“Houston We Have a Podcast” is the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, the home of human spaceflight, stationed in Houston, Texas. We bring space right to you! On this podcast, you’ll learn from some of the brightest minds of America’s space agency as they discuss topics in engineering, science, technology and more. You’ll hear firsthand from astronauts what it’s like to launch atop a rocket, live in space and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. And you’ll listen in to the more human side of space as our guests tell stories of behind-the-scenes moments never heard before.

Episode 22 features Dr. Natacha Chough, Flight Surgeon, who talks about what flight surgeons do and how they work with astronauts to monitor their health during spaceflight. Dr. Chough reveals health concerns that are unique to the space environment. This episode was recorded on November 15, 2017.

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Gary Jordan (Host): Houston, we have a podcast! Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 22, Astronaut Health. I’m Gary Jordan, and I’ll be your host today. So on this podcast, we bring in the experts, NASA scientists, engineers, astronauts, all the coolest people! We bring them right here on the show to tell you about more everything NASA. So today, we’re talking about astronaut health with Natacha Chough. She’s a flight surgeon here at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and she gave a great description about what a flight surgeon does and how they work with astronauts to monitor their health during spaceflight. So thanks to future doctor spaceman for the suggestion on Twitter for an episode with a flight surgeon. If you have suggestions for the topic you’d like to hear on the show, let us know! You can find where to submit everything at the end of every episode. No, I’m not going to reveal it right up front, you got to listen to the whole thing. Plus, this is a really good conversation anyway. You’re going to really enjoy it. So, with no further delay, let’s go lightspeed and jump right ahead to our talk with Dr. Natacha Chough. Enjoy!

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[ Music ]

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[ Music & Radio Transmissions ]

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[ Music ]

Host:Now, we’ll — we’ll start with something happy. Natasha, thanks so much for coming on the show, ran into your profile as part of Peggy’s NASA Village Project, you’re one of the many people that supported Peggy Whitson, right, during her flight. So how was it — what was it like working with the space ninja?

[00:01:36]

Natacha Chough: So I think as anyone who works with Peggy will tell you, she is awesome at what she does! [Laughing] And she’s just a joy to watch. Plus she’s a wonderful person, which just makes it even better.

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Host:Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Just in the few interactions I’ve had with her where, you know, interviews or her dealing with media, just, you know, sitting down in the chair with a lot of people looking at her, lights, cameras, and she’s just laughing, having a good time. It’s just, you know, you really appreciate that when you’re on — when you’re on the behind-the-scenes stuff and you know the pressure that goes into it. But you were — for supporting her, you’re a flight surgeon, right?

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Natacha Chough: So I wasn’t assigned to her as her crew surgeon, but I was — after her landing, her in two fish [phonetic], I was the physician on the NASA aircraft that brought them back to Houston.

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Host:Oh, okay. So you were out — you were out in Kazakhstan then?

[00:02:23]

Natacha Chough: So, actually, this landing happened right after Harvey, and because of the multiple personnel impacts that NASA had, including to our aircraft operations division, we weren’t able to get our aircraft staged in Kazakhstan in time for their landing. So, what happened was we got the help from the European Space Agency, so they had an aircraft and they went and got our crew in Kazakhstan and brought them back to Cologne, Germany, use the headquarters, and then we went to Cologne to pick up our crew there.

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Host:Okay.

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Natacha Chough: So that was like a total modified…

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Host:Yeah!

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Natacha Chough:…expected direct return operation, yeah.

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Host:So you went from Houston to Germany then? Okay. And you were — so you were — so what is — what is that? What’s a doctor on-call?

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Natacha Chough: We call it the air doc.

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Host:Air doc.

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Natacha Chough: Yeah. So NASA has an aircraft that we use to bring back our crew from landing within 24 hours, and the — the purpose of that is just so the science and research folks can get data as soon as possible once the crew returned, just because there’s a lot of physiologic changes that happen. You know, not only right after landing, but in the — the hours and days that follow.

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Host:Okay, yeah, and you have to just kind of — so, what’s your job? Your job is to monitor it, record it, to help it?

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Natacha Chough: We do take some samples and stuff in flight on return, but, you know, the crew can be pretty symptomatic in terms of like returning to a 1G environment, and so we kind of mitigate a lot of the symptoms that they’re having, motion sickness, that type of thing, in the early hours, post-landing.

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Host:So now you’re a — you’re a flight surgeon now, right? Who’s your crew members that you’re working with?

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Natacha Chough: So currently I’m assigned to Jeanette Epps, and she’s launching next spring.

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Host:Okay. Okay. So you — what’s some of the stuff you have to do this early ahead of time?

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Natacha Chough: So right now, we just did her L minus 6 months physical, make sure that, you know, she’s still within standards for long duration spaceflight. She’s actually out of the country right now because in this part of the pre-launch timeframe, she and Alex [inaudible], he’s a crew member, and then Sergei [inaudible], the Russian crew member, they’re all serving as the backup crew to the prime crew that’s launching this December.

[00:04:33]

Host:Oh, okay. So they’re out there with Scott Tingle and [inaudible] and those guys? Okay, cool. Very cool. So you’re — you don’t have to follow them for that then? You get to stay here?

[00:04:43]

Natacha Chough: Yeah. In the meantime, you know, there’s a lot of just like pre-travel prep, making sure all of us, including the docs, are up on our immunizations for, you know, upcoming travel. In the next few months before launch, we’ll also get together with her in our pharmacy, and make sure that she’s got any prescription meds she takes on a regular basis put in these ISS medical accessory packs, people take, you know, nutritional supplements or daily vitamins or whatever, we make sure that all that is packed for them and any motion sickness meds they might need on the way up.

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Host:Okay. So how long have you been in the flight director, or not flight director, flight surgeon role?

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Natacha Chough: So I got hired on full-time here a little over two and a half years ago.

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Host:Okay, cool. Alright. So let’s — let’s back up just a little bit from — from all this and talk about, what is a flight surgeon? Right? Let’s start — let’s do that.

[00:05:32]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so I got to tell you it is the coolest, yet most misleading job title there is, because we don’t fly in space, and the vast — vast majority of us aren’t actual surgeons. What a flight surgeon is is a medical doctor who takes care of pilots and astronauts. But the job title is a total misnomer, it’s kind of like — I think of like the surgeon general of the United States, right? So most of these aren’t actual surgeons. So for those who are listening who aren’t military buffs, basically, dating back to like early wars, actual surgeons were the predominant type of medical doctor on the battlefield, and then that term has stuck in the military at NASA. And the flight part of the job title indicates, you know, that we take care of pilots and astronauts, but it also implies that we have at least some flying experience ourselves, either as private pilots, student pilots, or, you know, riding in the backseat of the T38, the NASA training jet, along with our crew members. So, that flight experience is actually key to understanding the physiology of the flight environment that our patients experience, as well as the psychology and the human factor aspect of like how they interface with engineering design and aircraft controls, and all that’s especially important for maintaining crew safety.

