Hey Doug, how's it going? Can you hear us? All right? I got so loud and clear Pablo. How are you? I'm good. I'm good
We're also joined by Ryan here under the Moondow
Yeah, we'll get started in a second. We're just waiting for Christina and yeah
Yeah, he's checking into her hotel
Ryan's also he's he's the the man behind the scenes here and he's written up a bio that I can read I guess well
Well, we're waiting for Christina and then we can jump right into it
If I can I'm pretty bad at just like reading straight from the thing
And also, I mean you don't really need much of an introduction, but you know, hey, we'll we'll do it
Let's see. So yeah, Doug Doug Hurley is an American engineer former Marine Corps pilot and NASA and SpaceX astronaut
He piloted the space shuttle missions STS 127 and STS 135 the final flight of the space shuttle program
He launched into space for the third time as a commander of the crew dragon demo to the first crewed space flight from American soil
Since STS 135 and became together with Bob Behnken the first astronaut in history
Launching aboard a commercial orbital spacecraft
He was also the first marine to fly the FA 18 EF
Super Hornet and his call sign is chunky
Yeah, you got it all pretty close. Nice
Cool. Well, yeah, I guess before we hop into questions here
Was that two months ago now?
Zero gravity flight that we're doing with space for a better world
which is Christina's organization will be joining here shortly and
And yeah, we we had you there alongside Nicole Stott and and Charlie Duke, too
An incredible experience and some people came back after that event saying it was the the best day of their lives
And and I think for people listening here in the audience, we're actually doing this again
out of Florida, so our zero gravity flight actually was delayed because of
Some FAA stuff that was going on
so yeah, we're the on the 23rd of February will be
Yeah, we'll have Doug there Charlie Duke and Nicole Stott three legendary astronauts and
Tickets are still available. We've got about ten spots left. So
If that's interesting to you guys, definitely
Check it out. You can go to
And check out our app and then go to the zero gravity
Site or if you hop into our discord we can we can help navigate you there, too
That's a discord.com or discord slash moon down discord. Gg slash moon. Oh, I was makes those up
But yeah, okay great. I've I've gotten through the the stuff that I got to promote there. We got Christina here, too
Cool hey Christina, how's it going? Hey guys good. I just got in my hotel in Zurich
Yeah, well, thanks for thanks for joining. I just read out Doug's bio Christina is the the astronaut Wrangler she
Yeah, it is the woman behind the scenes making all of this possible. She
Got us in contact with Charlie Duke with Doug Nicole
Pretty much knows everyone I feel like in the in the in the space economy or you know
Yeah, it was a the former manager for Buzz Aldrin
Yeah, just all around very incredible person with amazing connections. Yeah
Those are very nice words Pablo
Hi Doug, hey, how you doing? I'm doing good
Spend a little time in Florida in February, it'll be a nice change
But we're getting plenty of good skiing here in the mountains of Utah. So enjoying that too. Oh good. You have snow. Oh
All right. Well, I know where to come now exactly
Cool well, all right, I guess we can we can hop right into it. So
Doug you were you know both the shuttle and the Dragon capsule
Have like I I guess could you tell us a little bit about the differences there between the the dragon capsule and your shuttle mission?
How do the experiences compare?
You know the technology how does it feel as a pilot? I know that the dragon capsule has touch screens
Can can you kind of walk us through the the major differences between the two missions?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean
Tons of differences certainly both orbital spacecraft, but that's kind of where it stopped
You know, I think I can talk about a few different things and then if if folks have questions
Related to what I've mentioned then certainly chime in because I'm certain I miss something
But you know you think about the shuttle program, you know was around for 30 years
We were building the International Space Station and servicing Hubble in the time. I was flying shuttle
And and certainly as you mentioned fortunate enough to fly the last shuttle flight in history
30 40 year old technology at that point, but the training and the and the mission was hyper
down to the you know, the I and crossing the T and I mean it was very specific and and
They us were creating a spacecraft
So it was kind of this clean sheet certainly with some influence with Elon
as I'm sure folks realize he had a tremendous amount of
influence on the design and the look of dragon and
Falcon 9 so it was two completely different experiences two completely different spacecraft one was you know
for example, the shuttle is about a two hundred and thirty thousand pound vehicle by itself and
Four and a half million pounds at liftoff
Fueled with the external tanks and the boosters and then
Crew Dragon is about a 25,000 pound vehicle. So orders of magnitude smaller
Obviously Falcon 9 very capable rocket, but a much smaller rocket than the shuttle stack
So yeah, the rides were completely different
You you certainly did more manual flying
With shuttle that was just the way it was designed and what it was capable of
Dragon was designed to be autonomous albeit
I did fly dragon with a touchscreen since it was a test flight. So I was able to
prove the manual flying capabilities that
That we had developed just in case the automated system had failed for some reason so we were able to do all that in space but
Profiles were completely different shuttle was about eight and a half minutes to orbit dragon was about twelve and a half or thirteen minutes to orbit
You got to do a kind of a cool staging on dragon between first and second stage whereas shuttle
The acceleration into orbit was constant because the the main engines and the boosters fired
prior to liftoff whereas with Falcon 9 you had a first stage with the
9 Maryland engines and then you had a separation event and then a second stage that got us
The rest of the way into orbit. And so you've got to experience that
Floating for a few seconds while you separated from the first stage and then the second stage
Started and then accelerated you the rest of the way into orbit
G wise on shuttle during ascent. We pulled about three G's on dragon on ascent. We pulled about four and a half
And then on the return trip with shuttle
About a G G and a half a very benign entry. I mean people have talked about it being like an airliner. I'll be it
it's quite a bit more aggressive than an airliner when it comes into land whereas an airliner lands at about a three degree glide slope the
Space shuttle is at 20 and then for the dragon
As I've described it before Mr. Toad's wild ride coming back because it's a capsule comes in
Somewhat ballistically and then uses
Drag shoots and then main shoots to decelerate and splash down and so when those those events happen
But because the vehicle is so much smaller than shuttle it almost felt like you were in a little sports car because you could
just feel and sense and hear every
Every event and and then of course the splashdown was certainly much more dynamic than
Landing on a runway in Florida
So I think that's probably hopefully that kind of talks a little bit about the differences of the vehicles
But yeah dress drastically different. I think would be the way to to leave that
Yes, was one more fun than the other that's one question I have or were they just as fun
Yeah, it's it's it's you know, it's kind of like who's your favorite kid or who's your favorite, you know, it's just hard to
Distinguished, you know, they were just different different experiences certainly but you know
I'm certain and as we kind of enter this this
Era of commercial space flight and more people getting to go
It's like any space flight is worth going and and it would be hard to to pick a favorite
I mean, I would say the experience of
The unique experience of being on the ground floor of developing a new spacecraft
I think the fifth or sixth orbital spacecraft in history. I can't remember they've some statistician has figured that out but
