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Station this is Houston. Are you ready for the event?

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Yes, I'm ready for the event.

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KMA Radio, this is Mission control, Houston, please call station for a voice check

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Station this is Mike Peterson with KMA Radio. How do you hear me?

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Your first words were cut off, but I think I hear you

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Peggy thank you very much for doing this you with us and thanks to NASA as well.

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First of all, the last time we talked to you was back in November from Baikonur Cosmodrome,

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just before you are launched to the International Space Station.

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Talk about the decision to exchange the mission from a program were originally expected to come down

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through early September what went into that decision?

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Actually, it was just a coincident of incidents that happen here on board

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there

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Russians decided a we're only going to have a total of

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one crew member instead of the normal two that they would have on board two or three and so during that time period

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we wanted to have a crew of three on board instead of just two crew

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so I agreed to stay on and come home with the next foot Soyuz the subsequent Soyuz.

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Which should have me coming home in early September then,

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By the time you return in September you log something like 600 days in space.

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In the time you've been aboard in this third stay have you noticed any changes in your health or your

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your body in the additional time that you've been aboard the space station?

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Actually, I don't think the changes are particularly noticeable while you're up here.

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I think it'll be like it always has been a

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much more so being a fair to to return to that

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1g life on the Planet Earth

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It takes me

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You know the first couple of days are difficult from a neurovestibular

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perspective and then after that it's even though, we're I maintain my muscle strength

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I think very well doing all the exercise that we do up here

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I find that the fast twitch muscles the things that require faster response times are

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slow to pick up and remember that you're back on Earth and and because up here things don't require a lot of

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speed or motion to get things moving and so those muscles

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forget how they're supposed to work, I think.

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The information that you're gleaning from the additional time in space as NASA plans for

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long rings missions to Mars perhaps back to the Moon.

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How is that going to be helpful in NASA's planning for the long range space missions in the future?

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Well, it's good for us to have additional people that are staying a little bit longer on board the space station to try and understand

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those slightly longer durations. Right now We've got a pretty good database of six months fliers

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onboard station and so it's the

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natural extension is important for us particularly if we go on trips to mars where?

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Those trips may last anywhere between six and nine months just to get there

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so we need to have a good understanding of how our bodies are going to respond when we get back to a

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gravity environment and an understanding of what happens over the course of that time period.

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So this is an additional data point for NASA

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and of course just the generic science that we're able to accomplish with more crewmembers on board here has also been a huge plus

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Speaking of the crew members you've had kind of a change in personnel in the months that you've been aboard the space station

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Some of the Russian crew members and other international crew members have come and gone.

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What's it like to have to adjust to have new crew members

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come aboard the station

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during the last few months, so what goes into that?

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Well actually during Expedition 16 we were also changing out crew members

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via the shuttle so one of out of three of the crew members was changing.

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It was a kind of a dramatic change for me to go from the

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original crew that was with us for the first five months or so five and a half six months

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and to have two of those crew members leave.

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One Shane had left on on a previous Soyuz flight

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and so there was an adjustment there in April when he left and  then when Thomas and Oleg glassed in June another adjustment

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there was some overlap there.

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When Jack Fisher arrived and so we had some adjustment time period there before

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You know this most recent change

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two weeks ago, or week and a half ago with

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the newest crew that arrived with Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli and

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Sergey Reznikov. So it's been a continually changing process and from

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from

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observation of being able to see those changes

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I think it's neat to see how one one personality can make a huge difference in

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just the interactions of the crew. It's it. It's I think very impressive

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Which I can with astronaut Peggy Whitson aboard the International Space Station this morning. Taking it back in April

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you did set the record for a king of a time for a u.s. Astronaut

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What's it like to be included now amongst the space legends that we've talked about you know Armstrong, Glenn, Sheppard

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Gagarin, Sally Ride, what's it like to be included amongst all those people now. Is that the all-time record holder for A U.S.

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astronaut t in space?

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Well, I'm not sure I'd put myself in that same category

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But I do think that that having records breaking records all the time is is important for NASA it shows

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that we are still progressing

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We are still doing new things and continuing to expand on what we know about space and so I think it's very important

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for us to be breaking records

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important for all of NASA. So it you know it gives me pride to be a part of that.

