NASA Astronaut Discusses Life in Space with Naval Academy Alumni Magazine –

0:40 Speaker 1: Station. This is Houston. Are you ready for the event?

0:46 Speaker 2: Houston Station, We're ready for the event.

0:50 Speaker 1: US Naval Academy Alumni Association. This is Mission Control, Houston. Please call station for a voice check station.

0:56 Speaker 3: This is Jimmy Debutts with the US Naval Academy Alumni Association.

1:00 Speaker 4: How do you hear me?

1:04 Speaker 5: Hey, Jimmy, this is Jack Hathaway on the International Space Station.

1:07 Speaker 2: I've got you loud and clear.

1:09 Speaker 4: How may welcome sir? I appreciate you taking time for us.

1:14 Speaker 3: I just want to welcome you to the Voices from Orbit podcast, which is our look at Naval Academy alumni who've reached the status of astronauts. So appreciate you joining us from the ISS. And I just want to give a little our listeners a little of your bio if you don't mind. Commander Jack Hathaway is from the Great Class of two thousand and four. He's obviously joined us upside down now from the International Space Station. He's part of Expedition seventy four to seventy five on space X Crew twelve, where he served as mission pilot.

1:46 Speaker 3: He can't Commander Hathaway flew and deployed with VFA fourteen aboard USS limits and supportive operation during Freedom. He is over twenty five hundred flight hours and flew thirty nine combat missions. Commander Hathaway, thank you again for joining us. First off, what is it like being in a space? You see some cool things you're doing with the microphone spinning it on zero gravity? Just can you share what your first impressions when you got to space and what it was like to see the Earth from the heavens.

2:17 Speaker 5: Yeah?

2:17 Speaker 2: Absolutely.

2:18 Speaker 5: I just want to start by saying, yeah, I am from the grade class of two thousand and four, go up four and happy to talk to the Alumni Association. Being up here in zero gravity the first it's really just absolutely amazing, Like it's a whole new environment that you're just not used to.

2:33 Speaker 2: You can't really predict. The veterans that had been up there warned.

2:38 Speaker 5: Or prepared you by saying that you just you can't really prepare for what it's going.

2:43 Speaker 2: To be like. You don't know how your body's going to react, you don't know what those feelings are going to be like.

2:47 Speaker 5: But it's a surreal, incredible experience to be able to just float around and do flips and just toffload things in the air.

2:54 Speaker 2: It's a super awesome experience.

2:57 Speaker 4: I just want to, like I said, we're just starting.

2:58 Speaker 3: This podcast is going to launch with Charlie Duke from the class of fifty seven next week and then you'll be the second guest. So I appreciate you taking a special call from Space. Did you always aspire to be a national I know you were a pilot and you know that kind of thing, but was that over something as a kid that you aspired.

3:14 Speaker 5: To Yeah, as a kid, I definitely was interested in being a pilot, And you know, when I was growing up, the Space Shuttle was flying, and being a Space pilot, a Space Shuttle pilot was definitely.

3:29 Speaker 2: A dream of mine.

3:29 Speaker 5: I remember going to the Cape as a young kid and seeing it standing there, and the idea of being able to fly something like that was just super awesome. So it was definitely on my mind as I was growing up. And then after I joined the Navy and started flying at eighteens for the Navy, I just fell in love with that. I could have done that for the rest of my life, flying fighter jets off aircraft.

3:51 Speaker 2: Carres his pretty.

3:53 Speaker 5: Awesome job, pretty comparable to this one, as well, but then the opportunity to join NASA came up and I had to take it.

4:01 Speaker 3: Well, can you tell us about like, you know, the Academy has more astronauts than any other college I think is fifty six is the number now? And how did your time with the Naval Academy prepare you for the rigors of astronaut training and operating in space?

4:19 Speaker 5: As everyone says, being from the Naval Academy is a great thing, and it does prepare you in a lot of ways, Like we put Mitchitman through a lot of pressure both physically and mentally emotionally as they're going through the program there, and I think that helps them throughout their naval career. And it's certainly helped helped me and helps me in an astronaut career. That those basics of learning how to handle.

4:41 Speaker 2: Pressure and react well are super critical.

4:44 Speaker 5: And also at the Naval Academy, you know, we have a very technical education, but there's also quite a bit of humanities, and I think both of those are important. Like it's it's an entry level fee to understand the technical and the engineering involved with being an astronaut. You know, we require a master's degree in a stem field or equivalent type education because of technical knowledge is so important, but also the humanities and understanding how people think and how people work is also pretty critical.

