From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.

On Episode 277, hear from the Crew-6 cadre ahead of their launch to the International Space Station. The interviews for this episode were recorded in January 2023.

Transcript

Dan Huot (Host): Houston, we have a podcast! Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center. This is Episode 277, “Crew-6.” I’m Dan Huot, and I will be your host for most of today. On this podcast we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human spaceflight and more. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program continues on, getting ready to launch a crew of four astronauts and cosmonauts from NASA, Roscosmos, and a newcomer, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre from the United Arab Emirates, all on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on the sixth crew rotation mission to the International Space Station. Each of these four humans have very diverse and different stories for how they got to where they are right now, and we were fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with each of them before their launch. On this episode you’ll hear from every crew member: Commander Steve Bowen, Pilot Woody Hoburg, and Mission Specialists Sultan Alneyadi and Andrey Fedyaev, and hear them reflect on their lives, their training, the anticipation of their upcoming long-duration mission in space. Let’s get right to it. Enjoy.

[Music]

Host: First up is NASA astronaut Steve Bowen, commander of Crew-6. Steve is going to be responsible for all phases of flight from launch to re-entry. Once on board the station he’ll be a flight engineer for the long-duration mission. He was born in Cohasset, Massachusetts and went to the U.S. Naval Academy, and he was the first submariner to get selected to join the Astronaut Corps back when he was selected in the year 2000. And he is the veteran of this crew: he’s flown to the station three previous times on three different space shuttle orbiters to help build the laboratory. This is going to be his first time living and working on station for several months though. So let’s jump right in to hear more from Steve.

Host: All right, so joined now by Steve Bowen. You’re the commander of the Crew-6 mission. First off, Steve, thanks, thanks for coming in. It’s cool. You’re the first one I get to talk to for this flight, and you’re, you’re the only one on this mission that’s flown in space. So what’s it, what’s it feel like to be the, the salty veteran of the crew?

Steve Bowen: It’s, it’s, it’s very different because I, I actually kind of view myself as a rookie because, obviously, it’s a new vehicle, the Dragon is a very different vehicle than the space shuttle. I always went to space station basically as a construction worker and repairman, so it’s going to be a totally different mission; it’s a much longer mission. So I really view myself as a rookie. I may have, maybe a little bit older, a little more experience, but as far as the specific mission itself, you know, these guys are bringing a lot more capabilities than me and it’s really going to be exciting to be with them.

Host: You’re, you’re prepared for that initial, whoa, that’s microgravity, that they’re not prepared…

Steve Bowen: Yeah. It’s interesting. The, you know, the space adaptation sickness, as they call it, on my first mission, we had been on orbit, I took meds once we got to orbit, and then 24 hours later I felt a little ill so I actually went and made myself sick. Twenty-four hours later, it happened again. The next 42 days in space: never an issue. Not a, not in the other two missions years apart. So I’m hoping that carries forth. So I’m hoping, you know, after ten years, 12 years, getting back to orbit it will be just like when I left it, hoping my body remembers.

Host: Like riding a bike, right?

Steve Bowen: I hope so.

Host: Well, you flew three different space shuttle missions, three different space shuttles. You, you flew on three different orbiters, right?

Steve Bowen: Yes, I did. And they were, each one had its own little personality. I have only seen Discovery that, you know, they’re all three are in museums now, and I’ve only seen Discovery; I’ll get to see the other two at some point. But they were very different. So, like, Atlantis, coming back on Atlantis, it had, we had been told that as it comes through the lower Mach region it’s like driving over train, railroad tracks. Like, what the heck does that mean? But sure enough, around Mach 3, Mach 2, it starts this rumble and this vibration throughout the whole cabin, and then it just goes away. It’s like, wow, that was pretty interesting. And then Discovery, it was, you know, Discovery, that vehicle, when we landed it for the last time on [STS-]133, it, you could have turned around and flown that thing again. It was in an incredible condition. There was one known problem with the, with the environmental control system, which it had, and the lockers would shift when you got to orbit, which you had to stick a pry bar into the locker to realign it to get the door shut on the way home. But, yeah, they were all, all three of them were very different. All three of them were incredible machines. And it’s, it was amazing experience for me to have that opportunity.

Host: It’s wild to, because you look at them from the outside and it’s almost like there’s a different name painted on each one but they’re still, they’re still the same spacecraft. So it’s, it’s crazy that there were that many diff — did you have a favorite?

Steve Bowen: Oh, no. I was just happy they all worked really well while I was on board there. They’re just absolutely amazing machines. And you think of the, the technology at the time and how much further we’ve learned since then. I, I, we use this with, I use this with a lot of engineering systems in that there’s a, there was an art to making those things work. And, you know, the EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) around the same age. You know, our understanding of exactly every little trade, every little nuance that went into those designs is still growing. You know, it’s, we used to joke that you couldn’t build the Apollo, you know, sitting right out in front here at JSC, because the subtleties that the, the trades that the craftsmen made along the way, putting those parts together, we don’t necessarily understand it. So it’s, it’s amazing to see all of that. And I’m sure it’s happening today. It’s just a little bit different.

