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Your 2017 Astronaut Class

Season 1Jul 14, 2017

Anne Roemer, Manager of the Astronaut Selection Office at the NASA Johnson Space Center, talks about the new Astronaut Class of 2017: who they are, what they bring to the table and why these 12 people were chosen out of more than 18,000 applicants. The 2017 class also plays “2 Truths and a Lie.” HWHAP Episode 2.

Houston, we have a podcast

Houston Podcast. Episode 2: 2017 Astronaut Class

“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 2 features a conversation with Anne Roemer, Manager of the Astronaut Selection Office at the NASA Johnson Space Center, talks about the new Astronaut Class of 2017: who they are, what they bring to the table and why these 12 people were chosen out of more than 18,000 applicants. The 12 members of the 2017 class also play “2 Truths and a Lie” to get to know each other a little better. This episode was recorded on June 14, 2017. The “2 Truths and a Lie” segment was recorded on June 8, 2017.

Transcript

Gary Jordan (Host): Houston we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 2, your 2017 astronaut class. I’m Gary Jordan and I’ll be your host today. So on this podcast we bring in the experts, NASA scientists, engineers, astronauts, pretty much all the folks that have the coolest information, the stuff you really want to know. Right on the show and talk about everything NASA. So today we’re talking about the new astronaut class of 2017 with Anne Roemer. She’s the manager of the Astronaut Selection Office here at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. And we had a great discussion about the astronaut candidate class of 2017, who they are, what they bring to the table and why these 12 people were chosen out of more than 18,000 applicants. I also had a chance to talk with them all at the same time but I only had a few minutes so I thought it would be fun to play two truths and a lie to get to know them a little bit better. And I’m not adding any fluff when I say that they are a truly outstanding group of people. Not only with their insane qualifications and expertise but also with their personalities. And we’ll play that segment today on this episode. So with no further delay let’s go light speed and jump right ahead to our talk with Ms. Anne Roemer, enjoy.

[ Music ]

Host:Well, now so Anne you’re coming right out of, I guess the frying pan, or out of the fire into the frying pan, that’s how it goes a little bit. Yeah, last week was, we actually did the astronaut selection event. We had our 12 new astronauts of the class of 2017 come on and we got to meet them all. In a sense and the media were talking to them, so you are the person that’s responsible kind of in a way with your team for selecting those 12 astronauts. So that must have been quite a process, huh?

Anne Roemer: It was a ginormous process actually, certainly from the beginning we weren’t anticipating that we’d have 18,000, over 18,000 applications. So that was a surprise to us and then certainly reading through all of those and all the various checkpoints along the way to get to the event last week where we announced 12. It was an exciting week for NASA so certainly there was a whole team of people involved in getting us from that 18,000 point down to where we were last week. But it was an honor to participate.

Host:So what were those last couple weeks like leading up to last week, to the actual reveal? Was it — did it get progressively more crazy as you got to that point?

Anne Roemer: Certainly, there’s always a little bit of a lag between when we know who we’ve selected and when we actually communicate with the candidates and so that’s probably one of the most interesting times because you’re excited and you certainly want to share the good news but again when we had decided to do that live announcement, we kind of had a timeline that we had mapped out with them. And then certainly when we added the vice presidential visit to come and help us announce that, which was just really positive for NASA.

Host:Yeah.

Anne Roemer: But that certainly spooled up the intensity around the event that we hosted last week where we got to share with the world who we picked.

Host:For sure and are you kind of glad it’s over or is it still not over?

Anne Roemer: I’m sleeping a little bit better this week than I was last week so yes, I’m definitely relieved and certainly happy NASA, I think, did an amazing job of picking these 12 and right it was an exciting moment I think for NASA to get to share that with everyone.

Host:Yeah, I mean we had to take them around and help them out with their portraits and stuff on the public affairs side. We had to take them around with portraits and let them talk to media. We did it at AMA, so I got to talk with them just a little bit and get to know them a little bit better. And they were just a fantastic group of people. In fact, I got a less than 20 minutes with them in their jam packed day talking to the media to get to know them a little bit so to do that I thought it would be really fun to play two truths and a lie, the game. So they wrote down three statements, two of them are true, one of them is false and then they just start guessing like which one is the lie and get to know them a little bit better. And at that time they had been so busy that they hadn’t had a good chance to know each other so they were taking wild guesses but man when I told them the game they were like okay. It’s a little bit different from what they were normally playing but they just went right into it. It was a great group of people so I thought it would be really fun to start with that segment playing two truths and a lie with the 12 astronauts. And just kind of get to know them, you get to know their first names a little bit and a little bit more about them but then we’ll come back and kind of talk more about who they are and what they do. So producer Alex let’s play the wormhole sound effect thingy.

