Space Explorers: Moonrise on the ISS (2023) Movie Script
1
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Switch clicking ]
-When you sit on
the launch pad at that moment,
you have to be at peace
with everything in your life.
You want to make sure
that everything...
Everything's in order
and that...
people you love
know that you love them
and people that you've wronged
know that you're sorry.
Those final moments,
the person that is spending
the most time with you
is actually your flight surgeon,
your doctor.
They're the last person
that you see.
And you kind of hand them
the last important things,
like your cellphone
and your wallet.
And now you're wearing clothes
that have been picked out
for you.
You're going on
a six-month trip,
and you're not even taking
a toothbrush with you.
I was just Anne.
It is the most rawly human
that I've ever felt.
When we got to orbit,
it was nighttime,
and all I could see
was blackness.
And as we're flying,
I remember something
catching my eye.
And I look out,
and I see this thin, blue line.
You can just tell
that it's curved.
And I realized I was seeing
my first sunrise from space.
And I caught my crewmate's eye,
David,
and we just looked
at each other.
There was a smile on both of our
faces, and we just looked back.
-And confirmed hatch opening,
1:37 p.m. Central Time.
The International Space Station
was 250 miles...
-When I came through the hatch,
it was actually the first time
that I was in free float.
If there was
a quantitative moment
when you achieve your dream,
it's when you float
through that hatch...
-First down
is NASA's Anne McClain.
- because it's the first time
in your whole life
that nothing's gonna stop you
from getting to the
International Space Station.
-Being united
with the Expedition 57 crew.
Her first spaceflight.
-You're there.
You're just there.
And the joy is overwhelming.
[ Soft music plays ]
Okay. I'm Anne McClain,
and I'm on serial number 1001
for the audio recorder.
And this is my first
astronaut log event, so...
So, there's the sync-up.
I'm an engineer.
I'm a black-and-white thinker.
I'm not an orator.
But for my part,
I'm gonna do everything can
to try to describe to you...
really what this experience
is all about.
I really wish everybody on Earth
could have the perspective
that we have living up here,
you know?
And I think it's easy to assume
that that perspective
comes from sitting at a window
and looking back at Earth.
But a lot of that perspective
actually comes from
what it takes to live in space
and the people
that we do this with.
[ Dramatic mic plays ]
There's nobody further away
from Earth than I am right now.
We are exploring
on the very fringes
of what human beings
are capable of.
We're starting to talk
about going back to the moon
or even going to Mars.
And so I remember distinctly
looking up at the moon sometimes
and just thinking, "Wow.
Humans are gonna step foot
back on the moon,
and maybe that could be me."
-Station Huntsville
on space-to-ground 3
for David and ISS Experience.
-Video 3.
-Yeah. So we just need you
to move the "Z" cam
about 1.5 feet
towards the forward side
to center it up in the hatch.
And that's great.
We like that view.
-Before being an astronaut,
I was working as
a family physician
up in the Arctic, in Canada,
a little community.
So, I learned there the art
of being self-reliant
and having a strong bond
with your team.
The space station, of course,
is this giant, international,
orbiting laboratory,
with hundreds of experiments
being conducted
at any given time.
But mostly it's biological
and medical studies.
The reason why is that being in
space is just bad for your body.
The problems
that affect astronauts...
They all are resemblance
to real disease back on Earth,
except here, they develop very
quickly in healthy individuals.
So we're like the perfect guinea
pigs for medical research.
-Okay.
I might just watch it
for a few more sweeps here.
I think this is good to go.
I really like it, actually.
-And with everything
that we are learning
about the medical effects
of living in space,
that will help us
be more confident
to send people even further
than the space station,
back to the moon
and eventually to Mars.
-Our third and final node.
The last one was really great.
I was really excited
to see that one.
-Happy P.I., happy crew.
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
-Up until yesterday,
there were only three of us
on board.
Then, yesterday, three new
crew members arrived...
Our good friends Nick,
Christina, and Aleksey.
-Christina Koch of NASA,
Nick Hague of NASA,
and of course Soyuz Commander
Aleksey Ovchinin,
warm greeting
by Expedition 59 crewmates.
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
Welcome to the U.S. segment.
It's a little room here.
-Oh, my God!
-Cold drinks?
Are you ready for a cold drink,
or do you want to...
-I don't even know
what I'm ready for.
I'm definitely
not, like, dire need.
-Before I became an astronaut,
I worked in the Arctic
and the Antarctic.
I was running
science experiments
and doing maintenance upgrades
for scientists and researchers
that weren't able to be there.
My sort of bedroom on station,
what we call our crew quarters,
is actually
tucked into the ceiling.
So, you know, to get into it,
I would go like this
and then, you know,
go up into the ceiling,
into my crew quarters.
So that was obviously
very disorienting
my first couple days,
when I would come out
of my crew quarters
and have to figure out
which way I was pointing
and which way my feet should go
and whatnot.
-The net
is in front of the microscope,
so we don't want to touch
that rack.
CEVIS is on motion isolators,
vibration isolators.
So we don't want to grab that,
which is...
-They're so perfect.
- super tempting. They are.
And you want to keep
your legs together.
And if you happen
to kick something,
I will say that turn around
and look at what you kicked,
'cause it's probably important.
- Okay.
-Make sure
it's not floating away.
-Yes. And the sooner you can
remap everything to be 3-D,
the quicker you'll be able
to move through here.
When you first arrive,
you're dependent on the crew
that has been there before you
for pretty much everything.
You're learning
how to do everything
for the first time again...
How to eat, how to sleep,
how to call home...
All those really important
things.
- gond I will tell you this.
