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station this is houston are you ready

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houston station we are ready for the

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nbc this is mission control houston

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please call station for voice check

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station this is chuck todd with nbc how

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hey hello from the international space

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station i've got you loud and clear

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excellent

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yep we are on board international space

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station as part of the expedition 49

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crew

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all right so we can get started all

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ah okay

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all right joining me now is astronaut

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kate rubin she's a virologist on the

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international space station she launched

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for space in early july for a four-month

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mission since she's been in orbit rubens

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has become the first person to sequence

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dna in space

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she added a piece of equipment to the

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outside of the space station during a

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space walk and when she helped replace

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some toilet parts on the space station

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she called herself a janitor tate

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welcome to 1947. so

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tell me where you are right now what do

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you see

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where are you orbiting over earth what's

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yeah so uh we actually are just coming

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up the coast of africa we're going to

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pass through angola central congo which

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is actually where i used to work and

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then we're going to head up north

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towards kazakhstan and as high as we get

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at 51 degrees and head up towards the

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poles

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it all happens very quickly you actually

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have to be pretty good on the space

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station at recognizing things because

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we're going along at 17 500 miles an

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hour up here

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how long do you gaze down

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so we're pretty busy during the day we

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actually work about a 12-hour day we've

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got so much research experiments and

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also just maintaining the space station

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up here

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but every time we pass by a window you

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do have to stop for a second and look at

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the earth sometimes you don't even know

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where you are you've got to stop and

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check the map but

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it's so amazing outside it's so

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incredibly beautiful it does draw you in

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quite a bit

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so you're a bio virologist so just give

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me the

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obviously it's about uh you're you're

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trying to

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study viruses how they come about how

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you stop them things like that but

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why are you doing this in space why is

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yeah so actually

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when nasa hires virologists or

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biologists or any scientists of that

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kind they are really training astronauts

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to do a little bit of everything so for

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example today i was doing a

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pharmacological experiment sometimes

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we're doing material science experiments

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we're doing uh my crewmate is setting up

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a combustion experiment right now for

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the

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for uh jaxa so you end up being a bit of

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a generalist we also teach our

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scientists how to fly airplanes and we

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teach our pilots how to be scientists so

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you get to be a jack of all trades up

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here you have to be a plumber some days

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potentially a dentist or a doctor we

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train as chief medical officers and you

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need to be able to fix anything on the

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space station and do any science

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experiment the researchers send up so

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you would just we're talking about how

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you did a lot of research in the congo

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what motivated you to think i need to go

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yeah so this is this is i would have to

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say not where i thought i was going to

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end up uh you know you always could

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dream about being an astronaut but uh

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for me i was planning on having a

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research career on viruses i applied a

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little bit out of the blue to be an

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astronaut one day and thought maybe it

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would be a good story at some point to

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tell how i'd applied to be an astronaut

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and how nasa turned me down and you kind

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of never know where you're going to end

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up in life i ended up on the space

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station

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here so your research is it

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is this research you wanted to do are

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you doing research that nasa wants you

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to do

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in order to

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help space exploration i mean obviously

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if we end up testing the limits and

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going to farther into space people will

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have to be up there even longer and

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fight viruses

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is that is that the ultimate goal of

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yeah so actually the the research that i

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want to do in the research that nasa

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wants to do coincide quite well and it's

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not just about viruses it's really about

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all of microbiology looking at what

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happens to not just viruses but to

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bacteria in space we have this whole

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microbiome on the space station that's a

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little bit unknown it's been up here for

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16 years and has had all kinds of

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effects of radiation and microgravity

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we're we're all in we're in free fall

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right now i'm floating as i'm talking to

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you and so what that does to microbial

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life is fascinating what that does to

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physiology is fascinating as well and

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this isn't just for us

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at nasa working on exploring and going

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beyond low earth orbit this really

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there's a lot of implications for human

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health and disease

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we can learn some basic principles by

