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 375, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 cadre each discuss their backgrounds and upcoming mission to the International Space Station. This episode was recorded between October 2024 and February 2025.
Transcript
Leah Cheshier (Host)
Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center. Episode 375, Crew 10. I’m Leah Cheshier, and I’ll be one of your hosts 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 space flight and more. While it feels like NASA’s SpaceX DM-2 mission was just yesterday. It’s been almost five whole years since NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew the first crewed mission aboard Dragon. It’s hard to believe that we have already arrived at Crew 10. Yes, this is the 10th crew rotation mission to the International Space Station, launching four crew members to the orbiting laboratory where they’ll join expeditions 72 and 73 to continue carrying out the work that has been happening in low Earth orbit for nearly a quarter of a century. Ahead of their mission, my co host Joseph Zakrzewski and I sat down with the crew to discuss their flight and with a mix of seasoned veterans and first time flyers, this well rounded crew is ready to take to the skies.
<Intro Music>
Leah Cheshier
NASA astronaut, Anne McClain was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and is serving as commander of crew 10 while embarking on her second space flight. A colonel in the US Army, She earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the US Military Academy at West Point New York, and holds master’s degrees in aerospace engineering, international security and strategic studies. The Spokane, Washington native, was an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter, and is a graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. McClain has more than 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat, and was a member of the US Women’s National Rugby team on her first space flight. McClain spent 204 days as a flight engineer during expeditions 58 and 59 and was the lead on two space walks totaling 13 hours and eight minutes. Since then, she has served in various roles, including Branch Chief and Space Station assistant to the chief of NASA’s astronaut office. Here’s my conversation with Anne.
Leah Cheshier
Anne welcome back to Houston. We have a podcast. How are you?
Anne McClain
I’m doing great. How are you? Leah,
Leah Cheshier
I’m good. It’s been a while since we had you on for your first mission, but that was right when I started working at NASA. And it doesn’t feel like that long ago that you were in space.
Anne McClain
It really does not feel like that long ago. Sometimes it’s pointed out to me that it was six years ago and the people that I’m flying with weren’t even selected as astronauts yet, but we’re gonna let that go. I feel, still feel young.
Leah Cheshier
Well, you were the youngest in your class when you were selected. Is that right?
Anne McClain
I was youngest in my class when I was selected. That’s correct. But unfortunately, that was 12 years ago, and I’m by far, not the youngest anymore.
Leah Cheshier
No, 12 years ago. That’s just a blink of an eye. It was still, you’re still young. Don’t worry. Thanks. Did you? Did you feel like any different because of that. You know, the young, cool, hip, new astronaut?
Anne McClain
Well, I’ve never been accused of being cool or hip, but young I was, and what was kind of cool is that I was 35 and so in army terms, I had kind of gotten to be one of the older, crusty officers. So then coming to the astronaut office and getting to be the youngest one at 35 it’s, it was kind of fun. Yeah, you’re a spring chicken at that point, exactly. Well, let’s go even younger. What was life like growing up for you? I grew up in Spokane, Washington. It was really ideal childhood, ideal place to grow up. I think, you know, all of us want to leave our hometown and see what else is out in the world. And the more time I spend out in the world, the more I enjoy and appreciate going back to my hometown. We have four wonderful seasons. We go to the lake in the summer, we ski in the winter, we play all different sports. Everyone’s always outside, and there’s festivals going on all the time. And it was really pretty idyllic. It was a good, good place for a little dreamer like myself.
Leah Cheshier
Well, speaking of little dreamer, did you always dream of NASA? Was that your goal?
Anne McClain
I first told my family that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was three years old. And I’m not sure even if I knew what it meant at the time, but I must have seen, you know, that was early 80s, and so I was probably seeing space shuttles going on TV. I’m sure it was all over the news at the time. And then I think what was really even more interesting is when I was five or six in kindergarten, we illustrated books. We like, dictated books, and then illustrated them to our teachers. And I wrote a book about going to the space on the Russian Soyuz, which is crazy, because that’s what I did on my first flight. Yeah, and I have no idea how I knew about the Soyuz when I was five, but I predicted it. I did not write a book about flying on SpaceX Dragon, but maybe one day I will,
Leah Cheshier
yeah, it’s okay. It also didn’t exist at the time. I don’t know if SpaceX even existed at that time, so that’s pretty impressive. But when you went to college, you played rugby, and your nickname was Animal. So how did that come to be? Because now that your call sign too.
Anne McClain
Yes, animal is My call sign. So I started playing rugby, actually, after I graduated from West Point and I went over to England, and was fortunate to play really high level rugby. Over there, they have amazing rugby. It was the perfect place to learn, and they gave me the nickname animal when I came back and I was in flight school, and I was playing for the Atlanta Harlequins. And I think it was based on my tackling style. And so it got written up in a few articles. And so when I came to NASA and we were doing a call sign Review Board, we my classmates gave us call signs, those of us that didn’t come in with call signs, and somebody came across those old articles, and they decided it was fitting and it stuck.
Leah Cheshier
Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I also would never want to run up on you on a rugby field.
Anne McClain
I would love to try these days. I don’t think I could catch too many people, but I could try. Wow, that’s impressive.
Leah Cheshier
So your last flight was in 2018 you spent a long duration mission on the International Space Station. Flew on a Russian Soyuz. But since you’ve been back, I think a lot of people don’t understand what astronauts do when they are here in Houston, not training to fly, but still active astronauts, you know, potentially waiting on another assignment. So what have been some of your other roles that you’ve held in the last few years?
Anne McClain 06:19
Yeah, I think that’s something that is kind of interesting. You know, oftentimes when we are not assigned to a flight, we go out and we talk to the public a lot about, you know, sharing the NASA mission and things. And we always get asked, you know, when are you flying again? Well, what are you doing? You know, as if, as if we’re not doing a whole lot. And I will tell you this, if you know an astronaut that is not assigned to a flight, they are the busiest people that I know. They usually have five different jobs. And so there’s a variety of different things that I did between my last flight and now I held a couple leadership jobs within the astronaut office as a branch chief, which was great. I worked on the new suit, the new suit contract. So we have much like we have SpaceX and Boeing as commercial crew vehicles go into International Space Station. We also have private contracts for new suits, both planetary and International Space Station. And so I worked on some of that. All of the astronauts work on test and development. So something that’s kind of interesting to think about. You know, we had the space shuttle for a long time, and then we flew on the Soyuz for a long time, and we’ve had the EMU, which is the space suit, as people would call it. But now, over the next like five, seven years, we’re going to be flying on this SpaceX Dragon, Boeing Starliner. We’re still flying on the Russian Soyuz. We now have Orion. We have the different lander contracts, and we have multiple different suits being developed, and planetary rovers. All of those have to have are going through massive test and development programs, and crew is involved in all of those. And so every single astronaut has become a tester in suits, vehicles and everything else. So a lot of what we do is what we call HITL Human In The Loop testing. And that can be a variety of different tests. It can be, you know, walk in the suit and see how tired you get and how much CO two you put out when you’re on a treadmill. It can be, are you able to bend over in this suit and pick up a rock? And so we do a lot of test and development. But the other thing is, we always, we’ve had astronauts in space continuously for about 25 years now, and that requires a lot of day to day support, and so the primary job of the astronauts on the ground is supporting those folks that are flying.