If your feet are stable,
the rest of you is stable.
-Good evening, Exhibition 59.
Y'all rest up tonight.
And that's all I have.
Anything for us?
- Nope.
Just thanks for a great day.
[ Folk music plays on speakers ]
-Love yourself,
and don't give it
And when you...
-Got some apples, David,
if you want one.
A lot of ways,
it's like camping here.
You don't have a table
to put your stuff down on
when you're eating in the woods.
You want me to toss you one?
- Yeah.
-Of course we have to have
duct tape on the table.
We accept that all of our food
has been attached to gray tape
at some point.
Here. I'll break it down.
You can just put it
on your mouth all at once.
Ready?
You think you can grab it?
You want me to... Here.
I'll cut it smaller for you.
Are you sure? It's kind of big.
-My race here
against the clock. About 56%.
- Okay, ready?
- I'm ready.
- You got it. Ah!
- Oh!
[ Laughing ]
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
-Right now, space station,
we're camping in our backyard,
testing our technologies
for survival in space.
And when we're happy
that our camping equipment
works well in the backyard
of our own home,
then we can leave Earth orbit
and go deeper into space.
If we move to the moon,
well, that's like camping
on a little mountain
an hour's drive away.
But our Everest,
our big ambition, is Mars.
-Station Huntsville
on space-to-ground 2
for Christina and Veggie.
We just wanted to give you guys
a heads up that historically,
the plants have needed water
approximately every three days.
So if someone can check on them
about that often,
and then that should keep them
healthy and happy
and eventually ready
for you to munch on them.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-So, we are learning how
to grow vegetables and plants
on a space station.
And this is not only good
for the human psyche,
like, allowing us
to actually see greenery
and have a salad with dinner,
but it's really important
for long-duration space flight.
Plants are vital
to maintaining our atmosphere
and to maintaining certain
nutrients in the human body.
-Route the cable
behind the FOP unit.
It will be connected
at the upper-left.
[ Beep ]
-On orbit, water is a really
big deal for us,
so we try to recycle
as much as we can.
I'm doing part
of a power cable install.
Even simple tasks
like installing
a new power cable up here
can be pretty complicated.
Cable has a mind of its own.
-Whoo!
- Aw, yes!
- Yes! Yes! I got it!
-Touchdown!
-[ Laughs ]
-When astronauts first started
flying long-duration missions,
astronauts were losing
the same amount
of bone density in a month
that an osteoporotic 80-year-old
woman was losing in a year.
We talk about
the International Space Station
as a proving ground for future
deep-space exploration.
Now, imagine if we had skipped
this proving ground,
and we sent people to Mars,
and then we discovered it and we
couldn't fight against it.
We had to come up with
a countermeasure.
-It's really important
to exercise
on board the space station.
If you're not careful,
you will waste your muscles
and your bones away.
In my case,
I have young children.
I hope
that I can come back to Earth
and be able to carry them
on my shoulders still.
-Good evening, Expedition 59.
Great work today.
You had a very busy day.
And it's a great job
across the board.
[ Telephone ringing ]
-Okay.
[ Laughs ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
- Good.
- Good?
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
-50 years ago,
there was a group of women
with the same talents and the
same passion that I have.
Now known as the Mercury 13,
they were the first group
of women
who underwent the selection
process to become astronauts.
Jerrie Cobb was one of them.
I feel a very kindred spirit
with her.
-Max, would you send down
my chute?
-Jerrie,
when did you start lobbying
to get women
into the space program?
Or was it always
a part of NASA's idea?
-I think it's always been
a part of their thinking
that eventually
we will put women into space.
NASA's attitude was that
there's just no hurry about it.
-Why do you think, then,
with you available,
passing all of the tests
right and left and very quickly,
that they didn't make an effort
to get you up sooner
than you may go?
-Well, I wish I knew.
[ Chuckles ] I wish I knew.
There's no legitimate reasons.
There's no reasons at all
why we haven't used
women astronauts.
-Maybe that says something
about the state of thinking
about women
in the United States.
-By 1960,
she had 7,000 flight hours
and held three
world aviation records.
She was the best in the world.
Not the female best.
She was simply the best.
However, that's where her deep
passion for space exploration
met a barrier,
because she and the other women
were excluded
from being considered
as astronauts.
This is where I was born to be.
I never considered
and would never consider
a different line of work.
At the same time,
I am keenly aware now
how lucky I am to have had
the opportunities I had
when I had them,
because Jerry was also born
to be here.
-You can leave the lights off.
We'll just compensate
by changing the exposure
on the camera.
It shouldn't take
but a minute...
Actually, about three minutes.
-Space is an absolutely
unforgiving environment.
It is not built
for humans to live in.
Yet we do.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-No response required.
We just wanted
to let you know...
-I prepared
for this space flight
by training
to be an army officer.
I spent 15 months in combat
flying Kiowa Warrior
helicopters.
And moving on to step 14
for the measurement.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-15 months in Iraq
will teach you
how to work in a team
whose lives are in your hands.
It teaches you
how to not get complacent.
It teaches you
how to operate in an environment
where you're there for so long
that you have to be able
to relax.
But there always has to be part
of you that's ready to surge.
You can't work so hard
that you're exhausted
at the end of the day
and you have nothing left
to give.
Because at any moment,
in Iraq, flying in a helicopter,
and here on
the International Space Station,
we can get a single alarm,
and suddenly,
we're not watching a movie
on a Friday night with our crew.
We're actually
getting in our vehicle
and flying back to Earth.
-That's the surface that I put
the surface...
-Yeah.
[ Alarm beeping ]
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
-That was right when I hit the
close button on the door system.
