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houston this is station we are ready for

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okay

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station this is houston are you picking

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i am now i had to adjust the volume on

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the atu i got you loud and clear okay we

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have you loud and clear as well

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and women of the hour this is mission

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control houston please call station for

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a voice check

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station this is producer barry finkel

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with women of the hour how do you hear

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i've got you loud and clear and we're

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great oh i'm so excited to talk to you

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um i just wanted to start by saying i

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will not be i'll be edited out of this

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interview so if you could respond in

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full sentences that would be ideal and i

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want to start by having you introduce

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yourself who you are what you do and

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yeah i'm astronaut kate rubins it's

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great to be talking to you i'm aboard

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the international space station and we

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just flew off the coast of japan we're

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headed somewhere towards panagonia and

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we have been busy all day on space

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station doing a bunch of experiments and

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prepping our spacesuits to go out the

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door on a spacewalk

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next saturday

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oh that is so exciting

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so when you were little and you would

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look up at the stars growing up did you

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ever imagine yourself being among them

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well when i was growing up when you are

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a little kid you've got some career

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goals of course and i had three it was

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astronaut biologist and geologist

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so i started out as a biologist i wound

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up as an astronaut and we'll see what

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happens from here

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wow that must feel really good

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so i'm curious what was going through

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your mind as you were launching into

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space how is the experience different

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yeah so we actually spend a lot of time

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in the simulator we launch on soyuz

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rockets so we are in the simulator with

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our russian colleagues

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often in moscow and the simulator feels

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very much like the real spacecraft you

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climb in on the real day and everything

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looks exactly as you're used to uh the

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biggest difference there is the fact

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that you actually uh then start to feel

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the rocket underneath you at liftoff and

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uh there's a lot of this going through

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your mind of i can't believe i'm

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actually here i can't believe we're

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actually on top of a rocket and it's a

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pretty incredible experience to suddenly

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be hurled into space at 17 500 miles an

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hour

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yeah it's hard to imagine

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can you give us a sensory description of

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being in space the sight smells and

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yeah that's a great question actually um

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so space does have a little bit of a

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smell and we got a chance to experience

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that when we docked the dragon vehicle

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to the space station so this was the

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spacex vehicle that launched recently

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one of the things that we do is

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pressurize and depressurize the air lock

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that goes between those two vehicles

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when you do that you bring a little bit

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of that space smell into station and and

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so my commander called us over and and

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told my crewmates and i to smell and

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smell if we could smell space it smells

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a little metallic but nothing

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remarkable not something you're gonna

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so what are you most looking forward to

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so i think uh you know the space walk is

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this pretty amazing thing actually when

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you see

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all of the effort that goes into it

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there's ground teams that spend months

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and years even preparing for this the

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end goal is to add some structure to the

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space station so we're going to put

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essentially what's a front porch onto

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the space station and that's going to be

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this kind of docking adapter for new

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commercial crew vehicles so i think one

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of the things that we're really looking

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forward to is the fact that we actually

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get to bolt a piece of hardware onto

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space station

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for me mostly it's really the fan that

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the fact that i get to see all of these

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years of ground training and all these

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folks that have helped me along the way

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they get to execute an eva i get to be

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part of that um that's that's i think

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just one of the most amazing things is

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to see what happens when nasa kicks into

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high gear what they can accomplish and

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and how all these these people come

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together and put a plan together

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yeah so what is an average day in space

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yeah that's a that is a great question

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it's a busy day usually um we are

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absolutely maximizing our time up here

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and so we might get up in the morning

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and do some

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various science ops so for example right

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now i'm working on a lot of cell culture

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for heart cells these are cardiomyocytes

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that were actually growing on orbit so

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there there no kidding heart cells you

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can see them in the microscope they

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start beating

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they they beat in together and you can

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actually see that and we're culturing

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them on board the space station to try

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to understand the effects of

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microgravity so you might have a science

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experiment in the morning

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this afternoon uh we're gonna be

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plumbers we are uh replacing some

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components uh on the toilet and a few

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hours before that i was putting together

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this the uh spacesuits and doing a bunch

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of hardware checkout to get us ready to

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go on our spacewalk so it's uh choose

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your own adventure i mean and pick any

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kind of activity we're probably doing it

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so when it comes to activity is more for

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fun i'm assuming that you know things

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like board games are probably limited so

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what is your favorite activity to do for

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yeah so that that is a great question

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and um we don't the the kinds of

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activities um that we have on board the

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space station you have a lot of things

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that you would have available to you on

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earth we have a little book library

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you know we have some things that we can

