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Crew-9
Update: 2024-09-20
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On episode 354, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of discuss their mission, personal life, and preparation ahead of their launch to the station.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Houston, we have a podcast.
00:00:02
Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 354, crew 9.
00:00:07
I'm Dane Turner and I'll be your host today.
00:00:10
On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts and cosmonauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.
00:00:20
We are getting ready for the next mission in NASA's commercial crew program, sending one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut to the International Space Station on the 9th crew rotation mission.
00:00:32
Following NASA's decision to return Boeing Starliner's crew flight test or CFT, uncrewed, crew 9 will launch with two empty seats.
00:00:41
NASA astronaut and crew 9 commander Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Alexander Gorbanov will fly to station aboard SpaceX Dragon Freedom.
00:00:52
There, they will join the crew of Expedition 72, bringing the station's population up to 7 to conduct their mission of executing science investigations and technology demonstrations until early next year,
00:01:04
when they will return with NASA astronauts butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams.
00:01:09
We sat down with Nick Hague and Alexander Gorbanov learning about their backgrounds, the mission and plans once they get to station.
00:01:16
Let's hear what crew 9 had to say ahead of their flight.
00:01:19
[Music]
00:01:39
First up is crew 9 commander Nick Hague.
00:01:41
Nick was born in Belville, Kansas but considers Huxie, Kansas his hometown.
00:01:46
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Academy and his Master of Science in Astronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT.
00:01:55
His military career includes test pilot school, a deployment in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, and teaching introductory astronautics linear control system analysis and design for the Department of Astronautics at the Air Force Academy.
00:02:09
Prior to his selection as an astronaut candidate, Nick was assigned to the joint improvised explosive device defeat organization as the Deputy Division Chief for Research and Development and in 2021 he transferred from the Air Force to the US Space Force.
00:02:23
This will be Nick's third space flight and second long duration stay on the ISS following his mission with Expeditions 59 and 60 in 2019.
00:02:32
While on station he conducted three space walks totaling 19 hours and 56 minutes and spent a total of 203 days in space.
00:02:40
I got to talk to crew 9 commander Nick Hague a few months ago and here's what he had to say.
00:02:46
Nick Hague, thank you for coming on Houston.
00:02:48
We have a podcast.
00:02:49
Yeah, pleasure to be here.
00:02:51
So you've been an astronaut for about 10 years now.
00:02:53
Can you tell us a little bit about life before being an astronaut?
00:02:56
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about because it took me about 38 years before I was selected.
00:03:03
You know, I grew up in Western Kansas.
00:03:08
That's where I graduated high school.
00:03:10
I grew up on a farm and space seemed like a long ways away.
00:03:16
Most of the world seemed like a long ways away when you grew up in a really small town out in the middle of the plains.
00:03:23
And so I just always had this urge to get out and explore and try to connect with it.
00:03:32
And fortunately enough about three hours to the west in Colorado Springs was the United States Air Force Academy.
00:03:39
And I found out about that and what it would be like to serve in the Air Force.
00:03:44
And so that's got me hooked.
00:03:46
And so I went to college there and studied astronomical engineering and learned how to build satellites and rockets.
00:03:55
And that's kind of the stepping stone into it.
00:03:58
And from there off we went.
00:04:00
Had you always wanted to be an astronaut?
00:04:03
You know, as I was growing up invariably, I'd look up in the night sky and see stars.
00:04:09
And so there was always this childhood dream.
00:04:11
You know, I love sci-fi movies.
00:04:15
I grew up on Star Wars and Star Trek.
00:04:19
So you know, you can't pin me down one way or the other.
00:04:22
And I also watched Doctor Who.
00:04:23
So, you know, that's out there too.
00:04:25
I got it all covered.
00:04:27
But I love sci-fi and just this idea of going out and exploring was this childhood dream.
00:04:32
It really wasn't until later after I was in the Air Force for a while that I started to see, you know, the things that I really enjoyed doing at work,
00:04:45
the types of work that I enjoyed doing.
00:04:47
The team environment that I felt like I thrived in, hey, that's pretty close to what being an astronaut and working in human spaceflight would be like.
00:04:59
And so then that's when the childhood dream transitioned to a professional ambition.
00:05:05
And so I applied.
00:05:06
And that was in 2003.
