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station this is houston are you ready

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we are ready for the event

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associated press 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 marcia doane with the

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hello marcia we have you loud and clear

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good to talk to you today

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good morning from the kennedy space

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center

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i'd like to start off by welcoming kate

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to space and directing my first several

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questions to her if you don't mind

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tell me a bit about the write-up last

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week kate and your time so far at the

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space station is space how you thought

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great question we spend a lot of time

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preparing uh for launch obviously it's

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been about a two and a half year

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training flow and you hear a lot about

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launch but there's nothing really that

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can quite prepare you for uh the actual

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event of a ride on a rocket so

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it was a it was an amazing launch

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all the folks on the ground said that it

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was beautiful to see

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and for me one of the most amazing parts

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has been opening the hatch and getting

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to glimpse the space station for the

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first time

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well correct me if i'm wrong but i

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believe you are the first professional

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virus hunter to fly in space and there's

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a lot of interest down here in the dna

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sequencer launching next week on the

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spacex dragon can you tell me about the

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device and how and when you plan to use

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yeah it's an example of some of the

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really exciting technology development

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and also life sciences microbiological

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experiments that we're doing on station

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it's going to be launching on spacex

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coming up pretty soon and we're really

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interested in how this works in

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microgravity it's never been done before

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we're going to be trying to do the first

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dna sequencing in space and it'll be a

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combination of a bacteria a virus

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and a mouse genome that we'll be

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sequencing

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um

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certainly you've worked with a lot of

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dangerous viruses on earth and i'm

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assuming nothing is coming up to the

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space station that's going to equal that

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but

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what is the the deadliest most

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infectious um virus you've worked with

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on earth and and

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by comparison do you think your work up

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there is going to be much easier at

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yeah we've got a lot of safety folks on

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the ground making sure that nothing

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dangerous gets on board and we really

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appreciate the work that those guys do

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so everything that we send up is not

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pathogenic to humans and has been really

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carefully tested

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on the ground my previous work was

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definitely in more of the dangerous

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pathogen area we worked on ebola

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smallpox marburg and loss of virus and

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those are diseases that uh are

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definitely affecting human populations

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on earth and so

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doing the work on that was important

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it is stressful to work in a dangerous

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environment

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but we feel like the training really

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takes care of a lot of the

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uncertainty of the situation and our

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ability to respond to a dangerous

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environment whether it's in a biosafety

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level lab on the ground or on space

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station

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we've got a lot of good folks working to

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help us out and we do have quite a lot

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of training and preparation to get us

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here

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what about previous dna research done in

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space i mean

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tell me tell me what's been done so far

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in space and how is the sequencer going

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to expand the genetic envelope so to

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yeah so jeff actually did a couple of

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great experiments early on expedition 47

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one of them was an experiment called

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genes in space which was a high school

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competition and it was a pcr machine so

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it was designed to detect specific dna

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sequences

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there's also a great experiment called

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wet lab which is a different kind of pcr

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machine that allows you to see in real

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time what the genetic results are on

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board space station and those are

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looking for specific sequences

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the biomolecule sequencer that we're

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going to be taking a look at is actually

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going to look at everything in a sample

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so it's a way of looking globally at

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what's going on in a sample versus going

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in and looking at individual genes

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altogether it's an extremely exciting

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research package and a great capability

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on board station

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well you know there's so much talk about

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going to mars how might that benefit a

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well anything that we do on space

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station is helping us understand how

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human beings can live in space and so

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the kind of work that we'd be doing with

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the sequencer it's just going to

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understand the general process of things

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like bone loss and microbial changes on

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board space station but it also actually

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has a benefit for the earth-based

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research as well when we do things in a

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remote environment up here we can

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understand how these technologies might

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work in remote places on earth that

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don't have access to good medical care

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so it's got an exploration goal but it

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also definitely really i think has a

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earth research benefit as well

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and one last question to you along these

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lines before i talk to jeff um you know

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how jeremy is the space station you know

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i mean you're a professional here what's

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your take on it without getting out all

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the scientific equipment you know we've

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heard about the microbes up there is it

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no i think we've demonstrated that human

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beings can live in space for 15 years

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now we've had a continuous human

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presence on board the space station i

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think it's a really interesting question

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from a research perspective what's going

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on in the microbial world around us we

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know we have

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microbes inside and outside the human

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body that are living along with us and

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so the chance to see how those behave in

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microgravity is going to be a really

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interesting question on board space

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station in the coming years

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uh jeff you know the dragon of course is

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going to be flying up next week how

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important is it to get this stocking

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adapter up there safe and sound we all

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remember what happened to the first

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well of course it's very important we it

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is required in order to have the

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commercial crude vehicles that are

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currently in development be able to dock

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to the space station so it's a it's in

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the critical path to the future of the

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exploitation of the international space

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do you see two as being necessary before

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the first um

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crew flight by either dragon or the

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starliner i mean or do you think one

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would suffice at least for a short

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well you know that virtually everything

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we do has redundancy in it and having

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two on board gives us that redundancy

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so

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my

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uh i think what the current thinking is

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is is that we need to have two on board

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before that first launch

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for that obvious reason of redundancy

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um thanks for that answer and five years

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ago these days atlantis was making the

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final shuttle flight um what's your

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thoughts jeff on this fifth anniversary

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of the last shuttle voyage and do you

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feel a bit of melancholy still over the

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end of the shuttle program or are you

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looking more to the future at this point

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in

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if you look at it historically the

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shuttle was a shuttle-like vehicle was

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first envisioned as early as the the 50s

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the mid and late 50s and it was

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developed in the 70s and we

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we went through the 80s largely

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forgetting what it was developed for but

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the primary purpose was to put up a

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space station piece by piece in 1984 of

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course president reagan announced space

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station freedom

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which

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never really coalesced in terms of the

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political support to launch it but then

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we morphed into the international space

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station in the early 90s bringing the

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russians on board as a partner

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and then finally began launching

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elements in 1998

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and finished it out as you said five

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years ago with the flight of the shuttle

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now the early cancellation the shuttle

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of course was driven uh largely by

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circumstances surrounding the columbia

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accident and the in the the hard

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decisions that had to be made after the

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columbia accident

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as you know the shuttle was originally

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envisioned to continue to fly for the

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life of the space station to support it

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and that that decision was made to

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retire early it was it was tough for

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everybody to retire the shuttle it was

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it was a great vehicle

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and did its job but that's the point it

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did its primary job it fulfilled its

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primary purpose and the teams did a

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great job of adjusting

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so that we could continue

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to fly out the space station for an

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extended period of time without the

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shuttle using other vehicles and then

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also using it as an opportunity as a

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destination if you will

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for

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these new

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developed commercial crew vehicles

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yes uh jeff and congratulations in

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advance on your record that you'll be

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breaking with the accumulated of u.s

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time um does a year and a half in space

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even if it's cobbled together over

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several flights belong to you and

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i'm afraid i'm going to have to sign off

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after that question so god speak to you

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thank you very much marcia great to talk

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stationed this is houston acr that

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thank you associated press station