[ Music ]

Host:Okay welcome to the astronaut class of 2017, it’s been a crazy couple of days for you guys what with the announcement coming here, you’ve had a lot of interviews so far and we’ve gotten to know just a little bit about you but I thought we’d do something a little bit more fun today by doing two truths and a lie. So if you’re not familiar with the game each one of you has a piece of paper and you’ve written down two true statements about yourself and one false statement. So let’s see how well you know each other now and see if you can guess which thing is the lie. I think we’ll start by just going in alphabetical order, it seems like this is how we did the announcement and how we’ve been doing most things. So, Kayla let’s start with you, your two truths and a lie.

Kayla Barron: Awesome, love going first it’s always a good thing here. So my first statement here is I’ve never lost a game of charades.

>> Lie.

>> My second statement is I predicted my little sister’s birth. And my third statement was I was once part of a competitive wine tasting team.

>> Have you ever played charades?

>> Can’t answer that [inaudible].

>> What do you mean you predicted the birth, like —

>> Can’t answer that.

>> That there was going to be a baby [cross-talk].

>> Yeah, charades.

>> Played charades.

>> I think that’s the lie, yeah, I think so too.

Kayla Barron: You guys got it right, it was based on a truth, I’ve actually never lost a game of Pictionary, so if anybody is up to challenge that run [cross-talk] so, good job guys [cross-talk].

Host:We definitely need to know more about the competitive wine tasting, that sounds awesome.

Kayla Barron: So I went to the University of Cambridge for grad school and it’s an interesting place, I call it Disney World for nerds because it’s just like not real life. But one of their varsity sports there is blind wine tasting, wherein you do first a white round and then a red round where they pour you six glasses of wine from like wine bottles and bags so you can’t see anything about it. And then you have to identify a bunch of like nerdy characteristics like tasting notes, how much alcohol, sugar content, acidity level, where was it grown, etcetera. I will say that I did not make the varsity squad, due to actually drinking my wine at practice as opposed to spitting it out. So but it was a good time for sure.

Host:That sounds awesome, okay so next we’ll move on to Zena.

Zena Cardman: Okay, okay let’s see first of all I absolutely hate mushrooms, I will not eat them, I will not touch them. And 2, I am really good at bowling and 3, I’m really good at Etch a Sketching.

>> Bowling.

>> Bowling.

>> Bowling.

>> I’ve never broken 100.

Host:So Etch A Sketching, what’s the coolest thing you’ve drawn on an Etch A Sketch?

Zena Cardman: I did a portrait of Bob Dillon in high school that was really good and then at the very end — at the very end I decided to write his name but I forgot the L in Dillion and I had to do it over again.

>> No.

>> Can you do stair cases [cross-talk]?

Host:That’s probably the best thing I can do.

>> There’s no undo button.

Zena Cardman: Circles are still tricky though.

Host:Okay Raja let’s move on to you.

Raja Chari: All right so I used to slice deli meat for a living. I met Neil Armstrong when I was like 5 and my flight lead stopped me from flying into North Korea.

>> Deli meat.

>> Neil Armstrong.

>> Deli meat.

>> Deli meat.

>> Deli meat.

Raja Chari:Neil Armstrong.

>> Only because I asked yesterday if anyone had met [inaudible].

Host:Okay, how fast can you slice a deli meat?

Raja Chari:Pretty fast, my wife and I actually worked at High V for a while and we sliced deli meat in the deli section. She actually lost the tip of her finger on the deli slicer, so yeah but reattached, so.

Host:All right, very cool and definitely we need to know the story behind almost flying into North Korea.

Raja Chari:So there’s a restricted area and there’s obviously a lot of airfields in that area and so I was a young wing man and we were doing practice target attacks. And we were split from each other and I was doing a talk on, we call it to an airfield and you know, I was getting really close. Like man I can make out things on the runway and all of a sudden my flight lead realizes that is not a South Korean airfield that I’m describing, that is a North Korean airfield and calls me south before anything worse happened. Yeah, I was — you know, I’m happy like to go into the scenario describing everything I saw on the ground, which was actually really something over there on the ground.

Host:Well, now you have an amazing amount of flight experience, so somethings you’re going to learn from, awesome. Okay, so Matt you’re up.

Matt Dominick: All right, my three things here, I have climbed 10, 14ers in Colorado. I rode on the crew team in college and I won a gift wrapping competition during the holiday season at the Container Store.

Host:I really hope the Container thing is true, that would be awesome [cross-talk].

>> What was the first [inaudible].

Matt Dominick: 14ers is the lie. I’ve climbed zero. I’ve only driven up them.

>> I climbed blind is a pretty funny story.

Host:So I’m guessing you have a record for the gift wrapping competition, right?

Matt Dominick: No, I was just holiday season I think in D.C. we were with my wife at the Container Store and they happened to have a competition where you could win like a gift certificate and I kept refusing to join but my wife got me into it then I won it. We got an awesome $20 gift certificate.

Host:I’m surprised you haven’t climbed an 14ers that surprised me.

Matt Dominick: Yeah, growing up in Colorado not having climbed a 14er is pretty unusual.

Host:Okay, let’s move on to Bob.

