[Mike Massimino] Hi I'm Mike Massimino
and this is Inside the International Space Station.
Intro clip: "We never saw each other.
Maybe they got sick of me.
I can't cheat off somebody.
My stuff's a wreck."
[Massimino] We're going to talk to Joe Acaba and Suni Williams
about their upcoming space flight.
[Massimino] You guys are going to be up in space together
so I hope you guys seem to be getting along.
[Acaba] Yeah, it's cause the cameras are on.
[Massimino] so you guys obviously do get along
and if you're going to fight do it in space don't do it here
in front of the cameras.
But no, you guys do get along, so what has it been
like for the two of you training together?
I guess, Joe, you were assigned first,
or were you assigned together?
Tell us a little about what you've been doing together.
What your relationship has been
like for the past however long it's been.
[Acaba] Well the first, I've been in training for a couple
of years and I'm on what they call the A line, so I'm flying
with two Russians on the Soyuz and then Suni's flying
with a Russian and then Aki like we talked about.
So being on the A-Line and she's on the B-Line we went
for a good year, we never saw each other.
I'm training by myself; every now and then we might pass
on the way to Russia and coming back.
So it's just recently now that I even know who she is.
We did a little bit of training together.
[Williams] Really and seriously, what Joe was saying,
there's a lot of stuff in the program
that you've just gotta learn from the beginning
and then you start doing the complex stuff working
out emergencies and EVA Space Walks and robotics together
so in the last 6 months we started to do that.
What we're going to do in space is starting to be defined.
Possibly, we might have some vehicles we might have
to grab with the robotic arm.
Possibly we might have some space walks
where the guy driving the robotic arm will drive the space
walker around.
So that's getting defined then we started working together.
We're also getting close to the end of our training
which means launching on the Soyuz so we've been back-ups now
so we've been able to overlap in Russia
with our Russian crew-mates and understand what we're going
to be doing up there like that too.
[Massimino] Let's take this too, Joe,
you were on a Shuttle flight.
An assembly flight?
[Acaba] Right.
[Massimino] Now in your first flight you went
up and down on shuttle.
[Williams] Uh huh, they dropped me off.
Maybe they got sick of me and kicked me out on the station.
[Massimino] Right, but that was the idea.
[Williams] It was the idea.
[Massimino] Did you plead to come back?
[Williams] I was thinking if I could swim over there.
[Massimino]....
I don't like my room.
You were up there six months or so.
Most of our flights in the Shuttle program you kind of bond
with your crew and their families.
I guess Joe you had that experience
and Suni, you at the end.
[Williams] A little at the end, yeah.
[Massimino] Alright, so this much is different.
It sounds like it's much different.
Is it or do you still get to have that sort of relationship?
[Williams] I think, like we talked about, for the first year
of training you're doing your own thing,
then we put our offices together.
Joe's crew, me, Aki and then the crew afterwards that me
and Aki will fly with.
Which is Kevin Ford so we do sort of get to see each other.
[Acaba] Yeah, we see each other.
[Williams] Notice who's a pig and who's not a pig.
That would be me.
My stuff's a wreck and their stuff's all neat.
It's gross.
Anyway. [Massimino] We'll see what happens in space.
[Williams] Well, you get to see each other's habits up in space
but that was pretty nice and more recently
as our tasks are getting defined,
we're doing more ops together and so we get
to work with each other.
[Massimino] The shuttle crews, usually your families,
get to know each other.
Does that happen as well with you guys?
[Acaba] It's a little, yeah, it's a little different.
[Williams] It's different but there's a couple of times
in the year in January and July when all
of the Russian crew mates are in the U.S. as well as all
of our other International Partners and so,
it had sort of come to a head this last January.
All of our crew members were all here together and so it was one
of the times we all go to go out together
so we all had a little party together with a lot
of other folks; trainers, flight controllers who work with us
and that was pretty nice.
That was like one of the first times we've done
that in the U.S. In Russia, we get together a little bit
because we live close by each other as the USOS crew members.
We have dinners together maybe once or twice a week.
We watch movies together.
We always have a beer together and stuff
in Russia but here it's rare.
Usually in January and July are the only two times
that we all get together.
[Massimino] Including the Russians?
[Williams] Including the Russians, yep.
[Massimino] That's why, and that's usually here,
but over there you're able to ...
with them as well or is it just you guys?
[Williams] Mostly just us.
[Acaba] Mostly just us.
You know, the Russian guys, like anybody,
when you're at home you've got your family obligations and all
that so they kind of take off at the end of the day but at least
for the Americans we're kind of stuck
out there you have more opportunity ,
you know, no family around.
We probably spent more time together, you know,
in Russia than in the United States.
At least until the last 6 months.
[Williams] Watching football at like, three in the morning.
[Acaba] Yeah, that's always good.
[Massimino] Because you got that big time difference.
[Williams] Because of the time difference, yeah.
That sort of stunk last season.
Both of us have been over in Russia for most of the season.
[Acaba] You get up to work out, you get to watch some football.
[Williams] Yeah, that's good, that's not so bad.
You're not really having a tail-gater;
you're having the morning coffee.
[Massimino] Joe, for you, what's been the difference
between your Shuttle experiences and this?
Has it been a lot?
[Acaba] Yeah, it's a lot different.
One thing, you already touched on, you know,
your shuttle flight you're with you know a crew of 6 or 7.
You see them every day, 5 days a week.
You meet the families.
Every class, you go together.
Now, probably 80-90% of my classes I'm by myself.
I can't cheat off of somebody else or you know,
you gotta stay awake the whole time
because it's just you and an instructor.
[Massimino] Wow.
I see; a lot more individual.
[Acaba] It's a lot more individual,
you know when you get to those critical operations
and another thing is when we got
to our press conference last week.
When you have a shuttle flight you know what you're doing.
You're delivering this piece of equipment, this is your job.
Now it's like, oh, Joe what are you going to do up there?
Uh, well...
[Williams] We'll see, we'll see...
[Acaba] We're gonna do some experiments,
you know everything shifts.
The visiting vehicles, the experiments we have,
you don't know what you're gonna do so we have
to be more flexible doing this than you do
with a Shuttle flight.
[Massimino] That's interesting.