00:05:10
And I got rejected.
00:05:12
And then I applied again in 2008 and got rejected.
00:05:17
And then finally I was selected in 2013.
00:05:20
So it took me the better part of a decade of continual applications.
00:05:27
But I wouldn't say that all the stuff that I did during that decade was trying to just check boxes to be competitive.
00:05:33
I was outlive my life doing the things I love to do.
00:05:37
And just got fortunate enough to get selected that third time around.
00:05:40
Third times the charm.
00:05:41
Hey, I'll take it.
00:05:42
Now, I hear that you enjoy skiing and scuba diving.
00:05:45
And growing up in Kansas, I don't, to my knowledge, Kansas isn't really a place with, you know, a lot of skiing and scuba diving opportunities.
00:05:54
What, how did you pick that up?
00:05:57
Yeah, so you might start to pick up on a trend here, you know, growing up in Western Kansas, I didn't have a lot of stuff.
00:06:04
And so then my impulse was to go out and try to connect with some of that stuff.
00:06:08
So let's find some mountains and let's get into downhill skiing.
00:06:13
And so we drive out to Colorado and go skiing in some of county.
00:06:18
And scuba diving, there's not a lot of places to do that in Kansas.
00:06:22
But later on, I was fortunate enough to be stationed near some big lakes and learn how to scuba dive.
00:06:30
And so it was always this, these are things I always wanted to do to new experiences that I didn't have necessarily when I was at my fingertips when I was growing up.
00:06:41
And, you know, I wanted to do them.
00:06:44
So I found a way to go find the opportunity and love it.
00:06:49
Fantastic.
00:06:49
Now, you have a really impressive military resume from the Air Force Academy to masters at MIT and the US Air Force test pilot school.
00:06:59
You've taught courses at the US Air Force Academy and your deputy division chief for the research and development with the joint improvised explosive defeat.
00:07:08
It's a mouthful.
00:07:10
The joint improvised explosive device defeat organization, prior to be chosen as a NASA astronaut.
00:07:17
Now, any one of those things sounds very impressive.
00:07:20
But what stands out to you of your accomplishments?
00:07:24
When I think back to it, you could look at that resume and, you know, it's like I change jobs about every two years doing something radically different.
00:07:34
So you could look at it and go, wow, he can't keep a job.
00:07:37
He's got to still looking for his thing.
00:07:40
So I think the thing that stands out probably is the diversity of experience.
00:07:44
And some of that I chose to do, some of it the Air Force told me, hey, you're going to go do this.
00:07:51
But it was always trying, effectively, it always expanded my comfort zone.
00:07:59
I am an engineer through and through.
00:08:01
That's what I studied in college.
00:08:03
Engineers typically don't enjoy public speaking.
00:08:07
They don't enjoy writing speeches.
00:08:09
They don't enjoy writing questions for congressional testimony.
00:08:14
But I found myself doing these things and learning to get comfortable with it.
00:08:20
It made me a more well-rounded person in the long haul.
00:08:24
But I think the bigger thing, and for anybody listening, the bigger thing is this is a lifelong endeavor.
00:08:32
You're just not ever done.
00:08:35
So I've been an astronaut for 10 years.
00:08:36
I'm still not done developing.
00:08:38
NASA was super supportive in letting me do a rotation back with the Space Force a couple years ago as a development opportunity.
00:08:46
And I got to be part of this service as it's standing up and help lead how it's developing all of its ways that it's going to test and experiment with new space systems.
00:09:01
And that was just a phenomenal opportunity.
00:09:04
And so you're always growing.
00:09:07
And looking for ways to continue to expand is I think it's just a great way to approach life.
00:09:13
That is amazing.
00:09:15
So your previous flight to the International Space Station on the Soyuz got off to a little bit of a rough start.
00:09:19
That's one way to put it.
00:09:21
The flight was aborted due to a booster failure after launch.
00:09:25
Is that right?
00:09:26
That sounds so sterile.
00:09:29
So the initial external boosters, once they're empty, you jettison them because they're just dead weight, right?
00:09:37
So the Soyuz is headed uphill.
00:09:39
And about two minutes into the launch, we're about 30 miles above the surface of the earth going 5,000 miles an hour, pretty much pointed straight up still.