Leah Cheshier
Is there anything that you have loved testing? Specifically
Anne McClain
People don’t realize how much testing goes into toilets. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don’t know that I would love testing this, but I use this as a great example of space is difficult. Yeah, right. And when we put humans in space, it’s a lot more complex than what people picture, you know, honestly, putting us on a rocket and developing an engine that can get us to a certain orbit. We kind of know how to do that. You can do the math for that. But when you start accounting for a lot of different crew members and all of our needs, both in what we eat and what we put out and our waste and everything like that. How do we live? Every single day, those systems are constantly being developed and refined, and so if we’re gonna have a sustainable presence on the surface of the moon, there are certain things that we have to figure out now, on kind of a more fun side, I think testing the new planetary suits is really exciting for all the crew, because it really brings some realism to the missions that we’re going to go do. I think all of us are super inspired watching moonwalkers in the Apollo time, you know, picking up these rocks that we can go down here at JSC and see. And so for us to get in a suit and and work in a rock yard and use the tools that we’re going to use. It’s like, it’s it’s bringing a lot of reality to what we’re about to go do.
Leah Cheshier
Yeah, that’s very true. I think it’s almost kind of the same as being in the NBL, the neutral point, neutral buoyancy laboratory and getting to practice the space walks, except now it’s easier to go and we do the space walks now, but getting. Use those tools and test those tools. Now, it’s kind of a similar opportunity for what we’ll get to do in the future. So you’ve got a lot of experience flying as a test pilot. You flew helicopters, you’ve flown on Soyuz, obviously, and now you’re getting ready to fly on Dragon. So how have all of your flight hours, all of that experience, either in the military or with your flight on Soyuz. How has that prepared you for your new role as commander and to fly on a new spacecraft?
Anne McClain
Yeah, I think one thing that experience in the aviation world teaches you is to be humble with the equipment. Equipment will always fail in ways that you don’t predict. So as the operators of those vehicles, knowing our systems is very, very important so that we can diagnose problems that may or be our unrecognized. So crew 10 is the 10th operational mission for Dragon. It is a last new build dragon that SpaceX is making. And you know, they’ve had a handful of private astronaut missions, and so they have launched a lot of people to space over the last years, over the last, you know, 5-10, years. However, in the scheme of what an aviation test campaign would look like, they are the very, very few data points for that dragon. And so I think all of us as crew members are aware that if something hasn’t failed, then it will, and if, and we always have to be aware of the unknown unknowns and just know that they’re out there. And it’s not because we don’t trust equipment or anything else, but it’s because as operators, we understand that that’s our primary responsibility is to be able to diagnose and troubleshoot different problems. So I think one of the interesting things about flying in space, as compared to say, flying a helicopter, is that I had the brain capacity to understand everything from tip to tail in that helicopter, every single system. I could physically look at it in pre flight. I understood the way each one of the systems worked. I could look at every single hose myself before I flew, and that’s different in spaceflight. When we say we trust the teams, it’s because we don’t set eyes on most of the equipment that we’re going to go fly. So we can understand as much as we can learn, but we don’t have the same depth of insight and knowledge as we did in some of our previous machines that we flew. And so part of the task in space flight is understanding who’s responsible for what segments. And working with mission control, we do a ton of Sims, of them just for this reason, so we can understand this communication. And so it’s a much more complex environment. But as an operator, you kind of bring in the same mindset of, if we have a problem, how are we going to troubleshoot it? How are we going to work through it, and what equipment and what ways can we be creative to solve problems?
Leah Cheshier
That is a great perspective of the comparison too, between Dragon, which, like you said, is very new. You know, I feel like we’re kind of getting into what feels like a routine. We’ve been doing this. Like you said, this is the 10th operational mission, so going on for almost five years now, of flying humans on Dragon. But that’s very, very small compared to number one, the other spacecraft that we have been flying for decades, and then additionally, aircraft and helicopters and things like that. And the opportunity, like you said, to access your aircraft and to understand that like you do, versus having to trust the team. So I really like that answer. you were able to complete two space walks on your last mission, expedition, 58 and 59 are you looking forward to, hopefully doing some more coming up?
Anne McClain
Yes. I think doing a spacewalk is such an incredible experience for so many different reasons. One is just magical to be out on the edge of what humans are capable of in an environment that the human body is not designed or adapted to survive in, and you’re completely reliant on these pieces of equipment, like a spacesuit that humans developed, and the suit itself is very complex. So to me, it’s like flying an aircraft, right? It has its own electric system and fluid system, and it has its own set of emergency procedures and sensors and things like that. So you have to understand it as well as you understand any aircraft you fly and you’re working outside of the space station, which is, I think I’m, in my biased opinion, the coolest things humans have ever put together. It’s this massive piece of equipment that has been flying in low Earth orbit for 25 years as a orbiting laboratory. It’s home to so many it has been called home to so many astronauts, and you get to be on the outside of it changing a battery or putting a cable down. So it’s such a special experience. And then you’re kind of doing this very physical task. Ask that you realize it’s the culmination of everything that you’ve learned up to that point, and you’re out there because of everything you’ve done in your life up to that point, from the academic knowledge you got from from either becoming a scientist, for in my case, an aerospace engineer, all of my training as a pilot, all of my training with my crews out in the woods, like learning how to depend on one another, all of those things come to a culmination. You are out there with one other person who’s the only other person that really can help you. Should something go really wrong, and then you have a little voice in your ear for Mission Control. And I think that whole experience was such a culmination of everything I had done in my life. And what’s really cool on this mission is getting to have the opportunity to go do that with people that haven’t done it before. And so two is not very many. I did two space walks, but now, you know, I’m considered the experience the veteran getting to take first time flyers out on this and they are super capable. And getting to knowing that I’m going to be able to be present when they get to experience what I experienced is pretty magical. And then, of course, just the technical side of what we do on space walks is so cool, like just to go out with our own two hands and fix something on the space station. I remember on my last one of my space walks, I was connecting this connector through which a quarter of the space station power went through. And I just thought to myself, Man, I better get disconnected. But just it’s so cool to get to be part of that mission. Yeah, I
Leah Cheshier
mean, like you said, Okay, I rarely say that an opinion is correct, but because I think everybody has an opinion, but I don’t think that’s a disputable thing. I think the space station is the coolest thing humans have ever built. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. And to be able to be outside and actually make your mark on it as well, and to upgrade it and to improve it and make it still a place that we can live and work like our little haven in low Earth orbit. That is absolutely incredible. And you talked about how all of your previous experience really builds up to that moment. I like that you realize that, and you focus in on that, and you honed in on that during your space walk, because I think I would deal with imposter syndrome. Did you ever feel that way? Or did you really feel just this confidence in I am so ready for this. This is what I was meant to do.