The point being as a test pilot, I think that was you know, an incredibly
Fortunate experience to be part of that and to have influence in that and to develop
alongside our NASA folks and our SpaceX folks a new spaceship that had
Just flew the 12th crew into space as of yesterday. So that
You know that's it just was you know, certainly a once-in-a-career if not once in a lifetime experience I
Have another non-technical question and yeah, I don't mean to keep jumping in but I was gonna I was just thinking about how your
Your space suits or your flight suits were different was it I know that the SpaceX ones
Well, and maybe the NASA ones too or are customized to you, right? What are they both customized to you? No
Remember my I think it was my commander on STS-135 Chris Ferguson called the
NASA space suits that we wore the pressure suits the pumpkin suits we've given them an affectionate name
Were he called them off the rack? So I believe and
Don't quote me on this. I believe there were probably
Sizes that were built or manufactured and you just had to kind of find the one and of course our suit
technicians were incredible and you kind of had to find the one that was close enough and
then there were some options with the gloves and those kinds of things, but it really was kind of
find the size that fits you the best because
The plan was to fly, you know, a number of missions the shuttle initially wasn't
Developed with pressure suits in mind. They only wore them
Initially during the test flights the early campaigns when there were no where there were only two astronauts flying shuttle and then
after challenger is when they discovered that
You know it from a safety crew safety standpoint. We would need pressure suits. So they were actually developed
I think initially to be used on the high altitude spy planes that we used to fly and
Then NASA used those pressure suits and I'm certain there were modifications, but essentially that that was those
SpaceX was completely custom
Some of the other folks from the astronaut office as well as the second crewed flight, which was
Victor and Mike Mike Hopkins
We were kind of guinea pigs along with Sonny Williams and Eric bow
on the original cadre of just going through the iterations of SpaceX developed their suit literally from scratch and
I've told this before but I probably been in that SpaceX suit
Getting it. Yeah getting into different iterations of those suits and of course we had to water test them
We had to pressure test them. We had to go through
And and then the other story I've pulled to some folks is
unfortunately for SpaceX Bob and I are
You know because typically in the design space
generically for the fifth percentile human to the 95th percentile human and there's all sorts of
Anatomical data that's out there and they try to design the suits
Very similarly to that problem was is Bob and I our head circumference both exceeded being 95 percentile
So we gave him a little bit because we had giant heads for whatever reason
So poor SpaceX guys, you know, I remember the first time I tried to get the helmet on
It literally took skin off my forehead because it wasn't the opening to get my head in my
It's not big enough. And of course you can imagine the
the jokes that then then proceeded to happen but both Bob and I and of course Bob would pick on me and then it
Turned out his head was even
Anyway, but but you know, we just it was a very much a learning experience and
You know, they just had some incredible folks in their suit lab who were
Initially learning along with us on how to design those suits and ultimately
You know as I had said before Elon had had certainly given his
Input that he wanted it to look cool and he wanted it to be state-of-the-art and futuristic and so
They were certainly designing the suit that way
But it also had to be practical the whole reason for wearing these suits
In a spaceship as if you lose pressurization
Inside the capsule when you're in space
that's kind of your life preserver or lifeboat to keep you from
From that situation or at least preserve the opportunity for you to get back down to the to the surface of the earth
Before because the depressurization event obviously is is catastrophic and and fatal
so that's the reason we wear those suits in space and so
It's another way to protect us
You know they had to work and so we kind of went through the process with SpaceX
And like I said, I I was in and out of that suit so many times
It was I lost track. Did you gain weight or lose weight and did they have to adjust the size?
Or was it always the same? Well, I mean thankfully yeah
You know I think we were running ourselves ragged over that two or three year four-year process
And you know astronauts are supposed to kind of keep themselves in shape and for me
it was always a good way to to kind of depressurize and and de-stress and relax and so
But I think to answer your question specifically I think if you
You know that certainly is an issue if you if you gained or lost significant weight
and probably the gaining would be worse than the losing but
That would be more of a challenge certainly because they were they were basically fitted to you
They're probably still I'm certain they figured out ways to be more efficient
Understand what body sizes work with what suits and and maybe to give you a little leeway plus or minus
But yeah, they're custom fitted suits much like the so cool suit and Soyuz is pretty well custom to you
Mean it makes it nice because it's it's as comfortable as it can be and certainly they were much more comfortable and lighter than the
But yeah, certainly something you have to keep track of you don't want to gain too much weight or lose too much weight
And I have one more question. I really promised Pablo. I'm gonna quit taking over but I
Well, the funny thing is is I met the Thunderbirds, you know before and there was one Thunderbird
He was like six five and I was like, how on earth do you fit in there?
And and so then I know that was you know, a lot of astronauts are not super tall because it's all it was an issue
I guess with seats or the way that the pilot seats were but
It correct me if I'm wrong
I heard that the seats on SpaceX to are customized to your height and body
Like length of is that true? Yeah to a degree. Yeah, it is. It's
They have like the the molds and padding that is within the seats. They can adjust those
somewhat to your body size
the the seats were made by
This company called Dallara, which is a racing company they make racing seats and so
And it's important and much like with Soyuz they do the same thing in fact, they take a mold of you in the seat
And then that custom mold goes in the seat and Soyuz when you fly and that's all for impact
Protection and so you want this you don't want a lot of play in between your body and the seat around you
Kind of in that cocoon for lack of a better word
And so yeah, the seats are I wouldn't say they're as customized as the Soyuz seats
But they certainly can customize them to your kind of you know
With me my torso is a little longer than average and my legs are kind of a little shorter
And my wife has a lot of fun with that but it
But but they can they can adjust those things
To kind of keep you in the seat
you know when those impacts occur and and frankly, you know, the only one that you should hopefully plan for is the
You know the splashdown but you know if there happened to have been a
For example a failure of your booster, you know that launch a board sequence is
Extremely dynamic and you want to be you know, you want to be safely tucked into those seats in
An event such as that. So yeah, there's a few few things that they do
you know and with the capsule that
Is very advantageous and that's one of them kind of customizing the seats customizing the suits all the straps that you have
You know the five-point harnesses, you know, we would cinch down our feet
So you don't your feet aren't flailing around on the footrests and all those things just for that reason
All right. Well, I'm really done now Pablo. I promise
Okay, well so I see a lot of people with with Starship and their profile pictures in the audience and I wanted to get
on a on Starship, you know you you watched Falcon 9 go from a concept to actually riding inside of it and
Starship is in development now
What what parallels do you see between them?
