((PKG)) LIFE IN SPACE
((Banner: Above the Earth))
((Executive Producer: Marsha James))
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((Map: Houston, Texas))
((Courtesy on space related BRoll throughout: Courtesy of NASA))
((NATS))
((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
Science is everything. Science is how society accomplishes being a society. Science is how everything gets done. It’s how we move forward. It's how all our products get built and made better. We wouldn't be anywhere if we didn't have scientists constantly asking: How does this work? Can I make that? Can I make this better?
((NATS))
((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
Science is everything. Even in high school I knew I wanted to be an astronaut, but I had no idea what it took to be an astronaut. There's no one path to get to where I am today. Some people are scientists, some people are engineers, some people are medical doctors, some people come from the military, because what we need is astronauts are people that can do a lot of different things. We need lots of diverse people and we need diversity within a single person.
((NATS))
((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
I was actually born and raised in Houston, and so, having the Johnson Space Center in my backyard always stoked that interest for me because I was always aware of what we were doing and what was going on. I spent about six months in space in 2010. My ride to and from the Space Station was on the Soyuz spacecraft and I was actually trained as the co-pilot on there. So, I spent a lot of time in Russia, training and understanding, learning how to fly that spacecraft.
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((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
We will wake up in the morning. Overnight, the control centers have uplinked schedule to us and what they want us to do that day is what we do that day. And it could be maintenance. It could be science. It could be rearranging the space station. It could be dealing with stowage. It’s just whatever the ground needs to accomplish. And so, you do a little bit of everything in space.
((NATS))
((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
And I remember very distinctly, for about the first month that I was in orbit, I would wake up almost every night feeling like I needed to turn over, but that doesn't do any good in space and so, you just sort of shuffle around a bit and go back to sleep.
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((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
Living in space is easy. Coming back, it’s pretty hard. You have lots of aches and pains because you haven't walked around for a long time. I mean you float in space and so, we do a lot of exercises that keep us healthy, but you haven't sat down for a long time. So, it gets uncomfortable to sit down for long periods of time because your body is not used to it.
((NATS))
((Shannon Walker, American Scientist, NASA Astronaut))
We're still in such early stages of the human spaceflight era. We're starting off relatively slowly, but I think as time passes, we will just get more and more people and countries into space and I think, ultimately, we will be truly a spacefaring world. We will be going to other planets and establishing bases and other places to live. I think that is where we're going to end up.
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