Host: Yeah. Well, you’re about to fly on Dragon. Pretty different looking spacecraft than the shuttle.

Steve Bowen: Yes. [Laughter]

Host: So I’ve been able to…

Steve Bowen: I liked wings. Yes, I did.

Host: Yeah. No wings on this one.

Steve Bowen: No wings.

Host: I’ve, I’ve been in the cockpit of both. And I mean, shuttle, you’re wall-to-wall buttons and switches; like, 12-year-old me would’ve loved to just jump in there and just press everything in sight. Dragon, a little more austere, touchscreen interface, stuff like that. What’s it been like to go from, you know, basically the space shuttle to this Dragon?

Steve Bowen: He kind of captured it. Well, you know, 12-year-old me or, you know, 40-year-old me looking at the, the space shuttle and learning every single one of those circuit breakers and every single one of those switches and what they did, it really gave you insight into actual, the function and the, how the shuttle operated. So with the touchscreens and the, you know, the displays we get on the Dragon, understanding the system’s a little bit different. You, you don’t have that same level of interface, and that’s probably a good thing for the most part because there’s, there’s a reliability built into the system and that’s, that’s very exciting. It’s, it’s another one of those great steps in technology. It’s interesting because I, I still approach it the same way I approached learning my very first nuclear power plant or submarine: you know, you, you really want to know it from the, from the pipes and valves all the way up to its full functionality. And as long as we don’t lose that, I think, we’ll, we’ll have safe vehicles to fly.

Host: Well, this is going to be your first long-duration. So you flew three space shuttle missions, you’ve been to the International Space Station, but total time, I think you’re around 42ish days in space. You’re going to surpass, you’re going to basically double, triple that…

Steve Bowen: Yeah. [Laughter]

Host:…more, vastly more than that on this flight. What, what’s kind of going through your head that, you know, I, I never got to do this, I can’t wait to, to do this on this space station flight…

Steve Bowen: You’re saying it now, you’re, you’re actually talking about it right now.

Host: I’m in your head.

Steve Bowen:A little bit, apparently, because, you know, it’s funny because I, I was just thinking, you know, growing up, sort of, with my dad laying tile and working in houses and doing a bit of construction and, you know, I helped build this house and, you know, I was always that contractor in to disturb the, the life on board the space station, and then we’d make a mess and go home, right?

Host: Yelled out for breaking out the, the drill at 8:00 a.m. up there.

Steve Bowen: Yeah. You know, we’d get to work real early, you know, we’d be trampling through the, through the lab and hopefully not knocking experiments off the wall. But now, I get the opportunity to live in that house and that’s really going to be exciting, and, and see the, its full purpose. You know, its, as I, I like to talk about the, the big engineering aspects of space station, how in, in and of itself the accomplishment of building that thing and the way it’s functioned for so long, and even the maintenance of it, is just mind-boggling engineering accomplishment. And that has, you know, really provided opportunities here on Earth as to how do you make interfaces work; these things never even met each other on the ground, they work great in space. There’s a, a lot to that. But the true purpose of space station, the true science, the research that’s continuously going on 24 hours a day, hundreds of experiments, to be a part of that has, has really got me very excited. That’s really what I’m looking forward to.

Host: Is there anything you got to do on shuttle, like you did a bunch of spacewalks, is there anything that you know, you love to do in space and you’re looking forward?

Steve Bowen: Float.

Host: Float.

Steve Bowen: So it, this floating never gets old in space. You can be having the worst possible day; nothing can be going right. And if you just take a few seconds, push yourself off and just sit there and float, and just say, oh my, look what I’m doing…how is this even possible?…that, that’s got to, that’ll raise your spirits.

Host: Anytime you get down, just go fly.

Steve Bowen: Yeah.

Host: Just go Superman.

Steve Bowen: Exactly. Superman, just relax. Looking out the window obviously is a full-time job. But you can’t do that at full-time. But that’s, you know, I, I think having the opportunity to, to participate in the operations is going to be exciting for me.

Host: What, what singular thing are you most looking forward to? Is it, is there a science experiment that you’ve been briefed on that you’re going to work on, is there any operational, like a visiting vehicle coming up, any, anything that you’re, well, looking forward to?

Steve Bowen: Yeah, we’ve got, you know, we potentially have some crewed visiting vehicles, which is going to be really, really exciting, Axiom-2 and Boeing, hopefully; I, really greatly looking forward to that. And obviously the cargo vehicles will bring up food and, and more experiments to do. But as far as, you know, in a, in a selfish way, I, the whole duration, how I react to it, how, how my body responds, you know, what am I capable of doing over those six months is, is going to be interesting me, to me. I, you know, maybe I’m a little bit too much in my head at times, but, you know, I want to see how, how I respond, and that’s going to be exciting and interesting. It’s a real challenge, you know, and I am so confident in the rest of my crew I think it enables me to think those ways, because I really have an incredibly capable and, and, and great crew and don’t feel like there’s any place we’re going to miss with them. So I, I think I’ll have the opportunity to really just be present and experience it and understand how it all functions, how we all work.