Anne McClain
Yeah, you know, what’s interesting is, I think our training is so good. You know, we work in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, this giant swimming pool that has a one to one space station inside of it. And we do so many runs, we call it, we call it a day that we go in and space walk, you know, underwater a run. So we do so many runs in the NBL that we get to know the space station like the back of our hand. I used to think, before I started training, I used to think, you know, how do people not get lost when they’re out there? You know, that thing is huge. It’s the size of a football field, right? It’s giant. How do you not get lost? You know, most, most crew could close their eyes and get back to the airlock like, you know, where every handrail is. So the only moment that was kind of surprising to me was I was the first one out of the hatch on my spacewalks. And when you’re at the hatch, there’s a lot of checks you have to do before you go out of the hatch, but the hatch is open at the time. And so if you picture I’m kind of floating there, but lying there, if you will, face down to the earth, looking out the hatch. Before I went out for about 15 minutes, and I’m just watching the earth go by through the hatch. And what’s interesting about that particular perspective is you can’t see the rest of the space station out of the hatch, the hatches on the nadir, on the bottom side of Space Station, looking back at Earth, you can’t see the rest of space station. So when I got the call up through my ear that said, EV1 you’re go to egress the air lock, I remember just thinking, Well, I’m going to put my hand out. I’m going to reach down right like I know in the pool that I would and there better be a handrail there, if all my training was correct. And I reached out, and the handrail was right there. And I was like, Okay, I got this because, you know, when you’re in the pool and you’re in that same position, you can see the bottom of the pool, but all of a sudden now you can’t see any of the space station. So I think the confidence, honestly, came from that very first reach, and everything was exactly where I expected it to be. And I egressed, and every hook, everything looked so familiar that it was really easy to focus on the familiar and focus in on that rather than getting overwhelmed, which you can get very easily overwhelmed with what you’re doing out there.
Leah Cheshier
Wow, I cannot even begin to imagine, but I love this perspective and how that training paid off. One for one. So on your last mission, you also conducted a lot of research. Did you have any favorites, and is there anything that you’re really looking forward to on this flight?
Anne McClain
I think one of the really cool things about the space station is how much research goes on that directly impacts health and life on Earth. And so one of the experiments that we did last time was this protein crystal growth, and the crystal crystals grow differently in space than they do on Earth. Gravity greatly impacts the way that crystals grow. It. Emits the speed at which they grow and the micro structures inside of them. And Parkinson’s research relies a lot on being able to grow these crystals. And so what we did is we we use protein crystal growth on Space Station to grow these crystals to a sufficient size to where we could send them back to Earth, give them to the Parkinson’s researchers. And one of the principal investigators told me that that that mechanism on Space Station accelerated Parkinson’s research by years and compress it into weeks. And I So many people are affected by Parkinson’s, and that’s the type of research that, to me, is really exciting. I know that this time, we’re doing a variety of cancer research, and that’s been going on, actually, on Space Station for a while. Anybody that’s impacted by cancer has likely heard of the immunotherapy drug Keytruda, which was developed on the International Space Station and today is saving so many lives of cancer patients. So for me, I get really excited about things that we are doing up there that directly impact lives and livelihoods on Earth. I also think I’m really I’m fascinated by a lot of the imagery that we take from the International Space Station. So the Jedi is one that looks at forests and deforestation and is able to provide all that data to people like my family that are in the forestry business to help us make decisions for Responsible forestry across the world.
Leah Cheshier
I think that’s my favorite thing about the space station. There are a lot of amazing things about it, but the benefits to life on Earth are just I wish everyone could understand and grasp. I probably myself, don’t even have a full grasp of everything that we’ve done on the space station that impacts life on Earth.
Anne McClain
Yeah. And I think some of the some of the things that we come up with to sustain the space station state and life on the space station, we kind of accidentally develop really cool things. And anybody that’s listening can actually just go Google NASA spin off, and you can see 1000s of things that I bet we touch every single day that we don’t even realize came from the space station.
Leah Cheshier
One last question, is there anything specific that you are just really looking forward to on your next mission.
Anne McClain
I think the things that I enjoyed most on the last mission that I’m excited to do again is landing. And I know that sounds crazy, but a lot of people talk about launch day, and I failed to realize how fun landing is, just physically like roller coaster theme park fun. You know, coming back to the atmosphere, feeling the G forces riding the parachute down, hitting the ground. I mean, it is. It’s just this crazy adventure. The only negative part of it is that it means your mission’s over. So it’s the last day. But I’m looking forward to the just that physical experience of landing again. I think the other thing I’m looking forward to is just, I remember feeling so in my element up there, every single day, you wake up and you wake up and you feel like you’re doing something worthwhile. It’s very black and white up there, you know, down here on Earth, oftentimes we’re like, Ah, how am I going to manage my schedule? You know? And up there, it’s like, you get handled a schedule, and here’s exactly what you get to do every day. And it’s just really fun to get to work like that again. So I’m just, I’m really looking forward to getting there. And I was going to say, hit the ground running. But I don’t know, hit float and running or whatever it is, just getting to work with the crew every day.
Leah Cheshier
We’re really, really excited to see you back up there. So thank you again for coming back in. I just can’t wait to see you hitting or floating the ground running. We’re gonna have to think of a new phrase
Anne McClain
for that. Thanks again. Thank you.
Joseph Zakrzewski
Nichole Ayers is a major in the US Air Force and a native of Colorado, she graduated from the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a minor in Russian. There, she played division one college volleyball all four years and competed internationally on the US Armed Forces team while pursuing her master’s degree, which she earned in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University in Houston. Ayers is an experienced combat aviator with more than 200 combat hours and more than 1400 hours of total flight time in the T38 and the F22 Raptor Fighter Jet. We previously caught up with Nichole on Episode 325 Astronaut graduation 2024, talking about her astronaut candidate training and graduation. She is now preparing for her first mission to the International Space Station as the first of her graduating class. Let’s find out what she’s been up to the last year.