5:15 Speaker 2: Here.

5:16 Speaker 5: When I was at the Naval Academy as a freshman, my history teacher was like, you're going to be a pilot someday, and that's awesome, But the first thing you're going to be after you graduate as an officer.

5:25 Speaker 2: You're going to be in charge of leading men and.

5:26 Speaker 5: Women to combat, and that's an important part of your job. And understanding how people think, how people react, and how to interact with them to get the best out of them is super critical, and I think there's a big piece of that that happens at the Naval Academy.

5:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to ask you about that. How the Naval Academy shape your leadership style. I mean, everybody has a different course so they go after the commission. But some of those foundational values I'm sure instilled are instilled in you in Annapolis.

5:59 Speaker 5: Yeah, some foundational qualities that come to mind from my time in Annapolis and my time in the Navy. Humility is the first one, like you have to realize when you show up to the Naval Academy. Everyone that shows up there, you know, is the is you know, one of the best students, one of the best athletes, one of the you know best all sorts of different types of things from the place they grew up in. And then they show up at the Naval Academy and they're surrounded by other people that challenge them that were also the best at various things where they come from.

6:28 Speaker 5: And as they say, steel sharp and steel and having the humility to recognize that you're in a field of incredible people with incredible talent and learn what you can from them is really a foundational quality. The next one I talk about is resilience, both from a personal standpoint and from like a professional standpoint. There's been many times in my career when I've I've made a mistake and it has not gone well for me. I did something and in the end I had to own up to it, and the boss came to me.

6:58 Speaker 2: And said, hey, you're great, officer. We love having your out as a pilot, but you can't make that mistake again.

7:03 Speaker 5: And your ability to be resilient to those types of mistakes because we're all going to make them, and your ability to bounce back and come back the next day and try even harder is awesome. And that resiliency transfers over to your personal life as well. You know, being at sea for long periods of time or in space for long periods of time is difficult on us and our families. And being able to be resilient in that personal sense and keep optimistic all those times, like you know, that comes from the dark ages of the Naval Academy in February, you know where it's it's been a long year and it's dark outside and it's snowing, it's cold, and you're walking down stribbling and you just have to be resilient and show up with your best every day.

7:41 Speaker 5: And those are a couple of foundational qualities I think that have stretched from the Naval Academy throughout my career.

7:47 Speaker 4: Awesome, thank you sir. Yeah.

7:48 Speaker 3: Obviously you mentioned that your career also includes you know, stem a master's degree, and you do some important work up there in ISS. Can you share some of the experiments you're working on and how they maybe translate into bettering humankind in life and space.

8:09 Speaker 2: Absolutely.

8:10 Speaker 5: The International Space Station is a national laboratory up here, one of the main things that we're doing up here is doing science to understand how people and materials and biology reacts in microgravity, both because we want to understand microgravity and also because the microgravity allows us to do things that we can't necessarily do experiments on on Earth. For instance, we do a lot of three D printing up here now, both with biological tissue.

8:39 Speaker 2: And with metal and plastics.

8:41 Speaker 5: Because these three D printings respond differently in microgravity, we can learn quite a bit about how crystals grow, how cells that don't have the pull of gravity forcing them into a particular alignment work, So that's a big area of our work. We also do a lot of human physiology type experiments to understand how the body reacts to microgravity. One of the most interesting experiments I think my colleague Chris Williams, just departed the space station two days ago and is back on Earth, and one of the first things he's going to do as he gets back is see how his body that's been in space for eight months and deconditioned by the lack of gravity, you know, nothing straining his muscles or his bones.

9:21 Speaker 5: He's going to get into a spacesuit and he's going to simulate building Moon outpost, or more importantly, a Mars outpost, because the mission of Mars is going to take about six months, about the amount of time we spend up here, and the day after you get there, you're going to have to put on a heavy spacesuit, get out at a real gravity, and start building stuff. And we need to understand how the human body reacts to that type of environment.

9:44 Speaker 4: That's perfect.

9:45 Speaker 3: I was going to ask you about the program's future of space Rogan's for future, and you.

9:50 Speaker 4: Know, returning the Moon, aiming from.

9:51 Speaker 3: Mars sounds like some of these things you're it's all kind of building on one step onto the next. How can some of the what you're guys doing now really propel the program forward into the next exciting chapter.

