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“Houston We Have a Podcast” is the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center from Houston, Texas, home for NASA’s astronauts and Mission Control Center. Listen to the brightest minds of America’s space agency – astronauts, engineers, scientists and program leaders – discuss exciting topics in engineering, science and technology, sharing their personal stories and expertise on every aspect of human spaceflight. Learn more about how the work being done will help send humans forward to the Moon and on to Mars in the Artemis program.

On Episode 166, Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi are NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts headed to the International Space Station for the first crew rotation flight on a U.S. commercial spacecraft. They share stories of their families, careers, training, and their upcoming mission.The interviews used in this episode were recorded in June 2020.

Transcript

Gary Jordan (Host): Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 166, “Crew-1: The Astronauts.” I’m Gary Jordan and I’ll be your host today. On this podcast we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human spaceflight. After the successful return of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, the first operational flight called Crew-1 is launching soon, to transport crew to and from the International Space Station. Onboard, are NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA, astronaut Soichi Noguchi. On this episode, we’re going to hear from each member of the crew to learn a little more about them and their mission. These interviews were recorded just two weeks after the Demo-2 launch as part of a series of other interviews. You’ll get to hear their perspective on what the Crew-1 mission is, stories of their training, more about their careers, their family, and their thoughts about the importance of the mission that they’re on. So here we go. The Crew-1 astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi. Enjoy.

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Host: First up is NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, call sign “Hopper.” Hopper is the commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-1 mission. He’s responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to reentry. He’ll also serve as an Expedition 64 Flight Engineer aboard the station. Selected as an astronaut, NASA astronaut in 2009, Hopkins spent 166 days in space as a long duration crew member of Expeditions 37 and 38 in 2013, and 2014. And he completed two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes. Born in Lebanon, Missouri, Hopkins grew up on a farm outside Richland, Missouri. He has a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University. Before joining NASA, Hopkins was a flight test engineer with the US Air Force. Hopper describes his role in the mission and the mission itself. As a former football player, he makes comparisons between training on the field and training as an astronaut, and the importance of teams. He also talks about his family and the importance of commercial partnerships. Here’s NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins.