Well, hello major Ayers, and welcome back to use when we have a podcast. Thank you. Glad to be here. The last time we caught up with you, it’s been nearly a year, in fact, and that was when we had you on as a member of the graduating class. The most recent as can grads, the Flies, and you were talking about your backstory and how emotional it was to be selected as a NASA astronaut. Well, now fast forward a year, and you’re getting ready for your first flight as the pilot of NASA SpaceX Crew 10. What has the last year been like for you?
Nichole Ayers
Oh, man, the last year has been a whirlwind. You know, often we train for a year and a half or two years for space missions. And, you know, they made an exception. They let me get on the SpaceX crew 10 mission as the pilot, launching just a year after graduation. And that has a lot to do with all of the training that we did during that initial training, you know, two full years of training, and then jumped right into the assigned crew training. So it’s been a whirlwind.
Nichole Ayers
A lot of travel all over the world, learning the different parts of the space station. You know, the Russian segment, the Japanese module, the Columbus module, which is from the European Space Agency, learning about the robotic arm in Canada. And then tons of training just here in Houston, and then also in California, with SpaceX, learning the Dragon capsule. So, like I said, a whirlwind, but what an amazing ride it’s been so far.
Joseph Zakrzewski
They’ve kept you busy, most certainly. And when we last caught up with you, you talked about an amazing story about you were on a family trip when you got the phone call, you’re gonna be an astronaut. What was the second phone call like, when you said, Okay, you’re an astronaut now, now you get to go to space. What was that moment like?
Nichole Ayers
That one was a little different, but still an amazing story. So I was getting ready for just a standard NBL run, so neutral buoyancy lab run, a spacewalk training run. And you know, the next morning, I had a glove fit check, so I was supposed to be there at 7:30 in the morning, and I get a phone call in the afternoon from our scheduler, and she’s like, Ooh, you’re in trouble. You have to be in the boss’s office at 7am and I was like, what? And she was like, I’m just kidding, you know, why? So she was super excited. I think she had already put all the pieces together. And she I, she was, I was dying. Heather made me laugh, because she was like, you’re in trouble. And then, you know, naturally, the first thing they said was, do you want to be the pilot on crew 10? And I said, is that a trick question? So my boss’s office 7am trip was well worth the trip, but yeah, it was great
Joseph Zakrzewski
the like the last year. I know we just covered, but I mean, just the emotional roller coaster of something like that. You shared so eloquently the excitement that your family had. What was it like this time of you know, you know, you mentioned your twin sister, and then the kids that how excited they were that they kind of broke the news before you could share it. What was it like now, saying, like, Okay, I’m gonna, but I’m going to space now.
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, this one was fun because, you know, technically, I wasn’t allowed to tell the public. It wasn’t publicly released for a while. So it was like, got to tell them the same amount of excitement from my niece and nephews, but it was like, you can’t tell anybody. And they’re like, but we gotta tell all of our friends at school. And I was like, no. So it was a little bit of a struggle for the first few months, just trying to keep it on the DL, but just as much as excitement from them so and, you know, naturally, my husband was just as excited this time I got to be in person with him. Because, you know, last time he was in Alaska and I was in Florida, and this time we were together. So that was a really special moment as well.
Joseph Zakrzewski
I can’t imagine what that was like. Again. Congratulations. And now, kind of going back into that backstory of of growing up in Colorado, you have a twin sister, I feel like, you know, NASA has a history of twins. It seems like that’s a fun prereq to add into it. But I mean that time in Colorado, that time growing up together and all the way even to now with your career that you’ve had, how do you feel like those, those exploratory moments out in the open and out in the the wilderness of Colorado has helped you prepare for for moments like this,
Nichole Ayers
you know, go into the wilderness and going hiking and camping, it’s just about learning skills and learning how to take care of each other in weird environments. And I think that’s a direct analog for space flight, you know, how are we going to take care of each other in this weird environment, whether it’s on the Dragon capsule, you know, together as we’re trying to catch up to the space station after we launch, versus, you know, spending six months on the space station, and as a crew, you know, we’ll be with Jonny Kim and our expedition. And how, how does that US crew, USOS crew, Orbital Segment. How do we work together and live together? And, you know, it’s very similar to camping where, you know, maybe you don’t take a shower every day, and maybe you’re cleaning with, you know, baby wipes and face wipes and things like that. And so figuring out how to live in the forest in the outskirts of the mountains is very similar to living on the space station.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And it was here that you said that, you know, you were about knee high when that exploratory attitude, that emotion, overcame you to want to become an astronaut. And now fast forward to where you are. Now, how do you feel like that has those puzzle pieces have fit so well together, from ascan grad to now pilot of crew 10?
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, you know, like I said, when I was very little, I had this affinity for the sky in first base, and I knew that’s where I wanted to be someday. And growing up in Colorado, you know, right there next to the Air Force Academy, the Air Force pilot that all seemed like the right direction to go. You know, I grew up in the shuttle era, and as soon as I learned that you could pilot the space shuttle, I was like, sold. That’s what I want to do. So little me was very serious, set a lot of goals, did a lot of things, but, you know, ultimately, it was the passion. You know, I loved math and I loved playing sports, and I think that if you find something you’re passionate about, you’ll be really good at it. And that’s what I tend to tell people, you know, find something you’re passionate about, get really good at it, work really hard and be a good team player, and you’ll get anywhere you want. And you know, for me, that’s, that’s a true statement. You know, I’ve, I’ve had small setbacks here and there, but I’ve never truly gotten bumped off of my path to being a NASA astronaut, and I accredit that to just putting your nose to the grinder, working hard and being a good human.
Joseph Zakrzewski
That’s an incredible message for anyone listening that wants to aspire to be an astronaut or anything in life, and, and, and now, you know, you kind of touched upon your schooling, going to the US Air Force Academy. There, you got to learn how to become a pilot. You also took Russian which also probably helped you out in this in this spirit as well. How has that shaped you to where you are today? Because from from us, Air Force Academy, to pilot to now pilot of NASA SpaceX, Dragon crew 10. I mean, that’s quite the progression and steps you continue to make forward for yourself.
Nichole Ayers
You know, at the Air Force Academy, I made some amazing friends, you know, teammates on the volleyball team, and you know, my roommates and the people that I suffered in the math classes with, and you know, things like that. But you know, you make some amazing friends along the way. And the F22 community was no different. You know, I have some amazing friends from that that time and that community that we still keep in touch, and they will be at the launch, watching me launch, and I think that’s one of the most important things, you know, surround yourself with, with other good humans and with people that you want to spend time with, who inspire you to move forward. You know, I loved my job as an F 22 pilot, and I was, I was happy there, and I’m even happier here as a NASA astronaut. And I think that’s so important. You know, just do something you love, and you’ll you’ll get to wherever you want to go if you’re doing what you love.