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do you have a lay example of a disease

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or a virus that

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you already can tell would be you know

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its impact would be limited uh in a

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space environment versus

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so we actually don't get

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transmission of viruses up here which is

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fascinating when you think about it we

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only have three human beings in space

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right now and we're all perfectly

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healthy when there's no human beings

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around there's nobody to transmit a

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virus to you you do have some examples

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of viruses that we carry in our bodies

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for example

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you know everybody gets the chickenpox

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vaccine now but if you're exposed to

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chickenpox as a child you have that with

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you dormant and that actually can

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reactivate sometimes in space flight so

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we do have examples of

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some really interesting things happening

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with viruses in flight

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we also have some examples of ways that

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it's sometimes a little bit nice to be

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off the planet we don't have to worry

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about catching a cold up here

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now you yourself right you're you're

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you're

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absolutely i'm participating uh in over

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100 different research experiments so we

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take our blood uh we look at every

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physiological parameter we even

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ultrasound our eyeballs which sounds

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horrible at first and it's actually

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pretty cool we can do that with water up

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here we don't need ultrasound gel

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because the surface tension

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and you can see things like your optic

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nerve

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you can see your cornea we're very

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interested in how vision is affected by

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microgravity we have a fluid shift

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upwards in space and this is doing some

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interesting things to our visual systems

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so as an example of a lot of things that

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nasa is learning about

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just basic uh medical things from

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putting human beings into microgravity

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what's what's the biggest change you've

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noticed is it you talked about eyesight

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is is it

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so we have had examples of astronaut

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eyesight changing the biggest thing that

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i've noticed is the fluid shift uh

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upwards so when you're walking around on

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earth you have this constant gravity

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vector that pulls all the fluid down

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into your legs and you probably have

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never thought about this before you just

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take this as a as a given when you're

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walking around on the planet but as soon

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as you are in free fall all that fluid

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floats up so we actually lose some of

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our plasma volume

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and we can feel a kind of a pressure in

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our head and so that's doing some

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interesting things and has some

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implications for understanding diseases

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on earth like intracranial pressure and

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increased pressure on the back of your

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eyeball so that's what i feel the most

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up here you feel it really acutely the

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first few weeks and then like most

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things

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you just get used to it after a little

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bit

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all right tell me about downtime you say

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12-hour days and by the way do you

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how do you orient a day

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do you you just it i assume there's

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you know do you have to okay this is

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going to be our up time and this is

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going to do you orient your day to

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houston's time

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so we're actually on greenwich mean time

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and that helps us out because we're an

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international space station we have

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partner agencies we are working with

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russia japan countries all over europe

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canada and the u.s and so we pick gmt

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and set that as our day it's a little

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artificial we have 16 sunrises and 16

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sunsets so you could pick any time that

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you wanted to but we need a circadian

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rhythm so we pick a time each day and

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that's when we start our schedule

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and all the control centers around the

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world will start

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working with the crew at a certain

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wake-up time they're actually working 24

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7 at all of these locations to run the

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space station uh to keep all the systems

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going and then we have a scheduled time

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where we we start our work

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and we start going

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what uh how do you

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what what is your downtime what do you

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do with it

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you're reading you're communicating what

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you're probably gonna laugh but i do

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experiments

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so

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i uh i've gotten really interested in

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yeah it's

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i know

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it's not work it's it's it's fascinating

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to be in an environment where all of a

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sudden

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it seems like the laws of physics have

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changed so everything you've ever known

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you probably just have not thought about

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gravity very much maybe when you drop

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something or trip and fall

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you're a little annoyed at gravity but

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other than that it's uh it's actually a

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profound and incredibly strong force and

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so what happens to fluids

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what happens to small amounts of fluids

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large amounts of fluids the overwhelming

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force of surface tension is all

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fascinating

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my other hobby has started to be

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photography

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so if you take a look at the

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international space station facebook