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Host:How about that? So what are some of the main differences then? Like what — what separates, you know, what makes you have that flight thing? What are some of the considerations whenever I guess the human body is in flight?

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Natacha Chough: Right. So, in flight, depending on the different types of maneuvers you’re going to be doing, like if you’ve been to an airshow, aerobatic pilots can do, you know…

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Host:Crazy stuff!

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Natacha Chough: A lot of [inaudible] maneuvers, and depending on the order in which they do them, it can change, you know, blood rushing to your head versus blood rushing to your feet, and if you do that [laughing] in a very provocative way, you run the risk of what pilots refer to as graying out or blacking out and losing consciousness momentarily. So you never want those types of incapacitating events to happen in flight. And that’s what we try to prevent. Another big thing that we learn about is hypoxia, right, so lack of oxygen. And so if you’re cabin, for whatever reason, depressurizes and you are, you know, at the equivalent of tens of hundreds of feet, you know, above sea level, that’s going to feel a lot different than a cabin that’s pressurized to a more normal environment. So our regular aircraft that all of us fly commercially, like a Southwest aircraft, for example, is pressurized to 8,000 feet and most of us can tolerate that, but if you have a depressurization and all of a sudden you’re at the equivalent of 30,000 feet, obviously, your time of useful consciousness, or the amount of time it’s going to take before you pass out because you — there’s not enough oxygen up there at that altitude is, you know, goes down to seconds.

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Host:Wow.

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Natacha Chough: So those are the types of things that we have to learn about, and then, you know, we train along with crew to understand what our particular symptoms are in that situation, because it can be a little bit different for different people. Some people get a little bit loopy. Some people have spotty vision, some people get shaky, it really depends.

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Host:Oh yeah, there’s — is that — is it hypobaric chamber?

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Natacha Chough: Hypobaric. Yep.

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Host:Hypobaric, where they actually — they’ll do that, right?

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Natacha Chough: Exactly.

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Host:You go in there, they’ll bring down the pressure, and they’ll just like watch you and then write down some stuff. I actually had a friend that did that. She works in the MBL, and hers was actually — she said she — nothing happened to her. And I was like, oh, that’s cool, and she’s like, no.

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Natacha Chough: That’s actually bad.

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Host:Yeah! Exactly! And it’s because, right, you need to think about your symptoms.

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Natacha Chough: Right. And if you don’t have any symptoms, you could pass out like that, and we never want that to happen when you’re at the controls of an aircraft or, you know, if you’re on an EVA and that happens for whatever reason.

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Host:Okay. So, do you understand — when you’re a flight surgeon, you understand the — what happens for your — the crew members that you’re taking care of?

[00:09:21]

Natacha Chough: Right. And another thing that they do in training is a CO2 exposure class. So carbon dioxide is different on station than it is on earth, right? The levels are different. Because here on earth, if a room gets stuffy, we can just open the window, you can’t really do that on station. So, crew are exposed to about 8 minutes of carbon dioxide. It’s basically they’re breathing into a bag and they’re rebreathing their — their own expired air during these 8 minutes. And they write down their symptoms for that, as well. And that’s really important because if levels tend to creep up on station, they have an idea, from this exposure class, you know, what their symptoms are and whether it’s potentially attributable to the CO2 levels on station.

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Host:Wow. There’s a lot of tests for [laughter] being a flight surgeon where they just put you through the ringer! Alright, well, we’re going to deprive you of like pressure and see what happens. Alright, keep breathing your own CO2, see what happens. What other kind of tests are like that?

[00:10:19]

Natacha Chough: Well, I’ve definitely done the hypobaric — hypobaric chamber, you know, hypoxia demonstration more times than I can count now. So I think I’ve lost enough brain cells at this point, but, you know, a lot of it too is — is written tests and stuff as you’re going through like medical specialty training, so.

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Host:Okay. Because I know like they — they do egress training for — I’ve seen the ones for Orion, I think, where they actually jump in and I don’t know if there’s some health considerations there for where a flight surgeon would be for that test.

[00:10:46]

Natacha Chough: There are. So, you know, Orion is supposed to splash down in the water, and after you’ve been in space for a long time, that rocking motion in the spacecraft can be really provocative when you’re already motion sick, and so, you know, there’s certain parameters as to how much rocking we would like versus — versus not, and, you know, what all that is going to look like. So, people way smarter than me are working on that.

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Host:[Laughing] So, when you’re — when you’re assigned a crew member, what — at what point do you start working with them, and at what point do you kind of say, you’re done, and you kind of can go onto the next crew member or something?

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Natacha Chough: So we usually get assigned to them about a year in advance or so.

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Host:Okay. Of their launch?

[00:11:28]

Natacha Chough: Of their launch. Yeah. It can be as soon as like — as early as 18 months pre-launch. And so it definitely ramps up like exponentially the closer you get to launch. Like I mentioned, if, you know, if you’re in Star City is the physician and you’re supporting them through some of the Russian medical training that they do there, when they’re here doing training in the MBL, the MBL during their suited run, we also support their vacuum chamber runs in Building 7, which is where they test their AVA suit and make sure that it functions at vacuum. And then there’s, on the medical side, there’s actually a lot of medical training that they crew get, because there’s no requirement right now that there’s a physician on station, but each expedition is assigned to CMOs, or chief medical officers, and those are US OS crew members who have a little bit of additional medical training, and so that can include, you know, putting in stitches or temporary dental fillings if needed, those types of things.

[00:12:32]

And so we’ve got — we work with really talented nurses who help train our crew on how to draw their own blood, how to start IVs, all that type of thing.

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Host:Oh, okay. And a lot of them are doing studies like that, just normally, right?

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Natacha Chough: Some of it is research-based.

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Host:Some research-based stuff, I guess besides the medical side, but, okay. So then you — if they — if there’s no physician on the station, the backup is to have a physician on the ground, right? That’s the — that’s the normal way of doing things, and flight surgeons sit in mission control. So is that part — like, how often are you doing that?

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Natacha Chough: So, when you’re assigned to a mission, you’re on counsel a few times out of the week and — and that’s only because you rotate with other crew surgeons who are working that same expedition.

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Host:Oh, okay. So, you’re — it’s not just you, it’s like a team.