-I'm looking, smelling to see
if there's any smoke.
I know that the rest of the team
is rallying
to make sure that we know
what's going on,
that everyone's okay.
-Are you getting anything?
on the racked power switch.
- Any CSACP reading?
- Five seconds.
-The most dangerous thing,
of course,
would be a fire on board.
You can't go outside.
You got to fight the fire
while it's inside.
-The motor is there.
we're still in 2.1.
We went through...
-Still zero, Anne.
-We did have a crew member
using T2 at the time,
and the T2 had just ramped up
from 6 miles an hour
to 10 miles an hour,
and we got the alarm.
-Just to see that surge
of all that training
was just super reassuring.
-Okay, guys.
We're gonna step out.
Don't have too much fun.
- Oh, wait.
- Let's do our picture.
-Anne and David
and Christina and I...
We had never done a spacewalk.
shirts down.
All we had was the training
we brought with us
on the ground.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
- hooked to the fourth
extension of the handrail.
You can release me
from the airlock.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
- Greetings.
- Greetings.
-Doing a spacewalk
for an astronaut...
That's one of the big highlights
of any astronaut's career.
After all these years
of training,
you kind of finally become
yourself,
a little satellite
of the planet,
in your own autonomous,
kind of human-shaped spacecraft,
thanks to our trusty spacesuits,
It's got everything
to keep you alive
in a deadly vacuum of space.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-We're down to the bottom.
-Half an inch is inside,
and half an inch in depth.
-So, you're gonna head
to the... worksite
and be up the airlock.
So you're gonna go past
the high-pressure gas tanks
beneath the...
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-Okay. Copy that, Anne.
-I kind of had a moment
of a pause during the spacewalk.
And I turned, and I looked out
into the rest
of our solar system.
And the moon seemed so far away,
even from the space station.
Yeah.
-And the rest
of the solar system was just...
It was enormous.
And here I am,
this little, tiny human,
floating on the outside
of the space station, holding on
and just understanding
the vastness of it.
-On the UIA, EMU 1 and 2
oxygen valves open.
Okay. And both of you
can switch power to SCU.
Expect a warning tone.
Switch power, EV-1 and 2, to on
on the UIA.
- airlock.
-Okay.
That should be your last task.
Maybe a photo opportunity
in here.
-Sorry.
- test.
-Yes! Pretend it's normal!
[ Laughter ]
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
-The first time that I told my
mom I wanted to be an astronaut,
I was 3 years old.
And I remember my mom telling me
from a young age
when I was feeling discouraged,
probably high school-ish age...
and...
I was sharing with her
some doubts
that people had shared with me
about...
this career path that I wanted.
And she asked me, and she said,
"Well, do they work for NASA?"
And I said, "Well, what are you
talking about? No.
They're, ike, kids
aty high school, teaers."
And she said, "Well,
if they don't work for NASA,
I guess their opinion
doesn't matter, does it?"
And her point was
that I needed to keep going
until the people that actually
had that decision told me no.
And so I did.
-I can hear you guys
having so much fun out there.
I know you did a great job.
We're real proud of you.
-On the space station,
it's a very known environment.
We put it there. We built it.
When you go to the moon,
you're back to an exploration,
to the unknown.
You know, I often get asked,
"Why are we going back
to the moon?"
Why Anne McClain
wants to go to the mn
is because I think
that we can answer
some really exciting questions
about the origins
of life on Earth.
As a society, we're always
looking around the next corner
and saying, "What's out there?"
And I want to be
a part of a society
that always asks
those questions.
[ Down-tempo music plays ]
-I have some numbers for you
guys throughout that procedure.
I have saved them.
-Copy that, Christina.
Thank you for doing that.
We have some ground
commanding to complete
prior to your next
physical activity.
If you'd like,
we can give you a call
when we're ready
for that activity.
-Good morning.
And go ahead.
-We have had the chance
to learn from a previous crew
and have passed the baton
to the next crew.
This is a wheel that turns.
Crews pass the baton
to each other,
keeping this amazing outpost
of humanity functional
and productive and beautiful.
-All the way up there is...
-Already been six months
on board ISS.
In a few weeks,
I'm leaving back to Earth.
[ Down-tempo music plays ]
We hear these stories
from previous crew members
about how gravity
is not your friend
when you haven't been
in her presence for a long time.
So, we're gonna go back
in our little Soyuz.
Imagine this is
the curve of the Earth
and this is the curve
of our orbit.
They're exactly matched.
That's how we're falling around
the world constantly.
If we slow down
just a little bit,
a few percent
of our total speed,
that's just enough
that the curve of our orbit
will converge
towards the curve of the Earth.
And we slowly come down and down
until our spacecraft
hits the atmosphere.
It will just inflame
the capsule,
and we'll turn into
a giant shooting star.
Going back to Earth,
it's a bit scary, actually.
-[ Laughs ]
-Got a whole nother thing
of shrimp.
-You can put maybe a...
- Maybe a little lemon.
- How about a Craisin on top?
Give it a little sweet
at the end of that.
- Oh!
- Mint Life Saver.
-Whoa. A mint Life Saver.
[ Laughs ]
[ Music plays on stereo ]
-A Craisin... there might be
something there.
-I'm all for it.
Kind of like Brie and...
-I just tried
to soak up the moment
and remember these faces.
Alright.
Being able to pass each
other our favorite foods
across the table
without even having to ask...
You know,
that same group of people
won't ever be around that table
again.
-Stacked real high, though.
It's gonna be tough
to, like, do a trick.
-I'm just gonna...
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
That is actually...
-I'm gonna hold the shrimp
and take the olive off.
