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station this is wtop radio how do you

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we've got you loud and clear welcome

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onboard the international space station

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wow this is really cool this has not

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been done before we are talking live

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here on wtop with the international

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space station and we say hello to

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commander terry verts now in command

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congratulations commander we are happy

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to hear that you are from maryland

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well thanks uh i appreciate it and i am

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a local uh born and raised in maryland

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and hello to all the folks down there in

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maryland and dc and virginia uh i've

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been watching we take a look whenever we

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have a pass and it looks like it's been

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a pretty cold and white winter so far

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we are watching you on nasa tv and we're

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streaming it on our website at wtop.com

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and it's a it's really wonderful to talk

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to you and also to a flight engineer

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samantha christo ferretti who joins us

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she's an italian astronaut welcome to

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you as well and thank you for talking

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yeah absolutely thanks for having us

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it's wonderful to be here great to hear

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from you both uh terry we know this is

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not your your first mission on the space

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station we want to know uh how has it

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changed over time does it get easier for

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well

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living here in space absolutely gets

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easier the first few weeks that you're

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here your body's still getting used to

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weightlessness

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you're still learning how to float and

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how to move around and you're learning

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the space station where things are

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located and so the first few weeks can

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can definitely be an adjustment period

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but then

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it seems like somewhere between the one

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and two month period you kind of hit

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your stride you are adapted you

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understand how to float and um there was

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one day i was actually trying to

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remember what gravity felt like it's

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weird that your body adjusts so

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completely to being weightless but it's

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pretty cool process

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we have a lot of questions especially

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from school kids who are listening in

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their classrooms this morning in fact

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mrs balzar's fifth grade class andrew

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asked how do you sleep at night if every

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well andrew that's a great question and

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luckily we don't have a window in our in

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our crew quarters where we sleep so we

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shut the door turn off the lights and in

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our small crew quarters where our

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sleeping bag is there's no light so your

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body uh just thinks it's dark and thinks

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it's time to sleep and i actually sleep

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really well

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uh oftentimes it's a busy day so you

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don't get a large amount of sleep but

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when i am asleep i sleep very well

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thankfully because we close the windows

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as you can imagine we get a lot of

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questions about the food

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that you are eating i know that there

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are uh cargo supplies that that bring

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you

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terry and i are very different in terms

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of taste and the stuff we like to eat

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but up here we definitely both have been

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enjoying uh the few times that we have

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received fresh food and that really

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happens uh whenever there is a new cargo

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vehicle that comes up here so that

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happened um early in our mission when a

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progress vehicle came and then

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in last january we had a dragon arriving

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and then a progress again

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next week we'll have a soyuz although i

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don't think there's space for food in

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for fresh food in the soyuz but we'll

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definitely get some more fresh food

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coming up in the next weeks when the

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next dragon will come and and the reason

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is that we do not have a fridge we have

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a little um refrigerator up here but

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it's not enough to keep um to keep fresh

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food um you know for a long time so most

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of the food that we eat usually is uh

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thermally stabilized so that it can be

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shelf stable for a long time and we can

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keep it stored in here for months or

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even over a year

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or it's dehydrated and so we plug it

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into our water dispenser we plug the

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pouch into the water dispenser and

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magically uh with add in the water it

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turns into food that we would recognize

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and there is a great variety of food for

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all the tastes and flavors

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commander verts uh we have some

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questions from students at oakland mills

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middle school which i think is a

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familiar name to you

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one of the questions uh is

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from one of the kids who's asking about

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being away from your family for so long

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and i guess for both of you how do you

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deal with with being away and are you

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well that's a great question um yes

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oakland mills i'm a scorpion and

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graduated from there in 1985 uh had a

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great time there what an awesome place

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but it is probably the toughest thing is

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being separated from your family not

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only for the six months here that were

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in space but also for the several years

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beforehand that we were in training we

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were gone a lot and so

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it's tough uh they're the real heroes

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everybody sees the astronauts in space

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and wants to talk to us but it's the