Host: Well, to pull, pull on that one: so in space shuttle, I mean, you’re up there for a couple of days, things change, you kind of hit an equilibrium and then you come home; was there anything that did happen on a space shuttle flight that you’re wondering if it’s going to happen again, are you, are you just, has, has the experience of preparing for this one, like, you getting poked and prodded a whole lot more for this than you did for space shuttle?

Steve Bowen: Yeah, we get poked and prodded a whole lot more because, you know, we’re, we’re so much more of the science for this, which is probably why my answer, previous answer exists because I never really thought on a shuttle mission — because we were focused on getting the job done, your schedule was incredibly full — you know, the, the, the poking and prodding and understanding of how the human body responds, that’s, that I’m looking forward. I already talked about, I’m hoping I retain my space adaptation sickness “vaccination” when I get to orbit. That’s one thing I would like to keep. But having talked to crew members for over 20 years now, as they’ve come back, different aspects of, you know, how they felt when they felt they were, they were truly space-adapted, you know, about the six-week point seems to be a rough consensus. That’ll be interesting to see. Consequently, I think it’s six weeks when you get back to Earth too.

Host: Yeah.

Steve Bowen: You know, will I be able to maintain the exercise regimen that’s needed? I mean, you know, at 58 years old, soon to be 59, I am not as limber and lithesome as I was, you know, 14, 15 years ago, so just the wear and tear on my body over that continuous period of time. And I, you know, it’s been encouraging talking to some of, some of our more senior crew members who have been to space station recently and say, yeah, this was, this is, actually may work out really well. And I’m really looking out for that opportunity to challenge me.

Host: You’re already working out two hours a day here on Earth.

Steve Bowen: I wish I had the time. You know, it’s the poking and prodding and the training, it really, and the travel, you know, all that really does a number on your exercise routine and it’s, it’s hard to maintain, and that, that’s been, on Earth I, I look at that as the sort of the biggest challenge for what I’ve had to face over the past, you know, year or so, because the classes have been great and the, the instruction’s awesome. So.

Host: Alright. Well, Steve Bowen, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 commander, thanks for dropping in; can’t wait to see you floating on board the International Space Station. Really appreciate your time.

Steve Bowen: Well, thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure.

Pat Ryan (Host): Hi, it’s Pat Ryan and I’m jumping in here for just a minute because Dan wasn’t available on the day that this astronaut came to our studio…another win for me. Woody Hoburg has been an astronaut for a little more than five years now, but it’s arguable about whether this is even the most interesting thing he’s ever done. He’s a native of Pittsburgh, with an aeronautics and astronautics degree from MIT, and a master’s and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from Berkeley. He is also an instrument-rated commercial pilot in single engine and multi-engine airplanes, has taught undergraduate flight vehicle engineering at MIT; he’s led a group that produced an open-source software tool that was used to design an unmanned aerial vehicle for the Air Force; and he has spent time as a member of a mountain search and rescue team. That’s not even his whole resume — doesn’t include the 21-foot-tall rocket he built when he was in high school. He is the pilot for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission and will be a mission specialist on the International Space Station’s Expedition 69 on his first trip to space. Say hello to Woody Hoburg.

Host: Woody Hoburg, welcome to your first time on Houston We Have a Podcast; great to get to talk to you.

Woody Hoburg: Thanks. It’s great to be here.

Host: You are just a few weeks away from launching off of this planet for the very first time. How do you feel about what’s about to happen to you?

Woody Hoburg: It’s surreal. I, I know it’s coming; it’s really exciting; it’s been a dream for a long time, and I am just so, I feel so lucky to be in this moment right now.

Host: Well, you, you stole my question. I was going to say, did you dream about becoming an astronaut; I, I guess you do. Tell me about little Woody Hoburg’s dream of flying in space.

Woody Hoburg: Yeah. As a kid, I think the first job that I recall being excited about was being a ski patroller. And then not long after that, I discovered that there’s this thing called an astronaut, and that sounded like the coolest job. So it was certainly a, a dream early on. And then later in my career I feel like I sort of forgot about the dream. I got really passionately involved in, just other things, all the other things I was doing in life, my career, I was just engrossed. And, so it was only when I realized the applications were open that I thought, oh yeah, that is something I always wanted to do. Maybe I should apply.

Host: What, what was it about, what was it about the idea of astronaut when you were a child that was so cool? What was it, part of it attracted you?

Woody Hoburg: I think as a child I was attracted to just the exploration part of all of it, the adventure; it just seemed amazing. Probably the same reasons that so many young kids are excited about being astronauts. Later in life, I think, I found myself being attracted to two types of things. One is very technical, sort of problem-solving-oriented types of work. So for me, that was engineering. I was excited to solve difficult engineering challenges. But I was also very attracted to operational environments, meaning places where you have to get stuff done. For me that was going out and flying airplanes or doing search and rescue, and I always had a somewhat hard time marrying those two sides of me together. And I think later in life, it felt like being an astronaut would be the one way to marry those together.

Host: Yeah.

Woody Hoburg: And it really is. It’s amazing. I feel so lucky to now be able to express both sides of me in that way.