Mike Hopkins: Hi, I’m Colonel Mike Hopkins, United States Air Force and NASA astronaut. I will be the commander on NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. And that means we are going up on the Crew Dragon, the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle, going to launch to the International Space Station and spend a full long duration mission up there. That we’re following the DM-2 mission, which just recently landed, and one of the things that has to happen before we can go up is, we have to actually look at the data from their mission. There, Bob and Doug did a test mission. And so that’s really where they’re verifying that the requirements of the vehicle are met. And then when we go up, we’re actually going to put it through its operational paces, we’re going to have a full crew of four, instead of just two, we’re going to stay up for a long duration. So that means six to seven months, versus the three to four months that Bob stayed up. So that’s basically the in a nutshell what we’re going to be doing. It’s a standard ISS mission, except we just happen to be flying on a brand-new vehicle. So, my role on the Crew Dragon itself as part of Crew-1 is the commander of the vehicle. And so essentially from all of this training that we’ve been going through, launch, rendezvous, docking with the space station, I’m the commander of that particular vehicle. When I get on, when we get on the space station, I just become another member of the ISS crew. And at that point, I’ll be doing all of the standard roles that you would expect any crew member that’s on ISS to perform, whether it be maintenance, whether it be science, whether it be doing spacewalks, or robotics operations, or anything of that nature. While on there, though, the whole time I am still responsible for the Crew-1 vehicle and making sure that it’s always ready to bring us home if we have to. And then at the end of our mission, our stay on ISS, I’ll command the vehicle and bring us back home and land and then at that point is all done. Well, actually, it’s not all done. Believe it or not, once you get back from the mission, you have a long post flight period. You’ve got to go through, again, some additional experiments, testing, collection of data on you, a lot of reviews, a lot of debriefs on how the vehicle performs. So really, when we land, the mission isn’t actually over. We actually spend another about six months or so going through the post flight period. You know, it’s funny. Ever since I got here as a, as an astronaut and went into that initial training as an astronaut candidate, my kids, my wife have said, “you don’t go to work anymore, do you? It’s like, it’s like, you go and just play all day.” And, and that’s what it feels like when you when you come here to JSC, and you get to train. It’s much more serious than that, right? I mean, it’s not playing a game, it is real, it has real consequences. But at the same time, you know, I just absolutely love it, it’s, you know, we’ve got a couple of facilities here that are incredible. We have what we call building nine, where we have the mockup of the space station inside. And so, we do a lot of our training for spaceflight in there, where you get to, you know, see the actual layout, the real dimensions of what it’s like inside the space station, what the hardware is actually like. And so that is very helpful. One of the other things we do in that facility is kind of our, the last bit of training that we get to do as an entire crew, and we go through the emergency scenarios. And so, they’ll put the full crew inside the mockup of the space station, and we’ll go through a fire scenario, and they’ll actually pump some smoke into it. And we have to react just like we’re expected to react when we’re onboard the space station. And so, it’s the training here is very realistic. You know, obviously, we can’t get rid of gravity. Even when we do things like practice our spacewalks in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, the NBL, you still have the effects of gravity, but we do as good a job as you can. And quite frankly, based on my first spaceflight, we do an amazing job actually of simulating what it’s really like up in space. Yeah, the VR capabilities are, are just getting better and better and better. And it’s not just, yeah, it is the VR. So, we’ve got a dome, where we’re actually able to practice robotic operations. And, and so it’s like, we’re looking outside the Cupola, the big window that’s on the bottom of the space station, and we’re, we’re operating the robotic arm as we’re capturing one of our supply vehicles that comes up. And it’s, I mean, it’s amazing. It’s very realistic, if you will. We also have an opportunity, the in a VR, we call it a VR lab, and we put on the goggles. And now we’re out on a spacewalk. And now, you can simulate things like, what happens if we are to actually come off of station? We don’t really have a way of practicing that in the NBL, we certainly don’t want to practice it up in space, when you’re out on a real spacewalk. And so we do it with the VR and you practice that situation of something happened, you’ve come off a station, and now you’ve got to use your SAFER [Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue], which is a system that allows basically, it’s a little jetpack that you wear with you when you go out on spacewalks. And we practice getting back to the station. And so, you definitely want to get that right. Yeah, we also have opportunity to fly in the T-38, a two-seat jet trainer, and NASA has been flying here at JSC, we’ve been flying those jets for a lot of years now. And it’s, it’s the one thing that we get to train in that’s, that’s real, right, where the consequences are real. When we’re in a simulator, if we mess up, if we don’t make the right decisions, we just reset the simulator and we try it again. In the T-38, you have to be on your game. And so it is kind of interesting, when you do head out to Ellington Field where we, where we fly the T-38’s out of and when you get into the briefing room, you know, you got to go through a mental switch and say, OK, I’ve got to be on my game, it’s got to be all about flying the T-38. I got to stop worrying about my robotics class that I that I just took, or my test that I’ve got tomorrow. I need to focus in on flying this T-38, because again, the consequences are real. I think the importance of training, I fall back on to, you know, I can go back to playing football, how important the training is. I can go back to my first spaceflight, how important that training is, you know, the amazing thing and I’ll tie all of those actually together when I went out on my first spacewalk. And I remember being inside the airlock. And you’re looking out this hatch through the vacuum of space down at the Earth going by and, and I realized that it’s a place that I’ve been before, sort of right, and that’s standing in the tunnel, getting ready to run out on the football field before a game. And it’s this, it’s this moment where you’re crossing this threshold, you’re going from this safe environment into this environment where you’re laying it all out on the line. And, so having, having that experience on the ground and then being able to, to kind of feel that same type of experience when you’re up in space, it definitely helps and so the training kicks in and you get outside in that, on your first spacewalk, and that can be a pretty emotional moment for you. It can be a little bit nerve wracking, but you’re also very excited, right? Because this is, this is one of those events that you’ve dreamed about being able to go out and do. And then that’s where the training kicks in. You get outside the hatch and there’s the handhold, just like when you’ve practiced in the NBL, in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, in the giant pool, you come out the hatch there, and there’s that that same handhold. And so, then all of a sudden, it’s just muscle memory, and you just start doing the job just like you did on the ground, just like when you run out on that football field. And, and you line up and you’re making your reads, and you’re reacting to the play, and you’ve done it, you know, 10, 20, 30 times in practice, now you’re doing it for real, and that just makes it go that much, that much smoother, when it is the real day. We’ve got an incredible team from not only the trainers, but the folks that operate the facilities. The folks that, you know, when we