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families that provide us support that

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allow us to do this and they're the real

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heroes in that that's a great question

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commander verts we have enjoyed

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the many pictures of uh

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the baseball fields that you have been

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sending back and so a number of folks

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that we know you are from maryland but i

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have been told to ask are you a nats fan

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samantha says she can answer that one

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she's a base she's become a baseball

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expert but i'll tell you what what i'm

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rooting for is for the orioles and the

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nationals to be playing at the end of

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october this year that's uh that what

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i'd really love to see is a game seven

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between those guys uh right around

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halloween time um and i with the

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nationals pitching staff this year it

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definitely looks like they may be

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playing late in october and with the

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orioles coming off that 96 win season

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you know they have a great shot at it

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too so of course when i grew up it was

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in the 70s and 80s and the orioles were

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going to the world series and playoffs

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all the time so i'm i'm a homegrown uh

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lifelong orioles fan for sure

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we've got a few questions for you guys

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uh by the way that was a good political

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answer not only a commander but a

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politician it's a great answer from the

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gun on aveem kindergarten class in the

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jewish primary day school kids are

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studying the solar system there in space

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exploration and they want to know i

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guess from each of you how long does it

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take to train to become an astronaut and

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tell us a little bit about what you're

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seeing up there how beautiful are the

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in a way you train all of your life to

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become an astronaut be because um before

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you can actually train to go to space

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you need to be selected as an astronaut

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by a space agency like nasa in the case

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of terry or the european space agency in

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my case and to be

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ready to be a valid candidate at some

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point of your career in your life you

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really have to start working at it when

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you are you know in in school already

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and you're learning your basic math and

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writing and and science and then you're

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going to college and um you know most

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astronauts have some kind of technical

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or scientific background many of us are

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military pilots um so you kind of start

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on your on your career and and you try

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to be really good at it and the key of

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course is to be passionate about what

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you do

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and then eventually one day you'll

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hopefully be a good candidate for to

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become an astronaut and then

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before you can actually come on the

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international space station you have to

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train specifically for several for

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several more years

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and in terms of what we see and what the

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view is up here um we are not really

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equipped for an astronomical observation

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uh the the big windows that we have that

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are on the cupola actually look down

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towards the earth so that's our our

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biggest uh

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you know spectacle the greatest views

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that we have are mainly from from the

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earth you know just seeing the

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continents and the oceans and the

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glaciers and the mountains and all the

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different colors and textures all of

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that is just it's just magnificent and

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it's ever-changing and always a surprise

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um of course we also do see the stars um

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and sometimes really beautiful beautiful

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phenomena like right now i was seeing

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one auroras now we're seeing the

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southern lights which are even more

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impressive that the northern lights that

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we used to see earlier they're like

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three-dimensional you almost like fly

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through them so it's just just beautiful

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and then of course as you mentioned

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before 16 times a day we're treated to

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probably the best show of nature which

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is uh the sunrise and the sunsets on the

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earth's horizon

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amazing uh several students have asked

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the question about

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your free time what do you do to uh to

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pass the time and and do you uh do you

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become concerned about hitting a wall in

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uh that's a good question and to be

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honest i think for our first four months

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here in space we haven't had a lot of

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free time the weekends are generally

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we don't have as much scheduled work but

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there seems like there's always

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something to do and yesterday two days

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ago our crewmates came back to earth on

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the soyuz and we

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had yesterday off as a as a data sleep

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shift to get our schedule back normal

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and that was really nice to have some

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time off make some phone calls home

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and go through some emails and just rest

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for a day but it seems like most days

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even on the weekends there is a there's

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you know there's always something to do

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so we try and pace ourselves and um six

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months seems to be a pretty good time

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folks are able to work at a really good

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pace for six months and then um there

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comes a time when it's you know it's

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time to go back to earth but we're not

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there i think we're definitely enjoying

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our our time here and it still feels

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like there's a lot we want to get done

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well that is just incredible information

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with uh commander terry verts in command

