littleflute
commented
4 years ago 00:12 I'm an astronaut. 00:14 I flew on the space shuttle twice, 00:16 and I lived on the International Space Station for almost six months. 00:21 People often ask me the same question, which is, "What's it like in space?" 00:27 as if it was a secret. 00:28 Space belongs to all of us, 00:31 and I'd like to help you understand why it's a place that is magic for all of us. 00:38 The day after my 50th birthday, 00:41 I climbed aboard a Russian capsule, 00:45 in Russia, 00:46 and launched into space. 00:49 Launching is the most dangerous thing that we do, 00:52 and it's also the most thrilling. 00:55 Three, two, one ... liftoff! 00:58 I felt every single bit of the controlled fury of those rocket engines 01:04 as they blasted us off the Earth. 01:07 We went faster and faster and faster, 01:10 until, after eight and a half minutes, on purpose, those engines stop -- 01:15 kabunk! -- 01:17 and we are weightless. 01:19 And the mission and the magic begin. 01:23 Dmitry and Paolo and I are circling the Earth 01:26 in our tiny spacecraft, 01:28 approaching the space station carefully. 01:31 It's an intricate dance at 17,500 miles an hour 01:35 between our capsule, the size of a Smart Car, 01:39 and the space station, the size of a football field. 01:42 We arrive when those two craft dock with a gentle thunk. 01:50 We open the hatches, 01:52 have sloppy zero-G hugs with each other, 01:56 and now we're six. 01:58 We're a space family, an instant family. 02:02 My favorite part about living up there 02:05 was the flying. 02:08 I loved it. 02:09 It was like being Peter Pan. 02:11 It's not about floating. 02:12 Just the touch of a finger 02:14 can actually push you across the entire space station, 02:18 and then you sort of tuck in with your toes. 02:21 One of my favorite things was drifting silently 02:25 through the space station, 02:26 which was humming along at night. 02:28 I wondered sometimes if it knew I was there, 02:32 just silent. 02:34 But sharing the wonder of that with the crew 02:37 was also part of what was important to me. 02:42 A typical day in space starts with the perfect commute. 02:48 I wake up, cruise down the lab 02:51 and say hello to the best morning view ever. 02:55 It's a really fast commute, only 30 seconds, 03:00 and we never get tired of looking out that window. 03:03 I think it reminds us that we're actually still very close to Earth. 03:08 Our crew was the second ever to use the Canadian robotic arm 03:12 to capture a supply ship the size of a school bus 03:15 containing about a dozen different experiments 03:18 and the only chocolate that we would see for the next four months. 03:22 Now, chocolate aside, every single one of those experiments 03:25 enables yet one more scientific question answered 03:29 that we can't do down here on Earth. 03:33 And so, it's like a different lens, 03:35 allowing us to see the answers to questions like, 03:38 "What about combustion?" 03:39 "What about fluid dynamics?" 03:42 Now, sleeping is delightful. 03:45 My favorite -- I mean, you could be upside down, right side up -- 03:48 my favorite: curled up in a little ball and floating freely. 03:52 Laundry? Nope. 03:54 We load our dirty clothes into an empty supply ship 03:58 and send it off into space. 04:00 The bathroom. 04:01 Everyone wants to know. 04:02 It's hard to understand, so I made a little video, 04:05 because I wanted kids to understand 04:08 that the principle of vacuum saves the day 04:11 and that just a gentle breeze helps everything go 04:14 where it is supposed to. 04:16 Well, in real life it does. 04:18 (Laughter) 04:19 Recycling? Of course. 04:20 So we take our urine, we store it, we filter it and then we drink it. 04:25 And it's actually delicious. 04:27 (Laughter) 04:28 Sitting around the table, 04:30 eating food that looks bad but actually tastes pretty good. 04:33 But it's the gathering around the table that's important, 04:36 I think both in space and on Earth, 04:39 because that's what cements a crew together. 04:43 For me, music was a way to stay connected to the rest of the world. 04:46 I played a duet between Earth and space 04:50 with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull 04:52 on the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight. 04:56 Connecting to family was so important. 04:59 I talked with my family almost every day the whole time I was up there, 05:03 and I would actually read books to my son as a way for us just to be together. 05:08 So important. 05:09 Now, when the space station would go over Massachusetts, 05:12 my family would run outside, 05:14 and they would watch the brightest star sailing across the sky. 05:18 And when I looked down, I couldn't see my house, 05:21 but it meant a lot to me to know that the people I loved the most 05:25 were looking up while I was looking down. 05:29 So the space station, for me, is the place where mission and magic come together. 05:34 The mission, the work are vital steps 05:37 in our quest to go further than our planet 05:39 and imperative for understanding sustainability here on Earth. 05:43 I loved being a part of that, 05:45 and if I could have taken my family with me, 05:48 I never would have come home. 05:50 And so my view from the station showed me 05:54 that we are all from the same place. 05:57 We all have our roles to play. 06:00 Because, the Earth is our ship. 06:03 Space is our home. 06:07 And we are the crew of Spaceship Earth. 06:12 Thank you. 06:13 (Applause)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GhJ6CTDEoM