Host: Well, you’ve been an astronaut for five years, but you spent the first couple of those years training to become an astronaut. Tell me about how you’ve married the operational and the technical in those times? What do, what do you do, or have you done as an astronaut so far that’s allowed you to, to do that?

Woody Hoburg: So the, the training is very broad. The first two years, maybe you could call it astronaut boot camp, but we study ISS systems, we do flight training in the T-38, and I even got to spend some time in the T-6 doing flight training; we do some geology training; we go out and visit all the NASA centers and see what’s going on at NASA; we do EVA (extravehicular activity) training, so we get in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, get in the spacesuit for the first time, start doing, learning the skills needed to, to be effective on a spacewalk. That’s actually a great example for me, to go back to your question. I mean, being out on a spacewalk, you are often debugging things that were unexpected, dealing with problems as they come up. It’s very technical work. It’s also very operational. You, you have a timeline.

Host: Right.

Woody Hoburg: You need to be back inside after at that seven-hour mark or so. So there’s only so much time to get it all done, and you have to make those hard decisions about what you’re going to do outside. And so, I love training for that. And then I also, you know, there’s days where maybe you’re planning a spacewalk, so that’s going to be month in months in the future, and coming up with new procedures of how to do it. So it’s just such a fun mix of the really operational stuff with the, the really technical problem solving.

Host: Let me take a couple of minutes to talk about what you did before you got here.

Woody Hoburg: Sure.

Host: I’m aware, because you told me in another conversation, that even as a little kid you were building giant rockets and flying them. Talk about what, what you did and, and where that interest in, in rocketry came from?

Woody Hoburg: My parents bought me some Estes model rocket kits for holidays…I don’t know, birthdays, Christmas. And I built those and I guess I was just, it was like unbridled enthusiasm for building these rockets. I went out to a local launch hosted by something called the Tripoli Rocketry Association. Basically, a bunch of rocket nerds. And I saw some really big rockets there. I saw people flying these really large machines. I mean, these are hobbyists.

Host: How, how, how big is really large in this case?

Woody Hoburg: Fifteen feet tall, maybe…

Host: Boing!

Woody Hoburg: I mean, a lot bigger than what you would buy in a hobby shop.

Host: What you got in the kit.

Woody Hoburg: Yeah. And I said, whoa, that’s really cool. You can do that? And I started kind of researching the hobby and realized there was more to it than I knew from…

Host: Isn’t that always the case?

Woody Hoburg: And so, I started building my own parts in my parents’ garage. I ended up sewing parachutes on my mom’s sewing machine, you know, dabbling in amateur electronics, built a ham TV payload for one of the rockets, and ultimately built one that was 21 feet tall, 16 inches in diameter.

Host: Wow.

Woody Hoburg: It’s a big machine, and it was all just, I guess I had too much free time back then or something.

Host: And it flew.

Woody Hoburg: And it flew. It flew actually five times. So the, the hard part, the easy part is the up, the hard part is getting it back safely, and all the parachute deployments and the sequencing.

Host: Did that sort of interest contribute to your, your choice of what you wanted to study in college and, and where you went to go do that?

Woody Hoburg: I think my experience building amateur rockets definitely contributed to my choice to study aerospace engineering. I was always attracted to machines that fly. I loved rockets, I loved airplanes. I remember visiting the AeroAstro department at MIT and they had a, like, life-size poster of Tom Cruise and “Top Gun.” And I said, wow, these people love all the right things in the world. [Laughter]

Host: You not only studied at MIT, you later were on the faculty there. Talk about what your, your, academic career, your teaching career?

Woody Hoburg: My trajectory there.

Host: Yeah.

Woody Hoburg: So I studied aerospace engineering as an undergrad, and that was just initially based on loving planes and rockets and things that fly. Late in my undergraduate studies I became very interested and excited about robotics, and enough so that I wanted to go to graduate study, that I wanted to go to graduate school to study robotics. And the best robotics programs are in computer science departments. So I went to U[niversity of] C[alifornia] Berkeley to study computer science; switched fields, had a lot to learn, and actually did kind of a master’s degree working on robotics and control systems for robots. And as part of that I took an optimization class called convex optimization, where I learned some techniques that I realized would be very useful for aircraft design. And I only knew that because I had studied in a different field for my undergrad.

Host: Right.

Woody Hoburg: And so, connecting those together, I realized I might be onto something useful. And that’s what my, that’s what I wrote my Ph.D. thesis on, was convex optimization used to design airplanes. And then ultimately that body of work became what my lab worked as, worked on when I became a young assistant professor at MIT, and as you said, circled back to, to teach at the same school where I got my undergraduate degree.

Host: I don’t want to let you go without getting you to talk about what some people might think of as a hobby, but it seems a, like, a lot more than that, the work that you’ve done on search and rescue teams while you were, I, I guess while you were living in California, right?