00:09:48
And those tanks are supposed to separate away.
00:09:52
And one of those tanks had a sensor that was bent.
00:09:57
So it couldn't sense the motion of the tanks separating away.
00:10:01
Once they start to move, they're supposed to propel themselves, release some gas and push themselves away from the rocket so they don't hit it.
00:10:08
Well, the one that didn't sense the motion, didn't propel itself away.
00:10:13
And the slipstream of air jammed that external booster back into the core stage, basically impaling it.
00:10:22
And so it lost all of its structural integrity and essentially disintegrated.
00:10:28
So as that's all happening, and mind you, that whole process happened as quick as a snap of your fingers because you're going 5,000 miles an hour,
00:10:40
the escape system on the top of the rocket since the rocket had tilted a little too far outside of boundary.
00:10:49
And so then it fired some thrusters to pull us away from the rocket as it was coming apart.
00:10:55
And so that was all over in a second.
00:10:57
And then Alexe and I were kind of coasting uphill in a capsule that was a ballistic trajectory.
00:11:06
So a suborbital flight, just like you can go to Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic and buy a seat for, we got ours.
00:11:15
And we went up, kissed the edge of space, 92 kilometers.
00:11:21
So depending on who you talk to, some say you weren't there, you were there.
00:11:23
I don't care, because I survived.
00:11:27
And then we came back down.
00:11:29
And we were a little steeper, so the G forces were a little higher than normal, but not crazy.
00:11:33
It wasn't anything that we hadn't trained for.
00:11:36
And we landed under our parachutes ironically, pretty close to where we were planned to land at the end of our mission in kind of the normal launch landing zone or the landing zone for the Soyuz.
00:11:48
So rescue forces were there.
00:11:50
Lickety split and pulled us out of the capsule and I had, you know, I was in my wife's arms less than six hours later.
00:11:59
So it was, it was a roller coaster ride of a day.
00:12:02
Wow, do you have any takeaways from that?
00:12:06
Life doesn't always work like you think it's going to.
00:12:11
And, you know, probably the, it's something we all realize, right?
00:12:18
Spaceflight is not just about the person that's on top of the rocket.
00:12:22
It's about everybody that it takes to get them there.
00:12:27
And your family is at the core of that.
00:12:31
And, and it's inherently dangerous.
00:12:36
So it's, it's important to understand why you're doing what you're doing.
00:12:41
And if it's important enough, if the reason why is important is important enough, then, then you take those risks, but you, you still take them together.
00:12:51
So for everybody that's strapping themselves into a rocket and launching into space, they're not launching just by themselves.
00:12:57
They're not launching just as a crew.
00:12:59
They're launching carrying all of those emotions of the family that are sitting on the side.
00:13:05
Completely out of control watching this happen.
00:13:09
And, and, you know, NASA does a really good job of recognizing the whole person.
00:13:17
And, and that the family is this integral part family and your support network are an integral part of your success.
00:13:26
And so, you know, it hit that home for me.
00:13:30
I saw it in action the way that NASA responded and was there for the family.
00:13:35
And, and, you know, so thank you for everybody that's there.
00:13:40
Ready to respond on those days when things just don't go right.
00:13:44
Wow.
00:13:45
And then, just a few months later, you did make it to the ISS to do a long-gration mission there.
00:13:53
You had lots of science to do, some space walks.
00:13:56
Are there any stories from, from that mission that stand out to you?
00:14:01
Yeah.
00:14:01
So, five months later, we were strapped into a rocket.
00:14:05
Same launchpad, basically the same spacecraft, same version of the spacecraft, same version of, and launched into space, had an amazing 203 day mission.
00:14:16
There are so many things that stand out.
00:14:19
One thing that, that I don't often share is, is, is just this person.
00:14:27
So, we got there seven days later, we were out doing a space walk.
00:14:31
And, you spend your whole, a huge chunk of your training time is devoted toward being able to do a space walk because you just can't replicate that,
00:14:42
that floating around in a space suit, in the vacuum of space.
00:14:46
The only place you do it real for the first time is in space, and so we do a lot of underwater training, and we do a lot of systems training and mock-up training, virtual reality training,
00:14:57
but to pull it all together up there is the first time.