Joseph Zakrzewski
I love that you brought up, you know, the people you’ve surrounded yourself with, because I feel like that’s such a vital point of it, in addition to learning and having the skill sets required, or even learning those skill sets. But you talk a lot about being a good team player, and I feel like the sports background really shines bread. I know I can relate to that too, so much so that your team, your volleyball team, even came to ask and graduation with custom shirts for you. I mean, that’s how deep the relationships are. What does that team work like now that you were a part of that group for volleyball and for the F 22 crew, as well as for the ascan group, and now you get to be a part of a new team, if you will, and the crew 10 mission coming up.
Nichole Ayers
You know, it’s funny that you bring up that the volleyball girls were at the graduation, because they will also be at the launch.
Joseph Zakrzewski
I was gonna ask that. I’m so happy to hear that
Nichole Ayers
them and their families, you know, we get more guests for the launch, so them and their families and their little kids are gonna be there. So I can’t wait, you know, for all the little kids to see this and just be inspired. It’s, it’s an amazing experience. But, you know, I think that I have such an amazing relationship with all of those friends, and I have just built on top of that, you know, I’ve just added more friends, you know, Anne, Tak, and Kirill are some amazing humans. And we also have team shirts now, you know, as crew 10. So we’re, we’re right on that track, you know. And played softball at the at West Point, and so like, her softball teammates are going to be there. We’re talking about coordinating volleyball and softball T shirts for launch. And you know, it’s just, it’s kind of like falling right into this integrated team. And like I said, these are some of the most kind and caring people I’ve ever met, but also some of the most smart and intelligent and efficient people. So it’s just been an amazing transition to this team on NASA’s crew 10.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And let’s go ahead and dive into crew 10, and what you’re about to embark on coming up here. And you touched upon the crew and and some of the behind the scenes. But one of the things I loved about your insignia, and you’ve said it in a couple of discussions before, is that you’re also all pilots. So you talk about, you got the sports elements, you got the pilot elements, you got the the teamwork element, all together. It almost seems like this is what was a team that was meant to come together from a long ways away.
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, I think I hit the crew jackpot, is what I’m calling it. You know, I got assigned by the chief of the astronaut office to this mission. And when I got the names of my crewmates, I was like, Are you serious? That’s a lot of really amazing humans on one crew. Like, like, Are you sure I’m, I’m worthy of this assignment and so, and that has not changed. You know, my opinion has not changed about any of the people that are on crew 10. One of the other cool parts about our crew is that we are all professionally trained pilots. So, you know, Ann and I are both military pilots, but then talk and crew are commercial pilots for their respective countries, and it’s just a different way of thinking, and it’s, I think, enhanced our ability to work together as a team. You know, we can give immediate feedback right in the middle of a SIM in the dragon, or we can talk about it later, like there’s just this really cool, what I would call synchronous motion of our team as we move through each portion of training.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And how vital is that for you? Because you are the pilot of NASA SpaceX crew 10, and you’re surrounded by pilots, so I almost feel like you have a great support system. But as you know, the pressure might be on there a little bit too maybe
Nichole Ayers
ooh, you know, I don’t think of it as pressure. I think that, you know, I think of it as backup. You know, everybody, the mission specialists, you know, they don’t necessarily have the greatest view to the displays in the Crew Dragon, but they are constantly Hawking what we’re doing, and they’re following along in their iPads, and they’re they actually catch more things than I do sometimes. And so it’s really fascinating to watch us as a crew work, because it’s not just me or Anne doing something, it’s all four of us, and we’re all in sync, and we’re all trying to figure out, what are we missing, and how could we be better
Joseph Zakrzewski
and focusing on the mission overall. What is crew 10s purpose? What are you looking forward to to do as a group as you board the NASA SpaceX Dragon and head your way up to the International Space Station?
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, so crew 10 is actually just a small part of our mission. You know, crew 10 launches in March, and then we’ll. Come home about six months later on that capsule. And so the SpaceX capsule is our our ticket, or our way of mode of transportation, getting to the International Space Station. And then the four of us will board the International Space Station. Tak will become the commander of the International Space Station. The rest of us will be the flight engineers on board, and we’re going to live and work together for six months on the International Space Station, you know, executing science, executing maintenance, cleaning house chores, we’re going to work out together. We’re going to eat together. And so the whole mission is, you know, the increment and us living aboard the International Space Station. And then the most dynamic parts are the launch and the landing, which is where crew 10 will be together.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And this is your first time going up, and this is your first flight. What are you looking forward to? I know there’s you mentioned the science and the aspect and the maintenance element, as well the outreach elements, getting a chance to speak with students and those back down here on Earth. But I imagine, for you personally, there’s, there’s probably a couple of lists, or bucket list items that you want to do while while being in space for the very first time.
Nichole Ayers
You know, yes, of course there are things that I really want to do. I think this is going to sound silly, but the biggest thing that I want to do is I want to make sure that I get pictures for everybody that I know. So I’ve got a list of places that I’ve sent to the Earth observation guys and so that way they can help me remind me, hey, we’re gonna, we’re gonna be over this area of the world today at this time, so that way I can go get a picture of everybody’s house that I know that’s kind of that’s one of my personal goals, is to make sure that I, like, get all the pictures that I set out to do.
Joseph Zakrzewski
Is there any of the science or any of that outreach that you are looking forward to while you’re aboard as well, in terms of what your mission is going to you know, it’s a continuation. But is there anything you’re hoping to or looking forward to? Pick forward to pick up on from the previous cruise and then look to carry forward?
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, I think there’s, I mean, we do so much science on board the space station, right? And so I’m excited for all of it. You know, I have a computational fluid dynamics background. That’s what educationally, that’s what I did. And so, you know, fluid flows so differently in space. So I’m excited to see even just the plants that we might be able to potentially grow up there. I’m excited for the Combustion Integration Rack. So, you know, how does fire respond? And how do those types of air flow or fluid flow dynamics work differently? There are so many different things that I’m excited about. And, and, you know, even just the Earth observations, just taking pictures for scientists here on Earth, you know, and then NASA shares that data with everybody. It’s so important to furthering humanity is that information sharing. So to be a small part of that, I’m really excited
Joseph Zakrzewski
and to be a part of what this year is going to be a monumental year for the International Space Station. November, celebrating 25 years of constant human occupancy and advancing that science and technology, you get to be a part of that. What does that mean to you? Knowing you know what your contributions are, not only helping you know what’s what’s come before you, what you’re currently in, but also what’s what’s coming in the future.