-There's no way that goes...
[ Both laugh ]
-Watch the shirt.
Precious few.
-It's a rare shirt.
-Oh! You got it.
Round 2. [ Laughs ]
We really are like fish
in an aquarium.
[ Laughter ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-We wish you safe travels
and look forward
to seeing you in the future.
-When a crew leaves,
you're not just saying goodbye
to those people.
You're saying goodbye
to your group dynamic.
You're saying goodbye
to all of the memories
that you shared together
that are so hard
to explain to other people.
- [ Laughs ] To humans.
- Spectacular humans.
-We said goodbye to Anne
and David and Oleg,
our crewmates
from Expedition 59.
One of my favorite moments
in the departure
was literally right before
the hatch was closing
and we were hugging.
And so we're having,
you know, "Love you.
Happy landing. Soft landing.
See you on Earth."
-And then my crewmate Anne
takes a moment to yell at me,
"Oh, by the way,
I left you some almond butter."
- He's been on...
- [ Speaks indistinctly ]
- Congratulations, Aleksey...
- We're not hugging.
- on taking command of the
International Space Station.
-Bring it on in.
-It just reminds you that even
though we do these things
that are grandiose,
it's all done by people.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-One big flip. Six of us.
1...
-Ohh!
-Gonna break something.
That's not a memento.
[ Laughter ]
-Like he's trying to escape.
-So, during my mission,
I broke the record
for the longest continuous time
spent in space by a woman.
But I happened to be in the
right place and the right time.
And that makes me grateful
for those that paved the way
for that to be an option.
My biggest hope, for the record,
is that it is broken
as soon as possible,
because that means
we are continuing
to push the boundaries.
In any given week,
my eyes see the same things,
the same colors.
Same for smells.
Same for the things we taste.
Same for the things we touch.
There aren't many differences to
sort of pin those memories on.
-Hey, Christina, please
stand by on space-to-ground 2.
I'll be with you
in just a minute.
-Living in space is not easy.
We've had some Americans
that have lived up here
for a long time,
but we have not had anybody go
for more than a year.
We think that missions to Mars
and the round trip
on the short end will be
somewhere 2, 2 1/2 years.
Those people
are not going to return to Earth
as the same people that left.
-The process
of welcoming a new crew
is really one of the milestones
of the life cycle
of a crew member
on board the space station.
I in particular really enjoyed
sort of setting up their rooms
so that they could
actually come into a space,
see photos of their families,
and have it feel
truly theirs immediately.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
When Jessica Meir arrived
to the space station,
I was so very excited
to see her.
-Hello!
-I joke that until I saw Jessica
arrive to space station,
I actually had forgot
that I was floating.
-Welcome, welcome, welcome.
-You look good.
-[ Squeals ]
- Good job!
- Welcome!
-So seeing her giddy to be there
and so excited
by all the little things
really reminded me that I was
in a unique environment.
-Welcome! Welcome!
[ Squeals, laughs ]
-I think Jessica and I share
a special bond,
because we went through so much
of our training together.
We spent time together
on the weekends.
We loved to do the same things.
I actually felt very alone
when I first got to space
and she wasn't there.
She is my best friend.
-And here's the last sample,
if you'd like to take a look.
-Jessica, NX Delta 1,
location empty.
-Just burn stuff.
-We are all checked out
and ready to go
on that camera you just set up.
Astronaut log, Jessica Meir.
-As long as you're not, like,
right above the camera
looking down
or something like that.
- Okay.
-And then the bias towards,
you know, having a camera,
like, at eye level,
but u can be upside wn,
you cabe sideways.
-Right.
Okay, thanks. Thank you.
- Bye!
[ Soft music plays ]
-After settling in a little bit,
I was very anxious
to get to the cupola.
We happened to be passing over
the Himalayas in my first view.
And seeing those mountain peaks
and the gradations
of the white snow
and all of the mountains
and valleys,
it was a breathtaking sight.
And the Himalayas are
of course quite special to me,
since before I was an astronaut,
I was studying
the bar-headed goose,
the species that migrate
over the Himalayas.
So there I was, my very first
moment on the space station,
looking out through the windows
of the cupola
and thinking about my geese
looking down at them.
-When you become
the senior crew member,
you realize that there's nobody
to turn around to
and ask a question to.
People are gonna be asking you
those questions.
And you really have to step up
and recognize
that sometimes
you might not know every answer,
but you can definitely rely on
your experience
to be the best person
to answer that question.
Alright. You guys good
to start the USOS part?
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Need a break or anything?
-That sounds good.
-So...
when you're new here,
there's so much going on
that I made these little, like,
cheat sheets
for Amer stuff so that
before you go to bed at night,
you can just, like, have
something to look at real quick
so that you know
when you go to bed
that if there's an alarm
overnight,
you've just refreshed
on what to do.
It's the quick and dirty.
-Okay.
- Yep.
- Just like the training ones,
only in perfect condition.
-Yeah. Exactly.
They've got the weird
emergency switch
where emergency
is actually clockwise.
-Yep.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-Good morning, and welcome
to Mission Control Houston
and NASA's coverage
of today's historic spacewalk
from the
International Space Station.
Astronauts Christina Koch
and Jessica Meir
have spent the past week getting
ready for this spacewalk,
which will be the first
to be conducted by two women.
And prep is proceeding
according to schedule so far.
They are already suited up
inside the Quest Airlock.
And as you can see now,
we are joined
by astronaut Anne McClain,
who is the most recent person on
Earth to have done a spacewalk.
So we appreciate you coming
to talk with us, Anne.
-It's great to be here
this morning.