00:15:01
And so, opening that hatch the first time and, and going out with my, my EV partner, so Anna McLean, and, and I went out, out to hatch,
00:15:11
and one of the first things I remember is, it's, you know, it was dark, and you could see the outside of the station.
00:15:18
And I was like, this, there's something missing here, and I realized that I was looking for the diver bubbles from the NBL, because they're there protecting us and keeping us in place a lot,
00:15:30
and so they're always on scuba and they're producing bubbles, and, and I was looking for those, but there was no bubbles there though.
00:15:36
But otherwise it felt exactly the same, and so the training we have is phenomenal, to the point where Anna and I had both never done a spacewalk, and,
00:15:46
and Christina Cook and David St.
00:15:48
Jacques were the two crew on the inside that helped suit us up.
00:15:53
None of us had been on part of a spacewalk before, so we were rookies all across the board, and the only way you can do something that complicated, as, as a bunch of rookies,
00:16:04
is because of the training team that got us ready, and the massive team on the ground that is there supporting us as we're doing the spacewalk.
00:16:12
So, so many times we tend to focus on the astronaut as, like, they're the one making, you know, the impossible happen, and the reality is, we're just like the little tip of the iceberg,
00:16:24
and there are so many people working day in and day out that have dedicated their lives to making sure that we're successful, and that we can explore space.
00:16:33
And, and yeah, so thank you.
00:16:36
If you're listening and you're part of that, thank you.
00:16:41
That is such an amazing thing to hear, knowing how many people here at NASA are part of every step of every mission is, is something that is just incredible to think about,
00:16:53
and, and to hear, you know, that that training helps you as a rookie go on a spacewalk is just amazing.
00:16:59
Yeah, it's, the people are so impressive, and I, I meet new faces all the time that are, that are part of the team.
00:17:08
I just wish I could take them all up with me.
00:17:11
Well, we'd love to go with you.
00:17:12
Every single one of us would.
00:17:14
Okay, got your name down.
00:17:16
So, this is your second mission to the ISS.
00:17:19
What are you looking forward to on this second mission, compared to your first?
00:17:25
I'm a little excited to see how much the station has changed in five years.
00:17:30
And you, you might have this vision of the station being stagnant.
00:17:37
You know, we built it, and now we're using it.
00:17:40
But that's such the wrong impression of what we're actually doing with the space station.
00:17:45
You know, it took us a decade to build and, you know, like more than a hundred launches and more than a hundred spacewalks to put it all together.
00:17:53
But ever since it was built, we've been continually changing the equipment that's on the inside and changing the research capabilities and expanding the research capabilities.
00:18:05
And so, it's been five years since I've been there.
00:18:07
So, a lot can happen in five years.
00:18:10
And so, I'm excited to get back and see how it's changed and be able to contribute to, you know, using some of those new capabilities.
00:18:17
The ISS as a national lab lets you do microgravity research.
00:18:22
Why is that so important?
00:18:24
Space stations, the only place we can do that for a long period of time.
00:18:31
You know, on the ground, we can put things in drop towers and they can free fall in a vacuum for a few seconds.
00:18:42
We can put things inside an aircraft and we can fly these parabolic flights and you can have 20 seconds of weightlessness.
00:18:52
On the station, I can put an experiment into a locker and leave it there for two years and it can experience weightlessness for two years.
00:19:06
And it might seem trivial, you know, geez, what good does taking gravity out of this equation.
00:19:18
But there's so many nuance behaviors in our environment around us, in our bodies that you can't see these little nuance reactions when gravity is such an overwhelming force.
00:19:33
But when gravity goes away, all of these little things that you're like, it's not a significant thing on the ground, they become really big things on orbit.
00:19:43
A great example is like the surface tension of water.
00:19:50
So we're sitting here and I've got a bottle of water in front of me.
00:19:59
The surface tension of water, if I put a floating ball of water in front of me and I put my finger into it, the water would just crawl up my arm because of surface tension.
00:20:03
If I put my finger into a puddle on the ground, the tip of it gets wet, but the rest of my hand doesn't get wet.
00:20:09
And so if we didn't explore in weightlessness, there's so many things that we're missing.
00:20:18
And so that's led to breakthroughs, right?
00:20:20
That's led to breakthroughs on the ground for new medicines or better understanding of how diseases behave in the human body or how the human body behaves in general.