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page

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i went a little crazy last weekend and

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took over 2000 photos i think they

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posted a few of them uh my my crewmate

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takuya is also an excellent photographer

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and and between the two of us we're

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always shutter bugs uh looking out the

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windows at earth

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so i read your uh you're a scuba you you

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like scuba dive i like to scuba dive um

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what

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there's some

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what's the

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what are the similarities between

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scuba diving and being in space and i

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i'm sure there's obvious differences but

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i am curious of what similarities there

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there's actually a lot of similarities

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and that was one of the things i was

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thinking when i first got up here is wow

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this is pretty similar to diving so all

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the things that you have to do for

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example if you're balancing

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on the tips of your fins and you're

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trying to just balance back and forth

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that's pretty similar to weightlessness

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the

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attention to detail that you have to

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have with your equipment is very similar

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up here that you know we are living in a

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machine

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we're surrounded by our life support

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equipment everything is about don't die

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don't die don't die right if you don't

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follow a certain protocol

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you'll you're risking your life i mean

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when you go through the training on

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scuba diving i always feel like they're

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trying to scare the living daylights out

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of you but is it that that's the same

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well space is an inherently dangerous

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business and you do get that feeling

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that you are in a remote environment and

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nasa and all of the partner agencies are

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incredible at what they do but it is a

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dangerous business and you're surrounded

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outside by absolute vacuums so it is

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critical at all times to really

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pay attention to have that attention to

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detail

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one of the things that helps us up here

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is we have ground teams 24 7 supporting

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us so we've got folks in mission control

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that are looking out for us all the time

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uh and and the one time that i really

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felt like

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okay

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you're on your own uh you really better

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do this right is when we're doing our

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space walk outside that's the point

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where it's you and your buddy outside

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and uh you've got folks watching you

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they're watching the spacesuit but you

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need to

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absolutely

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uh be

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on the top of your game every second

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when you're outside in absolute vacuum

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speaking of that you apparently said

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that

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you can tell space does have a smell

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and you noticed it during uh during a

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it's a little bit metallic it smells a

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little bit like like ozone and it's got

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a sharp metallic smell to it i could

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almost taste it uh when we were taking

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off the spacesuits after we'd been

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outside

350
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it's interesting

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so are you following current events did

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you guys watch the debate

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we are enjoying very much being off the

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planet right now

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we are i we're a little detached from

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current events so uh

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we catch the news every now and then you

358
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know

359
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there's an overview effect for

360
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astronauts and you do feel that um when

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you when you get a little bit far away

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from humanity

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you can see the planet down below you

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know all your loved ones are there

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but sometimes it's a little bit nice

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just to get away from it all and

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and you see the beauty of the earth

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you see the stars

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they don't

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shining you can see the entire milky way

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and i think that gives you a little bit

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of a perspective about our universe

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and what's important

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and

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sometimes you can leave some of these

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earthly things behind

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your replacement crew has been delayed

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it means you may be delayed

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was

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have it sounds like you're enjoying your

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time up there

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but i'm sure you miss

383
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yeah we do miss family we get a chance

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to keep in touch with our loved ones and

385
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you know it's really incredibly

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important to take care of the space

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station so this is something that

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that folks have built from hundreds of

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countries over decades and so we are

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enjoying the opportunity to take care of

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the space station and we're certainly

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going to look forward to welcoming

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welcoming our new crewmates up here

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and showing them

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this amazing machine that people have

396
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built i think they're going to love it

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as their new home

398
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you may miss the election

399
00:16:06,230 --> 00:16:03,749
yes so i registered as a absentee ballot

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00:16:08,230 --> 00:16:06,240
address to low earth orbit and they do

401
00:16:09,749 --> 00:16:08,240
let you vote from space address to low

402
00:16:11,749 --> 00:16:09,759
earth over

403
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:11,759
does it count as what's what state i