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Natacha Chough: It’s like a team of 4. Right? So like each Soyuz launch, on the NASA side at least, has one prime crew surgeon and one deputy crew surgeon who’s their backup, essentially. And then it’s usually two Soyuz crews at a time, and so that’s what makes up the — the four docs that kind of rotate sitting in console.

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Host:There you go. So what are you looking at when you’re on console?

[00:13:38]

Natacha Chough: So on console, on a regular day, we mostly focus on the — the station, what we call the bio environmentals. I like to call it the vital signs on station. Right, so like, what’s the CO2 level today? Like what’s the pressure, you know, in the modules that the crew is working in, what’s the O2 level? What’s the temperature? What’s the humidity? And then we look at their timeline everyday, so as you probably know, the schedule for each crew member is planned out to like 5 minute increments.

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Host:Oh yeah.

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Natacha Chough: So, there’s always reviews of plans for, you know, the current day, one day out, three days out, seven days out, and so we’re just verifying to make sure that, you know, everyone’s got two hours of exercise blocked off that, you know, on most days, unless there’s an extenuating circumstance, everyone’s eating lunch together, because that’s really good for, you know, crew psychology, and then making sure that there’s nothing, you know, that’s unnecessarily interrupting sort of their wind-down period at the end of the day before they go to sleep. It’s kind of like if you got called about something for work at like 9 o’clock at night. You know what I mean? So, we try and like really minimize that kind of thing, and then, overall, we also have to approve any overages to their kind of weekly duty hours to make sure that they’re not, you know, at risk of bringing out for like working too long of a week, and so if — if that ever happens, we have weekly meetings with the flight director to make sure that that time is made up the following week, if they get a day off or some time off, subsequently.

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Host:So you must be really close with the astronauts then, because you’re the one that actually protects them from working.

[00:15:10]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, the role of the flight doc these days, you know, back in World War I when flight docs were started, I feel like there was a little bit of animosity, right? [Laughing] Like between flight docs and — and military fliers, because, you know, the best that you could ever do is come out even from an employment with your flight doc. You know, the worst that you could come out is that they would ground you for some medical reason, but these days it’s a lot more — we’re definitely their advocate, right, and want to make sure that we create an environment that is conducive of them, you know, flying happily and safely and healthily.

[00:15:46]

Host:Yeah. I mean, what — what is — what does a flight surgeon do to make sure that they are in a state of mind where they can perform hundreds of experiments and — and do all the tasks that are assigned to them on a daily basis?

[00:15:58]

Natacha Chough: So that’s actually something that our behavioral health and performance group focuses on, and we work in consultation with them, but, essentially, we’ve got crew psychologists and crew psychiatrists that are assigned to each crew member, and then, you know, before their mission, they meet with them on a regular basis, and then during the mission, they have what they call PPCs, or private psychological conferences every couple of weeks, and those docs also will be in touch with the crew member’s family. Especially after events like Harvey, right? Something totally unplanned and that can be a huge stressor for — for folks on orbit and their family members on the ground.

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Host:Oh, yeah.

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Natacha Chough: Yeah. So, they’re very good about, you know, before astronauts are even selected, like screening for people who are psychologically, you know, very stable. Once they’re selected, making sure that they have all the resources that they have pre-mission, during mission, they talk about, you know, if there’s bad news, how do you want it to be delivered? Who do you want to deliver the news? How do you want them to deliver it? So, that group is really, I think, paramount to crew well-being, and then keeping the family members in the loop as well with regular communication.

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Host:So that’s — that’s just not flight surgeon job then, is it?

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Natacha Chough: No, it’s more — yeah, it’s BHP.

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Host:BHP. Yeah, exactly. What — what qualifies an astronaut as being able to go to space, medically, healthy?

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Natacha Chough: So, what we look for is overall medical fitness for the pressures of spaceflight, and that begins, like I mentioned, with, you know, selection criteria during the application process. So once they’re selected, if they have an illness or an injury, we get them treatment and the specialty care that they need, and then we have an air medical board that actually reviews their case files on a regular basis to recertify them for flight if they happen to be grounded for whatever reason. It’s actually similar to how the military and the FAA medically certify their pilots. And as a taxpayer, for those of you listening out there, so these processes are also in existence to help keep the general public safe. So, in general, the FAA has a role to keep the risk of a pilot having an incapacitating medical event to less than 1 percent.

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Host:Alright.

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Natacha Chough: So, we kind of follow very similar standards. But in order for crew to stay healthy, essentially, they have to train, right? So, like I mentioned, we work with really talented physical trainers, psychiatrists, psychologists, pharmacists, nurses, to make sure that our crew are not only physically and mentally ready for long-duration spaceflight, but they’re also capable to administer medical care to each other if necessary.

[00:18:45]

Host:Okay, are you overseeing their — their workouts and stuff like that? Or is that a totally different thing?

[00:18:50]

Natacha Chough: So that’s the job of our ACERS, so those are astronaut strength, conditioning, and rehab specialists, it’s their personal trainers, essentially. So when crew go to orbit, they are actually given what we call an exercise prescription. And they’ve got different goals that they can work towards and — and modify if needed in space, and all of that, essentially, is part of our — it’s actually I think one of our most successful countermeasures, right, is maintaining your bone and muscle mass. So we know that maintaining your muscle mass with resistive exercises and getting some sort of impact exercise, like on the treadmill, is really helpful in preventing bone loss and muscle weakness post-flight.

[00:19:30]

Host:Yeah, definitely. What about — you said there was a pharmaceutical component to there, are they making sure that they get doses of certain medicines to stay healthy? Like, I don’t know if they do calcium supplements or something like that?

[00:19:41]

Natacha Chough: So, we actually, yeah, we have a great pharmacy here at JSC, and pharmacy helps pack any, you know, regular prescription meds that people fly with, and in addition, you know, they can let us know, there’s been some research, there hasn’t been enough, but, you know, certain meds just don’t do well in space for reasons that we still don’t completely understand. So, some — some medications, if they’re in liquid form, will bubble or foam too much to be of any use in space. It’s harder to draw them up in a syringe, because you don’t have that air — same air, fluid separation that you do with gravity. So we can’t fly those meds, because it’s — it wouldn’t be useful.

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Host:Right, but they’re probably meds that you would need, right? So is there a workaround?

[00:20:24]

Natacha Chough: So there are alternative meds that we can fly instead, in the meantime, and then we also have medical kits on station with Tylenol and ibuprofen and things like that, if people happen to — to need those during their mission.

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Host:So those — that’s kind of the essential, like, if you’re going to fly, this is probably what you’re going to need, you know, like the — stuff like that, just in case some small thing were to come up, oh, I got a slight headache, boom, good to go.

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Natacha Chough: Exactly.