Woody Hoburg: Yeah. So in parallel to my studies, I was always a big rock climber. In college I got into outdoor climbing; I was spending most weekends in college up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on rock climbs. And right around when I finished college I became very excited about potentially serving as a member of Yosemite Search and Rescue. I actually took some time off from my studies to become an EMT, an emergency medical technician. That’s sort of a, a requirement to be part of the rescue team out there. And I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the team. And I actually spent my summers when I was in graduate school serving on Yosemite Search and Rescue as a member, member of their SAR site. So we’re kind of the seasonal team that gets called up when there’s any sort of search and rescue emergency in the park. I was stationed up in Tuolumne Meadows and I would spend time when I wasn’t out on search and rescue missions just working on my, my grad school research. I had my laptop and my software, and I could keep going even from, even from a remote area.

Host: Let’s talk about what you’re going to get to do next. Are you, are pretty jazzed about flying the SpaceX Crew Dragon?

Woody Hoburg: I am so excited to be flying on the SpaceX Crew Dragon and to be headed up to the space station for a six-month increment. It’s going to be amazing in ways that I’m sure I don’t fully comprehend right now.

Host: Well, you studied and, and taught about aeronautic design; give me, give me your expert opinion about this vehicle.

Woody Hoburg: About the…

Host: The, the, the Crew Dragon.

Woody Hoburg: So the, the Crew Dragon is a very capable spacecraft. It’s highly automated. So actually, even as the pilot, I have very little to do, assuming the mission goes to plan. We do send some commands and we have a little bit to do, but mostly we’re in a monitoring role. And we’re monitoring the automation as it flies the spacecraft up to the space station. Now the, the training’s fun so if things do go wrong, and when things go wrong, we end up a bit more involved. And we do feel prepared for that. But yeah, for the nominal mission, I think the, one of the key features of this spacecraft is just the, the level of automation on board. The rocket it flies on is also interesting: the Falcon-9 has a reusable first stage, so my crew is actually flying on the first flight of our booster, but NASA has now done many crewed flights on reused boosters…

Host: Right.

Woody Hoburg:…that have flown back to the drone ship and been recovered. So that’s a very innovative, new thing in commercial spaceflight.

Host: From a boy who built rockets and now gets to fly on one, what’s you’re feeling about getting to be in space for six months?

Woody Hoburg: It’s a long time. It’s, I think back to what I was doing six months ago, and I realized that that was a long time ago. So it’s a long time. I think we have a really exciting increment ahead of us. We have a number of visiting vehicles: we’re actually going to get two SpaceX cargo vehicles full of science experiments, and also the second one should have some solar arrays on board that we’re going to use to upgrade a couple of the power channels on the space station. So that may mean that we do some EVAs. That would be very exciting. And we’re going to have, hopefully, a visiting Boeing spacecraft. So, the Boeing Starliner, the first crewed mission, we should get Butch (Wilmore) and Suni (Williams) up. We would love to welcome them to the ISS during our increment. And we’re hoping that the Axiom-2 mission, the second private astronaut mission to the space station, will come visit. So it’s going to be busy.

Host: Yeah.

Woody Hoburg: There’s going to be a lot going on.

Host: Nice time for you. Woody, good luck on your mission to the International Space Station. Try to have some fun.

Woody Hoburg: Thank You.

Host: Thank you.

Woody Hoburg: Sure will.

Dan Huot (Host): Next up, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi. He’s flying as a representative from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and is the second person from his country to ever go to outer space. He’s going to be a mission specialist on the way to station and a flight engineer alongside Steve, Woody, and Andrey while on living on board. He spent time in his country’s military prior to becoming one of the first two people selected by his country when they started up their space program just a few years ago. He’ll be marking a bunch of firsts and breaking records for his country, as the UAE expands its human exploration and science programs. He has a truly moving description of what made him dream to become an astronaut. Let’s hear how it all played out.

Host: All right, now we’re sitting down with Sultan Alneyadi. He’s a mission specialist on the Crew-6 mission. Sultan, thanks for taking a couple of minutes. We, it’s always cool to sit down with somebody, especially when it’s always, when it’s almost their first flight. You were about a month away. Has it, has it started to set in at all that you’re about to go to space?

Sultan Alneyadi: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Yes, the, the mission date is approaching. I’m always busy actually training so, I’m not thinking totally about launch date and what’s going to happen. But definitely, it’s something big happening and it’s going to be a big moment for me, my family and the whole country.

Host: They, they don’t let you sit around and think about too, too many things. They keep you moving a lot. I bet.

Sultan Alneyadi: Well, it’s probably me personally, not trying to…

Host: Yeah.

Sultan Alneyadi:…thinking too much about the launch itself. I know it’s, it’s coming, but we are, I know that we are also ready to fly nominally with no issues. But yeah, I think I’d rather focus on the training elements that are still not done. And yeah, I, I want to be ready when the moment arrives.

Host: So you’re going to be the first UAE astronaut to do a long-duration mission, and so where, where’d you kind of grow up in the UAE, what was, what was it like? I mean, this is, this is a pretty historic thing for the country. What part of the country do you hail from?

