviews but what's

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next what are some other uh important

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oh yeah so today i'm actually we're

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going to finish out the day with a lot

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of ocular health so there's we've had

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issues with

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our eyesight up on orbit in the

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microgravity environment and so actually

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both rick and i today are going to spend

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some time taking pictures of our eyes

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using a couple of different machines to

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to do that and then folks on the ground

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they'll actually help us out as we do it

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and then they'll do a lot of the

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now we've

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managed to find you guys on twitter and

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follow some of you on twitter and a lot

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of cool pictures we saw one mike you

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posted one over a volcano uh there's

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some other pictures you've posted so you

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get to really stay connected to us back

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at home through things like facebook and

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twitter tell us about some of the

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yeah you know it's amazing uh i've i've

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taken hundreds and thousands of pictures

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because as you start looking down at the

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earth up here it's just one thing after

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another that you see and you're so

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excited so you just start snap snap

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snapping and then all of a sudden you

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00:16:27,350 --> 00:16:24,800
realize oh i've got to go through 300

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00:16:29,509 --> 00:16:27,360
pictures 400 pictures uh you know right

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00:16:30,790 --> 00:16:29,519
now in the past couple of weeks the the

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northern lights have been absolutely

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incredible so that's that's always

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exciting to see

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00:16:37,350 --> 00:16:35,519
it's always nice to try and capture home

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towns and cities and and then the

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mountains and the islands guys it's just

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incredible the the number of things that

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gentlemen thank you again so much for

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taking the time out of your busy

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00:16:53,189 --> 00:16:51,680
schedule to explain to us us normal

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00:16:55,110 --> 00:16:53,199
people what it's like up there we wish

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00:16:57,030 --> 00:16:55,120
you the best on the rest of this mission

446
00:16:59,350 --> 00:16:57,040
and a safe return coming up in march and

447
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astronauts rick mistrachio and michael

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hopkins live from the international

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space station no call that's awesome

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thanks for taking the time

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very cool

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we should just pass our breaks like that

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station this is houston acr thank you

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that concludes the event

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thank you watr radio and kspr tv station