404
00:16:16,389 --> 00:16:14,320
mean you know that that matters what

405
00:16:18,710 --> 00:16:16,399
does it uh

406
00:16:23,430 --> 00:16:18,720
what state does your vote count in is it

407
00:16:28,150 --> 00:16:25,430
well we live in we live in houston so

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houston texas is where my uh my ballot

409
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will be counted from

410
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all right

411
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do uh

412
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when you if you do any free time that

413
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isn't experimenting

414
00:16:44,069 --> 00:16:41,839
do you binge tv is it more reading

415
00:16:48,949 --> 00:16:44,079
is it just

416
00:16:54,470 --> 00:16:51,269
yeah i'll make phone calls to family and

417
00:16:57,910 --> 00:16:54,480
friends uh i read some magazines and and

418
00:17:00,870 --> 00:16:57,920
newspapers up here i actually took my um

419
00:17:02,629 --> 00:17:00,880
my ipad into the cupola and and tucked

420
00:17:04,789 --> 00:17:02,639
in the window so i could just completely

421
00:17:05,750 --> 00:17:04,799
see the earth and read a magazine last

422
00:17:08,390 --> 00:17:05,760
weekend

423
00:17:10,630 --> 00:17:08,400
that was a pretty phenomenal experience

424
00:17:13,590 --> 00:17:10,640
so i i understand you're a fan of

425
00:17:15,029 --> 00:17:13,600
battlestar galactica

426
00:17:18,470 --> 00:17:15,039
how

427
00:17:20,230 --> 00:17:18,480
off is battlestar galactica

428
00:17:25,270 --> 00:17:20,240
in its uh

429
00:17:29,510 --> 00:17:26,470
you know one of the things that i was

430
00:17:31,750 --> 00:17:29,520
the most struck here when i i'm a fan of

431
00:17:33,029 --> 00:17:31,760
science fiction in general and

432
00:17:35,590 --> 00:17:33,039
when you watch science fiction they

433
00:17:38,150 --> 00:17:35,600
always show a small craft orbiting a

434
00:17:40,630 --> 00:17:38,160
planet and i don't know how

435
00:17:41,909 --> 00:17:40,640
the folks in hollywood know so

436
00:17:44,310 --> 00:17:41,919
accurately

437
00:17:46,390 --> 00:17:44,320
what that looks like but they have just

438
00:17:48,150 --> 00:17:46,400
absolutely gotten it right and and any

439
00:17:50,230 --> 00:17:48,160
show that you watch

440
00:17:52,230 --> 00:17:50,240
where you've got a small ship

441
00:17:54,470 --> 00:17:52,240
orbiting this huge planet that is

442
00:17:56,230 --> 00:17:54,480
exactly what it looks like up here i had

443
00:17:58,549 --> 00:17:56,240
that sensation the first time i looked

444
00:18:01,510 --> 00:17:58,559
at the earth that we really do live on a

445
00:18:02,710 --> 00:18:01,520
planet uh and it and it looks like

446
00:18:04,710 --> 00:18:02,720
what you see

447
00:18:06,710 --> 00:18:04,720
with all the special effects that

448
00:18:08,230 --> 00:18:06,720
actually i would say that's pretty close

449
00:18:10,470 --> 00:18:08,240
it brings it home

450
00:18:11,350 --> 00:18:10,480
is there any movie recently that there

451
00:18:14,230 --> 00:18:11,360
was a

452
00:18:15,750 --> 00:18:14,240
was it there was the movie the mar the

453
00:18:16,549 --> 00:18:15,760
uh the martian

454
00:18:19,190 --> 00:18:16,559
that

455
00:18:21,909 --> 00:18:19,200
got into the whole idea of

456
00:18:24,230 --> 00:18:21,919
trying to create i guess