Bob Hines: All right here we go, I’ve reordered these so your philosophy on which one is a lie [inaudible]. I met my wife in grad school. I went to college on a track scholarship. And I got hit by a truck while flying an airplane.

>> That one’s true [cross-talk].

Bob Hines: Wife in grad school, didn’t meet her there.

Host: You got to tell the truck story, man.

Bob Hines: So, I was flying a little Cessna 152 on a tiny little air field, uncontrolled airfield up in Pennsylvania. And there’s a road literally about 10 feet from the end of the runway, they have these little flashing lights that say yield to low flying aircraft. And I was sitting in the left side of the airplane where you sit when you’re by yourself. And I’m coming down final approach and the next thing I know I hear this thump and I’m looking out the side of the airplane at the runway. And I go around and trying to figure out what just happened, I look over my shoulder, I see a black disk bounce and hit the building. I look out and there’s no wheel on the left side and so after a little trouble shooting and talking to the guys on the ground at the FBO, they all come out, standing by the runway and I fly by. And they’re like okay you have just a strut on your left side and nothing on the right side. So I had no idea what happened at this point, I just know all that stuff flew off the airplane at some point. Anyway landed on the runway, I mean it’s a Cessna so you land at 45 knots or something like that, so touched down, it spins around the airplane and we’re standing around like a bunch of hillbillies, kind of man that was cool. And this tractor trailer comes driving down, pulls over the ten feet of grass drives up the runway and he goes you hit my truck. And he lifts up the back and we look in, an empty trailer and you can see it skidded right across the top of one of the spars that holds the skin on the top of the truck, I skidded right across it.

Kayla Barron: So it was a lie then because you hit the truck.

Bob Hines: Not true, that was for insurance purposes. The truth was twisted. Now I was pretty special down there at that airport, 300 feet down so that there’s no hazards on the things, so that’s all due to me or the truck driver actually. So it was funny though he was calling his insurance company and they go okay we had an accident, they said okay what’s the vehicle type? And he looks at me and I’m like Cessna 152. Like we don’t have that in our data base.

Host: Okay, so let’s move on to Woody.

Woody Hoburg: All right so in keeping with Matt’s theme, I’ve climbed one of the seven summits. I built model rockets in high school and I can do a standing front foot.

>> You’re too tall for a front foot, your rotational [inaudible] is too big, no chance [cross-talk]

>> Everybody is known for rocket making as a kid [cross-talk].

>> I’d say the summit.

>> The summit?

>> Yeah.

>> Summit.

>> Summit.

Woody Hoburg: It’s the front flips.

>> I was going to say if that wasn’t true you were definitely [inaudible].

>> Too tall, can you do a back flip?

Woody Hoburg: I cannot.

Host:Not even off the diving board?

Woody Hoburg: Never tried it, it just seems really scary.

Host:So what summit did you climb?

Woody Hoburg: I did Denali.

Host:All right, very cool. Very nice. Okay, Jonny you’re up.

Jonny Kim: So number 1, I wrote, Enlisting in the Navy was the Best Decision of My Life. Number 2, I got in trouble overseas after being on the phone next to a generator after a mortar attack and not being there for the head count. And I am a hot dog eating champion of my local high school.

>> Hot dogs [cross-talk].

>> Hot dogs.

>> Hot dogs.

Jonny Kim: Hot dogs, yeah that was the lie [cross-talk].

Host:So that generator story?

Jonny Kim: I definitely got in trouble with my platoon for — I was outside on the phone.

Host:Oh, man, well glad you’re okay. Well, Rob you’re up.

Robb Kulin: All right, so I inspected a rocket booster while I had liquid oxygen on board. I skied out the summit of Denali wearing a superman cape. I went rock climbing with a broken ankle wearing an astronaut helmet.

>> What was the second one?

>> Skied off the summit of Denali wearing a superman cape.

>> I’ll go with that one.

Robb Kulin: You guys are too easy.

>> So what kind of cape was it?

Robb Kulin: It was a lie.

Host:What was the last one again?

Robb Kulin: I went rock climbing with a broken ankle while wearing an astronaut helmet.

Host:Why?

>> Why not.

Robb Kulin: I didn’t realize it was broken, I just kept getting [inaudible]. Yeah one of those kind of astronaut helmets like you see in the costume store and my buddy was like when you go climbing, you have some sort of gag with you, whether it be some sort of silly costume I guess and that day it was the astronaut helmet.

Host:Okay, that was awesome, Jasmin you’re up.

Jasmin Moghbeli: All right, I’m an aunt to an incredibly cute and well-mannered 4 year old little girl. In college I was a member of the varsity basketball, lacrosse, volley ball and cross country teams and I was pushed down a flight of stairs by my brother when was 2.

>> You don’t seem like you’d be well-behaved.

>> I think the second one I think [cross-talk] one of the list.

>> 2 is too many, that would be weird.

>> Or maybe her niece is not well behaved [cross-talk].

>> I think she did all the sports.

