So you've flown on shuttle, Soyuz,
you've spent
two long duration missions on ISS.
And then you get to see
Bob and Doug
come up on a commercial
crew vehicle.
Can you just talk a little bit
about the significance of that
and kind of where we are
in the space program?
Well what was cool for me
on a personal level was,
I flew with Doug on my shuttle.
It was both of our first missions.
I flew with Karen, tou know,
Doug's
better half on my second
mission, Expedition 35-36.
And then it was really nice
to have Doug be there again
for the third mission.
I used to only fly
with Tom Marshburn,
but he bailed out on me on this one.
So now I only fly with a member
of the Hurley-Nyberg family.
But just in general,
it was so awesome
to be part
of that part of our nation's
manned spaceflight history.
You know,
like at first
I was looking at it as a view of,
oh, this is cool, that this is-
that I'm
seeing Bob and Doug and good friends
and they're coming in my expedition.
And I took a step back and realized
this is a pretty significant part in
space history, right.
Like you flip through
chapter books on space history
and you've got different programs
and first flights
of all those programs
are major milestones.
Yeah, and this is no different.
And it's kicking off
a whole new kind of method
to get to the space station
and exciting
launch from Florida again.
And I remember thinking
that on launch day, their launch,
we passed directly over the launch
pad, two minutes before launch.
So in that two minutes,
it sounds really close,
but 2 minutes
we were already like up by South
Carolina or something.
We couldn't
just see out the window
that- their liftoff.
And it was daytime,
so difficult to see the contrast
of the rocket,
but I got a great view
of the launch
pad, took a nice photo of it
moments before liftoff.
And then
NASA TV was being piped up to us
and we were- we were watching live.
And Ivan
and I had this whole scheme
of which windows
we had cameras going
and we had it all.
We kind of did a little rehearsal
on how to manipulate
all the cameras,
kind of like these
guys setting up the set,
making that
right before liftoff and and
and then shortly after liftoff,
I just focused on NASA TV
and was glued to that thing just.
And I remember being so excited.
My heart
when I'm watching
a rocket launch on NASA TV,
my heart is racing.
You know, I'm nervous.
Well, it's different
when it's your friends right now
that you're an astronaut.
You know those people.
They're your-
they're your colleagues.
They're your friends.
You know, their families.
And it's entirely different
than when you're
just witty at MIT
and interested in space
but not have personally invested
in it. Right.
Same thing for me.
I'm on the space station,
first manned rocket
launch of that type and
like,
go, go, go,
you know, just so excited.
And then
the engines cut off
and it's all good. Yeah, but yeah.
Same thing.
I knew before I got to know
that launch and landing
are two really
dynamic phases of flight
and they're scary.
I mean, we're taking some risks
and and I think something
I didn't fully appreciate
until I got here
is, you know, talking
to some veterans
and talking to people
that really know, EVA
is maybe a third one,
where we're doing some risky stuff.
Obviously, we're doing it as safely
as we can.
But I'm curious,
you know,
do you think of it that way similar
to launch and landing?
And are- you
are you
nervous going out the door
like you might be anticipating
a launch?
I think everyone is a little kind of
your nerves are on edge
on your first one.
As you do a few more,
you get a little more comfortable
with the whole situation.
But what surprised me on this one,
the first of the four
that Bob and I did,
which was the first one for me
for seven years,
and the last one since
Luca and I went out.
And all that water and helmet
problem happened,
is it was just another morning
as I was going through the morning
and we got into the depress,
and the hatches close
and we start moving
air out of the crew lock
and it got to the low pressures
where I knew
my next actions
were opening the hatch
and I felt my heart race
a little bit
and thinking to myself,
What are you doing, man?
Settle down.
And I opened the hatch and out
I went
and I remember feeling a little like
I wanted to go fast and- and
I even thought to myself,
they're going to call in the radio
and say to slow down.
Because they're watching
all your data.
They're watching all your heart
rate data and everything.
And they did do that,
but it only lasted a minute or two.
But it surprised me
that I had that
kind of first time
feeling a little bit on this one,
and then it was just so awesome
to be out there with Bob,
somebody who's so capable
and talented.
And I think we fell into a rhythm
pretty, pretty fast,
and that was very settling.
Bob and I have never done
even an NBL run together.
The first time we've ever done
any spacewalk activity
was on a real EVA.
But it didn't feel like that.
It just kind of clicked.
Your questions about the risk of it.
You definitely,
you get a sense for it
when you're outside.
And what I think most is
now we're at a phase
where I can only help Bob and Bob
can only help me.
You as CAPCOM can't,
Flight Director can't,
they can provide
good ideas and direction.
But at the end of the day,
the two people out
there are for each other.
You're a busy man
and I don't want to
take too much of your time.
So it's a true honor
to get to talk to you so soon
after you landed.
Yeah. This is awesome.
Really fun to see you.
I can't wait till I'm
sitting there talking to you
about your first space flight.
That'll be super cool.
Thanks, Chris.
Yeah, awesome.