talk about the VR lab, you know, they’ve created that, and they take a lot of pride in what they’ve done and realizing that, that they are contributing to human spaceflight. And so, just across the board, it is, you know, oftentimes it’s the astronauts that, you know, that you see. It’s the astronauts that are oftentimes getting interviewed like this, but it’s really the hundreds and thousands of people that that are around you that that make it happen. And we couldn’t do our job without them. Wow, how do you mentally prepare for spaceflight? You know, I think you just try and keep it all in perspective. Fortunately, I’ve got my wife and kids to help me do that. And but you know, you go through the day to day training, the day to day operations to get ready for it. And so, in that case, you don’t sometimes you’re not always thinking about that big picture of I’m going to space, you really focus on how does this system operate? When I take this exam next week, what do I need to study to get ready for it? And so, you get kind of caught in the, in the moment of that particular system or that particular training that you’re going through. And, and so, from a mental preparation, you know, you don’t, you don’t necessarily have to think about it right away, right, you’ve got time. And, you know, I kind of, it’s funny, I go back to my days at the University of Illinois when I was playing football. And you know, there’s a lot of similarities, believe it or not, between playing sports like that, and doing something like this, where you’re launching in the space. You know, you spend players, whether it’s football, or any sport, volleyball, or basketball, or you name it, you know, you spend months and years training and practicing for that moment, for that moment when you get on the field, when you take the court, and when you walk out to the launch pad to that rocket. And so, there’s a lot of similarities between those events. And so that mental preparation, if you will, that I went through, during my days on the football field, I find that that that applies now, as I’m getting ready for spaceflight. You know, I guess for me, the astronaut, the dream of becoming an astronaut, goes back to the early days of the Space Shuttle Program. I was in high school. And so at that time, you know, they used to, they used to show the launches and the missions live in the schools, and you could go into the gymnasium, and they’d have a TV up there and you could watch it all take place. And so, that’s when I really started thinking about becoming an astronaut. And, you know, it’s funny, I mean, a lot of times people think of the dream of being an astronaut as something that a kid would have. And I remember when my wife and I first started dating at the University of Illinois, and I told her that I wanted to be an astronaut, she laughed at me and, and kind of said, “are you serious?” But, but at the same time, she stuck with me throughout the years and as I went through multiple applications to try and become an astronaut, and you know, after 13 years of trying and, to have that dream come true is pretty amazing. My family means everything to me, it is the most important part of my life. You know, God and family and so quite frankly, if I didn’t have an opportunity to fly again into space, I’m OK because I’ve got my family. My wife Julie, my son Ryan, my son Lucas, they, they are just such a huge part of this, of this whole endeavor. You know, I mentioned earlier that, you know, my wife Julie has known I wanted to be an astronaut from the time we first started dating back in my college days, which is quite a few years ago. But you know, she, so she’s been, she’s been a part of it from almost the beginning. And so, getting to share this journey with her and also our kids has made it extra special, right. It’s the, it’s the icing on top of the cake. And, and so without family, it just wouldn’t be as meaningful. I will share this story from my last mission. And you know, my wife Julie, she says, I’m throwing her under the bus. But I think for a lot of families out there where one of the spouses is away for a long time, they can probably relate to this story. So, when I went up to the space station the first time, my boys were in freshman and seventh grade. And so, they were very busy, they were involved in sports teams, I think at one point, they had actively going five different sports teams, and they had religious education and piano lessons and my wife was working, and also working on her master’s part, via the web. And so, she was, she was pretty busy. And one of the nice things about being onboard the International Space Station is you have a lot of connectivity, believe it or not with your family. And so, I was able to call just about every day, and, and so there were a few times when I would call down from the International Space Station to my wife, and you know, she’d pick up and I say, “hey, sweetie, this is this me. How are things going?” And she’s like, “I don’t got time.” And she would hang up because she had to get the kids somewhere to a practice or a lesson or you name it. So, it was pretty busy for her. She definitely deserves a medal from everything she had to do on that first mission. Life does go on for the families that are at home. And what you forget oftentimes is the additional stress that they’re under, because of their spouse being onboard the International Space Station. And just to kind of give you a sense of what I mean by that, and kind of the understanding of what that stress can be like, when we are launching and landing, we have opportunities for the family, like for the landing, the families can be in mission control and viewing that, and we always have an astronaut that is there with them, just to kind of explain what’s going on. And during the landing phase, there’s always this period where we have a comm blackout. And then that can be anywhere from three, four or five minutes long. And so, I was, after I had landed, I was actually in an MCC with the families for one of the astronauts that was getting ready to return. And I never appreciated how stressful it can be, until we got to that time of the comm blackout. And you’re sitting there with the families and you just kind of, you can sense it, you can feel it because there’s this period where, you know, you’ve been hearing the comm between the crew and mission control, and then all of a sudden, there’s this, there’s this silence. And you don’t know if everything is all right, and you can’t say everything is all right, because you don’t know. And you’re just waiting until that comm comes back. And there’s this moment in time where mission control will start calling in the blind. We call it calling in the blind and so, they’ll start calling the capsule just waiting for response and then there’s no response. And I just can’t. I — it’s so hard to describe what it is like for the families that have to sit there and wait through those moments until they hear their loved ones again on the, on the Space to Ground comms. It is a contractual relationship, right. I mean, NASA has gone out and we have signed a contract with SpaceX, to take astronauts to the International Space Station. And so, there’s that piece of the relationship that, that, I mean, it’s just reality. And, and so you can’t ever forget that piece. But at the same time, when you’re out there on a day to day basis, and you’re and you’re interacting with their engineers and you’re interacting with their trainers and you’re interacting with the people that are actually building the rockets and building the capsule itself, now you get to kind of go beyond the contractual piece and you really get to establish the relationships, the personal relationships. And that’s been extremely powerful. I mean, one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about this relationship with SpaceX or working with SpaceX is, you know, we get to go on the floor, and we get to meet the guy that’s building or that is welding together your spacecraft. And I think that’s good for both of us, right because we get to meet him, we get to see the work that he’s doing, and understand how critical that work is — for our safety and for the success of the mission. He gets to meet us, and we get to share thoughts and, and stories and all of that and so just that that personal connection, it has been such a, I think a powerful, a powerful thing for this for this program, and it’s really paid huge dividends.