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Host:Okay, cool. What else besides Tylenol, I guess, that they would — that they would need?

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Natacha Chough: There’s antibiotics onboard. If there’s, you know, any sort of infection, but it’s also, you know, kind of like what you have in your kitchen — kitchen cabinet. Or, sorry, in your bathroom cabinet [laughing], so Pepto, you know, those types of things.

[00:21:03]

Host:Okay, cool!

[00:21:04]

Natacha Chough: But the quarantine process is actually pretty interesting. So I haven’t been through that yet myself. I’m the prime doc for Jeanette, so I’ll be in quarantine with her, but essentially we go from Star City, Russia, you know, where they train with the Russians, and the entire crew then flies down to Baikonur, Kazakhstan together. And then the prime crew and their prime docs will be in quarantine in Kazakhstan for about two weeks leading up to launch, and so everyday, you know, we take temperatures and do a quick physical exam and there’s a Russian epidemiologist down there who’s really strict about, you know, who he lets in to visit the crew and stuff, so no kids under 12, that type of thing. And anyone who does want to visit the crew has to, you know, have, you know, written evidence of like 3 days of like no fevers, and…

[00:21:54]

Host:Wow!

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Natacha Chough: Yeah [laughing].

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Host:Alright, pretty — I mean, it is strict for that reason. Right? They don’t want to bring anything up there. So what’s the — have you been in the quarantine environment?

[00:22:03]

Natacha Chough: No, this will be — I’ve visited it, but I haven’t stayed there.

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Host:Oh. So for Gen X launch, that will be the first time you’re going to — you’re going to do it. Okay.

[00:22:11]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so I’ve toured it. There’s like a gym, you know, there’s a place where they eat meals together and they have folks who are in quarantine with them, like cooks who stay there and cook for them, as well.

[00:22:22]

Host:Who have also gotten the check?

[00:22:24]

Natacha Chough: Exactly. Yep.

[00:22:25]

Host:So it’s like a little place for them to live for how long?

[00:22:29]

Natacha Chough: About two weeks.

[00:22:30]

Host:Two weeks? Oh, wow. Okay, that’s longer than I thought. Yeah, because, you know, you don’t want anything to develop, how about that?

[00:22:36]

Natacha Chough: Right. And then, you know, obviously, flu vaccinations, depending on what time of year you’re launching are important for everyone, going down range, to have as well.

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Host:Absolutely. Alright, so then they’re quarantined and then they go up to the International Space Station. You said they have very limited training when it comes to — that, you know, they can do small things, but what sorts of things do you prepare for and prepare your crew members for for an emergency?

[00:22:59]

Natacha Chough: So, actually, they go through what we call megacode training, and so this would be like worst-case scenario, right, like if someone needs CPR. So, we work, again, with our — our nurse trainers, typically they’re nurses with ER backgrounds, and then the flight surgeon, as well, is watching the crew kind of go through this training after they’ve had a few sessions of hands-on, you know, training with us prior. So, and this is done in the — the ISS mockup actually. And so we have an AAD [phonetic] on station, if needed. And so they run through, you know, a very modified, but basic algorithm that they would go through in that situation.

[00:23:34]

Host:Alright. So, okay, and — and — in this situation, are you on console helping them out?

[00:23:40]

Natacha Chough: Yes. So we would, you know, we always have a crew surgeon on console during normal working hours, and then we’re on call the rest of the time when we’re assigned to that mission. So, if we’re not sitting in console on a regular shift, we would get called in for that.

[00:23:56]

Host:Alright. So no vacations then. You got to stick around in case someone gets pulled in, but that’s good, right? Because then, you know, the crew members flying know that, alright, in case of an emergency, I know my — my flight surgeon’s going to be there. So whenever you’re designing, you know, procedures, I guess, to do, do you, you know, practice knowing about microgravity? Like, okay, the AAD is going to have to — we’re going to have to do it this way because, you know, you can’t just lay someone down, maybe strap them down or something like that?

[00:24:24]

Natacha Chough: Right. So we actually have a crew medical restraint system on station. And so, the crew know, you know, to put an incapacitated crew member there so that, you know, they don’t float away. It’s a lot different than it would be on earth. And so, yes, all our procedures are written to — to account for the microgravity environment.

[00:24:40]

Host:Okay. Cool. Is there any — any concerns from the flight surgeon area? Some unique things that flight surgeons in — at NASA have to deal with that maybe other flight surgeons in the military don’t have to worry about because of the microgravity environment?

[00:24:55]

Natacha Chough: So the biggest thing I’d say, like you mentioned, is, you know, medications, especially like liquids that don’t separate from air, and so we’re still trying to figure out, you know, how to — how to work around that [inaudible] is that we do want to fly, but currently can’t.

[00:25:08]

Host:Okay. So it’s really just the limitations that…

[00:25:10]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, and so, you know, they’re — they’re industry filters and stuff that — that neonatal ICUs and that type of thing have worked with and could potentially be helpful.

[00:25:20]

Host:Cool. So, flight surgeons, I’m trying to think about like your — your total duties, and they seem — they seem pretty widespread, right? Like, so you’re working with the crew before they launch, when they launch, in mission control, you even talked about some travel, right? You were flying out to Germany, have you been to Kazakhstan or Russia too?

[00:25:39]

Natacha Chough: Yeah. So, I’m one of the contractor docs, and so part of my job is to be in Star City, Russia where the crew train on Soyuz systems. And so I’m there two to three months out of the year. And that’s actually really fun, I kind of like that, it’s a very, like, family environment and the crew get together at night and we have family dinners and things like that.

[00:26:01]

Host:Oh, wow! So it’s nice and tightknit. Like, family dinners where? Where they’re staying?

[00:26:05]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, where they’re staying.

[00:26:06]

Host:Okay.

[00:26:07]

Natacha Chough: Yep. And then — so I’ve been to Russia for that and then, yes, I’ve been to Kazakhstan for a landing as — as the air doc again on the NASA aircraft.

[00:26:16]

Host:Cool. NASA aircraft. So that — was that the G3?

[00:26:21]

Natacha Chough: It was the G3, now it’s G5.

[00:26:23]

Host:G5. Okay, so then that’s the one they take from — from where to where?

[00:26:28]

Natacha Chough: From Kazakhstan to Houston, and that’s the direct return, what we call direct return within 24 hours of Soyuz landing.

[00:26:33]

Host:Oh, okay. So you’re just watching the recently-landed astronauts and kind of taking care of them? Very cool. Did you take some of the helicopters out to the landing site and all that?