>> Was it you that was well-behaved at 4 or?

Jasmin Moghbeli: No, no.

>> Oh, I thought how many sports in three season?

>> Sports, let’s go with sports.

>> Once she gets that varsity letter she just moves on to the next sport.

>> I’m going to go with stairs, I think she pushed her brother down the stairs.

>> The werewolf skills coming out.

Host:So which one is it?

Jasmin Moghbeli: All right, I don’t have a 4 year old niece.

>> Anymore.

>> I pushed her down the stairs.

Host:So how did you make time for all those sports?

Jasmin Moghbeli: So I played volleyball my freshman year, volleyball and lacrosse my freshman year. Cross country, basketball and lacrosse my sophomore year and then basketball and lacrosse my junior and senior years.

Host: Very impressive.

>> I believed all of them.

Host:Okay, so we have about two more minutes, so let’s go on to Loral.

>> Other way [inaudible].

Loral O’Hara: Okay, so I eat tacos at least half the days of the week. In middle school I used to get in trouble for talking out loud in class all the time and I once won a no shower marathon.

>> Middle school.

>> Middle school.

>> Middle school.

>> Tacos [cross-talk].

>> Was that three days a week or four days a week?

Loral O’Hara: Three or four days.

>> It’s a technicality.

Loral O’Hara: Yeah, a technicality.

Host:Well welcome back to Houston, you had to pick — really no shower contest?

Loral O’Hara: Yeah, so I rode on the crew team and my freshman year the women’s team decided to do a no shower marathon so starting it was like the end of October we just stopped showering, we were going to practice once or twice a day and going to class and everything.

>> Classmates.

Loral O’Hara: Yeah, it was pretty rough by the end of it we actually called it, there were two of us still left. So I’m a co-champion.

>> How many days did you make it?

Loral O’Hara: It’s like 24 days.

>> Wow.

Host:Well, you’ll be well-prepared for space because you will actually do the wet wipe showers when you’re in there, so you’ll be ready.

>> Yeah, [inaudible].

Host:Okay, so Frank.

Frank Rubio: All right, so I started dating my wife in high school, I flew a hand-made Russian aircraft called [inaudible] and I once owned four dogs a rabbit and six guinea pigs at the same time.

>> What was the second one?

Frank Rubio: I once flew a Russian or a handmade Russian aircraft while I was deployed [cross-talk].

>> Animals.

>> No, I think the animals are true.

>> Dogs are true.

>> Or the wife.

>> What was the wife?

>> That they dated —

Frank Rubio: I started dating my wife in high school [cross-talk].

>> I believe that one.

>> I’ll go with the animals.

>> Animals, yeah.

Frank Rubio: Yeah, no it was a Hungarian aircraft so —

>> Technicality.

Host:That’s a lot of animals.

Frank Rubio: We had three guinea pigs, three female guinea pigs, somehow one of them got pregnant and had babies and so afterwards we had six guinea pigs. The little sneaky guy.

Host:Okay, Jessica you’re last.

Jessica Watkins: So, my guilty pleasure is watching American Ninja Warrior. I eat extremely slowly and I won an Olympic medal [cross-talk].

>> The first one is a lie.

>> An Olympic medal in what?

>> I think it’s the Ninja warrior is awesome [cross-talk].

>> I think she won a medal.

>> I think she did too.

>> I think the first one is a lie, what was the first one?

Jessica Watkins: I watch American Ninja Warrior.

>> You’re a fast eater — [cross-talk] she’s a slow eater.

>> She’s taken to go boxes everywhere we’ve gone [cross-talk].

>> All right, so what do you think.

>> So first one or Ninja Warrior.

>> I think it’s the Ninja Warrior, is the lie [cross-talk].

Jessica Watkins: The lie is that I won an Olympic medal but I appreciate that you guys [cross-talk].

Host:But you did win a couple of rugby championships right?

Jessica Watkins: Yes,

Host:Very cool, okay. Guys thanks so much for taking the time to play this game, get to know you a little bit better. For our viewers and listeners if you want to know the real biographies of these guys. The real long informative ones, just go to NASA.gov/2017 astronauts. We have the bios of each one of these guys up here and you can learn more about them. So guys it’s been a pleasure talking with you today and best of luck on your transition to moving to Houston and to start training, thanks a lot guys.

>> [Group response] Thank you.

[ Music ]

Host: So playing that game we got to know like a little more of a personal side to them and a little bit of the stories, they’ve obviously had a ton of experiences both personally and professional all over the place. But really I mean, you had like you said over 18,000 applications and you had to narrow it down to 12. So these people are some of the best, the brightest minds in the United States right now so. I thought we’d just go through them and talk more maybe about their qualifications starting like I said in the two truths and a lie game, alphabetically. You know, we announced them alphabetically, let’s play the game alphabetically and then go through them all. So Kayla, Lieutenant U.S. Navy and she was the — she was in the submarine, is that right?

Anne Roemer: Yes and she was one of the first women commissioned into the submarine force.