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do in our free time a lot of times the

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crew hangs out and just chats with each

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other at dinner but there's not a lot of

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desire to just do the normal things that

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you would on a saturday afternoon on the

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earth

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because this is such an amazing place we

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really find ourselves drawn to the

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cupola and that's the big area with

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windows where we can look down at the

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earth and you could spend

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six months of saturdays up here and

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never and never really do a normal earth

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activity because we're so fascinated

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with watching the earth and watching the

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planet go by so i think most of our

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downtime activities are usually

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concerned with the really unique nature

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of space and the fact that we're in

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how would you describe seeing an aurora

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that it's amazing and aurora uh from

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space is one of the most incredible

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things that you can imagine and uh it's

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a little bit rare so

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you end up when you're looking out the

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window you end up with these uh treasure

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hunts a little bit of times uh sometimes

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i wanted to see the pyramids i saw those

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the other day from space

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so

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looking out for because it only happens

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at certain times we were lucky enough

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that we launched on the soyuz and we

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were actually orbiting the planet in our

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very small soyuz spacecraft for two days

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before we dock for the space station and

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i looked out the window

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one of the first nights when we were in

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orbital darkness and i saw this

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beautiful green aurora and and it just

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uh happened to be that way uh we were we

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were looking for it for a while and only

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recently saw it up here on space station

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um and so it's it's gorgeous it's

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amazing

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i'm a scientist and so i enjoy thinking

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about magnetic fields and and what this

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exactly means for uh what's going on in

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terms of geomagnetic issues on our

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planet but i think maybe not everybody

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how has your relationship with earth

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i think one of the ways that your

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relationship with earth changes is the

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fact that you can see so much

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so i was narrating to some family and

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friends a little while ago uh we had a

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really nice pass over the u.s and i saw

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some areas in vancouver and i was really

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interested in looking at the mountains

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and

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noticed off in the distance

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uh some lakes and i was thinking gosh i

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need to get better on my geography i

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better go look that up that's a really

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big lake

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it was the great lakes and so that is

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this go that's the way your the scope

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should completely changes i mean you can

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see out of one eye you can see the west

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coast out of your other eye you can

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actually see the great lakes and so

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that kind of perspective where you're

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seeing whole continents um you're just

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seeing this beauty of the planet come

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come before your eyes

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i think

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it does something really deep in the

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human brain stem and it definitely

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so can you tell us briefly how you wound

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yeah so i applied to nasa and was part

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of the 2009 astronaut class we come in

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and we do a lot of basic training as

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astronaut candidates and then when we

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get selected for a mission we actually

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trained for about two and a half years

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for the the specific mission that we're

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going to do and so

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we we do a lot of training at nasa but

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we also train at the partner agency

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sites so i was talking about the

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training in moscow we train in japan we

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train in canada and we train in europe

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as well and after you go through all of

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that

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you have a pretty good understanding i

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think of what we're going to do on a

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daily basis on the space station

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so we

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we get all this this training done and a

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little bit of it we learn on the job up

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here um but there's not a whole lot that

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we're directing of of the selection

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process or anything like that that all

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comes from the ground um and we just

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help them out the best we can

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getting this incredible amount of

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experiments space walks

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cargo transfer work all the things we're

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so you have a crew up there but there

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aren't necessarily all that many people

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you know i we really don't it's actually

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amazing the space station is huge and so

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you might not have eyes on every single

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crew member but we kind of know where

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everybody is and what they're doing uh

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we'll be working together a lot of the

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time so uh for example today two my

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russian colleagues were down in the in

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the european segment doing an ultrasound

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experiment so

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we're you know we're working on the

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spacesuits and we we'd float by and

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watch them do an ultrasound experiment

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um you you really just get the sense

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that you're working together all the

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time um so it doesn't feel lonely it and

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it can be a little

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busy up here you've got people flying

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from module to module getting their

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stuff done

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so it's just a it's a lot of enjoyment

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and and you really don't get that sense

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of loneliness

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do you feel a need to create a private

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uh we really don't we have our little um

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cubicle where our sleeping sleeping bags

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are hung up and um so we all have a

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place to sleep and uh the the work up

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here is so fascinating and so engaging i

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think a lot of the stuff that you might

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feel on the ground where

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i i need to get away from it all um i

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just want my own spot

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it doesn't translate up here um the

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any sense of of isolation

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can immediately be cured by going and

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looking out the window and seeing

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everybody on the planet there's actually

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i would say more feeling of

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connectedness than there is of isolation

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or need to to sequester yourself from

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you are the 60th woman in space which is