Nichole Ayers
Man, yeah, we talk about the scientists who get their experiments on board space station, you know, they spend years, if not their whole life’s work is in that science experiment and on a daily basis. You know, we might spend 20 or 30 minutes with that one experiment here and there, you know, and it’s a small part of what we do, but it’s probably one of the most important things that we do. And you know, if I can just have that 20 or 30 minutes be as productive and as efficient and as not perfect, but as good as possible for that scientist on the ground, I think that’s going to be the the thing that makes me the most happy, and that’s going to, that’s what’s going to make our mission successful. You know, we, we have these small spurts where we work on different experiments, but that is somebody’s life work, and it’s it’s our honor and our duty to take care of it for them.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And look into the future too. Growing up as that kid that wanted to be an astronaut to where you are now, through years of training and education and preparation and teamwork, when you look at the future of human space flight and NASA and what you get to help accomplish here in the in the near future, for the Artemis generation, we say a lot, what? What does that mean to you when, when you get to be a part of that? And that, that picture, painting for younger Nichole Ayers out there?
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, you know, the Artemis program is so fascinating and awesome. You know, we’re trying to get back to the moon in order to get to Mars. And I think that, you know, having a small part of that, you know, I volunteered my body for science. You know, I’ve volunteered for a few different research experiments. So, you know, we’re looking at bone density, we’re looking at muscle mass loss, and counter measures against those types of things. And you can only do that if a NASA astronaut has volunteered to let you look at those, those data points. And so I think the ability to volunteer to either sacrifice a chunk of your muscle or your body or your skin, whatever it may be, in order to help further the Artemis generation and get onto the moon is just, it’s an honor, right? It’s just to be a small piece of that is a really, really. Great honor, and not to mention all of the other science experiments that we do and all the technology demos that we do on board space station to help us get to the moon and onto Mars.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And with that, how has the International Space Station helped, overall, in your mind, prepare for those leaps back to the moon, back to Mars and back to deeper elements of the universe and what we can learn from and how we look to grow from.
Nichole Ayers
Yeah, we’ve learned so much about long duration space flight, right? And, you know, we learn about how humans react in the space environment. That’s not just the micro gravity environment, you know, that’s the radiation environment we’re outside of the protection of Earth’s atmosphere. And so how do humans react? How do plants react? How do other bodies react to that? How does hardware react to that type of environment? And that way we can sturdy up that that hardware. We can make advancements in the hardware to get it onto the moon, but then also we can use that information to help build better technology here on Earth. So I think that the International Space Station and the 20 plus years that we’ve had of information is only helping us get onto the moon, and the importance of keeping that going is the the long duration space flight, with the ability to resupply and the ability to continue working on that science.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And before I let you go, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask again and you mentioned it before when we caught up with you, when you were an ASCAN graduate. but now looking back, and what you’re about to accomplish here with NASA’s SpaceX crew 10 mission, if you got to talk to you know, students and younger versions of yourself and those that are here in our own communities and your neighbors, what do you share with them to inspire them to become a part of a more invested Artemis generation, starting with your mission, previous missions, and what’s to come beyond.
Nichole Ayers
You know, I love talking to kids and trying to inspire them to go do whatever they want to go do, whether that’s come here and be a NASA astronaut. Go be an engineer or a scientist or a doctor. You know, we need all of those people here at NASA to help us get further into space, out of low earth orbit, onto the moon, onto Mars. We need all of those people all over the world to help us and our partners get out of low Earth orbit and into deep space. And you know, I love telling my I preach the teamwork and hard work. That’s my thing. You know, as long as you’re a good team player, you take care of other people, and you work really hard, you can make anything happen. So I like to say, just find what you love to do and just go do it. Set a goal and go do it.
Joseph Zakrzewski
I think you couldn’t have ended it any better than that Major Ayers, thank you so much for joining us on Houston. We have a podcast.
Nichole Ayers
Thanks for having me appreciate it.
Leah Cheshier
Takuya Onishi is a JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut serving as a mission specialist for crew 10, with 113 days previously in space. This is Onishi second trip to the space station. After being selected by JAXA 2009 he flew as a flight engineer for expeditions 48 and 49 and became the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese Experiment Module since his space flight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kubo from JAXA Mission Control in Scuba Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Tokyo, and was a pilot for Al Nippon Airways, flying more than 3700 flight hours in the Boeing 767,here’s what Onishi had to say when we sat down together.
Takuya, thank you so much for joining us today. On Houston, we have a podcast.
Takuya Onishi
It’s a great pleasure for me to be here to speak up about myself.
Leah Cheshier
Well, let’s start a little bit about you. So you grew up in Japan. You were born in Tokyo. Did you always dream of being an astronaut.
Takuya Onishi
Yeah, I was born in Tokyo that, and I have been interested in space from my childhood, and I wanted to go to space, but I never thought I would actually get a chance to do so, because in Japan, we have only a couple of astronauts in our history. So many kids start dreaming about space and want to become astronauts. But most of kids, they grow old or grow older, they start realizing that how low the chance is and how actually they are capable of and they start looking for more realistic jobs. And exactly the same thing happened to me, and I chose to become a commercial airline pilot. But what was really lucky about me was I didn’t choose my job in order to become an astronaut in the more future, but being as a being and also working as a co pilot, that experience is really helped me when I went through the astronaut selection process.
Leah Cheshier
So before you were a co pilot, it looks like you were a check in Agent with the same airlines. How did you how did you work up that ladder? That’s really impressive.
Takuya Onishi
So I got hired by my former company as a pilot trainee. However, since the training capacity wasn’t so big, so I needed to wait in line for my pilot training, and so before I started my pilot training, I worked at Tokyo International Airport as a agent. So I helped, I helped passengers to go through check in, and also go through the security lanes and also boarding gates and so on.
Leah Cheshier
Wow, that is you’ve really seen the whole process, at all levels, that’s amazing. So you’ve also seen both sides of the aviation industry. You were a check in agent, you were a co pilot, and now you’ve flown to space. So what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in your own journey?
Takuya Onishi
So I think most of our jobs are a teamwork effort, a team’s effort, and there is not so many things that a single person can do and can work. So for me, it’s very important to understand how the other people are working and what they are doing, and the best way to understand them, is to just put myself in their position, on their side, and in that way, I have a good idea of how the entire team works to fly an airplane. So that was a very helpful experience for me. And while I was working as a check in agent, I understand, I understood who the passengers were, and they were completely different people. They are different from each other, and they have their own lives and their own families. And then I realized that working as a co pilot and flying a jetliner with a lot of passengers on board was a huge responsibility, because we were carrying on our back not only the passengers lives, but also their families and their dream. So there was a huge learning to me to become a good pilot, and it was so unique that I could get that experience. And so that is why, during my first space flight, I worked with the flight control team on the ground all over the world, and I, as I worked with them, I really wanted to get to know their jobs more. So once I came back to the ground, I decided to become a flight director of the flight training flight flight control team in Tskuba in Japan.