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Also this time aboard you had set the record for the number of spacewalks by a female astronaut.

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I have you at 10 and if I'm shorting you let me know.

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But talk about the work that goes into preparing for a spacewalk.

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What how much work

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do you do either on the ground or we're up there to get ready for a spacewalk?

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And what are some of the challenging aspects of being in outer space and relying on your spacesuit to keep you protected?

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That's a really great question and there's a lot of preparation that's involved just the physical preparation being able to work in a suit

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that's pressurized. That means that every time you move your hands out or in

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you know basically anytime you move your hands from relaxed position, it's going to take energy and

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strength and since we are quote walking on our arms

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we have to have a lot of arm strength forearm strength hand strength, is very important.

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And so we do exercises on the ground to prepare us for that obviously we continue those exercises

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up here in space because we want to be able to preserve that strength in order to do the spacewalk.

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The other preparation that you have to do is just the practice we practice in a Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.

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Basically it's a really large swimming pool with piece parts of the International Space Station

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underneath the water. There mock-ups of the station,

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but they're full-sized mock-ups, and so we can't even get the whole station inside this pool because it's it's so large.

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But we practice all the different scenarios that we might imagine doing up here and that kind of trains you

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generically to do any any

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task because we I've done tests up here before on spacewalk that were not planned and

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I had never practiced before.

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So it's a really good training program. I think because it gives you this great base

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from which they can build and provide training materials on orbit here for those specific

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situations that were not planned for and we had not

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specifically trained for. So I really think we've got a great training program for that.

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We also have like a virtual reality

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view so we can kind of flow, fly around on the computer and

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see where we'll be going and try and understand how we would translate to get to certain locations.

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You know where is the best place to, you know, put my

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body restraint tether and all that kind of thing so we can plan it out in advance.

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Peggy we've run out of time.

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Thank you very much for speaking to us for taking time out to do this.

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We wish you good luck and godspeed on your return to Earth, Earth next month

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and we hope to be talking to know you're back here on the ground

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after you get back. Thank you very much for being with us this morning.

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Well, thank you so much and good morning to all the local area and Shenandoah.

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Station this is Houston ACR. That concludes the KMA Radio portion of the event. Please stand by for a voice check from space.com.

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I'm not copying. Do you how do you hear me?

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Space.com how do you hear me? I hear you loud and clear. How do you hear me? I?

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Have you loud and clear now as well.

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Great. Thank you so much, and thank you for speaking with u s today.

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I understand that this has been a very long and eventful trip for you to the International Space Station.

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So how long have you been there now, and what have been some of the highlights of your mission?

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I think I'm around 630 some days

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highlights have obviously been

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four different spacewalks, but I really enjoyed a lot of the different scientific research I've done this time.

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My background is in biochemistry and doing some of the studies on the cell cultures looking at cancer lung

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Cancerous lung cells and different drug treatments things as well as bone cells.

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So we're doing a really a lot of interesting research this time around.

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So I would have to say that's some of my highlights as well.

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But being in space every day is is a highlight. It's hard to pick just one.

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Great, and so speaking of science. I'm wondering if you plan to watch the total solar eclipse on august 21st

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And if you'll be doing any science with that or just kind of watching and taking pictures or what are your plans?

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We have plans to take pictures and watch during the eclipse our orbits won't be

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Terribly close. I think they said around 1,700 miles, but we're still hoping to be able to see it on three different orbits

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Around the Earth so it that will be interesting fun my first time to see an eclipse from up here

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And so you're coming home in September

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And I'm wondering what are you most looking forward to when you return to earth and are there?

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Maybe any foods that you're really looking forward to eating that you haven't been able to eat in space

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well, obviously I'm looking forward to seeing fans and friends and family and

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But I would have to say the thing I've been thinking about the most kind of been fantasising a little bit about

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different foods that I want to make and

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Vegetables that I want to sautee things that I've missed up here

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And so after you return home. Do you have any plans to maybe go on a vacation?