[00:26:43]

Natacha Chough: I have not actually . So I was on a Russian helicopter for Kate Rubins’ launch, I was her deputy crew surgeon. And so for launch, the prime crew doc is, you know, near the launch site with the guest and family members, and then the backup doc, or the deputy doc, which was myself, is in a Russian surgeon rescue helicopter in the event that there’s any sort of like launch abort scenario. We would be the ones to fly out to wherever the capsule would have aborted to.

[00:27:13]

Host:Oh, okay! First responders, boom, you’re going. Alright. But you actually did — you said you flew in the helicopter for Kate Rubins’ landing?

[00:27:20]

Natacha Chough: So you — they have the blades spinning, but you’re staying on the tarmac until you get verification that they’ve reached orbit.

[00:27:28]

Host:Okay. [Laughing] Very cool. So what do you have to — what do you have to study? What do you have to do to be a flight surgeon? Like what’s your background?

[00:27:35]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so my background is emergency medicine. And then to work at a NASA as a flight surgeon, you need to do an additional residency, and that’s medical [inaudible] for specialty training [laughter]. And that residency has to be in aerospace medicine, not flight surgery, that’s not a thing. So the expectation, essentially, is that you’re a competent physician in whatever your chosen specialty is.

[00:28:01]

Host:Okay.

[00:28:01]

Natacha Chough: Before you pursue aerospace medicine because it’s such a small and specialized field. I get a lot of questions actually from med students asking what they should specialize in if they want to become a NASA flight surgeon, and I always say, just choose what you love. Because if you love it, you’re going to do it better, and that’s what people are going to notice, and that’s when doors are going to open to you. Because we’ve had neurologists, urologists, OB/GYNs, become flight surgeons and work here. So it’s all about what you enjoy doing.

[00:28:26]

Host:Yeah, because they’re really good, and you said yours was emergency medicine?

[00:28:29]

Natacha Chough: Yep.

[00:28:29]

Host:So what was — what was that — what were you doing before — before NASA then in emergency medicine?

[00:28:34]

Natacha Chough: I actually went straight from emergency medicine residency to the UTMB Aerospace Medicine training program.

[00:28:40]

Host:Oh, okay.

[00:28:41]

Natacha Chough: So, yeah, I was just working, you know, 60 to 80 hours a week…

[00:28:44]

Host:Wow! Alright.

[00:28:45]

Natacha Chough:…in the hospital before — before doing the aerospace program.

[00:28:49]

Host:Alright. So then what was the aerospace program, how did that — how do you translate emergency medicine into an aerospace environment? Like, what was different?

[00:28:57]

Natacha Chough: How did I transition it? I guess the emergency part applies to aerospace medicine in the event of, you know, like a mishap. So — or planning for a mishap, but not necessarily hoping that that’s what happens, right? So it’s all about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. So, emergency medicine, background-wise, can help you figure out what equipment you might need to pack or what equipment you can leave behind. What type of personnel and staffing and other resources you might need at different stages of like a rescue scenario.

[00:29:31]

Host:Yeah, because I guess you would have to operate assuming that you might have to do something maybe on a site, you know, so you’re going to have to bring everything with you or something like that.

[00:29:39]

Natacha Chough: And you always have to think one step ahead, right? So like let’s say I do this first step and it works, but then something else, you know, changes with the patient after that. Then what do I do? And so you have to kind of work out these mental algorithms instead, every possible scenario.

[00:29:55]

Host:And then from there, you kind of came into the world of NASA, I guess, through…

[00:30:01]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so the UTMB Aerospace Medicine program is actually joint with NASA, and so we do some of our rotations here when we are in training, and so one of the ones is working — is rotating through the flight medicine clinic. And so you’re doing some of the astronaut physicals at that time. And then you’ve got other projects, operationally, that are given to you by different preceptors and mentors. One of my favorite ones was actually doing a one-month rotation with the BHP psychologists and psychiatrists. Just because it’s not my specialty, and so I still find it like super interesting though to — to work with them and see, you know, the types of issues that they deal with, and then interface with the — the operational flight docs.

[00:30:45]

Host:Alright, very cool! And now — now you’re here at NASA, now you’re a flight surgeon, what’s — it seems like, you know, like I said before, your duties are widespread and you’re all over the place, but what’s like a — what’s like a day-to-day sort of in the life of a flight surgeon?

[00:31:01]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so, it’s funny, people are always asking, like, what’s a typical day for you? And I’m like, well, I — I wouldn’t say we have typical days, I would say we have typical weeks, but everyday can be a little bit different. So, we are in an engineering community, right? So we’re the minority and a lot of times we’re looked to as medical consultants, and with station being as complex of a program as it is, there are a lot of meetings with all these different disciplines to make sure that we’re doing the right thing and maintaining the health and safety of the crew at the top. So, a lot of times, you know, I’ll have a day that’s nothing but meetings [laughing], with, you know, potentially questions for me about making, you know, just verifying that like what we’re doing isn’t medically contraindicated or unsafe in any way. You know, another day I might have my crew member doing a suited run in the MBL and so I’ll be there observing that. You know, and another day I might have a couple of meetings in the morning and then in the afternoon my crew member will have some training, medical training, that I’ll be attending and just making sure if they have any questions that I’m there.

[00:32:05]

Host:Okay. Yeah, it seems like your role is more — is more operational, right? So if something’s happening, like, boom, you’re there. So, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, that’s a good one, right? That one’s where the astronauts actually get suited up and practice doing a spacewalk in the pool.

[00:32:19]

Natacha Chough: Exactly.

[00:32:19]

Host:Right? So what’s — what’s your role? Do you go behind the scenes and kind of check them out beforehand and afterwards? Or is it more you’re just kind of standing by watching?

[00:32:26]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so everyone who goes in the pool gets a dive physical beforehand.

[00:32:29]

Host:Dive physical, okay.

[00:32:30]

Natacha Chough: And then during the run, which is typically about 6 hours, I’ll be on the loop just listening and making sure, you know, if there’s any medical concerns, they can always request a private loop with the MBL medical director. But as their assigned flight surgeon, it’s always good for us to be there, as well, just so we’re aware of any issues.

[00:32:48]

Host:Yeah. Privacy is pretty important when it comes to this stuff, right?

[00:32:51]

Natacha Chough: Absolutely.

[00:32:51]

Host:Absolutely, yeah. So that — your job is kind of — is kind of like that, right? Whatever you do, you have to make sure that you are protecting the privacy of the astronaut’s medical information. So, how does that work I guess in an environment where everyone’s talking to each other? Especially in mission control.

[00:33:10]

Natacha Chough: Yeah. I guess it’s not too different from the hospital environment. I think, you know, there are people who interface with us, for example, a biomedical engineer who have essentially [inaudible] of like, you know, a HIPAA, understanding of the HIPAA laws and medical privacy laws and privacy act.