Host: Next is NASA astronaut Victor Glover. Call sign, “Ike.” Ike is the pilot of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the second in command for the mission. He’s responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. He’ll also be a long duration space station crew member. Selected as an astronaut in 2013. This will be Glover’s first spaceflight. The California native holds a Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering, a Master of Science degree in flight test engineering, a Master of Science degree in systems engineering and a master’s degree in military operational art and science. Glover is a naval aviator and was a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet, and the EA-18G Growler aircraft. Ike has the unique perspective of being the rookie astronaut on this flight. He talks about his role and his training and goes into depth on his background, his family and his love for flying. Like Hopper, Ike also played football and made similar comparisons to working in high performance teams. In his own words, here’s Victor Glover.

Victor Glover: I’m Victor Glover, NASA astronaut and pilot for the NASA Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. Crew-1 consists of Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi, and myself and we will be flying the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. My role on the Crew-1 mission is to first safely get us to space station, we are flying a new spacecraft, the Crew Dragon made by SpaceX. And once we get to the space station, as a member of the Expedition, we’ll be conducting research, lots of scientific experiments, some of them ongoing, some of them that we’ll bring up with us, and also to do spacewalks, robotic operations, outreach events, and the maintenance and upkeep of our International Space Station. Crew-1 is the designator for the first operational mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon. So, it’s a new vehicle. You currently have Demo-2 docked to the space station. That’s a test mission, the final milestone to approve this vehicle for regular transportation to the International Space Station. And so, Crew-1 is the first Crew Dragon fully operational mission. And so that’s the crew, the four of us, that are going to the space station, similar to a Soyuz crew with two or three folks onboard that become the other half of an Expedition. So, we’ll also be a part of the Expedition on the International Space Station. Why did I become an astronaut? That goes way back. So, high school athlete, loved being a part of a small high performing team, wrestling and football. Definitely wanted to play sports in college, went to college was fortunate to wrestle in college while pursuing my engineering education. And so, that experience impacted what I thought I wanted to do as a professional. I really enjoyed engineering, academically, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to just work on design. I wanted to use those designs. And so being an operator and being out doing things was important to me, my experience in athletics was important to me. And I wanted to stay a part of small, high performing teams. And so, I’d come across one of my mentors in his Navy Reserve uniform, and the idea of joining the Navy had popped up. And I actually, originally, wanted to be a Navy Seal, I mean, small, high performing teams check. And so that’s what started my journey in the Navy. And I wound up deciding to go into aviation and learn to fly. And so, the love of flying, if I haven’t made that clear, the level of flying and being a part of a small, very specialized high performing team that gets to do things in really interesting and challenging environments. And the astronaut corps is the epitome of that. So yeah, I was lucky I threw my hat in the ring, and they happen to need a person with my skill set. I was selected to be a part of the 2013 astronaut candidate class. And we showed up at Johnson Space Center in August of 2013. We graduated from astronaut candidate training on July 8 of 2015. And that date is significant for a couple of reasons. It was the day we got our pins, we got our astronaut pins on July 8, 2015, which is the same day the New Horizons spacecraft had completed its billions of miles journey to Pluto to take high resolution images of the surface of Pluto. And that was the first day we got a picture taken. So pretty special day. When I got assigned, my wife and I were actually on vacation. And we had some time to just talk, just the two of us about what this meant for our family, and what it meant for us individually. And so, I came up with, I guess, three perspectives or goal priorities. And so, one was to keep things simple, and to keep things flexible, and to keep stress low. And so, I think that, that is what puts me in the best position to be ready no matter what, how things change, or if they don’t change to do my job in that environment. But it also helps my family to handle what’s coming, given that this is the first time that we’re all doing this. If we heap a bunch of expectations on to it, and things don’t go according to expectation, that creates stress. And so, for us, it’s keeping it really simple, asking lots of questions to our experienced crew mates and their families and to the trainers and to each other and not assuming that we know what’s coming, and just making sure that we are on the same page as we learn more. So, keeping it simple, flexible and low stress, that’s been my overriding goal. My oldest kid is 17, she just finished her junior year in high school. And so, you know, our launch date is going to be right around, just after school starts. So just after the beginning of her senior year, and then my landing date will be, you know, sometime, hopefully before spring break, but before the graduation, which is important. So, that’s kind of the, in terms of schedule, you know, you don’t want to put scheduled pressure on yourself. The spacecraft and rocket will be ready to launch when it’s ready to launch. But every day we delay, that’s what I’m thinking about. It’s one day closer to my kids graduation and so, I would love to be here for it. But we’ve had a talk, and I told her if I have to, you know, watch from space, that would be pretty cool, too. It’ll be memories, something for us to talk about later. But yeah, it’s definitely important to be there for the family, because you know, they’re going to spend so much time working with NASA to be there for us. I am surrounded by love and support. And it’s humbling and overwhelming sometimes. My mother and father are so excited about this mission. I am actually amazed at how much my father keeps up with what’s going on in the space station. He’ll often clue me into something I didn’t realize that was happening this week, because I was busy off training. And so, I’m excited that they’re so excited. My grandparents are excited about being here, and that really means a lot