Or do you think the process is just entirely different because it's such a big rocket
Yeah, I may be a little bit of both, you know, certainly I'm watching it from afar these days
But with keen interest because you know
the Starship is is is one of the
you know, essentially part of the architecture for us to land on the moon again, so
You know, I can see some parallels certainly the way SpaceX develops their vehicles and it certainly was something that
it was challenging getting used to in the beginning was you know, they would test and test and test and test and
You know evolution is is you know to me is the same
And like I said, I'm not I'm not tied into the specific development of Starship
So I don't know for sure, but it's very iterative. It's very fast compared to maybe traditional
Thanks development of a vehicle
the the Crew Dragon or Dragon 2
Essentially now they had the booster Falcon 9 was in development and was flying but the Crew Dragon
you know was a completely new vehicle in almost every respect and
Had to be manufactured or design developed manufactured produced
And that all happened in a matter of you know, six or seven years, which you know, we
You don't see that traditionally. We hadn't seen that before. I mean airplanes that I had worked on
You know, it was a decade or more to take a fighter aircraft from the design
board all the way through
You know, you can see those parallels with with Starship albeit, you know
What what we're asking asking that vehicle to do
from a profile standpoint is
drastically different than
building a capsule to go to low earth orbit, you know that just everything about it is is is
Technologically probably order of magnitude more challenging, but
You know, so it's like everything else
You know, it sounds like we might see another
Maybe even next month. So
But you know, we we are going to use this vehicle and this architecture
multiple vehicles, it sounds like
That need to refuel in orbit and then we send Starship to the to the moon
Uncrewed and then ultimately with a crew for the Artemis 3 mission
Yeah, so I mean there's so much stuff going on this year I
Want to get your thoughts about you know, what what's most exciting for you this year or you know
Even in the years to come as we have we've got a bunch of new launch providers new rockets coming online
You know also shout out to the the Japanese space agency that touched down on the moon just an hour ago, too
Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Yeah
But yeah, what's I guess? Yeah, what's what gets you out of bed these days? What excites you?
Yeah, well, I mean it's just
Just and I talked about this with some folks before it's just I mean I think about I
Mean, there's two things I
You know just from my career as an astronaut which which
Officially ended about I don't know two and a half years ago
You know, I remember kind of in the mid-2000s I don't think I had flown yet
on my first shuttle flight and
There was this I think it was called cots so commercial off off the shelf
You know a program within NASA that was going to give
seed money to companies to provide
cargo services to the International Space Station and I think about you know that time and
Maybe 2005 2006 2007 somewhere in there and then that ultimately morphed
Into the commercial crew program, which was SpaceX and ultimately SpaceX and Boeing there were many other companies involved
Initially, but ultimately SpaceX and Boeing that won those contracts and then obviously I was part of the SpaceX side of things
And then to see where we are now
You know not only in suborbital flights with Virgin and blue
You know axiom launching yesterday on SpaceX
Commercial space stations being developed
The the you know, the first flight of Artemis 1
The Artemis 2 flight here, you know, potentially in less than two years
Landing on the moon again
Uncrewed landers, you know attempting to land on the moon. We had one that
unfortunately didn't quite make it and then one today that made it so I mean, it's just I
mean, it's everywhere you look at this point and
You know, I think about frankly where we were in May of 2020
Not even four years later
It's just amazing and it just seems to be accelerating and
and it's and it's exciting obviously that I I I
got into this business because
This is what I was passionate about and and was lucky enough to get picked by NASA and it's just
Where we are compared to where we were it's it's I couldn't have ever imagined
You know you would have thought
What would have taken 40 or 50 years has happened in 20. So
It's really neat to see and I think it's a testament to some of these I
Get you know for the lack of a better term these new space companies
And people willing to take you know, some of these risks
And it's well documented what you know where Elon was
You know in the early days of SpaceX, I mean they basically had money for one more rocket and luckily it didn't blow up and
You know and and that's part of it
As well as just people willing to and wanting to explore wanting to do this and wanting to push out beyond the Earth orbit
It's just it's incredible to see so I think it's it's all of it. I mean
You know, it's hard to hard to pick something. I mean, I think
certainly for me the human space flight aspect is is is is is a big deal to me, so
I'm excited to to see us, you know go to the moon again and land on the moon and then
You know, I think like probably many that are listening, you know
The the huge goal is you know a human on Mars
Okay, um, so I I guess like
You have the chance to talk to Charlie Duke
Just a couple months ago. I mean, maybe maybe you'd already met him, but I'm curious what that was like for you, you know
meeting or speaking to Charlie
Like what what what did you I guess ask him? What what did you learn from him?
Is it I guess you guys are part of like a very small club?
You know astronauts and I think a lot of people in the audience here, too
Would like to one day become an astronaut like like you and Charlie and Nicole
what what advice would you give to
People that that want to go up into space these days and I I guess I mix two questions in there
But yeah, yeah, okay, Charlie was kind of like I guess maybe your hero
And now people are looking up to you in the same way that people look up to you know, the Apollo astronauts
I'm curious, you know, what what are the lessons that are coming down?
Yeah, no, it's I mean great questions. I had never met Charlie before and it was
Mean, it was just such a great experience to meet him. He is
He is like most of the I've met a
A number of the Apollo and the early shuttle astronauts not a lot but a number of them and
Yeah, I mean he's salted the earth he's just a super guy and I think if you didn't know
Who he was you would just think he's just another
Regular older guy who's just super nice. I mean he just
But it's just yeah, it's just
I've always felt like I was born 50 years too late and so
And that's a whole other story that we don't need to talk about here. But my point being is it just
It's just and meeting somebody like Charlie who was born at that time
And experience those things in those early days. It's just neat to hear him. Talk about it and and
Similar some of my experiences as a fighter pilot and a test pilot were just like his and
And the emotions that you go through in the up and downs that you you go through in your career as an astronaut
And like I said, he just could not be more gracious and
You know some of the astronauts that I've met over the years
I would I would just say that they maybe aren't as as genuine and as
Nice and individual as Charlie is but most of them are
But yeah, it was just so neat to be able to meet him and spend some time and he couldn't have been nicer and and
you know a unique place in history and
Yeah, it's just you know, you got to treasure your time with these folks cuz I mean when we did that it was
You know a long time ago and and I'm sure as people, you know
we we've lost a lot of the Apollo astronauts now and there were a few that I
Didn't get to meet and and so it's just it just was a real privilege
And so looking forward to getting to see him again here next month
but I guess the the other part of your question about advice and
There's certainly nowadays there isn't a one-size-fits-all anymore because the access to space is
ever so slightly opening up
And it will continue to open, you know, the aperture will open wider, you know quicker down the road
I mean, I you have to make the analogy. It was probably like, you know, the Wright brothers flew and then
You know, it took time before we had
Commercial aircraft and now it's very routine to fly, you know to go get on Delta or American or Southwest and go fly someplace and
