Station this is Houston. Are you ready
for the event? Houston this is Space
Station. We are absolutely ready for the
event.
SpaceX this is Mission Control Houston
please call station for a voice check
station this is Benji Reed from SpaceX
how do you hear me hello Benji we hear
you loud and clear welcome to the Space
Station in virtually and physically
thank you Chris it's an honor to join
you guys today and it's awesome to see
all of you guys up there together first
I just want to say thank you again to
Bob and Doug and your families from all
of us here at SpaceX all of our
locations all of our partners all of our
vendors everyone for trusting us to
bring you up there I hope your first day
there has been great so far
hey thanks Benji it's same back at you
you know congratulations to the folks
out of Hawthorne McGregor and at Kennedy
just an incredible journey we've had the
last couple days a great day in space
today our first first day of work and on
space station but what a great ride on
Dragon and Falcon 9 to get us here
everything worked exactly the way we
planned it to work and that's a credit
to the teams there in Hawthorne and the
McGregor
and and Kennedy just it's a pretty
awe-inspiring trip so far and and very
humbling and just we're we're just so
proud to represent SpaceX and NASA and
this this new next launch capability
absolutely it's excellent to hear your
voice and it's excellent to just see you
guys up there floating around and
spinning earth and doing all these great
things a number of our employees have
asked questions and that we'd like to
throw your way here probably the first
one and you've had this in a different
version before but what did it feel like
riding on Falcon nine you know we
certainly have talked about it but it's
it never gets old talking about riding
on Falcon nine just from the time the
engines lit the first two and a half
minutes to staging was about like we
expected except you know you can never
simulate the G's so as the G's built you
could certainly feel those also what I
thought was really neat was how
sensitive we were to the throttling of
the Merlin engines that was really neat
you could you could definitely sense
that as we broke Mach 1 and went
transonic and broke Mach 1 we could
definitely feel that in fact I said it
to Bob and then the next thing you know
the the call was made and you we didn't
even need to look at the speed you could
tell just by how the rocket felt and so
it it's it's it's a very pure flying
machine and then I think the next thing
that really stood out for me was first
aid separation with the engine cutoff
and that separation event going to
zero-g for a split second and then the
Merlin vacuum engine lighting that was a
pretty that was a pretty neat event that
was that was a highlight of the asset
for me and then once the M vac started
then it was that kind of driving fast
very fast on a gravel road is how it
felt the rest of the way up a little bit
of vibrations not anything that was
really unpleasant but you certainly knew
that there was a powerful engine behind
you
and that obviously took us all the way
to orbit about six minutes later and
once again you know the Gees and how the
engine throttle to control the g's and
then straight to cut off and then just
like with shuttle you go from three
actually in this case we were more than
three g's to zero G's instantaneously
and we knew we made it to orbit
that's awesome sounds like the ultimate
right uh Batmobile with a jet engine
turned on another question that we had
came came about what was going through
your mind when you're on the pad we know
that you guys are steely eyed and
focused on the operation but what was
some of the last things that you're
thinking about just before launch I
think for both of us Benji we really
almost started the ride when we got to
go for for tanking and so when the
tanking operations started you know
dragon really and the Falcon nine really
came alive underneath us it was a little
bit different than our shuttle
experience where we came to the vehicle
after it was tanked and so as we marched
through the the loading countdown I
think when we got to 16 and a half
minutes and we got started on the locks
for the second stage I think that we
said well we haven't done this before
because it was something new from what
had happened just a few days earlier and
I think each one of the events we just
marked him off as uh well he never did
that before
oh we never did that before and it was
it was pretty cool kind of marching our
way all the way up hill and so all the
way to the point where we saw 189 or so
on the perigee I think the knew that we
had safely made it into the the first
portion of our orbit and we're headed
towards Space Station I think we were
excited but I've said this before and I
and I'll say it again about the training
team just doing an excellent job and
when we started this adventure I
described it as my goal to make it like
Groundhog Day so it was very familiar as
we march through the various events and
we knew where to look next for the thing
that was going to tell us that we're
proceeding normally through the account
through the launch and on into orbit all
the way to Space Station and they
succeeded wonderfully and producing that
desired ground Groundhog Day familiarity
as we went through the launch count in
the of course there's plenty of
excitement when you write a rocket and
and we prefer the term as a demo to
dragon driver
versus dragonriders but when you go
through that there's certainly a ton of
excitement to go along with all that as
well
that's been past it it sounds great and
we appreciate how much time you spent
with us doing all of that training to
make it Groundhog Day too
a question for for Chris what was it
like for you knowing your buddies were
gonna be coming back these dragon