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Or are you going back to work? And if you do go back to work? What kind of work would that entail the

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First 45 days after we land from a long-duration spaceflight. We're doing

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Rehabilitation trying to get our body used to being on Earth again

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we do a lot of the baseline data collections the final data collections for all the experiments that have been running since before we

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Launched so there's many investigations on the human body that we've been doing up here on orbit

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And so we'll have to continue those studies as well during that first 45 days some of those will last out to six months

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Where we're doing data collections to continue that process

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In addition to that. We're doing a lot of debriefs

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talking to the ground teams about

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Procedures that worked really well procedures that we need to try and improve on

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tools or hardware things that we had issues with

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just ideas of how to

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Operationally improve the efficiencies up here so that we can get even more done

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So that first 45 days is actually going to be very busy

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I do have I've put in for about four weeks of vacation between now and Christmas

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But the big vacation plan is a trip on a boat in

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February

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With my husband and some friends that'll be a lot of fun

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That sounds fabulous

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So do you have any?

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Intention to try to return to space again after this or is that kind of too far in the future to plan right now?

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well, I imagine that that's probably not going to be an option for me, but

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If I had the opportunity to I would definitely return here

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every day is extremely satisfying I find the work here as

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it directly relates to

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us extending

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our capabilities in space

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And so it's very gratifying

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Everyday even if I'm doing something like cleaning filters or vents or whatever I'm keeping the station alive

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We're continuing studies and research and finding out more and so it's it's one of the most gratifying

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Experiences, I've had in my life

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And so you've also broken a lot of spaceflight records at this point

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And so I'm wondering are there any records left for you to break?

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Well, I could be even older

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That's not necessarily a record. I went after but being the oldest woman in space

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So there's that there's that

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And so which would you say that you're the most proud of or that you had to work the hardest to achieve?

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Well, I think a lot of the records just had to be

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involved being

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You know in the right place having worked hard for many years, so it's hard to say I think probably

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Being the first female commander on the station was important. I

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Actually think probably being in the first chief of the astronaut off female chief of the astronaut office was also pretty important

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Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for maybe?

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Young kids or little girls who are interested in growing up to be an astronaut just like you?

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Well, I would say pick any field in math science or engineering and one that you really enjoy that that

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Drives you that gives you some passion and pursue it

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I would also say that

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for me in particular

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trying to

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Do more than I might have thought was possible was very important. I think in

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the leading to the eventual

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successes that I've had the privilege to

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Experience, so I would say live just a little bit outside your comfort zone push yourself to where are you -?

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More than you think you might imagine you could do

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great and

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So why do you think that?

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spaceflight is really important and so

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The work that you do at the international space station all the research. Why do you think that?

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This is really an important thing that we should invest in

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Well, I think the research that we do up here is going to pay off in lots of different ways

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There's many different spin-off examples of things that are now used on Earth

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But for instance so one of the research experiments that I was working on

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Two weeks ago. We were looking at cancerous lung cells

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Growing in tissue culture, and we were testing a new drug

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That is attached to an antibody that would specifically attack those cancer cells and so

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The scientists on the ground will give all the quantitative results, but just looking through the microscope

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It looked like it was they were doing the job because they were killing the cancer cells

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What that will lead to in the future?

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I don't directly know the answer to but it is a key part of research that I think will help in understanding and and

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That's what I can say about so many of the different research projects that we're working on some of them are very basic

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principles of capital ah reaction and capillary flow

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Physical actions like how fires burn in zero-gravity that could apply to future space flights future spacecraft

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So there are so many applications that apply not only to the future exploration of space

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but also directly to on Earth

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We're testing other

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Drugs for to maintain bone density because obviously this environment up here we lose bone density much more quickly

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We're looking specifically at mechanisms for how that's happening and trying to understand that and that may in the future allow us to develop

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better ways to mitigate

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Osteoporosis for instance so they're there like research on the grounds it takes many years to get a final answer

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But each step I think is very important

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Great well, thank you so much peggy

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Thank you for your time, and I wish you the best of luck in the rest of your space adventures

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Thank you very much. It's great talking to you, too