Host: Incredible.

Anne Roemer: So previously right, only men had been accepted into that unit within the Navy. So she was in the first class of women to be integrated into the submarine force.

Host: That is incredible. And her leadership skills probably showed that right, just, I guess she presented herself in a great way during those interviews.

Anne Roemer: Absolutely and really they all did right, but to add that extra experience of living and working and leading on a submarine, there are a lot of direct parallels that I think apply to living and working in space in another extreme environment.

Host: Yeah, exactly you’re in enclosed space, you have only metal around you to look at pretty much and yeah it’s hazardous and you have to work with the people that you’re in this tight space with.

Anne Roemer: Yep.

Host: I think one of the questions we asked them when we interviewed them on Skype was you know, what makes you a good person to be trapped in an enclosed space with. And a lot of them said, I pack light or you know, they said I don’t take up a lot of space or I’m a quiet sleeper and stuff like that. It was fun.

Host: So Zena, close to my heart being a Penn Stater, but she’s got quite a resume going for her PhD of Geo Science at Penn State University and a couple Antarctic expeditions.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, she had some field experience in Antarctica. Zena is as you probably noticed if you watched any of the coverage from last week, probably never goes anywhere without a smile on her face. It was probably one of the best phone calls that we have made. Because you can tell she was just so happy and so overwhelmed and just so moved so.

Host: Yeah, I think personality has got to be one of the driving factors to be an astronaut. Right because you know, referring back to that statement you have to be in an enclosed environment with people for a long periods of time, you have to make sure you have a good personality and that you’re going to get along.

Anne Roemer: Sure we’re looking right, for a variety of skill sets but certainly one of the questions that always comes up is right, every person has quirks to their personally but can you modulate as you need to in those environments?

Host: So and another part I guess is just the diversity of the candidates. So we talked about Kayla Barron from the U. S. Navy, work in a submarine. Zena Cardmon, more of a scientist. Raja Chari he is a pilot, a U.S. pilot he was part of the U.S. Navy test pilot school and was flying F 35s. Is that the one, I can’t remember is that the one that has the vertical take-off and landing one?

Anne Roemer: That’s the new and out of my area of expertise right, that’s a new aircraft that’s coming online for all of the service branches and I think each service branch has some modifications to suit their various platforms but certainly one of the newest and probably most cutting edge pieces of technology coming into the military and he’s been responsible for leading a significant portion of the testing efforts around that in relation to the U.S. Airforce.

Host: So he’ll be good with kind of familiarizing himself with brand new space craft and figuring stuff out, learning the quirks. I know coming up here we got some new spacecraft that the astronauts are going to fly, right. We got the SpaceX crew dragon and the Boeing Star liner. They’re actually going to be flying these brand-new vehicles on top of other things. You know, you got the Orion capsule too so he’s going to be very good probably at, a good person to pilot that. He also has a Master’s degree from MIT in aeronautics and astronautics. So he’s very familiar with the skies and beyond, I guess.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, we hope so.

Host: Okay so Matt Dominick, a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy, also some engineering experience and a pilot serving in FA-18 E pilot strike fire squadron. 1,600 hours of flight time over several combat missions. We’ve got quite a few pilots I guess, I think, I forget the number, 4?

Anne Roemer: 3, we hired 3 pilots in this class. So you have Matt, Matt certainly I think will add a lot to this class as well. One of the things that probably isn’t on his resume but we had the pleasure of learning about through the interview processes, also he’s a really great cooks, so. I’m sure that will enhance the experience for his classmates.

Host: For sure have you seen some of the things that Jack Fisher is making onboard too? He takes pictures of them, he makes like crazy burritos and all kinds of stuff.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, so Matt should be well prepared for that and certainly right, we were fortunate to have him here last week for the event. When we notified him he was actually onboard an aircraft carrier on deployment and so it was questionable for a time as to whether he could get off the carrier to be here in Houston to meet the rest of his classmates. So again, very lucky that we had the support of the Navy to help us get him here in person.

Host: Absolutely, I remember so we were going through the Skype interviews right after they got selected, we wanted to interview them and get a couple of words from them before they came on because we knew you know, their schedules were just going to be so hectic we wanted to make sure we could ask them plenty of questions in a reasonable amount of time. And he actually had to cancel the interview that I was going to do with him because he had a mission. And so we rescheduled and I think Dan was the one who ended up interviewing him. But like you said it was really nice that he was able to accommodate his schedule for us. Another person, Bob Hines, I guess very special to us because he’s from the Johnson Space Center right. A lot of people here knew him and were wide-eyed I guess when he went on the stage, oh my gosh there’s Bob.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, he was out second pilot that we picked out of the group and yeah is what we would call a local in that he already lived here and was part of the NASA family so certainly excited to make that transition from being an instructor pilot out at Ellington field into astronaut corp.