[00:33:27]

Host:Oh, because they’re hearing some of this information too?

[00:33:29]

Natacha Chough: Right. And, you know, the — the ones who are involved in these types of conversations are involved because it’s a need-to-know basis. And so that’s essentially how we operate.

[00:33:37]

Host:Okay, cool. And you guys have private medical conferences with the astronauts too, right? Like every once in a while, you’re checking in. So that’s — is it more of just that? It’s just checking in, seeing how everything’s going?

[00:33:49]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so it’s once a week, and it’s for about 15 minutes, and it’s a video conference direct to station with a crew member on a private loop, and, you know, it’s all documented in — in the chart, the medical chart, from that encounter, will go into the electronic medical record, and so we can always look back and see if there’s something that we’ve been tracking over time, you know, how it’s been progressing, but it is mostly a check-in, but, you know, every once in awhile, something will pop up. We know that there are slight immune system changes in space, so, people can get rashes or, you know, just feel stuffier, have allergy-type symptoms. And so a lot of times that’s what we deal with.

[00:34:31]

Host:Okay. So it’s — how much of it is, you know, I guess you’re recording, just checking in, and then, you know, sometimes you’re going to have to deal with stuff like that, right? So how do you deal with it when you’re down here in mission control, but your patient is up in space.

[00:34:46]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so that’s the art of telemedicine, right, is you can’t see and touch and feel your patient yourself. And so we rely on their preflight medical training that we talked about. So they’re taught to use, you know, how to use a stethoscope, how to take a blood pressure, how to measure heart rate, that type of thing, and then we have the magic of camera technology up there, so, you know, they can actually look in their crewmates ear and take a picture of what that eardrum looks like and send it down to us. Or they can just take a picture of a rash that’s developed and send that down to us, and then, you know, during the private medical conference, we can ask all the other questions, we want to know, how long has it been there, and, you know, is it getting better or worse and what makes it better or worse, those types of things.

[00:35:29]

Host:Are the things that are normal for spaceflight, like, are there particular, you know, microgravity rashes or something like that that’s just typical for being in a space environment or something like that?

[00:35:41]

Natacha Chough: Rashes can develop, yeah, so that’s probably not uncommon, and it’s because airflow on station is different than on earth, right? Like particles have weight to them here and there’s constant airflow that moves things to different areas. So air doesn’t — heavier molecules don’t dissipate or, you know, sink the same way on station. If you’re staying motionless, the air particles around you are just going to heat up and you kind of have this like cloak of warmth, right? Or…

[00:36:13]

Host:Woah!

[00:36:14]

Natacha Chough: Another example would be if you unpacked something and it had, you know, particles of dust, the dust isn’t going to like fall to the ground.

[00:36:24]

Host:Oh, it’s going right up. Yeah.

[00:36:25]

Natacha Chough: So eye complaints can be a common thing that we hear about after something like that. So we’ve got protective equipment up there. If — if we think something’s going to be particularly hazardous for them to open or unpack, we recommend that they wear goggles and that type of thing.

[00:36:39]

Host:Wow! I would not have thought the — like a heat shield, I guess, that’s — like happening because of the [inaudible]. That’s interesting.

[00:36:46]

Natacha Chough: It’s actually documented in Lost Moon, Jim Lovell’s book about Apollo 13, when they had to turn a lot of the power systems off, it was really cold in there, but they found if they didn’t move around as much, their body heat actually heated the air particles around them.

[00:37:02]

Host:Woah! [Laughter] That is wild to think about! So that’s what I was talking about when I was asking, like, what are some of the microgravity things that are just different? That’s perfect! That’s exactly what I was — I would have never thought, like, so — so if you just stay still, you stay warm, because you’re kind of moving, it’s just a different air environment. How about that? So I guess are you the one in charge, though, if they are unpacking something, for example? Like, you say, hey, you definitely have to wear goggles for this or something like that?

[00:37:31]

Natacha Chough: It actually depends on who owns the hardware. But there’s a lot of other system interfaces that I’m not privy to that I think come into play, and the biomedical engineer helps us out with that, as well. So they kind of — biomedical engineers essentially are what — we call them the nuts and bolts, they work with the nuts and bolts of medical hardware, right? So if the ultrasound machine breaks, they troubleshoot that. If the human breaks for whatever reason, like that’s our job, we’re the blood and guts.

[00:37:58]

Host:[Laughing] The blood and guts.

[00:37:59]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, but the rashes, going back to the rashes, so the — the reason sometimes rashes develop is, so, back to our example of unpacking something that’s new, maybe it’s off gassing some sort of particles and those particles, if they’re not circulating in the air the same way that they do on earth, can sort of linger in one space, maybe near your skin or something, and that sort of exposure with I guess not as efficient airflow as you would have on earth may make the skin react a little bit. But there’s also, like I mentioned, some immune changes that happen and some rashes and allergy-type symptoms can be related to that, as well.

[00:38:36]

Host:Oh, because your immune system isn’t operating as — as much so you react, I guess, a little bit more?

[00:38:42]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so we — that’s something we don’t totally understand yet. And even on earth, the immune — immunology is one of the least understood medical specialties out there. Things are always changing.

[00:38:53]

Host:See, I don’t understand why I get a flu shot sometimes, and then a month later I get the flu! [Laughter] I don’t understand. I should be completely protected! And I know there’s, like, you know, changes in strands or something. So, anyway, but, yeah, no, a lot of different things to — to think about, I guess, from — from your end, especially just — that’s a totally different world. Are you — are you measuring some of these things over — over time? And then understanding trends? Like, are there certain trends that you’ve seen just from studying astronauts in space for so long?

[00:39:26]

Natacha Chough: So we’ve got a group of epidemiologists, and then folks on the research side who are studying particular, you know, body systems, for example, like you’re in chemistry or whatnot, those are the ones who are typically measuring those types of trends.

[00:39:40]

Host:Okay.

[00:39:40]

Natacha Chough: Yeah. And so anything that goes into our electronic medical record, we can have the epidemiologists look at and they can, you know, identify trends and they can control for changes in like the CAT scan machine that was used from this mission to this mission, and control for age or gender or whatnot, and so it’s a lot of number crunching and, you know, doing statistics and making sure that any trends or changes that we’re seeing are statistically significant.