to me. My grandfather was in the Air Force during the Korean conflict. And so, to be able to know he’s going to be there and watch us launch, and to see the progress of our mission, really, it warms my heart. And then my wife and kids, the support and love they give to not just me and the crew, but to each other, knowing that they’re going to have to take care of each other while we’re on the space station. What does family mean? Family is, it’s — the foundation of all of this, it’s the reason that I can do what I’m doing now. And so, having been in the Navy for 22 years, it’s definitely been a family adventure. My wife is amazing. She’s a superhero, in my opinion. I’ve have deployed several times in the Navy on an aircraft carrier, and we had kids every time. A different amount of kids each time, but she has been an amazing mother and support for me as well. And so, again, knowing that they’re going to be there to support me, and that we’ll be in touch, able to email and call and video chat, but then also, that they’re so important to supporting each other through this and also having fun with it. I mean, we’re going to make it fun as well. We’ve got some games and some books that we’re going to, to read or to play together while I’m in space. Instead of just having a phone call where “hey, how was your day, how was your day?” We’re going to try to do some unique thing with that time that we have, since it’s so unique. But I think my family is excited. And that’s exciting for me, because my goal in this entire endeavor was to make sure that it continued to be a family adventure. That they look back on this time with fondness and not as that, hey, “that was that stressful period where dad was gone a lot. And then he left for six months.” And so, I really want them to enjoy this and to and to dig into the field, their role in it was so important, which it is. Oh, wow. I mean, you wake up and you have a meal, you get handed over to the SpaceX team. And SpaceX is running the show until you come back in are recovered and given back over to NASA to fly it back to Johnson Space Center. So, when SpaceX takes over, they get you suited up and you leak check your spacesuits, and they get you out to the launch pad, you saw them driving out in the Model X’s, and that was really neat. And they take you out to the elevators there, get you up into the crew access arm and help you get strapped into the vehicle. And there are some procedures to run through. And you’re talking to the core, which is their version of similar to cap comm, the person that’s speaking to the folks in the capsule, and that person is actually in Hawthorne. And so, you’re talking to them as you run through the procedures. And they’re coordinating with the flight control team there in Hawthorne, with the folks in at launch control in at Kennedy Space Center, and also with the folks in Houston, when you get to that point. And you go through some procedures on the way up to launch and then the team that helps strap you in, they get you all buttoned up and they close the hatch. And then they move out away and when everyone else is far away from the vehicle at a safe distance. That’s actually when they fuel up the vehicle. And that is one of the booster, the Falcon 9 and that’s probably the most unique thing about this — system is that they feel it up with the crew sitting there. And so, we have a system, the launch escape system, which we had a test back, a really amazing test back in January and they fuel the rocket up as you’re sitting there and the fueling finishes not long before liftoff. And then, and you saw the rest after that, and they lit the candle and sent Bob and Doug skyward. My overriding thought, when I envision us getting to that point, is don’t screw up. [laughter] I mean, you know, we have responsibilities, things that we’re watching. And then some things that we will be doing, interacting with the vehicle, and making sure that we understand what the vehicle is doing, what it’s expected to do and what it’s actually doing. And so, trying to stay focused on those tasks, when again, everything I do at that point will be the first time I’ve done it. Actually, that’s, that’s true for all of us. None of us will have flown this vehicle before. And so, I think trying to one, appreciate the magic and, and the accomplishment that it is to get to the first operational mission of Dragon, but to also make sure that we’re focused on our responsibilities and, and flying it safely. And then once we’ve done that safely, I think we can look back on it, and appreciate that. But so, trying to balance that enjoying and living in the moment, but also managing the responsibilities to make sure that we get to space, to low-Earth orbit safely. I’m looking forward to that, that juxtaposition of emotion, I think. There are windows that would be down kind of near our feet. And so, our screens are up high. And I just envision, at some point, being able to like take a look down and to see the Earth from a perspective that I’ve never seen. I’ve been to 64,000 feet, that’s the highest up I’ve ever been above the ground. And so, to get to a point beyond that, and then be able to look down at the Earth, that’ll be a little special moment, but then I’ll still have responsibilities, and to look back up at that display and make sure that we’re on timeline. It’ll be an interesting tension to manage. You know, it doesn’t matter what you want to do. One of the most important things to your ability to achieve success is your understanding and definition of what success is. And so, I think some things that are just universal, are the things that I tell young folks when I go out and speak but I think it applies to us older folks as well. And I try to live these myself. And so, number one is to be gritty, g-r-i-t-t-y, to be gritty. It means not quitting. Don’t give up in the face of a challenge. And the greatest challenges you’ll ever experience are from within. If you can control these challenges, external challenges are no big deal. So, number one, be gritty. Number two, be a lifelong learner, learning inside and outside the classroom, learn to computer program, learn a foreign language. And once you learn one thing, master something. Learn to play an instrument, climb down that mountain and go ascend another mountain. Before long, you’ve amassed so many skills that your skill set might actually make you successful, but your ability to acquire skills is the thing that really is going to be so valuable to you in the future. So be gritty, be a lifelong learner. And the last one is to be a good teammate. That’s hard though, because you don’t get to determine if you’re doing a good job. It’s the people to your left and your right. But that’s why it’s even more important for us to focus on that because it takes the focus off of yourself. So be gritty, be a lifelong learner and be a good teammate. I don’t care what you want to do, you’ll be good at it.

