- I'm not sure what y'all did this morning,
but I talked to two women who are currently
orbiting the earth, so I'm cooler than you.
- Wow.
- (laughs) I had the honor of chatting
with the astronauts though who recently completed
the first ever all-female space walk.
But it turns out, when you're trying
to interview people on the International Space Station
scheduling can be tricky.
So, I was given an exact ten minute window
early this morning, during rehearsals,
so here's my chat with history-making astronauts
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.
(applauding)
Station, this is Kelly Clarkson
with The Kelly Clarkson Show, how do you hear me?
- Kelly, station has you loud and clear,
welcome aboard.
- Oh my gosh, your microphone is just floating.
I'm so jealous of you right now.
Hi Christina and Jessica!
I cannot believe I'm talking to y'all
while you're in space.
That is so much cooler than anything I've ever done
in my life, other than birth my children.
What was it like the first time you made it to space?
How did you feel?
- It was an absolutely incredible feeling.
I think the moment I remember the most was
the time I looked out the window
and saw the earth for the first time below me.
It was bright and absolutely beautiful blue,
and I completely exclaimed, we were in the middle
of configuring our spacecraft for the future
rendezvous burns, but I just couldn't concentrate
on that for one moment, I had to just express
how amazing it was to see the earth.
So that's my first memory that really stands out
where I knew, yes I am really in space.
- Wow, that is so cool.
Okay, so what's the purpose of this particular mission?
What work are you doing up there right now?
- Well, the primary goal
of the International Space Station is science.
You name it, any type of science,
we are doing it up here.
Aside from that, we also have to do daily maintenance
of the Space Station.
It's actually been up here almost 20 years now,
so we do have to make sure that we maintain all the systems
and repair things that break.
We go and we do spacewalks when things break
or have to be replaced on the outside
of the Space Station.
We fly the robotic arm sometimes to do that.
So all of our days are different,
we do something different all the time
and that's what keeps it so interesting.
- Okay, this is a real question too.
Can you do a flip, right now? (laughing)
- Well, since you requested it, we do have one flip trick.
- Okay. I'm so excited.
(laughing)
Oh my God, I love it.
(applause)
Oh my gosh!
Space is the place that everyone is skinny,
I love it! (laughing, applause)
That is so fun.
So what is, this is a real que...
Well done by the way, but what's the most scary
kind of challenging part of doing a space walk?
- Great question.
I think one of the challenges is to remain vigilant
for exactly what you're talking about.
Even though the primary mission of a space walk
is to accomplish a repair or an upgrade
on the external part of the station,
all the while we have to recognize that we're
in a spacesuit that's essentially
our own personal spacecraft.
It has every single system that a spacecraft has,
for both life support and just maintaining
the pressurized environment that you need.
So we have to be ready at any time,
if any one of those systems doesn't act as expected
because there's quite a bit of overhead
in actually coming back inside,
getting into the airlock and re-pressurizing,
to where you can address some of those systems.
- Wow.
Okay, well do y'all have any advice
for little girls watching you who might want
to grow up be astronauts?
- You know, I think that one of the things
every single astronaut will say is that it's important
to follow your passions.
If you do what you love, then you're going to affect
the world in the most maximum positive way possible,
as well as find the most personal fulfillment
and get the most out of it.
And you're going to excel at what you're passionate about.
There's a couple additional things
that I like to add to that.
Which is, support the people around you
and even reach out and do the things that scare you.
Do the things that are right on the cusp
of what you know you're capable of
and when you do those things, you can find that you get
the most fulfillment out of recognizing that you can
do anything you set your mind to.
- Yeah, I think Christina captured that perfectly,
and I would add, just to carry on with what she was saying,
you really have to remember that it's okay
to take a risk, you have to be willing
to take that risk and accept that you will fail
along the way.
Both of us, and everyone up here, has had several failures
along the course of their life and their trajectory
in getting where we are today.
But, if we hadn't accepted that it was okay to fail
and then continued, we wouldn't be here now.
(audience applauding)
- Well, thank you so much, Christina and Jessica.
Y'all are not only just incredibly smart,
you're beautiful, you're talented, you're inspiring
a whole different generation of people
to do what you're doing and it's incredible!
Thank you so much for taking the time with us.
- Thank you so much Kelly.
It was really cool to be part of your show today
and hello to everybody on the ground.
- Bye y'all.
Oh my gosh, I love it!
They did not just do that.
(applause)
That was the best exit I've ever seen in life.