[00:40:05]

Host:Okay, yeah. Because I know, like, you know, just understanding, like just basic, when you go to space, this is something that happens sort of things. Right? So your immune system gets a little bit weaker, your — your muscles and bones start to, you know, get a little bit weaker and disappear so you have to build it back up and do this exercise all the time. Just medical things that you have to think about, you know, the human body, how it reacts to space. And these are things, these are lessons that we can take to missions beyond low-earth orbit too, right, to — to station, our past station to, you know, the moon, deep space, Mars, all of that stuff. So how is the role of a flight surgeon going to change as we — as the communication starts to get a little bit, you know, longer. Because when we go out to Mars, you’re talking about when earth and Mars are at their farthest point away from each other, that’s like a 40-something minute round trip for communication.

[00:41:01]

Natacha Chough: Yeah. Yeah, so, and the question is, right, like, do you then have a requirement to have a doctor onboard? And not only that, but what if the doctor is the one who is sick and becomes the patient, then what? Right? Because when you fly in an aircraft, you’ve got a pilot and a co-pilot, but if you’ve only got one doctor, I don’t know, like, is it enough for someone else to, you know, be trained as a mid-level provider, like a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner or is it enough to have just in time, like on-orbit, you know, refresher training videos for a non-physician to be able to do a medical procedure? Do we need, you know, minimally-invasive surgery type capabilities on these spacecrafts? And those are all questions that, like I said, people way smarter than me are — are looking into and challenges that we still need to address.

[00:41:51]

Host:Wow. Yeah, because there’s — there’s a lot of different considerations. We just did a podcast pretty recently with Orion, and they were talking about just, like, for example, oxygen or something, right, like oxygen is super important to have on the spacecraft, but you can only put so many oxygen generators on the spacecraft before it becomes a little bit, okay, let’s — let’s calm down. You know, because you have backups, but you can’t just make — keep making backups until you’re perfectly fine. So the same with the physician’s, right? You can’t just have, like, an army of doctors going to space because, you know, it’s just you need those other things, right, you can have a doctor, but then you need — if you’re doing Mars exploration, maybe a geologist, maybe an engineer, maybe a pilot, you know, you need all of the above, nice like diverse group of — of astronauts who can do — do it all in the — in one mission.

[00:42:40]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, and I think also the — the crew psychology is going to change a little bit.

[00:42:45]

Host:Oh yeah.

[00:42:46]

Natacha Chough: And so, you know, people have talked about, what’s the ideal crew make up? Should they all be all one gender, should they have an even number versus an odd number? Because if you have an even number and you have a disagreement and you vote on something, what do you do if you have a tie? But if you have an odd number of crew members and there’s one person who’s the tiebreaker, are they then sort of, you know, like labeled as…

[00:43:08]

Host:Yeah.

[00:43:09]

Natacha Chough: You know?

[00:43:09]

Host:She’s inside [inaudible] that guy or something.

[00:43:11]

Natacha Chough: And then there’s questions about what kind of — what degree of assertiveness or leadership do you want your commander versus someone who fosters more equality in community in a multi month, like, transit phase from earth to Mars, where there’s not a lot going on, so do you really want somebody who’s like super dominant on you all the time about something…

[00:43:31]

Host:Yeah.

[00:43:31]

Natacha Chough:…when there’s not a lot of operational things happening.

[00:43:35]

Host:Yeah.

[00:43:35]

Natacha Chough: Yeah, so a lot of — a lot of factors there are going to be in play, but I think crew psychology and wellness is going to be huge.

[00:43:43]

Host:Oh yeah. I would assume that whatever crew they choose to do these deep space missions, they’re going to be, you know, be able to do it all in a sense. They’ll be super qualified people that have multiple disciplines, and when with the most recent astronaut class, that’s reflected there too. You’ve got doctors with flight time, you’ve got Navy Seals slash doctor, you have, to know, an engineer in four different disciplines, so, you know, you got all of these people that can — that can do it all. It’s pretty cool. [Laughing] I guess from a flight surgeon perspective, you’d probably go more towards the — the redundancy in doctor ability, like a doctor and then someone trained mid-level with the doctor, physician?

[00:44:26]

Natacha Chough: Potentially. Yeah, I mean, I guess I haven’t really thought about it too much. I was just kind of like throwing out ideas, but [laughter], I mean, it’s always good, you know, to have backups and potentially backups to your backup, so.

[00:44:38]

Host:So how about whenever, I mean, you know, we’re going — we’re going out, way out into space, but I’m going to pull back for just a second. Like, your first — your first time going out over to overseas, to support like a crew thing. I’m only asking — I’m asking this selfishly because I’m about to go over to Kazakhstan myself. So what was — what was that like, that experience of — of, you know, working with the crew before a launch or after a landing or your first time?

[00:45:05]

Natacha Chough: So it actually felt very natural to me, and I think part of the reason is because I was a Peace Corp volunteer like before I went to medical school, and I was — I lived in that region of the world. So I was doing service in Turkmenistan, and so to be in Kazakhstan was almost like coming home. So I felt very comfortable and part of that experience really turned me onto the International Space Station program because of the international cooperation part of it. So going over there was actually really fun for me, I really enjoyed it. And as to like the actual pre-launch experience, so as the deputy crew surgeon, for my first mission, your job is to take care of the family and launch guests that are invited. And so, you know, some folks aren’t frequent international travelers, and Kazakhstan is fairly remote, so, you know, if you’ve got medical conditions, you know, I was trying to remind people to bring all their prescription meds that they’re going to need, because we don’t always necessarily have what they’re going to need. We do carry a small medical pack with us with some like sleep meds and, you know, allergy meds, that type of thing, in case it’s needed.

[00:46:13]

And then really it’s just getting to know them, getting to make sure that your prime surgeon who’s locked in quarantine has everything they need. If not, you know, we can arrange to — to have extra supplies brought into them, you know, medically, if — if they need something. And then the day of launch, depending on what time you launch, this may happen earlier or later, but I got up super early with our, you always have a nurse with you when you’re going out into the field, and so we had the search and rescue forces pick us up in a van, and we went to the remote airport where their helicopter was staged to stay on the helicopter and wait for launch, and then once we got word that the crew had reached orbit, then the helicopter blade stops spinning and then we just go back to the hotel. So I — on an ideal day, on launch, you’re actually not doing too much, because things are working as they should.

[00:47:08]

Host:Right. Because your job is to be there, like, the helicopter blade spinning is the perfect analogy to, you know, if something goes wrong, you’re getting in the helicopter. Right? That is your job. Otherwise, the blade stops spinning. So, that’s exactly, cool. Wow, alright, a lot of — a lot of cool stuff to do as a flight surgeon. Is there anything I missed about flight surgery, because a lot of this is very foreign to me because I, you know, medical stuff goes like right over my head [laughing], but I try — I try to do my best to kind of summarize everything into something that’s, you know, that we can tell out to the world and that makes a lot of sense and kind of encapsulates the story of astronaut health.