-I had heard a lot
of different stories
about coming out of the hatch
the first time,
but I of course didn't know
how I was gonna feel.
It actually does feel
different looking at Earth
just through your helmet visor
versus looking out
of the window.
The colors are even more vibrant
and I think, also,
just mentally realizing that,
you know, there is nothing
between the vacuum of space
except for this spacesuit
and your visor.
-You're translating port
to bay 12,
headed nadir of the FHRC.
-The temperature can swing
outside the space station,
depending if you're in the sun
or the shade,
a total of about 400 degrees.
And so a big part
of that life-support system
is t c cooling.
It is very fatiguing.
It's physically
and mentally taxing.
It can be
the metabolic equivalent
of running a marathon.
So they're getting toward the
20th mile of a marathon here.
But one of the things that
they're trained to do very well
is to hone in more mentally
when they're physically tired.
-You can drive all four bolts
to torque
with a minimum
of three additional turns.
Any order.
-Participating in the first
all-woman spacewalk
with Jessica was definitely
the highlight of my career
and maybe even my life
to this day.
I remember a moment where
we caught each other's eye.
At that point,
we knew we had done it.
We were two women
outside the airlock,
in the vacuum of space,
in our spacesuits.
And that would never change,
no matter what.
-Christina and Jessica,
incredible work today.
Welcome home.
We're glad to have you back,
and we're so proud
to be up here with you.
With that, under DCM,
if you would,
please take your O2 actuator
to press.
-Thank you.
- A pretty good pass up here.
- Perfect.
-I got something the other day,
but there were a couple other
spots that I wanted to look at.
-Awesome.
It's really nice
that we have these great passes
over the Amazon on the weekend
so we can actually get in here
and get some pretty...
- Oh, wow.
- I know.
I love seeing
the agricultural lands
and how they're centered
around rivers and stuff.
It just never ceases
to amaze me.
-I am very honored to feel like
I was part of
something historic,
given the first all-women
spacewalk.
I have actually been
pretty overwhelmed by that,
to see how much people
have paid attention to it,
how much
it has resonated and meant
to people
of all different backgrounds,
of all different ages.
The closer that we get
to making space more accessible
e everybody,
the closer we get to being
a truly spacefaring species.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-Station Houston on 2-4.
Jessica or Drew?
I just wanted to let you know
that we are ready for you...
-Time to wash the hair.
I'm going to apply
a little bit of shampoo
and work that through.
-So, it's Expedition 62 now.
It's just Drew Morgan,
OlOleg Skripochka, and myself.
Christina Koch
and Luca Parmitano
and Sasha Skvortsov
left just last week.
So a pretty big change for us
up here,
going from six people to three.
-Hey, Drew.
-Bridging that gap
from the Apollo program,
which is now 50 years behind us,
to the Artemis program,
NASA's new program
to return to the surface
of the moon,
is the ISS.
Because the ISS has taught us
about international partnership,
and it has taught us
how to live and work in space
for a continuous,
long period of time.
-It's a team effort up here.
-Here's an opportunity
to go to the moon...
and understand now
what we didn't know
hundreds of years ago
about "Hey, we are big enough
to have an impact
on an entire planet
by the things we do."
And they're visible from space.
We can see evidence
of urbanization
and glacial retreat.
We owe it to our moon
and to Mars
to minimize the impact
that we have
when we go there.
-One of the photographs
that really has played
a big role in my life
is that iconic
"Earthrise" photo.
That was captured
the very first time
looking back at our planet
with human eyes.
It really transformed
how human beings felt
about our own planet,
about themselves,
their significance
in the solar system.
And it's that Apollo image
that really was pivotal
in creating
the environmental movement.
And this time, with Artemis,
I think it will be
an even stronger impact
on that inspirational component,
because we'll be representing
a much more diverse population
coming from Earth.
-Hey, Jessica.
We had to reconfigure
some of your camera
routing in the cupola.
Thank you very much.
-I'm not really looking
forward to going home right now.
[ Soft music plays ]
And that is interesting
in a whole new way now,
given what is going on
back on Earth.
Since we have been up here
on the space station,
we have had this terrible
outbreak of COVID-19.
We're not the first humans
to see something
of great magnitude
while people were removed
from Earth up here
on the space station.
Frank Culbertson was up here
when the 9/11 attacks
took place.
Sergei Krikalev,
a Russian cosmonaut,
was up here in 1991,
and there was the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
But this one seems
ev the most extreme.
The COVID-19 outbreak
is something
that has swept across
the entire planet
and is really affecting
every other human
but the three of us up here.
with you on three.
-It's been a good mission,
a successful mission.
10 EVAs conducted.
Got to do robotics support,
captured visiting vehicles.
But I found
that I missed my family
more than I thought I would.
I have four kids at home.
I missed an entire school year
of their lives.
I'd say I'm ready to go.
Nine months is l lg g time.
-1,001.
This will be
r r trtronaut log number three.
This is gonna be
my last log experience.
I'm worried that once
I get back down to the ground
that it's going
to start seeming like a dream,
like it never actually happene
-Great job, guys.
Good luck on the trip back home.
-Okay. It's stardate 107.
And it'separtuture day.
-Expedition 62 departing
[ Bellininging ]
There's so mh h going on
just in terms of your body
dealing with returning
to gvivity again
and the thrill, really,
of the ride down.
-All three of tonight's
departing crew members
here in e framame.
And the hatch n now closed
on the Soyuz.
-It's a ve i interesting time
right now in hanan spaceflight.
We areuiuiing nenew vehicles
in the U..
Thate can n launch aga
from Amecacan soil
withpapaceX and Boeing.