drivers we're gonna be showing up and
then opening the door for them you know
Benji it was it was really cool as I was
sitting in the cupola looking out the
window I had the opportunity to take a
few photos hopefully you've seen some of
them there they turned out pretty nice
but I could I could see the docking
mechanism and with the big lens I could
really look at the interest intricacies
of of the hatch and the docking
mechanism I thought about all of you
folks there who put that together and
and those mechanisms that were just
moments away from from making the
physical contact and making these two
vehicles one and it really represented
as silly as it sounds the those docking
mechanisms represented to me the the
unity that now we have between SpaceX
and NASA
there's really cool symbolism it's true
you got that sense as we are moving into
hard capture that you're becoming one
vehicle and you know part of that unity
that we see you guys have a picture of
the earth and you have a flag which also
represents the friendly competition
maybe that that I brings us unity once
you tell us about that there yes so this
is the flag that we left here almost
nine years ago on STS 135 it had
actually flown on sts-1 and then it flew
again with us on sts-135 and at some
point after the end of the shuttle
program we decided we had we would have
a little friendly competition to see who
came up and got this flag and
congratulations SpaceX you got the flag
so Bob and I Kris will not let us forget
it that's the biggest thing is this will
be on his to-do list when we get the nod
to return dragon back to earth and and
hopefully this will find a great place
of honor
somewhere in Hawthorne
well it's an honor to have you guys be
able to come grab that flag one other
question that we got was if anybody had
seen little earth floating around or
maybe he's driving the space station or
yeah that's a great question Benji I
haven't had a chance with ya chris is
gonna go find him we haven't been on
station long enough to finish all the
activities that we've had to do with
outfitting dragon for you know being
able to be our emergency lifeboat home
so we spent the day doing that I mean
we're really excited this is going to be
the event no one else is getting a
chance to see this I guess yeah here
comes earthy and I think I might need to
run down and get tremor the Apatosaurus
so that we can reunite these two
together so our intent is to bring
earthy home if we can fashion a
spacesuit forum so that you know he
needs emergency response or she needs
emergency response capability as well
that's outstanding very good I you know
I want to give you guys a chance I hear
there's something else that you guys
wanted to talk about or show us yeah
this is that mosaic that was put on
board dragon with all the virtual
graduates this year that you guys put
together and we think it's amazing I
know Chris when he first saw it said he
couldn't believe how cool it looked and
we just wanted to make sure you guys got
to see it here on board Space Station
that is very cool I understand that over
90,000 graduates from preschool through
college and graduate school for class of
2020 are represented on that and there's
tremor
I think that this image that you guys
put together to recognize the class of
2020 with all that the entire Earth is
going through I think as as astronauts
that we often get asked the question
about the overview effect and the
perspective change that happens and I
think things like the pandemic that
we're all going through together should
make it clear that we're all in this
together and kind of cooperation and
doing your part to fight the battle that
we're fighting against this pandemic
this is just a great example of the same
sort of the thing that we're all going
through this shared experience and it's
just wonderful you were able to
recognize all the graduates in this
special way
that's wonderful guys I just want to
tell you again how awesome and honestly
gives me goosebumps just to know that
I'm talking with you as you're on orbit
above us right now it it's it's all
inspiring for all of us and so maybe one
last question what would you tell the
future generation we've got it a lot of
us have kids a lot of us are have have
family and friends who are going to be
the next generation of astronauts what
would you say to all of them for me I
would say they're our dreams do come
true and you should chase them you know
I think when we had our short meeting
with Elon the other day in crew quarters
we talked about the audacity that it
takes to pull off human spaceflight and
how much paranoia that it also takes to
pull it off and you know if you work
really hard you can accomplish great
things and and this is just a true
example of exactly that folks not giving
up whatever challenges are in front of
them it's been folks talk about SpaceX
as being a new company a new kid on the
block when we talked to Hans the other
day he shared with us his 18 years story
so it's almost unfair to call yourself a
new kid on the block anymore once you've
made it to low-earth orbit with humans
and have 18 years invested so just hats
off and congratulations to you guys for
accomplishing it and you would
complicate because you dared to dream it
well thank you guys and on behalf of all
of us here at SpaceX and all of our
partners thank you for flying SpaceX we
look forward to bringing you a home soon
to your families safe on earth and and
then sending more people up to help keep
space station running today Thank You
Benji Thank You Hawthorne Thank You
McGregor Thank You Kennedy station this
is Houston ACR that concludes our event
as we count down to 20 continuous years
of humans living and working on the
International Space Station thank you to
all participants from SpaceX station we
are now resuming operational audio
communications