Leah Cheshier
I didn’t know that that’s really interesting. So you are a flight director for Tskuba. What is that job like?
Takuya Onishi
So each control center has its own flight director. So just like a Houston flight director, our Tskuba flight control team has one flight director per one shift. Then I got qualified as a JAXA flight director. So I actually did a lot of I actually covered a lot of shifts as JAXA flight director.
Leah Cheshier
Wow, that. I think that’s really important, because you know how it works on the ground, so that when you’re in space, yeah, you work seamlessly with that team. You know what they need, and you see it from their perspective,
Takuya Onishi
yeah. So now I understand the both sides of operation of the International Space Station, so hopefully I can do a much better job next time.
Leah Cheshier
Well, let’s talk about something else that helped prepare you for this, which is you were an aquanaut on the NEEMO mission, NEEMO 15. So you spent time underwater, working and living there. How does that prepare you for a space mission.
Takuya Onishi
So in my opinion, space training has at least, or mainly, three aspects, those are physically, technically and mentally and physically, there are some very physically intense activities like space walk. So we have to train ourselves physically to be more strong, and for technically, we learn a lot of systems, Space Station system and how to manipulate the robotics arm, how to conduct space walk and so on. So there are a lot of technical training, and we go through those a bunch of series of training together as a team. However, the most difficult thing about space flight training is how to mentally prepare yourself, because even though so let’s say we have some emergency scenarios, and we go through some emergency situations in a simulator, but in a deep mind, we still know that this is just a simulation, so we are not putting ourselves in a real danger situation. So that’s not actually helping to mentally prepare yourself, but those space flight analog missions are actually putting us in a real danger situation. So that was I found out that those training programs were really helpful for me to get prepared for a space flight.
Leah Cheshier
Wow, interesting. Well, let’s talk about your next space flight, Crew-10. So what are your goals for the Crew-10 mission and your time when you’re on the International Space Station.
Takuya Onishi
Our primary goal is to get to the space station safely and return to the Earth safely. And while we are on both the space station, we are going to do a lot of science, including some medical experiments, which enable us to work on future space explorations. So our goal is do a lot of science and bring back its scientific result to the ground.
Leah Cheshier
This is your second space flight. So what do you expect will be different this time on the International Space Station from the last time you were there.
Takuya Onishi
So last time I didn’t I didn’t understand what was waiting for me, but now I can tell what is waiting for us in the near future. So it was easy for me to go through our training. However, the difference was our training period got shortened a lot, so I feel like I’m now super busy with my training. So I can’t imagine how difficult this will be for our two rookies, but they are doing great, and the most probably the biggest difference between the two flights is going to be the change in my role. So for Expedition 73 I’m supposed to be the ISS commander, so my responsibility is to assure all aspects of cruise safety throughout the mission
Leah Cheshier
That’s really exciting. That’s going to be a busy job. On top of all the other work that you’re going
Takuya Onishi
to do, it’s going to be exciting, and also it’s going to be very challenging.
Leah Cheshier
Well, you’re flying up. You mentioned the two rookies, so that’ll be Nichole Ayers and Kirill Peskov, and then Anne McClain has flown before, and obviously you’ve flown before. So tell me a little bit about your crew, what it’s been like training with them, and what you’re looking forward to.
Takuya Onishi
So Anne is our spacecraft commander. She has a great strong leadership, and she’s very good at pushing us to do our best, so I really appreciate it. Nichole, she’s also very smart person. And Kirill, he’s a very funny guy, very well trained cosmonaut, but he has a great sense of humor. And every time we go to somewhere for training, a. He doesn’t lose any tiny moment of his private time. He’s not wasting at all. He always tried to look for doing something and going somewhere. So he’s a he’s just a interesting guy.
Leah Cheshier
Well it sounds like a fun crew. I’m excited. One thing I find interesting about this flight is the international collaboration. So we have, obviously, NASA, you’re from JAXA, Kirill from Roscosmos. Why do you think that’s important that we have this international cooperation?
Takuya Onishi
One thing I really like about this ISS program, is each country brings its own strength or its own expertise to the program, so that we can do many operations and science together as the entire team. So I think the International Space Station is one of the best models of international cooperation.
Leah Cheshier
It makes me really proud when I think about the International Space Station and all the countries that we work with that make it possible, and that it’s just this ultimate goal. So I can only imagine what it’s like to be there.
Takuya Onishi
Me too.
Leah Cheshier
So since you are a veteran space flyer. You’ve done this before, along with Anne McClain, how have you taken what you’ve learned and shared that with your two rookies that are flying on your crew?
Takuya Onishi
So it’s been a while since my first space flight. It’s been, I think, eight years by now. So unfortunately, unfortunately, I don’t remember so much about my previous flight. But on the other hand, Anne, she is very good at remembering many things in detail, so thanks to her, she always shares her experiences with two rookies. So I really appreciate it. I wish I could have remembered more than I am.
Leah Cheshier
I think that’s all the time we have today. And I wanted to thank you again for coming in. I’m very, very excited to see you fly. You very
Takuya Onishi
Thank you very much, and I’m also excited to go to space again.
Joseph Zakrzewski
Kirill Peskov is a Russian cosmonaut selected in 2018 as a part of Roscosmos group 17, and is preparing for his first space flight as a member of NASA’s SpaceX Crew 10, before joining the Cosmonaut Corps. He worked as an officer piloting Boeing 757, and 767s, and earned a degree in engineering, assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2020 he has additional experience in skydiving, zero gravity training, scuba diving and wilderness survival. Let’s catch up with Kirill.
Kirill, thank you so much for joining us on Houston. We have a podcast today. Welcome.
Kirill Peskov
Thank you for inviting
Joseph Zakrzewski
I’d love to get to know you as a person and your back story. Where did you come from and where what made you want to become a cosmonaut?