Hope t that we have
a spectaculasusuccess rate
with our new
coerercial spacecraft,
and I hope
that we do so internationally.
No one count o on their own
can accomplish something
truly sptatacula
likeetettingllll t way to Mars,
icich ththinmakekes it
all the rerexcitining.
Becacae juju likikhere at
the Internatioiol Space Statatn,
Becacdodoing someining at
the Inwiwi a d divsese teamtatn,
willllakake itucuch momo specici
and imimpaful mission
for evererybod
-And that was s good
voice check, loud and clear,
so we are e ady to begin
the welcoming ceremony.
[ Applause ]
-And there they are.
First across the hatch,
Mike Hopkins.
Today begins the first
full-duration science mission
of NASA's
Commercial Crew Program.
And here's Victor Glover.
-As a test pilot flying
the first operational mission
of the Crew Dragon
was literally the dream mission.
This is an important step
in our journey to the moon
and eventually on to Mars.
-And recording has now started.
-Victor Glover, astronaut log,
in the Columbus module,
on GMT 3:59,
Christmas Eve, 2020.
Apollo happened
in the '60s and '70s.
And so the world was in
a very interesting place...
The Civil Rights Movement,
Vietnam.
So Apollo happened
while all of those real-life
things were happening.
And it was uplifting to a lot
of people all around the world,
but it also missed
a lot of people.
-Hey, Mike, we are a go
with your plan
to take off some of those ties,
and we'd just appreciate
pictures when you're done.
-I think that that is another
strength of the Artemis program,
is that
because it's happening today,
it has a greater chance to bring
the world collectively together,
especially because that crew
could potentially look much more
like the rest of the planet.
-Okay, big picture,
our game plan is for you
to do the APFR relocate
and the O.I. lift relocate,
as well.
-That's a good view.
On two.
-This space station...
It has given us a process
to test out technology,
to test out spacesuits,
to test out
laboratory facilities,
manufacturing capabilities.
But it haslso gin us place
to lea to exist in space.
And so that process is more
important than an end state.
I think the biggest thing
I learned
on the International
Space Station
during my time in space
is that you have to listen
to space
and let it teach you.
-The most significant
realization
I had on this mission
is that if I had been born
50 years ago,
I would have never had
this opportunity.
And I look back at the Earth,
and I wonder,
"Who do we exclude now?"
-The one thing that I hope
that I can convey
and share with people
is that we are all in this
together.
We need to live our lives
that way.
It's so easy to understand
when you're looking back
at the planet from above.
It just makes sense.
-Our beautiful, blue planet
in the middle of
the deadly vacuum of space,
with no new air, no new water.
It's all recycled.
When you see that, it's obvious
that this is our spaceship
for the whole of humanity.
-Together, we're exploring.
And to me,
that's an important reason
why we even have a space station
and a space program.
You know, if we're not moving
forward, we're moving backward.
And this is the moving-forward
part of what we do as humanity.
-5...
Core stage engine start.
3... 2... 1...
Boosters and ignition.
And liftoff of Artemis I.
We rise together,
back to the moon and beyond.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Switch clicking ]
-When you sit on
the launch pad at that moment,
you have to be at peace
with everything in your life.
You want to make sure
that everything...
Everything's in order
and that...
people you love
know that you love them
and people that you've wronged
know that you're sorry.
Those final moments,
the person that is spending
the most time with you
is actually your flight surgeon,
your doctor.
They're the last person
that you see.
And you kind of hand them
the last important things,
like your cellphone
and your wallet.
And now you're wearing clothes
that have been picked out
for you.
You're going on
a six-month trip,
and you're not even taking
a toothbrush with you.
I was just Anne.
It is the most rawly human
that I've ever felt.
When we got to orbit,
it was nighttime,
and all I could see
was blackness.
And as we're flying,
I remember something
catching my eye.
And I look out,
and I see this thin, blue line.
You can just tell
that it's curved.
And I realized I was seeing
my first sunrise from space.
And I caught my crewmate's eye,
David,
and we just looked
at each other.
There was a smile on both of our
faces, and we just looked back.
-And confirmed hatch opening,
1:37 p.m. Central Time.
The International Space Station
was 250 miles...
-When I came through the hatch,
it was actually the first time
that I was in free float.
If there was
a quantitative moment
when you achieve your dream,
it's when you float
through that hatch...
-First down
is NASA's Anne McClain.
- because it's the first time
in your whole life
that nothing's gonna stop you
from getting to the
International Space Station.
-Being united
with the Expedition 57 crew.
Her first spaceflight.
-You're there.
You're just there.
And the joy is overwhelming.
[ Soft music plays ]
Okay. I'm Anne McClain,
and I'm on serial number 1001
for the audio recorder.
And this is my first
astronaut log event, so...
So, there's the sync-up.
I'm an engineer.
I'm a black-and-white thinker.
I'm not an orator.
But for my part,
I'm gonna do everything can
to try to describe to you...
really what this experience
is all about.
I really wish everybody on Earth
could have the perspective
that we have living up here,
you know?
And I think it's easy to assume
that that perspective
comes from sitting at a window
and looking back at Earth.
But a lot of that perspective
actually comes from
what it takes to live in space
and the people
that we do this with.
[ Dramatic mic plays ]
There's nobody further away
from Earth than I am right now.
We are exploring
on the very fringes
of what human beings
are capable of.
We're starting to talk
about going back to the moon
or even going to Mars.
And so I remember distinctly
looking up at the moon sometimes
and just thinking, "Wow.
Humans are gonna step foot
back on the moon,
and maybe that could be me."