457
00:18:27,029 --> 00:18:24,240
an earth by a earth biologic a

458
00:18:29,270 --> 00:18:27,039
biological atmosphere similar similar

459
00:18:31,029 --> 00:18:29,280
earth how did they do

460
00:18:32,789 --> 00:18:31,039
how did the how did hollywood do in the

461
00:18:37,909 --> 00:18:32,799
depiction of that versus what you're

462
00:18:42,470 --> 00:18:40,549
i have to say we do uh comment sometimes

463
00:18:43,909 --> 00:18:42,480
that we feel like the the martian up

464
00:18:46,870 --> 00:18:43,919
here so

465
00:18:48,549 --> 00:18:46,880
we can grow plants up here uh right now

466
00:18:50,630 --> 00:18:48,559
we're doing some experiments with them

467
00:18:52,230 --> 00:18:50,640
so the seedlings are just about the size

468
00:18:55,590 --> 00:18:52,240
of your finger and i'm not allowed to

469
00:19:00,950 --> 00:18:59,110
but we uh we are doing a lot just in in

470
00:19:03,029 --> 00:19:00,960
reality i mean this is this is an

471
00:19:05,510 --> 00:19:03,039
interesting case of sometimes the

472
00:19:07,990 --> 00:19:05,520
reality in hollywood are

473
00:19:10,230 --> 00:19:08,000
uh in a race and and i think the reality

474
00:19:12,390 --> 00:19:10,240
sometimes is outpacing hollywood we have

475
00:19:15,110 --> 00:19:12,400
a life support system up here that

476
00:19:16,950 --> 00:19:15,120
recycles 90 percent of our water we

477
00:19:19,430 --> 00:19:16,960
completely recycle our air we're a

478
00:19:21,270 --> 00:19:19,440
closed-loop system so we don't have to

479
00:19:24,549 --> 00:19:21,280
launch a lot of that from earth anymore

480
00:19:26,390 --> 00:19:24,559
we can turn water into air we can turn

481
00:19:28,789 --> 00:19:26,400
coffee into water

482
00:19:31,270 --> 00:19:28,799
we can completely support human beings

483
00:19:32,150 --> 00:19:31,280
with just a little bit of maintenance

484
00:19:36,390 --> 00:19:32,160
and

485
00:19:38,150 --> 00:19:36,400
addition to the system but you would

486
00:19:39,909 --> 00:19:38,160
think it's science fiction and and we

487
00:19:41,270 --> 00:19:39,919
are proving that technology every day on

488
00:19:43,190 --> 00:19:41,280
the space station

489
00:19:45,110 --> 00:19:43,200
all right when you come home

490
00:19:50,230 --> 00:19:45,120
what's the first food you want to eat

491
00:19:55,110 --> 00:19:52,549
i would say any fresh fruit or vegetable

492
00:19:56,870 --> 00:19:55,120
we get those occasionally on a supply

493
00:19:59,029 --> 00:19:56,880
ship that comes up but

494
00:20:00,310 --> 00:19:59,039
the taste of something crunchy

495
00:20:02,070 --> 00:20:00,320
that's grown in the earth would be

496
00:20:03,669 --> 00:20:02,080
pretty good right now

497
00:20:05,270 --> 00:20:03,679
well kate rubens i know you've got a lot

498
00:20:06,950 --> 00:20:05,280
of work to do

499
00:20:10,310 --> 00:20:06,960
thanks for taking the time this was fun

500
00:20:14,630 --> 00:20:12,230
absolutely thanks for joining us my

501
00:20:16,390 --> 00:20:14,640
crewmates wanted to say hi as well and

502
00:20:17,909 --> 00:20:16,400
we'll sign off from the international

503
00:20:20,310 --> 00:20:17,919
space station

504
00:20:21,590 --> 00:20:20,320
great tell them hello and we hope they

505
00:20:27,029 --> 00:20:21,600
love watching meet the press we'll keep

506
00:20:34,789 --> 00:20:29,669
station this is houston acr thank you

507
00:20:38,390 --> 00:20:36,870
thank you nbc station we are now