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of the space station from columbia

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maryland also with uh flight engineer

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samantha christo ferretti speaking to us

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aboard the international space station

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here on wtop

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thank you both for taking the time we

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really appreciate it this was an

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unprecedented opportunity for us and we

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appreciate the work that you're doing

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thank you very much thank you to both of

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you

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all and

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hopefully i'll be back to earth in time

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the wtop radio portion of the

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event please stand by for a voice check

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station this is your news how do you

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we hear you it's a little bit soft but

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okay hi terry bongiorno samantha thank

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you very much for joining us on euro

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news

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i would like to start by asking how you

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feel about the other three crew members

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returning to earth as the next crew will

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arrive at the end of march do you feel a

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you know it was it was it was sad seeing

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those guys leave we were together for

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four months they're very good friends

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and

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um we really enjoyed our time together

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so it was sad seeing them leave we're

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not too lonely though we have me

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samantha and anton are together now

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and this is an interesting two week time

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where we'll have the space station

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ourselves before our next crew arrives

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but i do want to say happy birthday to

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sasha today's his birthday

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alexander samokutyaev happy birthday

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in the first to four months of your

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mission you have carried out some

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scientific experiments samantha could

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you tell us more about this and explain

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yes of course scientific research is the

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main reason why

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why we are up here on the international

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space station

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laboratory that allows us to do research

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in this very special condition which is

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microgravity or weightlessness

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which is very intriguing in many

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scientific fields because

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by doing scientific observations in

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microgravity you can observe and measure

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and quantify phenomena that otherwise

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you would not be able maybe not even to

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notice and certainly not to study in

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detail in the effect in the presence of

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the effects of gravity on earth and some

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of those fields are human science of

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course biology um human physiology

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but also material science fluid physics

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and of course the space station is also

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a platform for some um experiments that

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are actually observations of the

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universe

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i've done a lot of

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things in the last few months so it's

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it's it's going to be difficult to name

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them all

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but i can mention the few things that i

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have been working on recently and i will

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be working on soon which are two

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european space agency experiments airway

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monitoring and triple looks and

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both of them actually have been a little

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bit troublesome

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and i actually like to say this because

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uh you know you don't want to give the

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impression that in science everything

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works right off the bat and immediately

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sometimes it is harder it takes several

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trials it takes a little bit of trial

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and error it takes adjustments it takes

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learning and that has definitely been

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the case for example on this experiment

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airway monitoring which is a very

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intriguing scientific protocol that for

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the first time is going to study how the

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gaseous exchange in the lungs is

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affected by both the weightlessness

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microgravity and even reduced pressure

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actually terry and i were locked up in

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the airlock for several hours at reduced

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pressure to to do some of those

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measurements

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and then one which is going to come up

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as soon as we have fixed some issues

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we're having with the biolab rack is

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triple looks which is another intriguing

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scientific protocol which is aimed at

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studying the effect of weightlessness on

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the immune system on the behavior of

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some specific immune cells that are

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involved whenever our body fights

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terry another goal of this mission was

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to prepare the station for the arrival

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of future private spaceships for now

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that will mean once again having direct

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access to space how important will it be

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having a partnership with private

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well it's it's been a big part of our

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mission so far both doing spacewalks and

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doing work inside

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to get ready for the future vehicles

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that will be coming to the space station

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and it's very important for nasa our

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way forward the way that we're going to

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launch astronauts from florida once

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again to the space station is going to

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be on

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both the boeing capsule and a spacex

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capsule

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starting sometime in the next probably

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two years and we're really looking

384
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forward to that it's it's a important

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part of the space station program it's

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an important logistical

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thing that needs to be solved in order

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to get people to the station and back so

389
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and what comes after the international

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space station once its mission is over

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how do we ensure the presence of humans

392
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well that's a great question

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the

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plan that nasa has is to build a rocket

395
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called sls which is a heavy lift rocket

396
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it's something that is that is much

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bigger than what we have today and it

398
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will be able to launch the orion capsule