Sultan Alneyadi: Indeed. Yeah. This is exactly right. It’s going to be the second mission for the UAE. It’s going to be a long-duration this time. And to answer your question, actually, I grew up in a remote area in the city of Al Ain, the second largest city in the capital, Abu Dhabi. And I was lucky enough, in the 80s, we did not have much light pollution, I could see the Milky Way, the stars, and probably that the, that was the ignition that started everything — thinking about going to space and traveling to other planets. Yeah, I think that was the beginning. On top of that, I used to love, like, space cartoons and…

Host: Yeah.

Sultan Alneyadi:…heroes going to other planets. So yeah, I think I was, like, lucky enough to grow up in that area.

Host: That’s cool. There’s, there’s something a little more magical about, you know, we’ve, we have so many people that work at NASA that grew up seeing the Apollo landings or space shuttle launches, but I mean, just being able to look up at, you know, raw space and I want to go there…

Sultan Alneyadi: Absolutely.

Host:…like, that’s pretty special.

Sultan Alneyadi: Absolutely.

Host: So you get ready, it’s starting to feel a little bit more real. What’s it, when does it really start to hit you that, you know, I’m about to go to space, because again this is your first, was it like you get to put some hands on some of the hardware, have you gotten to go out and see your rocket yet, sit in your capsule?

Sultan Alneyadi: So, recently, we finished the last training week in Hawthorne, SpaceX.

Host: Yeah.

Sultan Alneyadi: And because everybody was saying good luck and, we can’t wait to see you flying, so I think that was right moment for me feeling that, yes, it’s, it’s going to happen. And just today as, as we talk, I finished the final emergency sim[ulation] and we had the plaque hang[ing] on the, on the space station mockup. Every instructor was there. And it was a big, another big moment for me. Yeah, now I realize that it’s happening. Yes, we still have some training elements, but yeah, I think the moment that I’m going to be launched is, is real moment that I would finally realize that we are actually launching.

Host: It’s, it’s such a unique place just psychologically to be stepping into. I, I try to draw a parallel, like, is it like, you know, the last day of school’s almost here, but is there anything else in your life that has felt even remotely similar to what these past couple weeks have felt like?

Sultan Alneyadi: Well, I come from a background working for the military for 20 years. I mean, being ready for a mission and serving a goal or, or let’s say a big element of a country goal, for example, it was always something that, that I lived with. So I could, I could relate that to my military service. I know that I’m, I’m training, like, for long hours, staying away from family; sometimes I stay up at night studying for exams and evaluation. But yeah…

Host: So a little bit like being back in school. [Laughter]

Sultan Alneyadi: It does, it does, yeah, but yeah, I’m, I’m grateful for everything, like the background in academia, the military service. I think this is also something that is helping me right now, just to comprehend the idea of traveling to space.

Host: And so, this’ll, this is your first flight; what are — we always like to ask and then compare notes when you come back: did you actually check everything off the bucket list? Like what are, what are some of the things you’re looking forward to most once you’re on board the International Space Station?

Sultan Alneyadi: So I, I think I agree with everybody, all astronauts: they run towards the Cupola to watch Earth or see Earth from there. I want to do it differently. I want to go there with a camera, hopefully. So I want to share that moment with everybody. I want to capture that moment of looking back, back towards Earth with everybody. Yeah, so that’s probably the moment I’m looking forward to, forward to, to see.

Host: Do you have any spots on the Earth that you already know you’re going to, you’re going to be looking at, because I know you guys get ground tracks, you get Crew Earth Obs[ervations] destinations; do you have your own kind of list of, you know, I want to, I want to get a shot of Mount Everest? I want to, I want to see my hometown. I, like what’s, what’s on your list?

Sultan Alneyadi: I want to see everything, honestly.

Host: Everything. OK. Everything.

Sultan Alneyadi: But definitely, I want to see everything. I want, I want to see home. The UAE; Al Ain, my, my hometown; I want to see the places that I visited and I liked where I studied, for example, in the UK and in Australia; oceans, forests, mountains are all on the list. And everybody says you can’t get enough of looking back towards Earth. So I think it’s going to be everything for me.

Host: Yeah. And are you planning on talking to, because I know outreach, STEM education, everything like that becomes a big part for you guys. Is that going to be, you know, pretty, pretty heavily in your mission, reaching out to kids back home?

Sultan Alneyadi: Definitely, yeah, we, we, we’re doing science. We are maintaining the station full-time, yet we need to deliver the, the activities that we’re doing onboard the station to everybody, especially kids and, and the people who are curious about space. We need to explain why this is important. We, we are going to space for a purpose. So yes, spreading the enthusiasm and talking to people through different means. So we have ham radios sessions and we have, like, live PAO events and some cool science that we want to shoot and, and, and send back to Earth. So I think, yeah, it’s going to be a really interactive mission for us.

Host: And I, I feel like we kind of take it for granted here where, you know, we, we have astronauts, we’ve, we’ve had astronauts, like my parents had astronauts, everybody, and like, you’re, you’re the Mercury Seven of the UAE. You are, you are the ones blazing the trail. And I mean, it was, it kind of blew me away when we talked earlier and, and you talked about how you went to kind of just like an event to, to show your daughter that, you know, oh, maybe someday you could be an astronaut. It almost sounds like you’re the first person in history that went to like a job fair and they were like…

Sultan Alneyadi: Right

Host:…astronauts, and you can apply.