00:20:30
It's helped us understand materials so that we can produce better materials and more pure materials like we're trying to make fiber optics that are more optically pure so that we can run less fiber and get more data.
00:20:46
There's all these impacts on the ground that we learn by just removing gravity.
00:20:51
And it seems simple.
00:20:53
It's super hard to do.
00:20:55
It takes a lot of people to make it happen.
00:20:58
And we've been doing it successfully internationally for almost two and a half decades.
00:21:04
You just touched on this just a little bit, but in your opinion,
00:21:15
why do we explore?
00:21:19
Yeah.
00:21:19
At its core, we explore to learn more about the universe around us and ourselves.
00:21:25
And in turn, we know Earth even better.
00:21:30
That's it.
00:21:32
And we explore to find out what are the questions I don't even yet know to ask.
00:21:37
So usually when I discover something, I ask a question, I go come up with a conclusion based on data and that leads to two more questions.
00:21:46
And those two questions lead to two more each.
00:21:48
So now I got four questions.
00:21:49
And that's exploration.
00:21:50
We're just continuing to find out what are the questions we haven't even figured out how to ask yet.
00:21:55
And one of those is going to be the breakthrough that changes somebody's life.
00:22:01
Well, Nick is been absolutely wonderful talking to you today.
00:22:04
Thank you for coming on the podcast.
00:22:06
No, it's been a pleasure to speak with you.
00:22:08
I've enjoyed it.
00:22:10
Since Nick and I talked, there have been some changes to the mission.
00:22:13
Leah Cheshire got the chance to sit down with Nick and talk about those changes and how astronauts manage the sometimes turbulent landscape of human space flight.
00:22:23
Nick, thank you so much for coming back into the studio.
00:22:26
Thank you for jumping back onto the podcast.
00:22:29
We the mission has changed.
00:22:31
And so we wanted to get you back in here and talk a little bit more about that.
00:22:34
Happy to be here.
00:22:35
So can you highlight some of the changes for crew nine?
00:22:39
How this has evolved in your training?
00:22:42
What you're now preparing for?
00:22:43
Yeah, you know, so I think it helps to step back and look at the broadly big picture.
00:22:48
Fundamentally, the mission hasn't changed.
00:22:51
We're going to go to the station.
00:22:53
We're going to do research and that mission doing research on the station hasn't changed for 25 years.
00:22:59
So that's what our goal is to get to the station, join the crew up there and get to work.
00:23:06
How we get there and how we get back has changed a little bit.
00:23:09
And so that's really been the focus of effort over the last three weeks is what do we need to do differently to be able to launch as a crew of two as a crew without a pilot.
00:23:21
And then what do we need to do coming home in order to make sure that that butch and sunny have the training they need to be, you know, safe as we come back.
00:23:32
So let's talk about those roles a little bit.
00:23:34
When you spoke with Dane initially you were the pilot assigned for this mission.
00:23:39
Now you're taking on the role of commander and Alex will still be a mission specialist.
00:23:43
So can you tell me a bit about training with Alex how you're undertaking kind of the commander and the pilot role all in one.
00:23:50
What does that look like?
00:23:51
Yeah, so the you know if you look at all of the the crew missions on dragon except for the first one with with Bob and chunky.
00:24:05
Bob and Doug if I'm going to be proper if you look at these crews they train as a crew of four and so you divide the tasks amongst that and so we use crew resource management.
00:24:18
Everybody knows their role and responsibility in a given situation and so it's been an awesome experience for the last year and a half working with Zina and Stephanie and Alex and and coming to that you know that understanding of what everybody's roles and responsibilities are and then when you have to execute in some type of situation.
00:24:38
It's just like you're part of this machine working together you know what everybody's thinking and it just feels really great and so it goes without saying I would love nothing more than to launch with all four of us because we've worked so hard and we clicked so well as a crew.
00:24:58
But we got to do something different and so how do we adjust that well if you look at the pilot and commander we divide those responsibilities and and and and tasks that we need to do in those different situations so if you have two people able to support at different times doing different things and and and we were really great together.
00:25:22
And it's you know that ultimately the commander has the responsibility to make sure that the crew safe and make decisions about that you know what do we need to do to make sure the crew safe what do we need to do to make sure that the vehicle safe and then what do we need to do to make sure that we get the mission done that ultimate responsibility lies with the commander and it's been a thrill to sit beside Zina over the last two years and watch her do that flawlessly.
