NASA Astronauts Discuss Life in Space with CNN –

0:02 Speaker 1: Airlock Usinon's facer ground two. Just to reiterate what we talked about earlier. So we'll do the scripted voice checks with the client here at nine thirty here in a minute or so, released you until nine thirty nine, and then the client could is planning to start at nine forty four, but could start earlier. So we'll just have you hang around in the airlock for about five minutes in that window.

0:31 Speaker 2: Where we copy comp checks momentarily and then released until nine thirty nine. Now with the flax between nine and thirty nine and the end of the window.

1:34 Speaker 1: Station, this is Houston. Are you ready for the event?

1:41 Speaker 1: We are ready, Houston, CNN. This is Mission Control Houston. Please call station for a voice check.

1:58 Speaker 3: Station.

1:58 Speaker 4: This is Brad Williamson with CNA.

2:00 Speaker 3: How do you hear me?

2:05 Speaker 2: Hi, Brad, We have you loud and clear up here on the International Space Station.

2:12 Speaker 4: Thank you. Interview time is approximately.

2:18 Speaker 3: Fifteen minutes away. Okay, we copy fifteen minutes. Thanks their audio for CNN.

2:34 Speaker 4: Charged with arson as in Jail without Bail also happening now.

7:00 Speaker 2: ATTATATAS.

10:38 Speaker 5: But many of these Republicans have argued this is simply about the fact that Congress should have a say that this is an important branch of government, that they should have a say in this escalating conflict, and that they believe that the White House at this point has gone too far. We should note just one more time, it was four Republicans joining Democrats on this vote today in the House.

10:59 Speaker 4: Well significant, indeed, Art Laura Fox up on Capitol Hill, Thank you, and coming up Houston. This is Wolf Blitzer. We'll speak to astronauts live from the International Space Station about their current mission in space. All right, great, excellent,

11:50 Speaker 4: Jessica Merr. Can you hear me? It's Wolf, got you loud and clear?

11:56 Speaker 3: Wolf, How do you hear us?

11:59 Speaker 4: I hear you? Fine. And David Shelley and our Washington Bureau chief and good friend of yours and mine says hi.

12:09 Speaker 3: Awesome. We'll please give my best to David as well. We're very excited to be talking to you, and I'll at CNN today.

12:16 Speaker 4: We're excited to talk to you. And Jack. Can you hear me?

12:24 Speaker 3: Yep?

12:24 Speaker 2: I can hear you. Jack. Can you how's your day going?

12:28 Speaker 4: My day is going better than yours. Yours? You're upside down?

12:31 Speaker 2: Yes, no upside down in space? It's it's just part of the adventure.

12:39 Speaker 4: And when you're upside down like that, you don't get.

12:41 Speaker 2: Dizzy, no, because because we don't have the same vector of gravity down like you guys do. We don't. Actually, it doesn't feel any different whether you're in the same in the position that Chessca's in or the position I'm in, It all feels the same.

12:57 Speaker 4: All right, Well, I may ask you that question and you can explain it to our viewers. We're gonna probably be worried about you. All right, We're coming to you in a minute.

13:07 Speaker 2: Thank you that looking forward to it.

13:12 Speaker 3: Two minutes and thirty seconds of control room. We're two and a half minutes and break.

13:16 Speaker 4: Two and a half minutes until live.

14:34 Speaker 3: One minute left and break.

15:35 Speaker 4: Thank buy for live happening now. SpaceX is getting ready to launch Starship for a critical test flight. Depending on whether that launch will happen later today, the most powerful rocket ever made is set to take NASA astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis fore mission. SpaceX had to scrap their test flight last week because of engine issues, and as NASA ramps up as preparations to send humans back to the Moon, astronauts continue their critical work on the International Space Station, currently orbiting the Earth at some seventeen thousand miles per hour.

16:13 Speaker 4: Let me repeat that, seventeen thousand miles per hour, and joining us now live from the International Space Station NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway. Jessica, Jack, to both of you, thanks very much for all the courageous work and important work you're doing. The NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two cosmonauts are wrapping up their two hundred and forty one day mission on the ISS, the International Space Station this Sunday, heading back to Earth. Tell us a little bit about them and what these past days have been like with them.