10:08 Speaker 5: I think in the space program generally and certainly what's happening here on ISS is the people that star lay the groundwork for the next steps. We stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us, who didn't even know if human beings would be able to swallow and eat and drink and how they would react to microgravity at all. To now we're up on the space station learning how to live in a way that is sustainable.

10:32 Speaker 2: Because launch costs are expensive.

10:34 Speaker 5: And the more that we can learn how to recycle our water and our atmosphere, the less water we have to bring with us as we go to Mars. The more that we can understand how to three D print tools and supplies and habitats up here on the space station, the more we'll be able to use that technology on the surface of the Moon and eventually Mars. And that's going to make it easier and more successful when we get there the first time. So our time up here on the space station is like a springboard for our future missions to get to the Moon and beyond.

11:02 Speaker 5: It's it's a very exciting time to be part of the program.

11:07 Speaker 3: And I saw that you're helping the next generation of STEM learners by working with high school and juniors and high school students on experiments and many evolving So as the seeds that like the microp you're talking about to space phenomena, how important is to try to engage those young minds with these opportunities to maybe sow the seeds, so to speak, for the next generation.

11:31 Speaker 5: I think engaging with the next generation is really one of the most important things.

11:35 Speaker 2: That we get to do up here.

11:37 Speaker 5: It's certainly one of the most satisfying and humbling experiences.

11:41 Speaker 2: To be able to talk to a.

11:43 Speaker 5: Young person who's excited about the future and share with them what you're doing and how they could eventually be part of this exciting program is really it's inspiring from both points of view.

11:55 Speaker 2: We love to talk to high.

11:57 Speaker 5: School students and young professional understand where they're coming from and the problems that they want to they want to solve. We're inspired by the amount of passion that young people have that they want to bring to this program, to adventure, to understanding the world around us. Any chance I get to talk to people like that and share my story how I got to there, to be here and answer their questions and keep the inspiration going on like people did before for me, you know, I just want to pay that back and keep doing it as much as possible.

12:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been a privileged to go to a couple of the actional complications at the NAO Academy, and it's great to see Pat Kraal, for one, in the handhall and then also the interaction between the midshipmen and the astronauts to come back so they're obviously looking for that. The midshipmen are seeing that there's those opportunities and potential because they see people who preceded them on stribling. Like you mentioned, what advice would you give to current manage or young people thinking about entering the academy age Maybe they want to be an astronal, but more imporant to enter that life of service.

13:06 Speaker 5: That's a great, great question and one of the best parts about the Naval Academy, all the service academies in our lives generally, is that life of service that you just mentioned. People that come to the Naval Academy, they measure success in life not with money or things or glory, but trying to be the best version of themselves and as officers, trying to help other people be the best versions of themselves.

13:31 Speaker 2: So I would encourage people to.

13:33 Speaker 5: Embrace that, to love that that that is really part of the great part of a.

13:37 Speaker 2: Life of service. I'd also say never stop learning.

13:42 Speaker 5: You will go through phases of your career and you'll learn, and you'll get really good at something, and then you'll go on to another tour of duty and it'll be a little bit different and you'll have to learn new things, and the things that got you to one step won't be the things that gets you to the next step. And the best version of yourself is the one that keeps learning and keeps on trying to understand the next piece and be ready for the next adventure.

14:03 Speaker 2: Two more things to think about.

14:04 Speaker 5: I think value your teammates and value the people that you work with. The best moments of my life and my career have been when people that I've worked with and want to come work with me again. They come up and say, hey, Radio, I loved working with you as an Opso you know, when you're a skipper of a squadron, do you have a spot for me?

14:22 Speaker 2: I'd love to come work for you.

14:23 Speaker 5: You know those types of experiences when you have people that work with you and for you that are incredible, incredible Americans, very talented people, and they enjoy your mentorship and leadership enough to want to come back. That's awesome and be the type of leader that people want to work for again.

14:42 Speaker 2: My last piece of advice is.

14:45 Speaker 5: Find a rule that you can kind of like stretch a little bit, you know, go on deployment, grow a mustache that's just a little bit too big, you know, challenge the status quo and see where you can push the envelope just a little bit. That's what we do in the Navy, and I encourage everyone as they start out their career to find a corner of the envelope that they think they can expand.

15:06 Speaker 4: Great device. Thank you sir. Just kind of talking about the iss a little bit.

15:10 Speaker 3: How how difficult was it getting used to, you know, working with other people maybe maybe you knew me, you didn't, but working in a smaller and can you know, small environment and then just kind of doing.