00:25:48
So now we have to do the pilot and the commander role as a single person you know so there's not going to be a pilot there now we have had three weeks of training and it's been awesome to watch the full team come together to watch the the SpaceX team to watch the NASA team surge and and just roll your sleeves up and figure out okay how do we need to change things and it's you know we've had previously flown.
00:26:17
Drag and crew members in the astronaut office that have helped support us Zina and Stephanie have been integral to this effort and and have pointed out and and helped us come up with some some great ways to understand what we can and can't do given the training that that Alex has because he's there he's been through this training for two years and so there are there are things that he is extremely capable of doing that that I would do as a pilot and so we want to leverage those.
00:26:46
But there's also a lot of things that he hasn't been trained on and so we identify where those limitations are and then and then I figure out what I need to do in order to cover down on all of that so it's been complex it's been a lot of effort over the last few weeks trying to figure that out but it's been an exciting challenge.
00:27:06
I was actually thinking about this last night not really question but just a fun thought you also only launched with one other person on your last flight in a three-seater Soyuz so I guess you're kind of no stranger to to being down a person or two in a capsule.
00:27:23
Yeah you know you don't know what space flight is dynamic and you don't know what's going to get thrown at you you know my first Soyuz launch we were a crew of two that's what the mission required and so that's what we did.
00:27:37
It's yeah you you step up for what the what the job requires.
00:27:44
Let's think a little bit more about butch and sunny so they are now coming home on dragon that's a change to their original mission so how have you and Alex been working with them and how will you work with them once you get to the space station to prepare them for their roles coming home in dragon.
00:27:59
Yeah you know so they've got opportunity right now to be familiar with and they need to be familiar with because crew eights dragon is their rescue vehicle right now and so they need to know you know just general features about how to how to live and be in dragon because it could take a day or two to get back down once you undock from the station so they're learning that already.
00:28:23
The things that we're going to focus on when we get up there is is as a crew of four how do we respond to the to the the big things right how do we respond to a fire how do we respond to a depressurization event and fundamentally it's making sure that they have the training necessary to protect themselves so how do you put on a space suit really fast how do you put on a and you know a breathing mask really fast so that you can get yourself safe.
00:28:52
And and Alex and I will take care of the rest.
00:28:56
Do you feel like it's faster to put on a space suit in microgravity or on the ground.
00:29:00
So from a from a so cool perspective I didn't notice much of a difference.
00:29:07
Okay.
00:29:08
I'll let you know how different the dragon the suit is once we once we have a chance to try it out in microgravity.
00:29:16
One thing that you have shown over your career is just how flexible you can be so between your first flight which was a launch abort and then the changes to crew nine can you tell me a little bit about how important it is to adapt to change and be flexible when it comes to being an astronaut.
00:29:33
Yeah you know we serve as part of something a lot bigger than ourselves and and I think it's important to you were professionals and so you do what's required and and I you know you can look at the immediate impact of the change to crew nine but it's it's probably a better perspective to understand that our simple change to our crew comfortable.
00:30:02
The change to our crew complement has had a ripple effect that has changed everyone else on a mission that comes after us and and it's not just the astronauts it's the the training teams and so so this ripple effect affects everybody so it's not just astronauts that need to be flexible and resilient it's it's the whole system.
00:30:27
Watch us make a decision like this and to see everybody pivot and and and just start throwing all its energy all their energy into solving this problem and figuring out what we need to do it's fun to be a part of that system.
00:30:43
It's really impressive and I think it's something that NASA does so incredibly well is understanding number one that things have to be flexible because like you said earlier anything about space is dynamic and can change at any moment without ever expecting it so the fact that we constantly adapt and find ways to do it safely and effectively is really impressive so aside from staying flexible what would you say is an essential quality of an astronaut to be ready for anything.
00:31:12
That's a great question what what's the magic I don't I don't really know what the.
00:31:24
I mean you're just constantly preparing for things to to change you so if you if you just look at a mission.
00:31:33
Call it trying to stay ahead of the vehicle but effectively that just means you're saying what's supposed to happen and then what are all the things that could happen and how do I position myself to be able to adjust quickly to all those potential things that could happen to 95% of our training is focused on what to do when something goes wrong and you know knock on wood you never use any of that training.