Host: Absolutely and he’s going to — like you said, we have these pilots here because they’re the ones that will be flying the new vehicles and it’s very exciting. So Woody Hoburg is from actually Pennsylvania, actually talking with him he went to a high school that competed with my high school. Also actually Bob Hines went to that same high school.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, they did, isn’t that, out of 18,000 that’s kind of a small world fact right there.

Host: From the same high school, is crazy.

Anne Roemer: It’s pretty awesome.

Host: Yeah, it is pretty awesome. Undergraduate degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT, PhD in electrical and computer science from the University of California Berkeley. And he’s an assistant professor at MIT. Very smart man.

Anne Roemer: Very smart indeed, and again right having that academic perspective I think it lends him to have kept up with kind of some of the cutting edge trends in engineering in terms of right, one of his main roles at MIT is to mentor a group of students working in a lab so I think he comes with some very sharp and hands on engineering skills.

Host: Exactly and very diverse too, aeronautical, astronautical, electrical and computer science.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, pretty much covers it all, right I mean.

Host: He’ll be able to do it all, all right this next guy, Jonny Kim, super cool, enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Navy seal, over 100 combat missions, earned the silver star and bronze star also graduated with a degree in math from the University of San Diego and got his MD at Harvard Medical school, he’s a doctor and a Navy Seal, crazy.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, he is you know, a great patriot and right his time in the Navy was recognized with a silver star as well as a bronze star with valor. So certainly an American hero.

Host: Truly amazing and the fact that these I mean as we’re going through I’m realizing everyone has got — they don’t just do one thing, they do many, many different things. I think coming up here I guess I’ll skip around but I know Loral she got a degree in aerospace engineering from University of Kansas, Master’s degree in propulsion and fluid dynamics from Purdue but then she works at the Ocean and Graphic Institute over I think in Massachusetts. But she also did the NASA flight program when she was a student and worked as an intern at JPL.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, I think honestly with candidates through this selection cycle and others it’s an interesting tidbit to note how many of them participated in some type of NASA educational program along the way. We hear a lot of that throughout the interviews whether that’s a NASA internship or a NASA cooperative education position or what the reduced gravity opportunity. Sometimes it’s some of the graduate research fellowships that NASA sponsors. That for me is interesting to hear how those experiences early on in a person’s right life and career trajectory can have a big impact on them. And that they come back and pursue careers that kind of align with some day working at NASA and then ultimately we have a number of them that got picked for the astronaut corps.

Host: Yeah and Dr. Jessica Watkins. Also one of those people right, PhD and it says geology here but I know talking with her planetary geology at UCLA. She’s kind of an expert in Mars. She actually worked, her work experience includes time at JPL and Ames. She was working on I want to say Curiosity, was she?

Anne Roemer: Yeah, it was Curiosity.

Host: Yeah, it was Curiosity, how about that.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, I mean that’s another good example right to have that experience on the research and the robotic side of NASA’s missions and then bring that into the human space flight element. You know, certainly that’s helpful because those two go hand in hand. As far as NASA reaching you know, farther and farther out into the solar system.

Host: Absolutely, and you know, we got folks that worked at NASA and have various experiences there including Jessica Watkins and Loral O’Hara but we also have Rob Coolin [phonetic] who is from SpaceX actually. And huge fan of the cold, he is from Alaska and he went to let’s see I think the University of Denver to get his master’s and PhD in material science and engineering. Wait he got a PhD in material science and engineering from University of California, San Diego. So a little bit warmer there but he also did, he was also an ice driller in Antarctica. So the man loves the cold but he works for SpaceX too.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, and right he’s been working and directly responsible for multiple parts, right. That are on the SpaceX vehicle. And who knows there’s a chance that he could fly on the SpaceX.

Host: Yeah, I’m sure he’s rooting for that for sure.

Anne Roemer: So yeah I think that will be again, I think when you look at the important role that the astronauts play with the development of any new vehicle, whether that’s NASA’s Orion or the commercial vehicles. Certainly having Rob’s expertise having been so hands on with SpaceX we I’m sure that will be very valuable to the office.

Host: Exactly, yeah and just talking — he was laughing extra hard I think during that who thing. And like I said he had one of my favorite two truths and a lie was that crazy cape story or that astronaut helmet, broken story. I’m saying he was a very nice man. Next person, Jasmin Moghbeli, Marine Corp, she was born in Germany, considers New York her home and graduated MIT with a degree in aerospace engineering, information technology and I think she was also — yeah serving as an H1 test pilot. Quality assurance at the avionics [inaudible] is she also a pilot, yeah there you go 1,600 hours.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, she’s a helicopter pilot.

Host: Helicopter, very cool.

Anne Roemer: So that she is our only helicopter pilot in the group this time and has had a wide range of experience. You highlighted MIT and I think right we have a number of candidates that have either worked at MIT or degrees from MIT so.