15:21 Speaker 4: Going about your day to day, uh, you know.

15:23 Speaker 5: Business Working up here on iss IS is great. We select a great group of people that are motivated and we've trained together.

15:40 Speaker 2: We understand each other.

15:41 Speaker 5: We have the opportunities to do different types of training envelopes that allow us to understand how each other reacts under stress.

15:47 Speaker 2: And we try to understand each other really well.

15:50 Speaker 5: So when you get up here you can kind of understand where people are coming from. It doesn't mean that you know everybody perfectly well, and but you want to be that type of person that can work with anyone, Like you know, in the Navy flying fighters, we had a concept that someday you're going to show up over enemy country and you're just gonna have final wingment of opportunity. And based on your training and your experience and your character, you guys are just gonna be able to work together because you understand the mission and you understand the standard operating procedures, and you guys are.

16:19 Speaker 2: Just going to be able to execute.

16:21 Speaker 5: And that's what we strive for up here, is to have people that understand the mission that want to work together and between us and the ground as well, because we can't do the mission up here. You know, we're just the just the tip of the spear of the thousands of people on the ground that work in the various control centers that set us up for.

16:38 Speaker 2: Success every day.

16:40 Speaker 5: So it's really quite an amazing experience to be part of this team.

16:45 Speaker 4: And we've got to know how you got your call signal radio.

16:52 Speaker 5: That is a great question, and I will tell the story over a beer at the Alumni Club to anybody that finds me there.

16:59 Speaker 3: That's the to be a familiar refrain when I asked those questions about pilot from pilots, well, thank you. What we will have to have to hear in Annapolis. Speaking of Annapolis, and you've got some flam alumni there, Kayla Baron, Nicole Man are currently astronauts, and Rebecca who's working her way up through the process. Do you guys kind of lean on each other as alumni, share secrets, you know, gallenge each other out about the things that might help you make the next transition in your life or your training easier.

17:36 Speaker 2: The answer to that is, of course we do.

17:38 Speaker 5: And it's even a little bit bigger than that you learn in the Navy. Certainly I did that. You will never succeed without the mentorship of the people that came before you. So every squadron, and I was a part of every unit I was a part of, there was someone there that took me under their wing and taught me how to do things and where to find the mess hall on the ship, haddle in on the boat, how to lead a division, how to lead a strike group, like these are things that you learned from the people that went before you.

18:05 Speaker 5: And so when it's your turn to teach the next generation, you take that on board.

18:10 Speaker 2: And you teach them.

18:10 Speaker 5: And and of course we in the Navy, we look out for each other.

18:14 Speaker 2: But it's bigger than that.

18:15 Speaker 5: All of the astronauts in the office look after the new astronauts, and we're excited to teach them the things that we know, the tips that we have, show them the pitfalls. It's it's really a great thing to be able to learn learn from your mentors here in the office and and really throughout a career.

18:33 Speaker 3: What's been your favorite part of how you've been up there several months, but what you have been your favorite thing outside of the science to experience while you're up in space.

18:46 Speaker 5: One of the interesting things up here is that our brains are wired to throw a ball knowing that there's gravity. So when you throw a ball, you know that you've got to arc it up because it's gravity is going to pull it down and it's going to fly in an arc to the next person. And up here in microgravity, that's not true. If you throw something up, it's just gonna go up. It's going to go in the direction that you threw it because of Newton's laws. So here, one of the really cool things to get really good at is to be able to fly the length of the station, doing flips the whole way without having to touch any of the handrails.

19:19 Speaker 5: It takes quite a bit of experience to get just the right amount of push off and just round of rotation that you don't go colliding into the walls. But it's a really satisfying feeling to be able to fly the whole length of the space station doing somersaults. Maybe you got your headphones in and you're listening to some tunes and jamming out. You know, just enjoying the feeling of microgravity is super is just it's a really great feeling.

19:44 Speaker 4: Sure, we appreciate it. Thank you for taking time for us.

19:47 Speaker 3: I know we're about to run out of time, but before we go, can we get a go Navy beat Army, Go Navy beat Army.

19:57 Speaker 4: Yes, sir, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.

20:03 Speaker 5: Absolutely. It was a pleasure and good luck. Two thousand and four Go out four.

20:10 Speaker 4: Stationed. It is use in ACR.

20:12 Speaker 2: That concludes the event.

20:15 Speaker 1: Thank you to all participants. We are now resuming operational audio communications.