there'll be a time when and when it will be a kind of a similar experience for folks to get into orbit and
But you know nowadays you're seeing
You know, you're seeing some of that opportunity go to folks
in its infant stages, I think in a lot of ways and and
you know, I think from then from the NASA astronaut if your your desire is to be a NASA astronaut, you know, it's
It's it's not a first first career thing. It's most of us get to NASA
we've already had a career doing something and
You know, I think that the the real key is, you know, be passionate about it
Obviously you wouldn't you know go into that without a passion for spaceflight in general
Be good at what you're doing now be good at
You know working with other people and then you know, just have that passion that
that you know pushes you that extra that extra mile because
It and even when you get picked and Charlie
I remember talking to Charlie about this even when you get picked you're like, oh they couldn't have they they made a mistake
There's no way they they they want me to do this and but then but then you know
If it's not you it's gonna be somebody else. So it might as well be you but I think that's really the key is just
excellence and then being able to work as a team because
I mean, it's a team it's the biggest you know
And I've said this before and I've heard other people say this it's a biggest team sport
There is is human space flight and you have to be able to work with
multiple teams in order to get
successfully into space and back
Yeah, I mean I remember I think it was Nicole to mention this that you're you're kind of roommates with the other astronauts
so you have to you have to actually like them and
You know all the kind of like common things that you might run into with a roommate in your apartment or your house
Like all of those soft skills are incredibly important
You know beyond just the the technical of you know, being able to actually pilot the the spacecraft, etc
Yeah, I mean it's it's like anything else
My background as a pilot. It's like yeah, you should know how to do that. You know, you've
Managed to do this you've managed to do that you've you know, in my case you've been a test pilot
you've done this you've done that you've got thousands of hours and jets and
You know, but the soft skills in my mind
Are at least as important, I mean if you can't you can't work with a team
You're certainly no use to me and you wouldn't be on my crew and I wouldn't want to be on your crew
You know you and then then the other thing you have to remember on these and these small crews is
There is no one person that can carry the day completely. I mean
One of those soft skills is being able to kind of go
Hey, so and so like on space station, for example, and I'm sure Nicole has probably talked about this before
Everybody has a bad day at work. Everybody has a bad day on space station
And so if it's a case of hey, you know, so-and-so eyes isn't doing too great today
Maybe they got some bad news from home. Maybe they did this maybe they did that
Maybe they're just not feeling and feeling that great
You know the chance to jump in help out, you know put their lunch in the oven for them
You know just all those types of things that you don't really think are important become hugely important when you're on
a mission like that and certainly as we go out into the solar system, it's going to be even more important and
You know, it was I got to see firsthand
Certainly within the NASA astronaut office the difference
quote-unquote difference between the selection process
How they picked shuttle astronauts and how we pick
Long duration what we call long duration ISS, whatever the term you want to use astronauts and it's a different person
It certainly is a different person. It's
Some of the stuff is exactly the same
Certainly they want the best of the best and brightest that they can possibly get that certainly is never going to change but
That as you said those soft skills those team skills those expeditionary skills
Become eminently more important
As the missions get longer and more complex
We've got some questions here also from the the audience. Awesome. Yeah
Someone who who describes themselves as a Doug Hurley superfan
Who's here in the audience too, uh, she wants to ask you
What was it like to leave your family for two months to go to space in 2020?
It's really hard and I equate it. I equate it to like a military deployment. And of course, I did all my military deployments
Family per se my own family per se so I didn't have that same kind of appreciation
Um, and you know, you're just happy go lucky and you know, okay. Hey, we're going here. We're going there
We're going and I don't know when we're going to get back but it certainly gets more difficult
in that aspect, uh as you have a family and you and you know
In 2020 and so he was certainly old enough to understand
You know that I was going to be gone and understood the consequences of you know, flying rockets and and the the risk that
that was involved so that
complicates it even more but um
You know, we we as a family had to have done this a few times
You know when karen left to go on her six month space station flight jack was only three
and so, you know, and it was extremely difficult on her but I mean it's
You know that you weigh the
You weigh the the the greater good or the greater aspect of it and and it's worth the sacrifice
Not only to do something that advances humanity
But also the example you set for your children
And and those that follow it's like, you know, there are things that are worth it
if it advances civilization science exploration
And benefits that the greater good or greater humanity
Um, it's certainly worth it even though it comes at a tremendous personal sacrifice
You know the ultimate sacrifice i'll be it
You know, you hope obviously that that doesn't happen, but it certainly could and so
All those things make it difficult and then you know, and unfortunately that was on top of you know, we're in the middle of a pandemic
Um, and so you're a bit isolated from the world anyway when we flew in 2020
Yeah, uh, and then that was on top of
You know the previous three or four years where bob and I
Were leaving our families pretty much every week to go out to california
and there were a few times where we had to go over to russia and train and go over to
To isa and train and those kinds of things. So we we had even in the previous
Two three four years had been leaving our families pretty regularly. So it was uh
Yeah, it was certainly certainly challenging but once again, I think as people realize there's
A ton of ways to be able to stay connected when you're in space on space station
and nasa does a wonderful job of of
You know to continue to happen and supporting it very well
And so that keeps your morale pretty high to be able at least be connected
Uh in those ways while you're in space
That's interesting. I didn't I didn't realize that uh, russia helps train us astronauts
What part of the training happens in russia? Yeah, no great question. Um, that's all part of
Now granted ours was really abbreviated. Um
But you know, the the space station is is part russian and so you have to be trained
On the russian segment, uh at least to some degree
And then we've got the european part of the modules
Or the european module that you need training on so we were required to go over to isa
European space agency and train and we I think the way I remember that is we did that I think in the summer of
2019 and we did it all at once. So we went to russia and then we went to germany
uh, just so we because we were
Unfortunately, uh, you know, it was probably
something that we didn't necessarily need to do but you know, it was something that
the space station partners and
Folks felt strongly that we needed to have some training
Even though we had been to space station multiple times
Over in russia and we were at a pretty key
in the development and testing
Uh with dragon and so to have to kind of pick up and leave for a few weeks to go to europe
Uh, it wasn't necessarily very convenient, but you know, just part of the part of the deal
Of you know, there had been talk kind of in that that summer that we might our test flight might get extended to be a
Longer flight and so they wanted to make sure
That you know, we had that space station training or at least a level of space station training so that we could be
contributors while we're up there and not
um, it just was tough because we were right in the middle of some pretty key stuff with space x and
And they certainly wanted us to be in hawthorne rather than in europe
Yeah, um another question that we have from uh, the audience here is from emmet reese and uh
Their question is uh, do you ever plan to go back up to space again?