Host: Next up is NASA astronaut Shannon Walker. Walker is a mission specialist for Crew-1. As a mission specialist, she will work closely with the commander and the pilot to monitor the vehicle during the dynamic launch and reentry phases of flight. She’ll also be responsible for monitoring timelines, telemetry, and consumables. Once onboard the station, Walker will become a flight engineer for Expedition 64. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004, Walker launched to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft as the copilot and spent 161 days aboard the orbiting laboratory. More than 130 microgravity experiments were conducted during her stay in areas such as human research, biology and material science. A Houston native, Walker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Rice University in 1987, as well as a Master of Science degree, and a doctorate in space physics, both from Rice University in 1992 and ’93, respectively. Walker talks about her role on the Crew-1 mission and makes comparisons to her previous experiences on the Soyuz spacecraft. She spent her whole career at NASA and recalls when she considered that she may be eligible to be an astronaut after all. Walker recalls being assigned to Crew-1 and some of the exciting activities she’s looking forward to during her stay on the International Space Station. Here’s Shannon Walker.

Shannon Walker: I’m Dr. Shannon Walker, NASA astronaut, getting ready to fly on the Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. Crew-1 is the first, what we’re terming, operational mission of the Crew Dragon vehicle to the International Space Station. And what we mean by operational mission is that we are starting the phase where we are flying astronauts, NASA is flying astronauts to the International Space Station on commercial crew vehicles. The Crew-1 Mission is following, what is termed the Demo-2 mission, which was a test flight of the Dragon Crew vehicle. We’ve been looking at the handling characteristics of the vehicle. Did it performance in space as we expected based on simulations on the ground? It does, which is very good. What our mission we’ll be doing is extending some of those capabilities that they tested, and maybe testing out some new things on our way or while we’re at the space station. So, my role for my upcoming flight is sort of broken into two pieces. There’s my role on the Crew Dragon, and there’s my role on the International Space Station. On the Crew Dragon, I am one of the Mission Specialists, and so a lot of my job, I think, is to help people understand how you operate on that spacecraft with four people as opposed to just two people like Doug and Bob flew. How you allocate the various tasks that need to be done, that make sense and can get things done efficiently with four people in a small space. On the space station, my role is going to be very much like it was last time. Do what the ground needs us to do, whether it’s maintenance, or yes, I spent six months on the station previously in 2010, and I am so looking forward to getting back there and having another six months on the space station. It is so exciting to live and work onboard the space station, do all the science that we get to do, to look down on the Earth and just take in the wonders of the Earth and the universe. No, what’s very interesting about your time on the space station is that every day is different. And you don’t always know what you might be doing. Some of it depends on what cargo vehicles come up and what science they can fly. How do you prepare for that? Well, you do a lot of generic training, you prepare for a lot of different things. We are trained in just about every aspect that we might encounter. When I was there last time, I did a whole variety of tasks. It was at the very end of the construction of the space station. So, we did a lot of maintenance and getting the station ready to do all the science that we’re doing now. And so, I think that’s one of the main differences that’s going to be between my last flight and this flight, it’ll be more science, hopefully less maintenance. And before it was more maintenance, less science. Well, I have spent my entire career at the Johnson Space Center. I actually started out as a flight controller, working in the Space Shuttle Program. I worked with the robotic side, so I was in charge of deploying and retrieving satellites with the space shuttle. After that, I moved over into working with the space station program, working to get hardware built for the space station and working with our international partners to get hardware built for the space station. One particular notable time I had in that, in that time, was I got the opportunity to spend a year in Russia working with our Russian counterparts doing avionics integration, which was really interesting, really neat experience. Following that, I went back to the control center, but I had a very different job there. I worked with and eventually ran the group that was responsible for the technical health of the space station. And when you say technical health, people sometimes wonder what that means. I think the best analogy is, we were the problem solvers when things went wrong. If you’ve seen the movie, Apollo 13, when they said, “you need to take a round one of these to fit a square one of those.” That’s kind of what we did on a day to day basis. Yes, I always wanted to be an astronaut. I was about four years, yes, I just turned four, when we first landed on the Moon. And I have very distinct memory of my parents taking me and my older sister out into the backyard. And the Moon was rising over our house and they pointed up there and said, “we have people there.” And even at four, I thought that just sounded like the best idea ever. Yeah, it was kind of difficult growing up, because even though I knew I wanted to be an astronaut, I didn’t know what it took to become an astronaut. And so, I knew that I needed to do well in school, sort of basic things like that. But it wasn’t really until I got quite a bit older, then I realized that I actually did or would have the qualifications to be an astronaut. Most people have a lot more capability than they give themselves credit for. And so, when I realized that I had, well, I had seen a new class of astronauts that had been hired for the space shuttle and I was reading in the newspaper, what their qualifications were and just going through some of them, I realized I can do that. And that was a big turning point from not — not understanding what it took to be an astronaut, to really that day sitting on the couch knowing, yes, I can do that. Mentors and heroes. I guess, I really have to give a lot of credit to my parents. If you think back to when I was first looking at people going to the Moon, it was exclusively military test pilots. And to their credit, they never said to me, girls can’t do that. And so, sort of being blissfully unaware that it, at that time wasn’t an option. Of course, by the time I was old enough to be an astronaut, everything had changed. But just, my parents having high expectations growing up, really fit into me being an astronaut. As a kid, I was always interested in math and science. And honestly, aside from not knowing how to be an astronaut, I knew it wasn’t something I could do immediately. So, I didn’t know which path I wanted my career to take. And I figured physics was a nice, generic field in some sense that I could go any direction after I graduated from school. Later in life, when I went to graduate school, I studied planetary science. And so, I definitely had a fork in the road, at one point. Do I want to go do a be a planetary scientist, or do I want to continue to participate in the human spaceflight program? All NASA. I think it had — growing up in Houston had a huge impact on my life. Because the Human Spaceflight Center, the Johnson Space Center was here. It was in my backyard. And so, it always had a presence there. I remember coming out as a kid and taking a tour and things like that. So, it was always there and inspiring to me. My time in Russia was so interesting and so fascinating. What I look back on is the personal connections that I had with my fellow engineers, and colleagues over there. What I have found being part of the International Space Station Program, and not just Russia, but our colleagues in Japan, and Europe and Canada is that, underneath it all, we all have the same goals, and we all have the same passions, and people are just driven to accomplish this joint goal that we have together. How’s my Russian language? I used to be a lot better than it is now. Russian is not an easy language. I would say for a non-native speaker, it takes a lot of effort to keep up it’s sort of a what we would call a perishable skill. And as of late, I have not had that opportunity. So, I can probably sit in class or I can sit in class and listen to all the technical information that I need to understand that, but then having a conversation is not going to go very smoothly these days. I was assigned quite late to this mission. And so, my training time has been much, much shorter than the rest of my crewmates. Oh, it was very, very exciting because I wasn’t expecting it. My ground duty within the astronaut office was being as part of the leadership team in the astronaut office. So, I was more of a management type, and then all of a sudden, Friday, I was a manager, Monday, I was a crew in training. And so, it’s a huge shift in how your day goes. So, typical training week. I don’t think there are typical training weeks. Every week is different, every day is varied. And we usually have a mix of space station training as well as Crew Dragon training. And so, sometimes we have, also we have training with our international partners, which is a nice challenge in this environment. Yeah, the kinds of things that we train for this mission, everything from how to handle emergencies on the space station to how you fly the Crew Dragon spacecraft, to how you do a variety of experiments. Well, there are a few differences in training between training on the Soyuz flight and training for the Crew Dragon flight. One, on the Soyuz, I was trained as the pilot on that spacecraft. And so, I had a lot more hands on flying the spacecraft training. I’m not the pilot on this particular flight, so I do not have to train for those duties. And the other big difference is, now the training is English and before it was in the Russian language. Oh, I’m looking forward to being on station, living and working there, and just spending time with my crewmates on the station. There’s so many things that make living on the space station special. You are in a pretty small environment, although the station is quite large by many respects, but you’re with a set group of people for a long period of time, and so you really get to know each other so much better than you have been able to on the ground. We’re already a family but then, as so many people can relate to being in one place with your family for extended periods of time, is it’s just different. There are so many things that you could do on station. What I like about it is every day really is different. You get up, and you do something different, and you may be doing a biological experiment one day, you may be doing maintenance on equipment the next day. And then the day following that, you’ll be doing some sort of experiment in chemistry. And so just being able to participate in so many different thing, I find exciting.

Host: Last but not least, we have JAXA astronaut, Soichi Noguchi. Noguchi will also be a mission specialist for Crew-1 like Shannon Walker, working with commander and the pilot to monitor the vehicle during the dynamic launch, and reentry phases of flight and keeping watch on timelines, telemetry and, consumables. Noguchi will also become a long duration crew member aboard the space station. He was selected as an astronaut candidate by the National Space Development Agency of Japan, NSDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, in May of 1996. Noguchi is a veteran of two spaceflights, one on the space shuttle and another on a Russian Soyuz. During STS-114 in 2005, Noguchi became the first Japanese astronaut to perform a spacewalk outside of the space station. He performed a total of three spacewalks during the mission, accumulating 20 hours and five minutes of spacewalking time. He launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in 2009 to return to the station as a long duration crew member. Noguchi has a unique perspective on flying on both the shuttle and the Soyuz to the International Space Station. Noguchi recalls his previous experiences and what he’s looking forward to, taking a third spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory. Noguchi discusses his training, his family, the importance of science on station, and the importance of international collaboration. Here’s Soichi Noguchi.