00:32:01
But when you need it you need to be able to use it and you need to be able to move to it quickly and so I think that that that mental agility to constantly be trying to look at what's coming and then what's what are the potential things that could happen.
00:32:20
It's it's something that you use operationally but you also apply it to your life and and how you approach life.
00:32:27
Yeah kind of expect the unexpected yeah well thank you so much again for coming back into the studio with us and sitting down ahead of your mission we're really excited to watch and can't wait to see in space again yeah pleasure being there thank you.
00:32:42
Next in the studio we have Ross Cosmos Cosmona and crew nine missions specialist Alexander Gorbanov Alexander studied engineering with qualifications and spacecrafts and upper stages at the Moscow Aviation Institute and he worked as a technician and engineer of the first category for RSC and Ergia manufacturing spacecraft and space station components.
00:33:03
This flight on drag and will be his first space flight.
00:33:05
Here's our interview with crew nine missions specialist Alexander Gorbanov.
00:33:10
Alexander Gorbanov thank you so much for coming on Houston we have a podcast.
00:33:16
Thanks so much.
00:33:17
So can you tell us a little bit more about what your life was like before becoming a cosmonaut.
00:33:23
I was born in Kursk region in Gelysnogorsk which is about 500 kilometers away from Moscow south of Moscow.
00:33:34
This is where I grew up and once I graduated high school I entered Moscow Aviation Institute where I studied spacecraft and upper stages.
00:33:46
And once I graduated I was qualified as an engineer and I started my career at the RSC and Ergia Russian manufacturer of spacecraft for Soyuz and progress and also for the International Space Station.
00:34:04
And I worked there till 2018 when I was selected and joined the cosmonaut corps.
00:34:11
Did you always want to be a cosmonaut?
00:34:16
When I was a kid I wanted to be a biologist but the desire to be the dream to become a cosmonaut came later when I was in high school.
00:34:28
Basically I wanted to work on spacecraft to design spacecraft.
00:34:34
And when I started working as an engineer I decided that I wanted not just to design them but also to use them.
00:34:43
And this is when it so happened we had a few meetings with cosmonauts and this is when I realized that space is much closer than I thought that anyone can try and join the cosmonaut corps and in 10 years I succeeded.
00:35:00
So you went from working on spacecraft to flying on spacecraft or you're about to how do you expect that experience and insight to help you on your first space flight.
00:35:12
When I was trying for the cosmonaut corps I knew the general design of spacecraft.
00:35:24
I knew how the ISS was designed and built.
00:35:30
I knew how flight program is put together, how the ISS is maintained and of course this helped me a lot when I was trying for a cosmonaut corps and it helps me now in my training and in my work to understand what I'm being taught currently.
00:35:54
And of course since I was one of the designers of spacecraft it really helps me to look at a spacecraft not just as a user but also as a designer and engineer and how those two things to aspects come together.
00:36:17
And for me it is a great, it's a very interesting experience because the majority of people either use a technology, the other ones design a technology but there is very little experience when people get to do both.
00:36:37
That's going to give you a very unique point of view on this.
00:36:40
So what are you looking forward to on your first expedition?
00:36:46
I'm really excited to see the Earth from on board the ISS and to feel zero G.
00:36:53
I have, I'm planning to take a lot of pictures from windows on the ISS and I also signed up for a lot of various scientific experiments.
00:37:09
I will work on ISS maintenance as well and I think six months are going to be pretty busy.
00:37:21
Have your fellow cosmonauts told you what to expect?
00:37:25
They did, they have.
00:37:29
Have they given you any good advice?
00:37:34
Nothing too specific.
00:37:39
Just some general guidelines that all cosmonauts kind of pass from one to the other.
00:37:49
Practical advice.
00:37:51
You will never find anywhere just a word of mouth and not for everybody.
00:37:59
I understand.
00:38:02
You'll be very busy working but what do you think you'll spend a lot of your free time doing?
00:38:09
I think in my spare time, most of my spare time I'm going to spend with my crew members.
00:38:16
We'll watch movies in English and Russian.
00:38:19
And I know that crews, when they do have time off, they come up with different games like ping pong or some other sports games or soccer in space.