16:48 Speaker 3: Well, hello, Wilf. We're so happy to be speaking with you today on behalf of everybody up here on the International Space Station. As you just alluded to, it's a very exciting time up here right now. Just about a week ago we had a new crew arrive on a Soyuz rocket and spacecraft. Our colleague in Neil Menin, along with Pyotr Dubrov and a Nakikina from Ross Cosmos joined us, and as you just mentioned, Chris Williams and serge Kudspershkov and Sergia Makayev will be getting ready to leave in a few days on Sunday.

17:15 Speaker 3: So we're in this transition period where we have a few extra crews. Normally we have seven people on board right now, we have ten for that handover period, and on Sunday Chris and Sergei and Sergei will depart, it'll be just seven again. We are busy up here doing lots of different kinds of experiments. We can talk about a few of those if you like. And then we're also getting ready to do another series of spacewalks. We have three spacewalks planned for August.

17:40 Speaker 4: We'll be watching and fascinated by all that you're doing. Jack. You seem to be upside down up there, but you're not getting dizzy.

17:48 Speaker 2: Right, thanks, Well, it depends on how you look at it. I'm not really upside down because up here on the space station there really isn't it up or down, because we experience micro gravity because we're orbiting the Earth as fast as you. As you mentioned, we're falling at the same speed that gravity's pulling us down, so functionally we don't really feel the force of it all, and we can float around, so regardless of what orientation you're in, whether your in Jessica's upright position or you're upside down like I am, you feel the same.

18:20 Speaker 2: And that's actually one of the great pieces of the International Space Station. Because we have micro gravity up here, we can do the type of science that's just not possible to do on Earth, and that's one of the critical missions of the space station and our role up here.

18:35 Speaker 4: And for those of us who haven't been to space check take us a little bit inside what a normal day on the International Space Station looks like.

18:47 Speaker 2: A normal day up here is about twelve hours long. We start at seven thirty in the morning and end at seven thirty in the evening most days of the week, but for our team on the ground, it's twenty four to seven. They're manning the control room and developing the experiments and doing all the backwork that needs to be done around the clock so they can support us the twelve hours a day that we're working. So we work about twelve hours a day during the week, and that split fifty to fifty between maintaining the station doing the normal maintenance.

19:16 Speaker 2: You know, there's no electrician, dedicated plumber, or anything like that.

19:19 Speaker 4: Up here.

19:19 Speaker 2: It's just a seven or for this week, the ten of us up here, so we do all the maintenance on the station to keep it running. Human's been up here for over twenty five years, so there's a lot of maintenance that needs to be done, so we take care of that, and then with the balance of our time, we do science experiments that people from around the world and around the country have sent up to see how all that works.

19:43 Speaker 4: Jessica, you were part of that first all female spacewalk with fellow astroduct Christina Cook, who later went on to be the first woman on a Moon mission. Is a Moon mission maybe next for you?

19:54 Speaker 3: You'll have to ask my boss Wolf. That would be wonderful news, but I'm not sure what is in store for the future. I think the exciting thing about the Artemis program right now is that we have many more missions planned, so there's a good chance that you could see a lot of the familiar NASA astronaut faces on those future missions. But I can say on behalf of all of us just being part of it, knowing that there are colleagues, our friends, knowing that we'll play a role in some part, whether it's on the ground supporting, whether it's talking to them from the space station like we got to during the Artemis two flight.

20:30 Speaker 3: Of course, I would love to be a part of those missions. We'll see how it all plays out in the future.

20:35 Speaker 4: I recently had a chance to meet with some of those artimists, two astronauts, four of them when they were at a Washington Nationals baseball game. It was very exciting to meet them, and I help you guys will meet with me at a Washington Nationals game as well. Jessica, Meir, Jack Hathaway, good luck, stay safe, We'll be in touch.

20:56 Speaker 3: Thank you, Wolf, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.

21:00 Speaker 2: Moment.

21:00 Speaker 4: Now the White House is expected.

21:03 Speaker 1: Station.

21:03 Speaker 4: This is Houston ACR.

21:04 Speaker 1: That concludes the event. Thank you, Thank you to all for participants. Station. We are now resuming operational communication.