Sultan Alneyadi: Well, yeah. I mean, in 2017 I think the UAE has done very interesting steps towards space. So at that time we had a very ambitious plan to send a probe, it’s called the Hope Probe, to Mars. We had some satellites orbiting Earth. And I thought it’s, it’s a matter of time to have a, an astronaut program in the UAE. So in 2017 I took my daughter to a first scientific event run by the MBRSC, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, hoping maybe in the future she might be an astronaut herself, because I was, I was 37, I thought it, it might be too late for me now…

Host: Yeah.

Sultan Alneyadi:…but maybe in five, ten years, she might be an astronaut and fulfilling her father’s dream. And only one month after that the, the prime minister of, of the UAE announced the, the, the first call for an open selection for the astronaut program. And I remember I, I applied with no hesitation. I went back home to my daughter, and I told her, sorry, I, I think I might go to space before you.

Host: Sorry. Yeah. I’m jumping in line.

Sultan Alneyadi: Yeah, yeah. But yeah, we are, we’re carrying the same dream. And yeah, now it’s reality.

Host: Does she want to be an astronaut still too?

Sultan Alneyadi: Absolutely. Yeah.

Host: Oh, That’s really cool. All right. Well, we’re really, when you get up there, I mean, so you got to look up at space and just see it without lights blocking it, without anything; did you ever think you’d get to, you know, look back from, from that vantage point, from above?

Sultan Alneyadi: It’s really hard to comprehend, actually. Let’s wait and see what’s the overall environment. I think it’s going to be emotional.

Host: Yeah.

Sultan Alneyadi: I don’t want to describe myself as an emotional person, but seeing Earth and the magnificent view; that layer, a small layer of atmosphere that’s protecting everything that we know; I think it’s, it’s a really profound experience for everybody. So let’s wait and see and we’ll come back to you, hopefully, and talk about the experience.

Host: I was like, I’m glad you’re bringing a camera. We’ll definitely check it out. And can’t wait to see you onboard the International Space Station.

Sultan Alneyadi: Absolutely.

Host: All right. Sultan Alneyadi, Crew-6 mission specialist, getting ready to go to space. Thanks so much for sitting down with us for a couple minutes.

Sultan Alneyadi: Thank you for having me. Thanks.

Host: And last but not least, we have Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, also a mission specialist for Crew-6, working with the commander and the pilot to monitor the spacecraft during all of those dynamic launch and re-entry phases of the flight. He’s also going to become a flight engineer once they’re onboard the space station. He was selected to become a cosmonaut in 2012 and has been patiently waiting for his first trip into space. He’s about to become the second cosmonaut to fly aboard Dragon and fulfill what he talked about as a lifelong ambition to fly in space. So let’s meet our fourth and final member of Crew-6, Andrey Fedyaev. Enjoy.

Host: All right. Sitting down now with Andrey Fedyaev, mission specialist on the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station. Andrey, thanks for taking a couple minutes. It’s always a pleasure to sit across from somebody who’s about to go into outer space. How you feeling today?

Andrey Fedyaev (through interpreter): I feel great. I feel very, very happy and I feel that I am absolutely ready for this mission. So I’m awaiting impatiently for the launch.

Host: So you told me earlier being a cosmonaut, that was always, that was always in the stars for you. That was always, that was always the goal. What was it like growing up? I mean, were you always just laser-focused, was that going to be the path and that’s why you, you know, went to school, became an engineer, became a pilot; cosmonaut, was, was that always the end goal?

Andrey Fedyaev: Not quite. I can’t say that I did everything just to achieve my dream, just to become a cosmonaut and, put my all into this. It was a dream, and I did a lot to achieve it. I pursued some steps to fulfill my dream. That’s why I went to the aviation school. And after that I was selected for the cosmonaut corps. And it was not on the first attempt, but in between those things I did a lot of other things that I could have done unless I became a cosmonaut. I had other hobbies. I was an actor in an amateur troupe, and I did a lot of other things. So, so lots of different occupations, lots of different things that I could do. But in general, I was moving in the right direction so that today I can sit here and talk to you.

Host: You might be the first person who listed actor as, as one of their professions before they got ready to fly in space. I mean, what, what drew you to that? And I mean, I, there’s some parallels between acting and spaceflight. Like it’s usually it’s a big group of people working together for one, you know, singular vision. What, what made you want to be an actor for a little while?

Andrey Fedyaev: In general, yes. All the astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the ISS do the same thing, they move the humanity forward.

Host: OK. And then you, you were selected as a cosmonaut in 2012. What have you been doing since then to get to where you are now? Has it all just been training the whole time? Did you have kind of a favorite activity you got to be involved in, because I know a lot of the astronauts and cosmonauts on the ground are supporting astronauts and cosmonauts when they’re actively in space.

Andrey Fedyaev: Well, for about five years in the beginning I did the basic cosmonaut training. It was to make sure that I know everything a cosmonaut needs to know. So it was for the first five years, so that I would become a professional cosmonaut. Later, I had to maintain and hone the skills that I had already acquired at a certain level so that I could continue being a professional that I have become. And all my activities were aimed for that. Anything else you’d like to know?