00:38:36
So, these are all space games and most of them are impossible to replicate on the ground because of the gravitation.
00:38:46
Do you have a list of things that you want to see while you're on station?
00:38:54
I have a list of locations that I would like to take pictures of from onboard the ISS and it's pretty long.
00:39:01
First, of course, the locations that I have visited personally and I would like to compare what those places look like from the ground and from the ISS.
00:39:13
Now, why is the ISS a microgravity research important?
00:39:18
Because the conditions of microgravity give us a great chance to develop materials and medications that are impossible to develop on the ground.
00:39:34
And also to study the structure of various organic molecules, this knowledge will help us in design of different medications to be used on Earth.
00:39:51
So, the station is a unique location, there is zero G and vacuum, uninterrupted and interfered with vacuum that is really hard to achieve on the ground and it's impossible to put those two conditions together on Earth.
00:40:09
So, this is what we use the ISS for to study different processes in space.
00:40:18
In more points, studying various technologies, how you can maintain various space systems to see how reliable those systems can be.
00:40:32
For example, the ISS has proven to us that spacecraft can stay in space for 25 up to 30 years and this is where we have a lot of questions regarding the reliability of the ISS.
00:40:47
And this is a great chance to prove that those systems can work reliably in zero G in space and this knowledge can be used for further exploration and for our further missions to the moon.
00:41:04
That's a really great answer and in your opinion, why do we explore?
00:41:18
What is our universe?
00:41:32
Where does our universe come from?
00:41:34
Where are we going?
00:41:34
What's the end result?
00:41:35
And this unknown draws people in the higher the level of what we don't know, the more attracted and drawn into it, we are.
00:41:42
We get answers to those fundamental questions we can design technologies that will advance us in our research and our travel to space.
00:41:53
The fundamental knowledge that we are going to get now will help us in the future and we have plenty of examples today.
00:42:01
Like what we studied 100 years ago, just as a scientist who was answering it, just questioned why there was no goal to build a machine,
00:42:13
a device to engineer something.
00:42:15
They were just studying how the world is built around them.
00:42:19
What is inside an atom?
00:42:23
The atom.
00:42:24
And 100 years ago, they found the answers to all those questions and now we are benefiting from them in computer technologies and microelectronics.
00:42:35
It's all based on that fundamental knowledge that we got 100 years ago.
00:42:40
So part of such fundamental studies is conducted on board the ISS.
00:42:47
So now, for example, we can't say that we are profiting clearly from our research on the ISS.
00:42:56
But in the future, probably future generations are going to say a big thank you to us for these studies in micro-G environment.
00:43:05
And also, applied sciences and applied technologies that can be used now.
00:43:13
Like I said, we can design and develop new materials and new medications, new technologies to allow us to travel to other planets.
00:43:28
That is fantastic.
00:43:29
Alexander, thank you for coming on.
00:43:32
Houston, we have a podcast.
00:43:34
This was a fascinating interview.
00:43:37
It's possible.
00:43:38
Thank you.
00:43:39
Thanks so much.
00:43:41
[Music]
00:44:00
Thanks for sticking around.
00:44:01
Check NASA's website for the latest schedule and to find out how you can watch the launch of Crew 9 Live on NASA Plus.
00:44:08
You can find us and all the podcasts around the agency at nasa.gov/podcasts.
00:44:12
We're on social media on the Johnson Space Center pages of Facebook, X, and Instagram.
00:44:18
Use hashtag #AskNasa on your favorite platform to talk with us and make sure to mention it's for Houston you have a podcast.
00:44:24
These interviews were recorded in the spring and summer of 2024.
00:44:27
Thanks to Will Flato, Gary Jordan, Abby Graf, Dominic Crespo, Courtney Beasley, Leah Cheshire, Reagan Sharfetter, and Jane Jennings.
00:44:35
And to the astronaut's schedulers for their help in securing the interviews.
00:44:39
And of course, thanks to Crew 9, Nick Hague, and Alexander Gorbanov for giving their time to chat with us.
00:44:45
Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you're listening to us on and tell us what you think of our podcast.
00:44:50
We'll be back next week.
00:44:52
3, 2, 1.
00:44:55
This is an official NASA podcast.
00:44:58
[Music]
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