Even if it's just for a couple of days, I know you mentioned you you're retired, but you know, you're coming out of retirement. What's uh
Honestly, uh, there's not a plan to
You know for me and for karen, I mean, you know, we flew
five times in space, uh combined and
I think karen's got six months in space and I have about three months in space. So
You know, I think you know for us. It's a family decision as much as anything
uh, I kind of feel like you know, um
I I accomplished all I wanted to accomplish as an astronaut. Um
the other parts of being an astronaut a nasa astronaut certainly are
Some are really good, but some are really challenging. Um
And I think from just from a family perspective, you know when you put somebody on a rocket
Um, there's a risk, you know whether you want to believe or not
You know, I think we felt like we
We rolled the dice plenty of times and and so there's no
uh, you know, there certainly would have been and probably continues to be some opportunities for somebody with
Uh do that again, maybe but you know, no
No plans, uh at all unless maybe the three of us could go together
So we'll see maybe that'll come up and we'll be able to you know, go someplace together
Yeah, maybe a retirement home on the moon and there you go
Actually, I want to point out that um, your son jack I think is going to join us, right? Well, that's I was just going to say
You know, so, you know, this is a great opportunity and uh for for my son to get to experience at least the
You know with the rest of us here in florida next month and so i'm very appreciative to christina for for making that and you guys
Making that possible. So yeah, so that yeah, we'll see if it uh,
If if if he gets the bug at that point, you know, he talks a little bit about
Aviation. I think he realizes that is his his old man did some pretty cool stuff and fighters and that's a pretty good way to
To do things. So, you know, who knows maybe he'll
Maybe he'll go into the family business
Yeah, pretty pretty cool family business
Basil e frank weiler asks what vegetables are being grown on the iss
Um, let's see when we were up there, I mean it's kind of like what we do here in utah because you know
We get we get some pretty pretty uh
Long winters here and so we've got this cool little grow tower downstairs and in fact
Our salad last night was lettuce that we had grown
Um in our grow tower and they do a lot of that. Um, that's what we were doing when
We were up there and I think they continue to do that and I think they're trying to get it to a point where you can grow
a number of vegetables for obvious reasons, it would be great to
kind of be self-sufficient in as many ways as possible because
You know these longer duration flights out into the solar system are going to require
You know, everything about spaceflight is weight and taking things and so
To be able to make things, you know with this, you know with 3d printing and some of these other things and grow things
Generate water all those things that we need to
Um, it helps if you can do that on the way rather than having to have all this
Logistical support and all this stuff in your spaceship
It just makes the spaceship bigger which makes it just becomes
A more challenging proposition the more stuff you need to take with you. So
It's pretty neat to be able to grow some lettuce and you know
That's the thing a lot of times on space station
That's when the when the cargo vehicles come that's what all of us are craving is the fresh fruit fresh fruit and vegetables
Because obviously all the food we normally eat up there is is either freeze dried or thermostabilized or whatever and it's
freshly grown vegetables or fruit so
To be able to get to do that in that environment is is pretty neat and will be ultimately pretty beneficial
Marvin marshall actually has a good follow-up to that is what was your favorite meal or snack on the station?
Did you have a one that you'd hoard just for yourself?
Yeah, no the guy that hoarded food was uh captain chris cassidy, you know, he
He I heard stories from my wife because of course he I flew with him twice and then karen flew with him
on on her first iss flight, so
Yeah, he's a pretty big food hoarder. But um
But in a nice way he's it's not like he's going to eat your food
I mean that would be very bad for him to eat somebody else's food
my favorite, you know, I always craved
the spicier stuff in space and I think that's because you
And I think that's fairly common
You go through the fluid shift and I think that's been pretty well documented. So
Your fluid in your body gets pushed up towards your head. So you feel
Almost like you have a head cold certainly in the initial days you're up in space and then your body adjusts
But you still don't maybe smell quite as well
As you would on earth and so the spicy foods just I always just created the spicy food
So they had these shrimp cocktail. That was really good because they had a cocktail sauce on it
Red beans and rice was really good
The food in general up there is really good certainly compared to what I had in the military
The the military the meals ready to eat or mre's
Um just because of the variety and we have the we have a food lab at johnson space center in houston
Where they continually develop and refine
um the meals and the variety of the meals and so
Um, and and like a lot of other things kind of like I was talking before with these longer missions
Um food becomes very important
To have the same thing every day it would get that would be pretty you know
That would that would affect the morale of the crew certainly
So but yeah, I would say red beans and rice and that's from my days
When I was going to college in new orleans, but uh
The space version of it is pretty good
Brooke rose edwards asks, uh
Many say they're left in shock the first time they see the earth
Was there anything that surprised you the first time you flew to space?
Yeah, it's it's pretty emotional. Um
And from a couple aspects, you know, one is the view is just
Stunning. I mean i'm thankful that the cameras
These days give you some feel for
Absorbed when you look out the window that first time
And then it's emotional from the standpoint of
Uh, if not decades that it took to get there
You know the separation from your family the all those things kind of
And for me, it was all that at once and so it was pretty it was a pretty overwhelming experience
I remember the first time I was on shuttle endeavor
And it just got into space and just that and then you know, you're sensing that
Constant microgravity for the first time and of course the crew modules and chaos
Everybody's getting out of their seats and doing what they need to do. And and so it's just this crazy
Experience and I remember mark palanski my commander
You know, we we get to space and you know
We're going through the thing and then I remember just kind of I remember it vividly looking out the window and just
Wrap my mind around everything that was going on
At that moment, you know, and I remember kind of locking up maybe for about five seconds
And I remember mark just kind of putting his hand on my shoulder and going hey, bud, you with me?
And i'm like, yeah, I just I can't believe we're in space, you know, it was just this whole
And and then to be able to experience that with other people
Uh their first experience in space. It's just it's just so special so memorable and then
and then certainly the privilege of being on space station and living on space station because
uh, you know that opportunity to go sit in the cupola on space station and
You know sit there for a complete orbit around the planet is just
Words cannot do it justice. I think everybody
Everybody that ever has the opportunity to get to go do that should go do it because just
Sitting in the cupola or sitting somewhere in low earth orbit going around the earth once. It's just it's life changing
Um who your resend asks, uh,
Uh, what do you think is the importance of space analog stations to train astronauts and motivate the the space audience?
Yeah, no, it's a good question, um
Years as astronauts and I believe they still do it. We would do
You know, maybe not to the degree of the analog that I think you see nowadays these mars analogs or moon analogs
Um, I think they're valuable because I think
it it once again reinforces
The isolation side of it and then the interplay
of a small crew and then those personality traits and
The individual personal skills like you said before the soft skills and it gives us that data
Who those people that should be selected for those particular missions?
Uh in the future, you know, not only nasa astronauts, but private astronauts, whatever the case may be
Um to go do these missions because I think you see all those types of things and you learn
Those things to a much greater degree than those
Very specific space missions and you know, they're still you know, the longer space missions
We just you know, there's not a ton of people that have done that and so to give that
Uh give that opportunity to folks even though it's on earth
You can simulate a lot of things and like I said before
As astronauts we would go on these knolls national outdoor leadership school trips
Out in the mountains or you were up in alaska canoeing or you were here. You were there
canyon lands here in utah
uh with a small group and
Isolated and and those types of things and it was very and I remember
Probably the closest analog that I ever saw was winter knolls where we did
You know 10 days in the wind river mountains with a small group of us
You know four or five astronauts and a couple of knolls instructors
in the middle of wintertime and surviving and counting on your
You know your crew mates or your team and all those things and you know
Which very much effectively was a earth analog of what it would be like in space and to me winter camping
Was exactly what it's like
uh in space in so many ways and so it was uh
But I yeah, I think they're great and and it also gives
People that may may not be able to ever get the space or have the opportunity to get the space to experience. Uh,
A space like mission, uh on the planet and then like I said, they're contributing to these
Future missions, uh out into the solar system. So I think it's I think they're great
Um, uh juan smoky de la garza asks
Upon your first return from space. How long did it take you to adapt to gravity again?