[00:47:50]

Natacha Chough: Oh, so there was one thing I was going to say. So, and this is kind of like a misconception that I think is important to clear up for folks out there who are interested in becoming a flight surgeon or who are in medical school.

[00:48:00]

Host:Yeah.

[00:48:01]

Natacha Chough: So, some flight surgeons have gone on to become astronauts, and subsequently flown in space, but they’re in the minority. So being a flight surgeon is not a shortcut to becoming an astronaut, I’m sorry if I’m crushing any dreams out there, but we get to do a lot of what an astronaut does, except fly in space. So we’re with them for a lot of the training they do, and, you know, while space is, no doubt, the best part of being an astronaut, it’s a pretty small percentage of their career, so, like, I don’t feel too bad about my job, I actually love my job, and it’s — there’s another doc in our group who refers to it as being like, taking care of Lewis and Clark. And so I think that’s totally appropriate and it’s super rewarding. We are one of the first faces they see, you know, on landing. So if you see the — the PAO shots of the crew getting pulled out of the Soyuz, we’re like the, you know, the other person in the blue flight suit in the corner [laughing], making sure they’re okay along with our — we’ve got great Russian field medical nurses that help us out with taking vitals and all of that, so.

[00:48:58]

Host:That’s right. You’re there for every step of the way, except on the International Space Station.

[00:49:02]

Natacha Chough: That is okay.

[00:49:03]

Host:Yeah, that’s — oh, really, you wouldn’t want to — you wouldn’t want to fly?

[00:49:07]

Natacha Chough: Oh, no, I just mean, you know, this job is so rewarding for me as is that I’m happy as a clam.

[00:49:13]

Host:Hey, yeah, you can’t complain, because you’re doing — you’re doing some really, really cool stuff. That’s really awesome. Yeah, well if you — if you do, you know, want to be a flight surgeon slash astronaut, there — is it — is it Kell Lindgren [phonetic]?

[00:49:26]

Natacha Chough: Kjell.

[00:49:26]

Host:Kjell Lindgren, yeah, Kjell Lindgren was a flight surgeon turned astronaut, right?

[00:49:31]

Natacha Chough: And Mike Beret, Tom Marshburn, and then Serena Aunon-Chancellor [phonetic] next year.

[00:49:36]

Host:What? Oh, all of them?

[00:49:37]

Natacha Chough: They were all previously flight surgeons.

[00:49:39]

Host:Ahhh, so you say it’s low, but there’s quite a few [laughter], there’s quite a few! And, you know, definitely a medical doctor, I think, would be up there for someone who’s essential on a deep space mission. I definitely think, you know, for missions beyond, they’re going to be — they’re going to be up there. Because the human body is like — it’s one of the things we’re focusing on when we’re doing studies on the International Space Station, right? Like, studies on the human body, but then it’s going to be a huge factor for missions beyond, because there’s different things you have to worry about.

[00:50:09]

Natacha Chough: And we’re the most annoying variable, I would say, right? Like, to — to an engineer’s who’s focused on, you know, the spacecraft and things being like within binary ranges, we have the most variables within our physiologic system to — to have the potential to drive folks crazy. So sometimes we’ll get questions, you know, like, well, what’s, you know, how low can this temperature be, or whatever, like, well, it depends. It depends on, you know, [laughing] all these different factors. And so I know that’s — that’s hard to hear sometimes. So, you know, we have to — to bound the question appropriately and then, you know, start from a place that’s, you know, medically, ethically, you know, safe for the crew, and then that’s your starting point to — to work from there.

[00:50:51]

Host:Yeah. Yeah, and it’s just — it’s got to be so cool just working with an astronaut throughout the whole thing. Have you ever done the 0 gravity flight?

[00:50:58]

Natacha Chough: Yes! Yep, that’s part of our training as well.

[00:51:00]

Host:Alright! So that’s — so that’s pretty close to space, right?

[00:51:03]

Natacha Chough: Yeah.

[00:51:03]

Host:You kind of feel the microgravity.

[00:51:06]

Natacha Chough: It’s for 30 — about 30 seconds at a time. Yeah, it’s pretty much exactly how I imagined it like in my dreams as a kid. It was actually super fun, and it’s — it felt like Christmas [laughing]. That’s like the best way I can describe it.

[00:51:18]

Host:Wow. Did you — were you there as a flight surgeon like with an astronaut, or were you there for something else?

[00:51:24]

Natacha Chough: I was there as like an aerospace medicine resident in training. It was sort of just like an exposure flight for me.

[00:51:31]

Host:Yeah [laughing].

[00:51:31]

Natacha Chough: It was super fun!

[00:51:33]

Host:Alright. Something definitely cool to get exposed to, right? That’s like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. That’s pretty cool.

[00:51:40]

Natacha Chough: I’ll take that over the, you know, losing brain cells in the hypoxia chamber [laughter].

[00:51:43]

Host:Yeah! Unfortunately, that’s something you’ve done multiple times. Multiple 0 gravity flights would be pretty cool. Alright. Alright, well, Natacha, thanks so much for coming on the show. I think this was a nice — nice overview of what a flight surgeon does and how it helps in, you know, every step of the way for Lewis and Clark, I love that analogy, that’s perfect. So, thanks for coming on the show and talking about what a flight surgeon does.

[00:52:03]

Natacha Chough: Thanks for having me!

[00:52:04]

Host:Very cool.

[00:52:05]

[ Music ]

[00:52:14]

[ Music & Radio Transmissions ]

Host:Hey! Thanks for sticking around. So today we talked with Dr. Natacha Chough about her role as a flight surgeon and what that has to do with astronaut health. If you want to know what’s going on in the role of human research and how that applies to spaceflight, NASA,gov/hrp is a great resource for all of that. Everything human research and how that applies to spaceflight. If you go to NASA.gov/iss, you can figure out all the stuff going on on the International Space Station, and a lot of that has to do with some of the human research we’re doing, as we talked about it in this episode. Otherwise, on social media, you can follow us Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, follow the International Space Station accounts, they’re verified and, you know, we got a lot of followers, so you can find us pretty easily. But just use the hashtag, AskNASA, on any one of those platforms, if you want to ask a question about the show, and actually that’s where I found the recommendation for this show, is actually on Twitter.

[00:53:19]

So, I’m paying attention to all of that, just make sure to mention it’s for Houston, we have a podcast, and then — and then we’ll go from there! So, the credits for today go to John [inaudible] and Alex [inaudible]. Thanks again to Dr. Natacha Chough for coming on the show this week. This podcast was recorded on November 15th. We’ll be back next week!