-Station Huntsville
on space-to-ground 3
for David and ISS Experience.
-Video 3.
-Yeah. So we just need you
to move the "Z" cam
about 1.5 feet
towards the forward side
to center it up in the hatch.
And that's great.
We like that view.
-Before being an astronaut,
I was working as
a family physician
up in the Arctic, in Canada,
a little community.
So, I learned there the art
of being self-reliant
and having a strong bond
with your team.
The space station, of course,
is this giant, international,
orbiting laboratory,
with hundreds of experiments
being conducted
at any given time.
But mostly it's biological
and medical studies.
The reason why is that being in
space is just bad for your body.
The problems
that affect astronauts...
They all are resemblance
to real disease back on Earth,
except here, they develop very
quickly in healthy individuals.
So we're like the perfect guinea
pigs for medical research.
-Okay.
I might just watch it
for a few more sweeps here.
I think this is good to go.
I really like it, actually.
-And with everything
that we are learning
about the medical effects
of living in space,
that will help us
be more confident
to send people even further
than the space station,
back to the moon
and eventually to Mars.
-Our third and final node.
The last one was really great.
I was really excited
to see that one.
-Happy P.I., happy crew.
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
-Up until yesterday,
there were only three of us
on board.
Then, yesterday, three new
crew members arrived...
Our good friends Nick,
Christina, and Aleksey.
-Christina Koch of NASA,
Nick Hague of NASA,
and of course Soyuz Commander
Aleksey Ovchinin,
warm greeting
by Expedition 59 crewmates.
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
Welcome to the U.S. segment.
It's a little room here.
-Oh, my God!
-Cold drinks?
Are you ready for a cold drink,
or do you want to...
-I don't even know
what I'm ready for.
I'm definitely
not, like, dire need.
-Before I became an astronaut,
I worked in the Arctic
and the Antarctic.
I was running
science experiments
and doing maintenance upgrades
for scientists and researchers
that weren't able to be there.
My sort of bedroom on station,
what we call our crew quarters,
is actually
tucked into the ceiling.
So, you know, to get into it,
I would go like this
and then, you know,
go up into the ceiling,
into my crew quarters.
So that was obviously
very disorienting
my first couple days,
when I would come out
of my crew quarters
and have to figure out
which way I was pointing
and which way my feet should go
and whatnot.
-The net
is in front of the microscope,
so we don't want to touch
that rack.
CEVIS is on motion isolators,
vibration isolators.
So we don't want to grab that,
which is...
-They're so perfect.
- super tempting. They are.
And you want to keep
your legs together.
And if you happen
to kick something,
I will say that turn around
and look at what you kicked,
'cause it's probably important.
- Okay.
-Make sure
it's not floating away.
-Yes. And the sooner you can
remap everything to be 3-D,
the quicker you'll be able
to move through here.
When you first arrive,
you're dependent on the crew
that has been there before you
for pretty much everything.
You're learning
how to do everything
for the first time again...
How to eat, how to sleep,
how to call home...
All those really important
things.
- gond I will tell you this.
If your feet are stable,
the rest of you is stable.
-Good evening, Exhibition 59.
Y'all rest up tonight.
And that's all I have.
Anything for us?
- Nope.
Just thanks for a great day.
[ Folk music plays on speakers ]
-Love yourself,
and don't give it
And when you...
-Got some apples, David,
if you want one.
A lot of ways,
it's like camping here.
You don't have a table
to put your stuff down on
when you're eating in the woods.
You want me to toss you one?
- Yeah.
-Of course we have to have
duct tape on the table.
We accept that all of our food
has been attached to gray tape
at some point.
Here. I'll break it down.
You can just put it
on your mouth all at once.
Ready?
You think you can grab it?
You want me to... Here.
I'll cut it smaller for you.
Are you sure? It's kind of big.
-My race here
against the clock. About 56%.
- Okay, ready?
- I'm ready.
- You got it. Ah!
- Oh!
[ Laughing ]
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
-Right now, space station,
we're camping in our backyard,
testing our technologies
for survival in space.
And when we're happy
that our camping equipment
works well in the backyard
of our own home,
then we can leave Earth orbit
and go deeper into space.
If we move to the moon,
well, that's like camping
on a little mountain
an hour's drive away.
But our Everest,
our big ambition, is Mars.
-Station Huntsville
on space-to-ground 2
for Christina and Veggie.
We just wanted to give you guys
a heads up that historically,
the plants have needed water
approximately every three days.
So if someone can check on them
about that often,
and then that should keep them
healthy and happy
and eventually ready
for you to munch on them.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-So, we are learning how
to grow vegetables and plants
on a space station.
And this is not only good
for the human psyche,
like, allowing us
to actually see greenery
and have a salad with dinner,
but it's really important
for long-duration space flight.
Plants are vital
to maintaining our atmosphere
and to maintaining certain
nutrients in the human body.
-Route the cable
behind the FOP unit.
It will be connected
at the upper-left.
[ Beep ]
-On orbit, water is a really
big deal for us,
so we try to recycle
as much as we can.
I'm doing part
of a power cable install.
Even simple tasks
like installing
a new power cable up here
can be pretty complicated.
Cable has a mind of its own.
-Whoo!
- Aw, yes!
- Yes! Yes! I got it!
-Touchdown!
-[ Laughs ]
-When astronauts first started
flying long-duration missions,
astronauts were losing
the same amount
of bone density in a month
that an osteoporotic 80-year-old
woman was losing in a year.
We talk about
the International Space Station
as a proving ground for future
deep-space exploration.
Now, imagine if we had skipped
this proving ground,
and we sent people to Mars,
and then we discovered it and we
couldn't fight against it.