Yeah, great question one. Um
For my first flight, you know, and this is I think pretty common based on
Talking to some other folks that have gone to space, you know your first flight
In a lot of ways, you don't know how your body's going to adjust going up or coming back. Um
What I would say for me is just the first caveat is is my first flight was
16 days. So it was a shuttle mission
Ses 127 it was an assembly mission long one. Um
Still by definition a short duration mission
And I remember going uphill
I was very lucky. I didn't get
SASS or what they call space adaptation sickness very much like a motion sickness
Um, but I was lucky I didn't get it but I didn't really have much of an appetite going up
Uh for maybe the first 24 hours
And then coming back I remember in the shuttle
You know, uh as you know, we were talking about with christina earlier about our um, the launch and entry suits
We were on shuttle they were those big
Bubble helmets that we used to wear and I remember coming back in
Coming back in the land in florida and my head kept
I have to consciously keep moving my head back up straight because it was sagging
And then this was when we were just starting to experience geez like tenths of geez
And then I remember uh, the other thing after we landed
Um, you know traditionally and typically just because it's the easiest
Everybody else got out of the shuttle before the pilot and the commander and then it was just mark and I the commander
Uh left on the shuttle flight deck
And the close-up crew guy's like, okay
Doug ready to you know, get up and get out of your seat and I went to stand up and I I was like
I felt like I was a thousand pounds and so
Um, and then walking was a little odd and all those things and then I remember my second shuttle flight literally two years later
Um, it was amazing how much more quickly going uphill and coming downhill my body adjusted
After my second flight. I remember we were out in coco beach and um having dinner
uh, the day we landed and
I mean I had I didn't even feel like i'd been to space
on our long duration flight
I expected it to be worse
Um again, because typically that's the experience of folks that have done long duration
And then add to that we were going to land in the water, which is
You know your space adaptation or your
Readaptation to earth, but it was
I think like my other flights my body remembered even though it had been several years since i've flown in space and it was actually pretty
Straightforward now the recovery process for a long duration flight is longer than short duration. But
you know, I think the the
The one thing that's just incredible about the human body is it remembers and it adapts and
I got to see that and it was pretty pretty neat
Um, nick sanchez has a question here too
Uh, he asks, uh, which habits do you use to stay mentally fit any experience from the military or space?
Yeah, I think you know, we all have these ways that we kind of get through the day and um
The you know, I think as pilots everything is a habit pattern. Everything is uh
Is a checklist and that's how you stay, you know
That's how you stay in one piece as a pilot and I think that translates well to space flight
And then I would say the other thing, you know as an astronaut
Certainly as a nasa astronaut and certainly in the era when when we were selected which was in 2000
Uh, if you didn't have a level of patience that was uh
Uh, you were going to have a tough time because the wait to fly in space was very long
There were people at nasa
While I was there that waited
over a decade to fly in space
Uh, a number of years was pretty typical
um, and it was a function of
Many things one there were probably uh too many astronauts at that point
And they had wanted to kind of make sure they had enough to fly space station. Of course space station was behind and
Um, the line was very long and then add to it
um, you know the accident in 2003 with columbia
and you know, it was a long long wait, so
You know folks that know me well know that um
The patients that I had as a 25 year old
Was significantly less than the patients I have now, uh, which isn't great
I'm still working on it as my wife would attest but
um, you know, I think that part of it is just
Staying confident in yourself and staying confident in
Over, you know for me it was it was
Before I flew the first time
You know, that was that was probably the biggest mental challenge that i've
Gone through in my professional career was you know, and then you know just
Working your way through that
knowing that it was a marathon and knowing that
You know, you just had to kind of keep doing what you were doing and in the opportunity will come
And and then you know, then I flew two years later
It's just one of the many lessons you learn along the way is you know, sometimes it just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen
A lot of times these great things in your life don't happen overnight every now and again, they might but
usually it's it's an exercise and
And a huge amount of patience and perseverance and and not quitting
Did you say 25 did you start the process of becoming an astronaut when you're 25 years old that's well for me
I mean arguably, you know the pilot
pool, um to get to nasa, you know typically
Starts really really early. I mean, you know
probably was even earlier than that if you if you you know are being technical because
you know when nasa goes through the
You know the selection process there's
I guess buckets career buckets that they put
perspective astronaut applications into
one of them is pilots and so
From from that perspective as a as a military pilot or a test pilot your career starts or your
Your opportunities, uh for selection actually happens at the beginning because you I mean for me I started out as a
You know student naval aviator
And the down select just through that process you lose
You know from the time you walk in the door to start and by the time you get your wings as a jet pilot
Two-thirds of the people that were there to start are not jet pilots
You know you work through your operational career
Uh and gain experience as a as a pilot
And then go to test pilot school and there's only x amount of people that even get
Considered to go to test pilot school and then there's a down select and then you then you have to make it through test pilot school
Selection or entry process into the astronaut office as a test pilot
Decade at least a decade earlier
Um, then, you know when you get picked
Uh, and so yeah from that perspective and I think in general certainly
Every perspective astronaut, you know starts out wherever they start out their career
And you certainly, you know are going to go through some
Selection processes prior that
Will make you maybe more selectable as a as an astronaut down the road, but for the pilots
You know, it it starts pretty early
Um, you know ultimate did I did I have any intention of being an astronaut when I started out?
um as a student naval aviator, uh
You know made me much more competitive. Uh when I finally decided that's what I
What was the what switch went off in your head, uh to go from okay, this is actually a real possibility
I actually want to become a an astronaut
Um, was there a particular moment or was it kind of gradual?
well in in in some ways it was it was certainly gradual because I mean
Went to college with the intent of joining the military because that was the way to pay for college, but I knew nothing about
I had this incredible interest even as a young kid with airplanes and space
Um, you know you skip ahead a few years and I remember
One of my commanding officers when I was a fighter pilot. He's like, you know, hey you got an engineering degree
You could go fly the shuttle
moment in a lot of ways that was like
Holy cow. Yeah, I could maybe
And and that's when he said he goes but typically nasa only picks test pilots. So
But with your engineering degree
Being a test pilot or at least being competitive having an application for test pilot school
You know that might keep keep that thing rolling. And so
Anyway, yeah, that was the first time that I probably seriously considered it
Another squadron mate of mine was very interested
in going to nasa and he's like hey, can you fly me down to to houston and so
you know, we flew down and I got to meet some of the
The you know johnson space center and and we had a couple friends that
We had known, uh in the in our fighter community in the marines that had gotten selected as astronauts and so
you know, they showed us around a little bit and and that was kind of the
Probably the moment where i'm like, well at least you know, maybe i'll do this. This seems like it'd be pretty neat
So yeah, it was in some ways. It was very much an iterative process or kind of a gradual process
But it certainly started with that
You know that moment with one of my commanding officers, you know saying hey, you know, you could fly the shuttle, you know
so because you don't I mean
Certainly, I didn't think you know that that was even in the realm of a possibility back then and kind of the mid
You know early to mid 90s. So
Uh, hey kw asks, uh, were there any pranks that you guys played on each other in space or any particularly funny moments that stand out?