Soichi Noguchi: Hi, my name is Soichi Noguchi from Japan. I am Mission Specialist One on Crew-1 mission to International Space Station. Well, our mission will be help support commander and the pilot on spacecraft, Crew Dragon. And of course, once I arrive on the space station, I’ll be a board engineer and do lots of science and maintenance and spacewalks, robotics, all kinds of work. Well, I’m really fortunate enough to have good crew member. Hopper is our commander. He’s a really natural leader, he’s really thoughtful and caring, and really fortunate to have great commander like him. Ike, I would say, he’s the best rookie ever. I don’t know any other rookie astronaut who is really capable and knowledgeable. And a fun guy as well. Shannon Walker, we spent a long, long time together. We’re in the same age. And I really respect her on her knowledge. She’s really ISS guru. And for me, it’s more like a running mate. Because we are space specialists, Mission Specialist. I’m Mission Specialist One and she’s Mission Specialists Two and together we can share the knowledge and kind of backup each other to accomplish big mission goals. So, we’re very happy to interact with each other. So, four of us, the great team, and obviously we have a lot of a different background. And the diversity definitely gives us a great rigidity to our crew. Yeah, I was fortunate enough to fly two different vehicles so far; a space shuttle and Russian Soyuz. And this new SpaceX is obviously launched like a capsule. This is more like Soyuz. And the docking sequences is quite resembling to the space shuttle. And landing is totally new, and so, we’re going to be splashing down into the ocean, just like Apollo. So, it’s a little bit of a different flavor. It’s a combination of all the space vehicle, which mankind developed so far. So, it’s very exciting. My first flight was 2005. That was on the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS- 114 and that was two weeks flight. And we have five-year training for the next flight. And my flight was 2009, end of 2009. That was on the Russian Soyuz and was launched from Baikonur. So, it’s roughly five years between those flights. My Soyuz flight, it last about five and a half months. I launched the day before Christmas and I come back a few days before the, few days after June, so yeah, roughly six months. And so, I did three spacewalks back in 2005. Oh yeah, by all means, I’d be happy to open the hatch and go outside and have fun for six hours, and don’t want to come back actually. Wow, spacewalk is fun, period. A lot of people ask me for the spacewalk, is it dangerous? Is any risk and yes, of course, there’s a risk involved. It’s a high-risk environment and adrenaline rush type of activities. But we definitely enjoyed, everything flows, but it’s really slow. And the view is just magnificent. It’s nothing between you and Earth and just an open space. And we can definitely enjoy the view. And also, all the tasks, we train for many, many times on the ground, usually under the pool. So, you, by the time you do the spacewalk, you know, all the tasks by heart. So, it’s actually very enjoyable. And it’s very fun. And I’m really looking forward to go back and do the spacewalk. As my lovely wife and three daughters and they are now in Japan, of course, in this situation, COVID-19, they are not freely come to, to here and I don’t have much chance to go back to Japan. So that’s kind of separation. So that’s one tough situation for me. But we will be, we will be together, although we are physically separated. Yes. My kids are fortunate enough to attend my two previous launches. The first time on the space shuttle, they’re elementary school, and they just enjoy traveling to Florida, aside from the rocket launch, and on my Soyuz launch, they are almost teenagers. And they can understand all those anxiety and the feeling of the rush and the feeling of excitement. So, it’s second time is more memorable. Hopefully this time, they’re now grown up. But they’re still very happy to come to see their dad launch, so should be a nice family reunion. Yeah, it’s actually, those three flights are so far apart. The 2005, our main way of communication was a, is a fax actually. And then we just started to have some very limited email. On the second flight, however, we have internet onboard. We can do the tweet, we can do the video conferencing. And now, we have almost a 24/7 email access plus video conferencing capability on their cell phone as well. So, it’s much closer in this digital age. So, it should be, should be a fun stay. Yeah, I think that’s the one good thing about the digital evolution. So obviously, as the technology evolves, it’s much easier to communicate and it’s convenient for them as well. Before, I remember on my first flight, my family had to come to the Space Center, to hear all those conversation. And second time, because it’s Russia, there’s somewhat limited. Now everything, you can stream it on their cell phone and emails, pretty much stress free. So, definitely the IT advances is doing a big favor for us for the family communication between space and Earth. Right now, our training is basically two parts. One is lots of training as the ISS long expedition crew member, which involves science payloads, and also the maintenance task and also some of the assembly tasks remaining on the space station. The other half is of course, the SpaceX, we are learning to fly the new vehicle. As a long duration crew member, you have to know not just the U.S. module, but all those each international partners modules. Russian module, Japanese module, European module and of course, the Canadian arm. So a lot of maintenance and also safety related events are, we have to know and especially for the emergency type of scenario, you know the depressurization, fire, and toxic atmosphere, those kind of things you have to memorize and you have to act as one team to counteract with the situation and those type of emergency response training, we take a lot of time and that’s a good team building opportunity as well. Well, I think having a two different experience so far definitely helps understanding the new system and the space shuttle and so, is obviously two totally different system, totally different designed spacecraft. And I kind of feel the similar approach on for like launch and launch escape is somewhat similar to what the Soyuz guys doing and rendezvous approach and the way they dock is, I feel the same philosophy as the space shuttle. And, but the important thing is, this is brand new, designed from scratch, 21st century spacecraft. So, I have knowledge of space shuttle and the Soyuz, but I don’t want to stick to those old experience. We are learning a new system, and this is a new design. And obviously, the SpaceX did a very nice job designing the new spacecraft. I think this SpaceX training, obviously this is new. So, I would say that more like a half development support and half training. So, unlike space shuttle program or Soyuz, which have a long history of a safe flight and, and I kind of learn from the previous crew member. But this one, you have to kind of build the training template by ourselves and half of the time I spend in house in California is more like helping them develop the procedure. So, it’s a kind of new experience. But eventually this SpaceX Crew Dragon become a standard. And we will learn from their system, from their operating side. So, I think eventually this will become a new standard. The shuttle training here in Houston, and the Soyuz training in Star City, Russia, which is a totally different approach, I personally like the way that NASA trained me on the first flight, but the Russian side, they train me from the scratch and start from the theoretical part, then can build up to the operational skills, while space shuttle you learn through the simulation and learn from the other crew member. So, it’s a totally different approach. And SpaceX has its own way. And, but each, different method eventually make us a good astronaut who can operate the system safely because our ultimate goal is return the vehicle with the same number of people go up and they come back safely. So, well, many people say, especially the returning crew, they feel like they never missed a date on space station, meaning, they on the day one of the returning flight, they feel like they were on the station yesterday as well. Meaning, you quickly go back to the old habits of going back to the zero-gravity life and the stuff from there. So, my second flight, first flight was on the shuttle. And then the second flight was Soyuz, so it’s totally different, the launch experience, but by the time I opened the door, open the hatch of the space station, I feel like I was living here for a long, long time. Yeah, during my stay, we have a space shuttle, STS-130 came up and then installed the Cupola. That was quite a game changer. Before that, we have a smaller window and everyone’s kind of cram in the flight, for the view. And now we have a big, big window and seven windows and a lot of astronauts just glued to the window and take photos and videos and do the video conference with the family. So, that was quickly changed our quality of space station life. One of the fun moments is, on my first flight, I flew with Steve Robinson, he was EVA, together. So, it’s a good friend on the space shuttle. And he comes to the space station with the Cupola. So, we opened the window. And then he picked up the guitar and he played a song for us. So, that’s a great moment that we have, enjoyed the time together. Together we will overcome all the obstacles. All for one, Crew-1 for all. The important thing for us is of course, to keep the dream alive. And for this commercial space program, is obviously Launch America. This commercial program is by the American for the Americans of the Americans. So, Americans really should be proud of this achievement. But for the rest of the 7.4 billion people, I will open the door for you. The spacecraft of this century is not just for America, but this is international cooperation and all the other people around the world have a chance to ride on this Crew Dragon. So, this is a new era. This Launch America is a great achievement for the American company, and of course, NASA played a big role. But this achievement benefits the whole world because the International Space Station itself is an international program. And there are a lot of companies that are looking forward to be the second or third SpaceX. Meaning, any country around the world, now have a chance at least to give it a try. They can have their own vehicle certified by NASA and bring people to the space station or beyond. So, this is definitely a new era, opened up the new capability and possibility.