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pretty incredible did you talk to any

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other women astronauts and get any

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well i talked to a whole bunch of

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astronauts before i launched i think

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that's a really good practice in general

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so there's actually not a major

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difference in terms of the kind of job

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that we're doing up here it's

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essentially no impact so

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i talked to women and men about all of

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their experiences about the things that

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we've talked about about launching

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what people thought of the work

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their tips and tricks for getting

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through the workday and the advice from

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from fellow astronauts and folks that

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have flown before is really invaluable

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that's what allows us to get up here and

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hit the ground running and get so much

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accomplished

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in our first few days and weeks up on

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so do you ever feel isolated being the

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only woman on board or is that not an

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i frankly don't really think about the

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fact that i'm the only woman on board i

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think it's just you know we're a crew

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we're up here

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there's no difference in my job

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description so

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it's not something that comes to mind

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it's not something i think it's that's

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maybe the same question as uh does

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somebody feel isolated being the only

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army astronaut up here or does somebody

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feel isolated being the only japanese

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astronaut up here

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it's it's part of who we are we bring

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our own personal characteristics to the

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table but we're together up here as a

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crew and

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there's really not a separation or

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isolation or a need to feel different

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that's great um i'm wondering how do you

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cope with being separated from family

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and friends you know pretty much the

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farthest distance you could be

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well so there actually are times where

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we pass directly over uh for example our

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hometown or where we live or where

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relatives are and and they'll oftentimes

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use an app on the ground that that they

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can use to spot the space station um and

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nasa has this app but your listeners can

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go look it up and and see if we happen

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to be flying overhead at a good time and

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so i get a lot of notes from people um

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that say hey i just saw you fly overhead

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so you actually in some ways

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can feel closer to some of your

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far-flung uh friends and relatives and

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we have a really fantastic way of

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staying connected with people up here so

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uh we can have video chats with uh with

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our family and friends and uh it's

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really it's a it's a really fun time we

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get to bring a little bit of the space

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station life to them

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so it's not as remote as you would think

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it's a fascinating unique environment

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and it is a remote and extreme

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environment but it gets brought a lot

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so what do you miss back on earth are

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there little things you really miss you

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know if small is a dish you really love

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yeah that's a good question and and i'm

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not the only one to say this but i do

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miss um a lot of the

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sounds and smells uh and and feeling of

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being outside so we have a closed-loop

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system here which is actually a

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fantastic

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science experiment if you will and

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understanding of how we recycle air

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water we're at 90 recycling here so so

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we recycle all of our water we recycle

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all of our air but you end up living in

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a place with no weather

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it's always the same temperature up here

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we don't really feel a breeze on our

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face

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we can see the planet but you don't

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necessarily see something like trees or

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or a field up close and so that's

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something that we miss a little bit and

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and you uh

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i think on the ground maybe would would

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tend to complain about the weather up

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here we'd be thrilled to to uh be

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standing in the middle of a rainstorm so

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i think that's the one thing is that the

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actual sensation of being somewhere

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where you've got

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uh

404
00:16:29,749 --> 00:16:27,199
you feel outside and

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and you can feel nature um

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but at the same time having this

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closed-loop environmental system is

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fascinating

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and and we're really learning a lot

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about

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how you can purify air and water and how

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you can

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minimize your use of resources and keep

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that constantly purified in recycling

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we're learning a whole lot about that

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it's engineering science um

417
00:16:56,310 --> 00:16:53,040
it's a lot it's a it's one giant

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experiment i think on the space station

419
00:17:01,670 --> 00:16:59,680
fascinating so funny last question from

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00:17:07,429 --> 00:17:01,680
us have you updated your address on

421
00:17:11,350 --> 00:17:09,189
i did send an email out of office

422
00:17:14,949 --> 00:17:11,360
message that said i'm currently off the

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00:17:17,590 --> 00:17:14,959
planet unable to get back to your email

424
00:17:19,750 --> 00:17:17,600
oh that's amazing thank you so much this

425
00:17:23,909 --> 00:17:19,760
has been excellent and best of luck on

426
00:17:27,510 --> 00:17:25,510
thank you it's really great to talk to

427
00:17:29,190 --> 00:17:27,520
you i want to say hi to all your

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00:17:30,789 --> 00:17:29,200
listeners and thanks very much for

429
00:17:35,430 --> 00:17:30,799
joining us on the international space

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00:17:39,990 --> 00:17:37,270
station this is houston acr that

431
00:17:41,909 --> 00:17:40,000
concludes the event thank you

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thank you women of the hour and station