Yeah, I think in general um
Things are just funnier in space. Uh, you know, I don't know why but they are but there was um
My first flight I remember distinctly this this event I was um
I remember it was the day before we were going to undock. Uh, you know, we had a great mission
Who's just this, you know larger than life guy. He was our lead spacewalker and um
he was also responsible for the logistics transfer between
The stuff that we needed to make sure that we brought back to earth from the space station and that could involve
Parts that had broken and they wanted to study that could involve
You know medical biological samples that the
On-orbit crew had taken and they needed to get them back quickly back to earth and and then anything else
I mean it could have been a million different things
And dave because the other spacewalkers on our flight were all
First time spacewalkers dave was obviously very focused
On making sure all five of our spacewalks
Were successful because it was you know, there were only a few flights
Frankly in the history of the space shuttle program that that had five spacewalks
Um, you know some of the hubble flights and there was a few of the um assembly flights for space station. So
The responsibility was pretty huge on dave and so
dave kind of blew off his logistics job
And so I remember mark coming to me the day before kind of in the afternoon and he's like hey
I have zero confidence that dave has done any of this. Can you go?
Make sure everything has been transferred to the shuttle
I'm like, yeah, sure and so
I went all over the space station and I had it down to one
I don't remember what it was, but there was one item left
And we it wasn't in the log book. We couldn't figure out where it was
And then I went looking for dave and I couldn't find dave so i'm in the space station
And I can't find a human which in and of itself was pretty funny
But I think he was taking a nap in one of the soyuses and there was there was all these nooks and crannies
You could hide behind and then they couldn't find you
But anyway, so mark mark's like, okay i'll fix this and so he gets on the
He gets on the mic and there's a way to be able to make an announcement through the entire stack of the shuttle and uh
and the space station and he's like
Attention on board the international space station. This is the commander of endeavor
Dave wolf report to the bridge of endeavor immediately
Because I looked for dave for like an hour couldn't find him. And so we're sitting up there on the on the flight deck
Because dave was the only one that would know where this part was
He comes floating up through the the mid deck up to the flight deck and he goes this can't be good
Mark starts asking him questions and then and dave's like, you know
The first question is like do you remember transferring this to the mid deck and dave's like I don't recall that event ever taking place and then
He keeps pressing dave on the question about where this thing is. And then finally dave's like, yeah, I think I put it here
And what had happened was he put it in
A completely different locker because he was distracted trying to do the spacewalk stuff and
Anyway, it was just one of those experiences that you know only happens in space and and only with dave wolf
And if you ever get a chance to hang out with dave wolf, it's usually pretty funny
You guys called him up to the principal's office basically exactly and he knew it wasn't good
Nice, um, uh, so i've got a question for you too. So I mean
To make a like a corny video game analogy
Um, I don't know if you ever played call of duty
But uh when you beat the game, you know, you you do what's called prestige like you you kind of do it over again
You're prestige once you you uh flew the space shuttle and then you did space x
And I mean now you you work as an engineer at northrop. I'm curious, you know, like what like
I feel like you've beat the game
You've achieved what a lot of people I feel like um would like to achieve in their lifetime
Like what I guess uh, yeah, what what keeps you going like, uh, it's serious question
You know, like I feel like it's a real thing when people achieve, you know a really amazing incredible thing
Like what yeah, what's what what are you doing now? What what keeps you going? What what's your yeah?
No, it's a great. It's a great question. I think
both karen and I I I think it's it's all about raising our son, you know now and
You know certainly incredibly thankful for the experience. I mean, you know, that's how we met
So I I think you know, I tell people this
You know, what was your best best thing about being at nasa and I was like, you know, it was meeting karen
You know, I I was able to to leave nasa on my own terms. Um
I think you know, I couldn't have
Asked for a better way to kind of close out my flying career
You know almost poetically, you know, it's where I started flight school in pensacola, florida
Where we splashed down and dragon was off the coast of pensacola. So
If that wasn't a sign that it was like, okay, you know, you did this now
It's time to go do something else and I think I think the other part of it was is
You know how the mission went and how they how it's
You know how it's been since
You know and then to be able to have
You know, you're still quote unquote young enough. I'm certainly i'm probably older than most people that are
But still being young enough to go do something else or go
live where you want to live, um
you know, I you know houston i've got a lot of special memories in houston, but
You know living there was probably not my favorite thing
So I think it was it was all those things. It was raising our son. It was the opportunity to do something else the
the uh chance to live somewhere where people come on vacation, um
And you know utah for both of us has just always been a pretty special place and then now to have the opportunity to work
To work out here and live out here and then I think the last thing this opportunity with northrup
Was was such that it was it allowed me to stay
attached to human space flight because we build the uh
the solid rocket boosters for sos, um
But also we do a lot for the military which is you know, i've got a 24 year career in the military and so supporting
Weapons for the warfighter and support the warfighter and support human space flight
And and and so it was kind of one of those things where it was like
This is just a and then be able to do something
In the commercial world or the private, you know
I've been part of the government and part of the military my whole
Career so to be able to work for a company
You know, it was just all those things and all those challenges, uh while I still felt like I had something to contribute so
You know, I think it was a combination of all those things. I mean
The other side of it is is I just you know, I didn't want to be
I saw it at nasa and there continue to be people that have stayed at nasa
In my opinion way longer than they should have
and you know that you see that with professional athletes they
They play, you know one or two or three years longer than they should have and I just
There was no way I was going to be that person
And so I think it was you know, it was a combination of all those things. I guess hopefully that answers your question
Yeah, no, I mean that makes a lot of sense, um, yeah, I mean it's it's incredible. I mean you I feel like
Yeah, looking back on your life. You already have achieved so much and I mean you're still pretty young and
I certainly feel younger than I probably am on on on the calendar, but uh
But yeah, I I mean, yeah, it is what it is and I I certainly don't have any regrets
Yeah, I mean, uh charlie's 88 and she seems like
He seems like he's 60 or something, you know
Yeah, I feel like uh, yeah, there's a lot a lot of life to live. Um
Okay, we've got a couple more questions here from the audience. Sure
I don't know when you've got a a cutoff here either. No, I'm
If they have asked the questions, I'd love to answer them. So okay, they took the time. I'll take the time for sure
Okay, appreciate that. Uh, so let's see jake michael thompson is asking about mars
So he he wants to know you see astronauts living on mars in your lifetime
Yeah, I mean jake, it's a great question. I
There's kind of two things here, I think one is
I remember chris ferguson my commander from s just 135 used to say that all the time is like, okay
You know, we'll have people on mars about 20 25 years after we make that decision to go to mars and
You know in light of what we've seen and how quickly things have
Advanced over the last few years and and certainly well publicized that, you know, that's elon's ultimate goal
He's proving that that that's a worthy concept and and and that
You know, it might be a possibility
On the flip side what I would say is
Um, I think in a large part with chris, you know chris's statement in that
Multi company multinational effort. I think really it's going to have to be I mean, maybe elon and spacex can do it on their own but
I just think it's going to have to be this collective effort and
I think the other thing is the technological challenges of going to mars
you know, I think they are
certainly we can overcome them but I think the
That the biggest challenge is keeping the humans alive and and
and allowing them to survive and thrive, uh over the course of a couple years and
You know something that doesn't get talked about a lot is the radiation exposure that it would
That that you would be subjected to going to mars and and living on mars and so those types of things have to be addressed
Um, and then you know once again feeding the astronauts keeping them healthy
Going from a microgravity environment to a limited g environment like you would experience on mars and then
You know the climate on mars surviving those things
So there's a lot there's a lot that needs to be overcome and I just think
You know a collective public private national
Effort is is what's what it's going to take to be ultimately successful
Certainly not of the opinion, you know
You know these these one-way trips
That's to me. That's not successful. I mean it might and somebody's mind might be worth it to
You know get to mars and then you know, and then that's your final resting place, but it's certainly not
What would be considered successful? So I think you know, there's a lot to do but i'm i'm hopeful
Like I said, especially given that what we've seen
In the you know, certainly the suborbital and the low earth orbit regimes just over the last decade
I certainly it's certainly encouraging
Jay asks, uh from your time in space. What was the coolest experiment, uh from your own experience?