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Host: Hey, thanks for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed these in-depth interviews with the astronauts of Crew-1 right ahead of their launch. We’re going to be doing one more episode here on Houston We Have a Podcast, for Crew-1. We’re going to be talking with flight director Anthony Vareha next week to dive deep into the details of the mission itself. Stay tuned to the end of this episode for a special promo on the new season of “Curious Universe,” another NASA podcast. For the Crew-1 mission, go to NASA.gov for the latest TV schedule on when you can be watching the Crew-1 launch. We’re going to have continuous coverage from launch until docking, so you have a lot of time to engage with us and watch the mission. You can watch live and engage with us during the broadcast using the hashtag #LaunchAmerica. If you want more podcasts, we have a lot of them at NASA.gov/podcast. You can link, you can click on us and listen to any of our episodes in no particular order. That’s Houston We Have a Podcast at that website. You can also talk to us on social media. We’re on the Johnson Space Center pages of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Use the hashtag #AskNASA on your favorite platform to submit an idea for the show, and just make sure to mention it’s for Houston We Have a Podcast. The interviews used in this episode were recorded in June 2020, thanks to Alex Perryman, Pat Ryan, Norah Moran, Belinda Pulido and Jennifer Hernandez for the support on the podcast side of things. Thanks to Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi for their time in the studio to share the knowledge and thoughts with the world prior to their launch. Godspeed to the crew. And of course, thanks to the extensive production team for their support in the Crew-1 interviews. Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on and tell us how we did. So, Houston We Have a Podcast listeners, if you’re looking for another out of this world podcast from NASA, check out NASA’s “Curious universe.” They just released a second season that’s full of adventure. Get ready to go asteroid hunting, explore faraway galaxies, and learn how black holes form with NASA experts. Here’s a sneak peek on what you can expect.

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Host’s Voice: The thing about astronomy is that it gets to the heart of the big questions that we have as human beings. Where did we come from? Are we alone in the universe? Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. Welcome to NASA’s Curious Universe. In this podcast. NASA is your tour guide.

Guest’s Voice: For the past 20 years we have been a spacefaring civilization. If you were born after the year 2000 you haven’t lived a single day without human beings in space.

Guest’s Voice: Almost 17 years of my career has been focused on this one day to make sure everything goes according to plan.

Guest’s Voice: It really all happens in less than 20 seconds.

Guest’s Voice: Think of something that’s moving very slow, about .8 or .9 miles an hour moving this big rocket down the road. It’s just goes, brrrrr and it just gets louder and louder.

Guest’s Voice: We actually think there are probably close to 100 million black holes just in the Milky Way alone, all sprinkled around dead ashes of stars.

Guest’s Voice: It’s those mysteries that are out there in the universe that we haven’t even dreamed of yet. I think the universe is going to surprise us.

Guest’s Voice: NASA’s Curious Universe, Season Two, coming to your ears, this October. Subscribe right now and get ready for a grand adventure.

Gary Jordan (Host): If you like what you heard, you can listen and subscribe to NASA’s “Curious Universe” on your favorite podcast app. Find it and other NASA podcasts at NASA.gov/podcasts.