399
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with humans on board as well as landers

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or other uh components

401
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to be to destinations beyond earth orbit

402
00:16:28,389 --> 00:16:26,959
right now we only can fly in earth orbit

403
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that's the farthest that we can go and

404
00:16:32,069 --> 00:16:30,240
this new system that we're building is

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going to allow us to go beyond and

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hopefully take humans into the solar

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00:16:37,990 --> 00:16:36,320
system to explore so the moon mars

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00:16:39,990 --> 00:16:38,000
asteroids there's a lot of destinations

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that we could go to and we're building

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these building block components in order

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samantha according to a recent survey

412
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based on research on internet

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you are the most popular italian woman

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in the world ahead of monica bellucci

415
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and laura pausini does it mean that

416
00:17:11,029 --> 00:17:04,000
science may be more attractive than

417
00:17:14,630 --> 00:17:12,949
well

418
00:17:17,270 --> 00:17:14,640
i'm not sure that that was a service

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conducted according to the

420
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most scientific and statistical criteria

421
00:17:22,949 --> 00:17:21,039
but

422
00:17:25,510 --> 00:17:22,959
just to take it for for the fun that i

423
00:17:27,429 --> 00:17:25,520
i'm sure it was meant to be um

424
00:17:30,630 --> 00:17:27,439
i'm certainly happy that

425
00:17:33,110 --> 00:17:30,640
a person like me who is uh really nobody

426
00:17:34,710 --> 00:17:33,120
as a person but uh has the privilege of

427
00:17:37,590 --> 00:17:34,720
being the representative of something

428
00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:37,600
really special which is uh um

429
00:17:42,230 --> 00:17:39,360
you know the the space station program

430
00:17:43,510 --> 00:17:42,240
having this incredible uh technological

431
00:17:45,430 --> 00:17:43,520
scientific

432
00:17:47,350 --> 00:17:45,440
achievement which is really a testament

433
00:17:49,909 --> 00:17:47,360
of what humanity can achieve when we

434
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decide to work together and put together

435
00:17:55,029 --> 00:17:52,240
our best minds all over the world to do

436
00:17:56,870 --> 00:17:55,039
something which is really amazing and uh

437
00:17:58,549 --> 00:17:56,880
and of course it's it's a testament to

438
00:18:00,549 --> 00:17:58,559
the the scientific research that is

439
00:18:03,669 --> 00:18:00,559
conducted here and all the technological

440
00:18:05,110 --> 00:18:03,679
development which is uh really just uh

441
00:18:07,270 --> 00:18:05,120
you know

442
00:18:08,870 --> 00:18:07,280
ensuring that we um do all the steps

443
00:18:11,350 --> 00:18:08,880
that are necessary for further

444
00:18:14,470 --> 00:18:11,360
exploration in the future so in uh in

445
00:18:16,549 --> 00:18:14,480
that sense of course i i am happy that

446
00:18:19,110 --> 00:18:16,559
about the outcome of this survey of

447
00:18:25,029 --> 00:18:19,120
which again i i'm sure it was meant in

448
00:18:29,990 --> 00:18:27,190
okay just a quick question sent in by

449
00:18:32,070 --> 00:18:30,000
our social media followers in around two

450
00:18:33,909 --> 00:18:32,080
months you will come back to earth what

451
00:18:42,230 --> 00:18:33,919
did you guys miss the most during your

452
00:18:44,789 --> 00:18:43,350
well

453
00:18:46,950 --> 00:18:44,799
that's a great question

454
00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:46,960
living here is is very pleasant we have