um the experiments yeah, it's
Asking a pilot what his favorite experiments are is
Yeah, you're probably better served asking a scientist, but we did this. Um capillary flow experiment
Or I did it with the with the payload investor or primary investigator
You know kind of where they're in some of the stuff we did on space station
I don't know if people know this but some of the stuff we do
You're actually they they've
piped in the the researcher
Uh is able to kind of watch over over your shoulder and and talk to you
while you're going through the experiment and
Like I said, it was a capillary flow experiment. It was it was
Um low cost water filtration system that we could use
You know in third world countries and you know, because we you know, you just deal with so much disease
With contaminated water sources and all that stuff. So it was kind of a neat premise
And then the investigator was just such a super super person
and so excited about it and and it just made you excited about it and
Yeah, I remember distinctly going through that that day or that afternoon and it was just
I was kind of thinking it was going to be one of these more
Because some of the experiments you do up there you're kind of just turning on switches and it's all self-contained in one of the
in one of the payload, um
You know, you're just maybe taking data or just looking through a window and recording what you see those kinds of things
but this was really interactive and you were going through it setting it up and going through the whole thing and
And yeah, it was just it was a it was a fun afternoon and that
I just the excitement that that investigator had was just so infectious. It was just
Yeah, it kind of made my day. I remember that distinctly
I think uh, I think we've hit the the end of the of the questions from the audience. Um, I want to
Share again that we we are going to zero g uh with doug
We've got nicole stott on there too charlie duke, uh paul 16 astronaut
Um, it's uh, like I would be on there too
Christina also, of course
Um, yeah, I would say I would yeah
I would just say if you get a chance to meet an apollo moonwalker
That in and of itself is worth worth going
I mean the rest of it is just icing on the cake
But and then just what a great guy charlie is it's just that in and of itself should be
If you're on the fence that should get you off the fence and get you down to florida next month
And the thing that I will add to that is that you know, a lot of times people will tell me
Oh, yeah, I got to go to an event and I got to shake their hand
and and the difference with these experiences and partially why you know
Are my friends and you're so supportive of the stuff we're doing with space for a better world is that
It's it's a real bonding experience to get to hang out with
Everybody with you guys with the group that comes with us
It's a very special experience
And and i'm really excited for you doug because you'd told me you'd only done one zero g flight before right?
Yeah, I don't know if folks realize this but yeah, we
We get the opportunity as new astronauts to do a zero g flight on what's affectionately called the vomit comet when we're brand new
Astronaut candidates, so the first within the first
Year and a half or two years you're at nasa. I mean
I've experienced it zero g in a fighter for a very short amount of time
Several times, but it's not quite the same as getting the bounce around inside an airplane. So yeah, this is only going to be my second
Second opportunity so i'm i'm excited about it. They're certainly excited to
Share it with you guys as well as as well as my son. It's going to be fun
Yeah, and and uh a point of information here
So for non-us citizens, uh, the reservation needs to come through before
Monday the 22nd so just three days from now
So if you're if you're not from the us, uh, you can reach out to christina on stage or me or dms are open and
And we can help expedite that
But yeah, we've got just a few seats left
Um, and yeah, I mean it's it's cold out there, but the flight is in florida
So you get to escape the cold too. Um, we're we're in coca beach
Um, and and yeah, you're you're in florida, which is you know
You can have like a beach weekend kind of if you want
And the other part of it is uh, I just want to add is there are so many rocket lunches now
Exactly. Yeah, it's possible. You know last time I did a zero g flight, um there at ksc
I didn't even know there was a launch and we were in the hotel
We usually stay, you know on the beach one of the beach hotels
And there was like a banner in the lobby and it's like oh lunch tonight
So we ate dinner some of us that were on the flight and then just ran down to the beach and then saw a spacex launch
Um, you got a good chance of doing that if you come to florida
Um, well, yeah, uh, thanks so much doug
Uh, this was really a pleasure. Uh, really looking forward to see you on the on the 23rd and just about a month. It's really coming up
Yeah, uh, also one one last thing that that I want to mention too is uh on the 25th. We'll be doing our
Selection so we're we're selecting someone from for a sub-orbital flight with blue origin
and uh, yeah, we had over 2 000 entries into into the sweepstakes, so
Uh, really really looking forward to see who's going to be the one that we draw out of the hats. Um,
It's pretty exciting. I know i'm in the hat. I'm so i'm so I don't have a lot of uh tickets in the hat
And um, you just never know right because it's like a random selection
Yeah, it's kind of like I said, you're not going to get picked if you don't have your name in the hat
So yeah, we're talking about uh giving you an entry, but we thought you know
I I I would hate to take a spot away from somebody who's not gotten to do this. So
I really appreciate it. But yeah once again
Somebody else needs to go do this. It's just it's too
Too incredible of an experience
So well and i'm here in Davos, Switzerland. I've been at the world economic forum and um
So I actually was on a panel talking about tokenizing, you know trips to space
So of course I gave a big plug to moondow
In this panel and a lot of people came up to me just saying wow
You can really like buy a token to go to space
And you know, it's just kind of interesting to talk to people here who it sounds like impossible
Like they think it's are you serious and i'm like, yeah, i'm serious
And then of course telling them about the zero gravity, you know
Stuff too. So it's whenever I get a chance to kind of expose people to the opportunities, you know who don't
Automatically know about it, you know, that's that's exciting to me too
Just to raise awareness for people and welcome into welcome them into our our space ecosystem
In some form or another exactly the more the merrier it's only going to get better
And I by the way, I just want to mention because I know you were mentioning the names of all the people who asked questions
Pablo and the first question that you read was from astraliza who is a kid from romania that is tuned in right now
So I just wanted to acknowledge her because I think she stayed up late or she's staying up late
Oh, yeah, it's probably pretty late over there. Yeah. Thanks for staying up
Well, she oh no, she doesn't have uh school it's a weekend
But anyway, just wanted to let her know that we read her question at the beginning
Yeah, and the space is recorded too, so if she if she'd like to go back and see it
Yeah, you guys can always tune in and rewatch the whole thing and we also upload these up to youtube as well. So
Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much. Doug. Uh, this really was a pleasure
Um, really looking forward to see you in in about a month. So yeah, thanks for thanks for being with us christina
You too. Thank you for joining
As always and also thanks to ryan for for helping coordinate so much of the stuff, uh behind the scenes and thanks to everyone in the audience
Thanks, you guys. Awesome. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing everybody in a month
Yeah, thanks. Doug. Talk to you soon. You best
All right. Bye everyone. Bye