Kirill Peskov
Yeah, I was born in city of Kyzyl. It’s in a like a Southern middle part of Russia, in Siberia, and spent most of my childhood in town of Nazarovo. It’s in Krasnoyarsk region, and then moved to Krasnoyarsk after graduating from university. So when I was born in Kyzyl, my parents, my father was a pilot, and my mother was a meteorologist on the meteor station on the airfield. So I think my fate was was written by those two people. And so after school, I became a commercial pilot. Uh, flew by 757, and 767, 4-5 years. And in 2018 I went through selection process to Cosmonaut squad, and now I’m sitting here,
Joseph Zakrzewski
well, we’re thrilled to have you in your time, whether it’s with your parents or going through school and eventually University was there a moment where it really inspired you to take this path that you said, you know, you kind of feel like your fate was sealed a little bit with with your with your family, but what, what resonated, What hit you that made you want to go down this path,
Kirill Peskov
I think curiosity to the world around I love flying airplanes, but there are many other things that there are many other interesting things around us. So I decided not to limit myself by the cockpit. I think my parents and grandparents inspired me. They didn’t want me to become a cosmonaut. They just helped to satisfy my curiosity about this world, and they didn’t kill it was I was little, and I think in some aspects, I still stay like a child, and that what helps to go along on this way?
Joseph Zakrzewski
Well, natural curiosity and natural inspiration is needed to become a cosmonaut, but becoming one requires a lot of years of training and preparation. How has your background as a pilot and with family around you helped you prepare for this upcoming mission?
Kirill Peskov
Well, at least they don’t. They’re not in the way. Oh, that’s a joke, of course, but they just support me and I can’t describe it. I think because you can, you cannot touch most of those things and just some kind of support and and maybe not bothering me when I’m tired. Second, then that’s enough.
Joseph Zakrzewski
Well, they’re half a world away. So you’re working on two different time zones too. Would love to talk about your crew and your mission coming up here for NASA SpaceX crew 10. You’re flying with three other astronauts. What’s the chemistry like? What do they like to work with on a day to day basis as you’re training and getting ready for launch?
Kirill Peskov
They’re really great and nice people. I really love working with them. And as I said a couple of times before that, I think the most interesting thing about our career is that all four of us are pilots, so it helps us a lot to make our communication nice and smooth inside the cabin during nominal and off nominal procedures during training. We yep, I think being a pilot is a great choice,
Joseph Zakrzewski
and it probably helps, like you said, with the communication, but just this is your first expedition, your first flight. So does that help you at all in terms of just the nerves and and some of the emotional aspects of this mission, and knowing that you have three other pilots around you that can help relate to their experiences with you?
Kirill Peskov
I’m completely calm about the upcoming flight. I’m completely confident in the vehicle and my crew mates and the ground team. The one thing I was worried about the most is leaving my house for a long time, so I had to do some work there, and this was the hardest part of training and preparation for the flight.
Joseph Zakrzewski
And not only do you have your crew in crew 10, but also there’s a lot of cosmonauts that have a lot of experience that you’ve probably been able to work with too. How have they helped you prepare for this upcoming mission?
Kirill Peskov
They shared their knowledge and experience and sometimes tell some nuances that you cannot read in the books. So, yep, sure, they help a lot, and they will help little bit more than when I come there, and they will just teach me like, you know, like a parent teach a child how to eat, how to wash your face, and how to go the toilet and all these basic things, and we’ll have to go through all of them again. And that’s a fun fact, I think. And it’s that natural
Joseph Zakrzewski
curiosity. We talked about it when you were a kid of just growing up in this environment. What are you looking forward to? I know you have the mission, but what are you personally excited about and curious about that you can’t experience here on Earth, but you can aboard the International Space Station?
Kirill Peskov
I’m looking forward to admire the view of our planet, watching it through space station’s windows, because when I was a pilot, I didn’t get tired after five years of flying, didn’t get tired of watching out the window, and I enjoyed all this sunsets and sunrises and other it’s just, I don’t know the number for how many beautiful things I saw from the cockpit, and now I want to see those things from space and compare what they look like. Do they look the same or more beautiful or less? Yeah, I think this is the like most thing that I’m expecting to get.
Joseph Zakrzewski
I know you’re gonna be working on a lot of on a lot of. Experiments and a part of this mission for crew 10. But how do you think your your free time will be like? What do you what do you hope to do? I know you said you want to look out the windows, but microgravity, from photos and videos I’ve seen that looks kind of fun, too. How do you want to embrace every moment that you’re on board?
Kirill Peskov
Yeah, I think looking out of window and having fun with microgravity, these are the things that I will enjoy, at least during first several months there, and I don’t know what’s what will happen, what will I come up with
Joseph Zakrzewski
I understand you’re bringing a unique item on board, and that’s something fun that I love to learn about with with astronauts and cosmonauts, is how they’re adding their personal experiences and personal touches. I understand that it’s a turtle of some sort that you might be bringing. Can you share a little bit about some of that personal items that you’re bringing with you?
Kirill Peskov
Yeah, it’s a little toy turtle. I’m bringing it because I have a friend who believes that the earth is flat for some reason. So I want to take a picture of this turtle underneath the curve of the earth during sunset or sunrise, and send this picture to him, and then bring this turtle with this picture. So just sit some kind of like trolling or whatever. And also, I think it will be a nice present.
Joseph Zakrzewski
It’ll be a wonderful present. And I mean, what better way than to have your friend who’s a cosmonaut on board the International Space Station sending you these photos and the turtle? I mean, that doesn’t make you a believer. I don’t know what would my last question to you before I let you go, is something that you touched upon a little bit earlier too, is, why do you feel we explore? Why do you feel we continue to push the boundaries of human space flight and continue to explore with missions to the International Space Station and looking beyond?
Kirill Peskov
I think this is the basic thing that makes us humans, this curiosity and the hunger for exploration. Because if we didn’t do this, we would still live in caves. Probably, I think, wouldn’t even live in caves. I don’t know what your life would what life would look like if we didn’t explore. Maybe we’ll have extinct right by now. Who knows? But if nature gives us this feeling and this desire, I think we should bring it to life and explore and create and it’s fun, moreover, keeps you pushing forward.
Joseph Zakrzewski
Kirill, thank you so much for joining us on Houston We Have a Podcast.
Kirill Peskov
Thank you.
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Joseph Zakrzewski
Thanks for sticking around, and I hope you learned something new today. Our full collection of episodes is on nasa.gov/podcasts you can also find many of the other wonderful podcasts we have across the agency on social media. We’re on the NASA Johnson Space Center pages of Facebook, X, and Instagram, use #askNASA on your favorite platform to submit your idea or ask a question. Just make sure to mention it’s for Houston We have a podcast. These discussions were recorded from October 2024 through February 2025. Thanks to Dane Turner, Will Flato, Daniel Tohill, Courtney Beasley, Jaden Jennings, Raegan Scharfetter, Dominique Crespo, and Gary Jordan. And thanks to Crew 10 Commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichole Ayers, Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi, and Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov for coming on the show. Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on and tell us what you think of our podcast. We’ll be back next week.