Host: Super smart and they all have the — I mean going back to this, not only is she a test pilot and is flying helicopters but she also has advanced degrees in engineering and you know, naval post graduate school, amazing. So Dr. Francisco Rubio, just call him Frank Rubio, let’s see undergraduate degree in international relations from the You know, military academy. Doctor in medicine from uniformed services, University of Health Sciences. But he’s also a battalion surgeon in third battalion tenth special forces group airborne with the U.S. Army and he also has some flight time, 1,100 hours in a helicopter and some sky diving experience as well. So like I said let’s do it all, so he’s a second doctor right along with Jonny Kim.

Anne Roemer: Yes, and right again if you look at Frank’s block of experienced he brings a lot of different things to the table, certainly the helicopter experience. You know, I believe it’s over 600 parachute jumps, that’s a lot at least for me who’s done zero.

Host: I did one and I was very, very scared the whole time.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, no I will stay with my zero number. And then obviously you know, the time practicing as a medical doctor with the army so yeah we ended up with 12 people that brought not just one thing to the table but they all brought right, a bunch of unique things.

Host: Exactly, tell me how the interview process works, so you obviously selected 12 people but I had to get weaned down from there, isn’t it the first round of interviews is a couple hundred and it’s calls right, is that how it goes?

Anne Roemer: No, so we actually, we whittle down the applications by first weeding out the people that apply who are not qualified.

Host: Okay, so that’s the easy part right.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, in a sense. Interestingly enough over time we have almost always consistently had about the same percentage of people who apply who aren’t qualified. Oh, okay, we’ve heard through various sources that people want the rejection letter. Right to say that they’ve applied to be a NASA astronaut. So, we typically see it — a fair chunk of applications from people right that may have a history degree and not a technical degree but want to apply.

Host: Yeah.

Anne Roemer: So that’s our first kind of check point, at that point then we go through the qualified applications who have the right degrees and the right number of years of experience and start you know, whittling down from there. Ultimately we end up inviting 120 individuals for the first round of interviews.

Host: Okay and they come here?

Anne Roemer: And yes we bring them here and we interview them in person and that’s where they start doing some just initial medical testing as well. And then ultimately after that round of interviews wraps up we elected this time to bring 50 back for a second interview. Okay, and so it’s out of that group of 50 that we selected the 12.

Host: So from 50 down to 12, and is the second round of interviews a little bit more intensive, what do you do differently in the second round?

Anne Roemer: Well, yes the interview right kind of follows a normal interview tract, the interview with the astronaut selection board, certainly the intensity I think gets added in that that’s where we do more extensive medical testing. Behavioral health testing, team reaction exercises, some individual performance exercises as well are kind of all wrapped into that second — they’re here almost for a week, for the second interview.

Host: Wow, okay and then from there you have to narrow it down to 12.

Anne Roemer: That’s perhaps the hardest part.

Host: I was just about to ask. That sounds like it’s got to be the hardest part because if you narrow down 18,000 obviously you know the folks that aren’t qualified, that’s you know, a decent chunk but you said it’s the same percentage, right. So that still means you have a large number.

Anne Roemer: We had a huge number.

Host: Of people that are qualified to be astronauts and you had to wean through them but still going down from 50 very, very you know, they’re probably fantastic people. You have to get down to 12.

Anne Roemer: We did yeah and honestly that was very difficult for the board and we met some amazing Americans throughout this process and so they’re you know, in the end you know you’re forced with a decision based on the needs of the office and kind of a mission profile. We kind of had settled on the number 12 and yeah, so the consensus of the board you know, that’s where it goes.

Host: So I mean these 12 astronauts that we have in this class of 2017, sort of in general what did they do or say to sort of standout from those 50?

Anne Roemer: You know, that’s in one way that would be an easy thing to answer and just say they did everything right. They had everything we were looking for. They communicated effectively in terms of the actual interviews with the board. I mean, yeah you could get into specifics and if you look at their skill set right, they each brought more than one thing to the table based on their backgrounds and their experience and things of that nature.

Host: Yeah, everyone had you know, they didn’t just like I said they didn’t just do one thing, they didn’t have one degree, they had a degree and then they did this other thing. And then also kind of dabbled in this on the side. Or had a weird job over here, you know, an ice driller for Rob that is crazy you know, but it’s part of being in the harsh environment. And I’m sure that’s part of the reason he got selected.

Anne Roemer: And right, they all and again with the final 50 right, you’re talking to some just amazing people and they pursued careers and interests that they were passionate about.

Host: Yeah.

Anne Roemer: And when you like what you do already it’s easy to talk and communicate about that effectively and kind of see yourself transitioning into a new role.

Host: Passion is absolutely key and you can see it with the folks that are on orbit now is how much they love being an astronaut and love being in space. I mean personally I can totally see myself there but I would be one of those resumes, you throw out.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, and personally I’m happy with my feet on the ground, I’m good where I am.

Host: So we selected 12 astronauts for 2017 and there’s got to be a reason for that right, we’re gearing up for something, what is this class preparing for in the future?