455
00:18:50,310 --> 00:18:48,960
everything that we need the food is good

456
00:18:52,789 --> 00:18:50,320
we have we're here with good friends and

457
00:18:54,310 --> 00:18:52,799
so life here in space is pretty good um

458
00:18:55,909 --> 00:18:54,320
the thing i think we miss the most is

459
00:18:57,430 --> 00:18:55,919
people you know missing our families on

460
00:18:58,789 --> 00:18:57,440
earth missing our friends getting back

461
00:18:59,990 --> 00:18:58,799
to see folks

462
00:19:01,830 --> 00:19:00,000
that's the thing that you really miss

463
00:19:02,789 --> 00:19:01,840
more than anything another thing that

464
00:19:04,549 --> 00:19:02,799
i'll throw out there we were just

465
00:19:06,310 --> 00:19:04,559
talking about this is weather we don't

466
00:19:08,789 --> 00:19:06,320
have weather here we were just talking

467
00:19:09,909 --> 00:19:08,799
about rain and and snow and what it's

468
00:19:11,510 --> 00:19:09,919
like to have on earth so that is

469
00:19:13,190 --> 00:19:11,520
something that i miss and i'm looking

470
00:19:14,870 --> 00:19:13,200
forward to experiencing a little bit of

471
00:19:17,830 --> 00:19:14,880
weather hopefully a lot of sun and

472
00:19:19,110 --> 00:19:17,840
warmth but you know other other rain and

473
00:19:25,830 --> 00:19:19,120
snow and that kind of stuff is something

474
00:19:29,909 --> 00:19:27,909
okay to finish i would like to ask how

475
00:19:32,230 --> 00:19:29,919
you remember on the station actor

476
00:19:35,110 --> 00:19:32,240
leonard nimoy and was your interest in

477
00:19:44,310 --> 00:19:35,120
space inspired by star trek and mr spock

478
00:19:52,230 --> 00:19:45,830
what can i have to ask you to say that

479
00:19:58,310 --> 00:19:56,150
i would like uh to ask how you remember

480
00:20:00,789 --> 00:19:58,320
you remembered on the station actor

481
00:20:06,710 --> 00:20:00,799
leonard nimoy and was your interest in

482
00:20:12,470 --> 00:20:07,830
okay

483
00:20:14,310 --> 00:20:12,480
the question um definitely i was a as a

484
00:20:17,590 --> 00:20:14,320
big tracker growing up

485
00:20:20,950 --> 00:20:17,600
i was really really really a big fan

486
00:20:23,750 --> 00:20:20,960
and i do think that it has played a part

487
00:20:26,390 --> 00:20:23,760
in in helping to in helping me to to

488
00:20:28,230 --> 00:20:26,400
show me this path to to help me become

489
00:20:30,230 --> 00:20:28,240
aware that this is what i wanted to do

490
00:20:32,310 --> 00:20:30,240
um you know become an astronaut travel

491
00:20:35,190 --> 00:20:32,320
to space and and play a little bit my

492
00:20:37,110 --> 00:20:35,200
part in uh in this human adventure of

493
00:20:39,590 --> 00:20:37,120
of space exploration which is just you

494
00:20:42,549 --> 00:20:39,600
know one long journey and and and one

495
00:20:45,669 --> 00:20:42,559
day maybe or you know i believe so a

496
00:20:49,110 --> 00:20:45,679
star trek reality will uh will be will

497
00:20:50,710 --> 00:20:49,120
be will become true so um i

498
00:20:52,950 --> 00:20:50,720
i really felt like

499
00:20:59,990 --> 00:20:52,960
i had an obligation to to honor leonard

500
00:21:04,630 --> 00:21:02,070
thank you very much for having been with

501
00:21:07,110 --> 00:21:04,640
us enjoy the rest of your mission and

502
00:21:11,830 --> 00:21:07,120
just as mr spock would have said live

503
00:21:15,029 --> 00:21:13,430
thank you very much i appreciate that

504
00:21:16,870 --> 00:21:15,039
and hello to all the folks down there in

505
00:21:18,070 --> 00:21:16,880
europe we just had a beautiful passover

506
00:21:20,630 --> 00:21:18,080
europe this morning it looked like a

507
00:21:21,909 --> 00:21:20,640
sunny day in a lot of places and and

508
00:21:27,190 --> 00:21:21,919
we'll see you back on earth in a few