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Kazakhstan 2013

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Sitting on the launch pad is definitely a\h
moment that you're always thinking about, right.\h

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That's one of the more critical\h
phases of the flight as you can imagine.

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You're very focused in, right. It can be a very\h
emotional time. You're kind of pinching yourself because\h\h

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it's hard to believe that you're finally\h
there. Born in Lebanon, Missouri, he is an Air\h\h

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Force colonel and a flight test engineer.\h
He was selected as an astronaut in 2009.\h\h

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He spent 166 days on the International Space\h
Station. Introducing NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins.

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You know it's funny I mean a lot of times people\h
think of the dream of being an astronaut as\h\h

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something that a a kid would have and I remember\h
when my wife and I first started dating at the\h\h

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University of Illinois and I told her that I
wanted to be an astronaut she laughed at me and\h\h

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kind of said are you serious. But at the same\h
time, she stuck with me throughout the years\h\h

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and to have that dream come true is\h
pretty amazing.

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Mike Hopkins Crew-1 Commander

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My role on the Crew Dragon\h\h

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itself as part of Crew-1 is the commander of the\h
vehicle. We'll be launching to the International\h\h

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Space Station and we're going to be doing a long-duration mission. A standard long-duration mission.

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One of the nice things about being on board the\h
International Space Station is you have a lot of\h\h

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connectivity believe it or not with your family\h
and so I was able to call just about every\h\h

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day. My family means everything to me. It is\h
the most important part of my life. My wife Julie,\h\h

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my son Ryan, my son Lucas, they are just such a\h
huge part of this whole endeavor. You know,\h\h

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without family it just wouldn't be as meaningful.
The partnership that we have right now with SpaceX\h\h

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it's pretty powerful. They bring a lot to the table, 
NASA brings a lot to the table. We've got a ton of\h\h

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experience in human space flight. When you're\h
out there on a day-to-day basis and\h\h

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you're interacting with their engineers and\h
you're interacting with their trainers and\h\h

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you're interacting with the people that are\h
actually building the rockets and building the\h\h

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capsule itself, you really get to establish the\h
relationships, the personal relationships. It's\h\h

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not just about the astronauts that are on board,\h
but it's about the entire team at NASA and SpaceX\h\h