Anne Roemer: Well, certainly I think the end goal is we hope we’re on a trajectory to someday send humans to Mars. I think that is where NASA as a whole kind of hopes we’re heading. More immediately than that though we’re certainly going to continue to fly to the International Space Station, we have three new vehicles that are hopefully coming online as you’ve mentioned. So you know, I think that opportunities are limitless right now, so whether this class ends up going to station for their first mission and somewhere beyond that for their second mission you know, that’s yet to be seen. But certainly lots of options are on the table which is exciting.

Host: Yeah, I know a lot of the astronauts now in current classes they’re training for — well, you know, you got a couple all over the place some of the astronauts coming up for space station expeditions are obviously studying a lot of the space station systems and training for that. We also have a cadre of astronauts that are training for commercial crew vehicles. You know, like Sonny Williams, Eric Beau [phonetic] those guys there’s training for the Boeing Star Liner and the SpaceX crew dragon. I’m sure we’re going to see these guys have to do it all. Right they’re going to have to train for those space station, like you said, those space station missions, they’re going to have to be super familiar with the commercial vehicles that we have. But then also be fully ready to go on a deep space mission with Orion.

Anne Roemer: Yeah.

Host: They’re going to have to do it all and I wonder, I mean some of the more recent classes like the 2009 class is — they’ve been starting to fly recently right, so Jack Fisher from the 2009 class is up there now. [inaudible] and Reed Wiseman flew in 2013 or 14, it took them somewhere between five and ten years to get ready for the International Space Station, can you imagine for missions beyond.

Anne Roemer: Yeah, we have I think at least one or two of the 2013 class assigned, so that’s right it’s becoming real for them as well.

Host: Yeah, exactly becoming real, I love that so just real quick before we let you go what are they in for, for the I guess right now when they come on board in August, they’re going to be astronaut candidates and they have two years of training to do before they’re considered astronauts, what’s that going to be like?

Anne Roemer: So, it will be just what you said, right, they’ll be learning a lot from right now again with continuing to fly on board the International Space Station, Russian language is a component of that, of the training program. Learning how to do space walks at least the fundamentals of it and getting to dive in the neutral buoyancy laboratory, the big swimming pool. Learning the elements of robotics to use the robotic arm on station. And just basic International Space Station systems training so all of those pieces from a technical perspective they’ll gain at least the fundamental in during this two year training window. I think another key piece of the training program now also comes from the fact that given the astronauts are kind of often the spokes people for NASA. They’re out and about, people recognize the blue suits. Within that two years we also familiarize them with all of the other exciting things that are happening at NASA and all of the other centers. So we really want them to be well-versed on what’s going on at NASA as a whole, not just in the human space flight portfolio. So that’s another important piece of their training as well as getting out and getting to visit each of the ten NASA field centers.

Host: Very true, I’m very excited to hear what they’re going to be doing for the training and follow along in that journey as they go on. I know it’s been a pleasure watching the 2013 astronauts but also in the 2009 astronauts too because you know, they’re flying so it’s been quite a ride and I can’t wait for them to come onboard. But, I think that’s about all the time we have, thank you so much Anne for coming on. For the listeners if you want to know more or you have a suggestion of what we should be talking about on this show, stay tuned until after the music to learn how to submit your ideas and thanks so much for coming on. It’s been amazing but it’s also kind of cool to know the amount of effort it takes to find good people and bring them into the space program. And after meeting them and reading about their accomplishments, you can see why it’s so important to do that. So we need the best and brightest for space flight. So thanks again Anne Roemer for both your work but also coming on the show, it’s been a pleasure.

Anne Roemer: Thank you.

[ Music ]

Host: Hey thanks for sticking around, so today we talked with Anne Roemer about the new astronaut class of 2017. We went through all of the 12 astronauts really and just kind of skimmed the surface of all of their qualifications and what great people they are. If you want to know more just go to NASA.gov/2017astronauts. That’s right we have a whole web page dedicated to those astronauts and their biographies, what they’ve accomplished so far. And trust me it is truly, truly amazing to go through that. If you want to follow along on social media we’ll be updating some of their training and as they come aboard here in the next few months, so if you go to Facebook obviously the NASA account will be talking about this, but also the NASA Johnson space center as they come aboard here in Texas. On Twitter that’s @NASA if you want to look at the agency account or @NASA underscore Johnson that’s us and Instagram you can also go to @NASAJohnson we’ll be talking about all the same stuff. If you go and use the hashtag ask NASA on any one of those platforms you can submit an idea and we’ll make sure to visit it in one of the later podcasts here. This podcast was recorded on June 14, 2017. The two truths and a lie segment was recorded on June 8, 2017. And thanks to Alex Perryman, John Stoll[phonetic] and Brandy Dean for helping out with this episode. Thanks again to Ms. Anne Roemer for coming on the show. So once again this show is intended to be weekly and we will go answer some of your questions on Ask Nasa, soon but we do have a bank of episodes that we’re working on so it may be a couple episodes until we get to that but trust me it will be well worth it to submit some of your questions because we may make a whole episode out of answering them. So we’ll see you next week.