Host: [laughter] Tons of stuff; how much time do you have? So this is, I mean, this is going to be your first spaceflight. It’s your first, Woody’s first, Sultan’s first. Is there anything that either you’re looking forward to or you’ve talked about as a group that, you know, you’ve seen all of your colleagues do something on the space station, whether it’s a spacewalk, are you just looking forward to be able to look out the window? Is it, what’s one thing? What’s the first thing you want to do when you get on board the space station?

Andrey Fedyaev: Well, naturally it is to look on our planet from 400 kilometers away. I really want to look out the window. But on top of that I would like to look beyond that. I would love to see the Earth from the Moon, for example.

Host: All right. So maybe just, maybe — I say “just” — maybe only flying on the space station isn’t in the cards. So you, you want to go explore the Moon. Would, would you go to the Moon? Would you go to Mars if you had the option?

Andrey Fedyaev: Not one way, that’s for sure. But if I had a mission and I would need to fly there and come back, absolutely.

Host: Yeah. And how do you see the space station kind of fitting into that? We, we talk about a lot of the technologies, but in your own words how, how is the space station kind of in that natural progression of we’re here on Earth, we’re just now starting to leave, how is that going to help get us to, to the Moon, to Mars, not one way?

Andrey Fedyaev: Well, absolutely. The International Space Station is a tool, a unique tool, that allows people to study how space environment affects a human body in the near-Earth orbit. And they were already automatic craft that were launched towards other celestial bodies, and we know a little bit of what to expect during those interplanetary travels. And the International Space Station, or maybe some other station, like a lunar station, it could become a kind of, kind of camp, a base camp, which can be used further to go beyond. Like, there could be a base camp on the Moon or on the Mars that could serve as a camp for people to gather, to prepare, and then fly further, let’s say, to a station that is on another planet’s orbit. And they can study, they can stay there, they can get prepared, and then only launch on that planet. And it could be the same way back. And maybe from the surface of Mars, you could go to Mars orbit and then go back to Earth. There can be options of how to do that.

Host: If you could go walk on the surface of any planet, any Moon in our solar system, where would you go?

Andrey Fedyaev: Well, definitely Mars. It’s been studied a lot better than any other planet, so I’m sure that you can walk on Mars. I’m, you probably can’t walk on Venus because it’s too hot and the pressure is too high. But other gaseous giants or maybe solid rocks and you could talk about Saturn and Jupiter’s moons. You could probably walk on those. That would be awesome.

Host: I’m, I’m holding out for some kind of crazy spacesuit that lets me walk around on Venus, because I just remember the, the photos from some of your landers that, that made it there and it just looks terrifying. But it’d be really cool to just go visit.

Andrey Fedyaev: That’s right.

Host: All right. So you’ve got a couple of weeks until launch. What’s, what’s the, what is the, because you’ve been training for years, you’ve got a launch date, it’s staring you in the face: how are you just kind of mentally preparing the next couple of weeks?

Andrey Fedyaev: Well first of all, I’m conditioning myself to work for a long time and work productively. I want to leave everything earthly here back on Earth. It is very important once you climb aboard to leave all the problems behind. And you can’t take anything negative with you into the mission because it could impact the safety of the mission, it could impact your mood. And same here, whatever problems, whatever worries I have, they should be, they should remain here on Earth. And there in space I would like to be putting all my effort into solving problems that are waiting for me there.

Host: All right. Well, hopefully not too many problems waiting your arrival. Andrey Fedyaev for Crew-6, thanks so much for sitting down. Can’t wait to see you climb aboard that rocket and see you onboard the space station.

Andrey Fedyaev: Well, when I said problems, not necessary troubles but let’s say our tasks and goals that we will have to achieve and solve.

Host: Let’s, let’s, let’s hope Crew-5 is, isn’t leaving you with a broken toilet or something.

Andrey Fedyaev: Exactly.

Host: Yeah.

Andrey Fedyaev: That’s exactly right. Let’s hope they don’t.

Host:All Right. Cool. Thanks again for stopping by.

Andrey Fedyaev: Thank you so much.

[Music]

Host: Thanks for sticking around. Hope you’ll learn something about these brave explorers before they leave planet Earth for about six months. Check NASA‘s website for the latest schedule and to find out how you can watch the launch of them live on NASA TV and different streaming services. As always, you can find us and other NASA podcasts on NASA.gov/podcasts, and then you can head over on social media — we use the NASA Johnson accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you use the hashtag #AskNASA on your favorite platform, you can ask a question, submit an idea; mention that it’s for Houston We Have a Podcast and we can try to make it into an episode. [Inter]views were recorded in January 2023. Special thanks to Will Flato, Pat Ryan, Heidi Lavelle, Belinda Pulido, Daniel Tohill, and Jaden Jennings for all their work on the podcast. And as always, those astronaut schedulers for helping us to secure the chat. And of course, thanks to Crew-6: Steve, Woody, Sultan, and Andrey for their time. Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on, tell us what you think about the podcast. We’ll be back next week.