We had to come up with
a countermeasure.
-It's really important
to exercise
on board the space station.
If you're not careful,
you will waste your muscles
and your bones away.
In my case,
I have young children.
I hope
that I can come back to Earth
and be able to carry them
on my shoulders still.
-Good evening, Expedition 59.
Great work today.
You had a very busy day.
And it's a great job
across the board.
[ Telephone ringing ]
-Okay.
[ Laughs ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
- Good.
- Good?
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
-50 years ago,
there was a group of women
with the same talents and the
same passion that I have.
Now known as the Mercury 13,
they were the first group
of women
who underwent the selection
process to become astronauts.
Jerrie Cobb was one of them.
I feel a very kindred spirit
with her.
-Max, would you send down
my chute?
-Jerrie,
when did you start lobbying
to get women
into the space program?
Or was it always
a part of NASA's idea?
-I think it's always been
a part of their thinking
that eventually
we will put women into space.
NASA's attitude was that
there's just no hurry about it.
-Why do you think, then,
with you available,
passing all of the tests
right and left and very quickly,
that they didn't make an effort
to get you up sooner
than you may go?
-Well, I wish I knew.
[ Chuckles ] I wish I knew.
There's no legitimate reasons.
There's no reasons at all
why we haven't used
women astronauts.
-Maybe that says something
about the state of thinking
about women
in the United States.
-By 1960,
she had 7,000 flight hours
and held three
world aviation records.
She was the best in the world.
Not the female best.
She was simply the best.
However, that's where her deep
passion for space exploration
met a barrier,
because she and the other women
were excluded
from being considered
as astronauts.
This is where I was born to be.
I never considered
and would never consider
a different line of work.
At the same time,
I am keenly aware now
how lucky I am to have had
the opportunities I had
when I had them,
because Jerry was also born
to be here.
-You can leave the lights off.
We'll just compensate
by changing the exposure
on the camera.
It shouldn't take
but a minute...
Actually, about three minutes.
-Space is an absolutely
unforgiving environment.
It is not built
for humans to live in.
Yet we do.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-No response required.
We just wanted
to let you know...
-I prepared
for this space flight
by training
to be an army officer.
I spent 15 months in combat
flying Kiowa Warrior
helicopters.
And moving on to step 14
for the measurement.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-15 months in Iraq
will teach you
how to work in a team
whose lives are in your hands.
It teaches you
how to not get complacent.
It teaches you
how to operate in an environment
where you're there for so long
that you have to be able
to relax.
But there always has to be part
of you that's ready to surge.
You can't work so hard
that you're exhausted
at the end of the day
and you have nothing left
to give.
Because at any moment,
in Iraq, flying in a helicopter,
and here on
the International Space Station,
we can get a single alarm,
and suddenly,
we're not watching a movie
on a Friday night with our crew.
We're actually
getting in our vehicle
and flying back to Earth.
-That's the surface that I put
the surface...
-Yeah.
[ Alarm beeping ]
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
-That was right when I hit the
close button on the door system.
-I'm looking, smelling to see
if there's any smoke.
I know that the rest of the team
is rallying
to make sure that we know
what's going on,
that everyone's okay.
-Are you getting anything?
on the racked power switch.
- Any CSACP reading?
- Five seconds.
-The most dangerous thing,
of course,
would be a fire on board.
You can't go outside.
You got to fight the fire
while it's inside.
-The motor is there.
we're still in 2.1.
We went through...
-Still zero, Anne.
-We did have a crew member
using T2 at the time,
and the T2 had just ramped up
from 6 miles an hour
to 10 miles an hour,
and we got the alarm.
-Just to see that surge
of all that training
was just super reassuring.
-Okay, guys.
We're gonna step out.
Don't have too much fun.
- Oh, wait.
- Let's do our picture.
-Anne and David
and Christina and I...
We had never done a spacewalk.
shirts down.
All we had was the training
we brought with us
on the ground.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
- hooked to the fourth
extension of the handrail.
You can release me
from the airlock.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
- Greetings.
- Greetings.
-Doing a spacewalk
for an astronaut...
That's one of the big highlights
of any astronaut's career.
After all these years
of training,
you kind of finally become
yourself,
a little satellite
of the planet,
in your own autonomous,
kind of human-shaped spacecraft,
thanks to our trusty spacesuits,
It's got everything
to keep you alive
in a deadly vacuum of space.
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-We're down to the bottom.
-Half an inch is inside,
and half an inch in depth.
-So, you're gonna head
to the... worksite
and be up the airlock.
So you're gonna go past
the high-pressure gas tanks
beneath the...
[ Indistinct radio chatter ]
-Okay. Copy that, Anne.
-I kind of had a moment
of a pause during the spacewalk.
And I turned, and I looked out
into the rest
of our solar system.
And the moon seemed so far away,
even from the space station.
Yeah.
-And the rest
of the solar system was just...
It was enormous.
And here I am,
this little, tiny human,
floating on the outside
of the space station, holding on
and just understanding
the vastness of it.
-On the UIA, EMU 1 and 2
oxygen valves open.
Okay. And both of you
can switch power to SCU.
Expect a warning tone.
Switch power, EV-1 and 2, to on
on the UIA.
- airlock.
-Okay.
That should be your last task.
Maybe a photo opportunity
in here.
-Sorry.
- test.
-Yes! Pretend it's normal!
[ Laughter ]
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
-The first time that I told my
mom I wanted to be an astronaut,
I was 3 years old.
And I remember my mom telling me
from a young age
when I was feeling discouraged,
probably high school-ish age...
and...
I was sharing with her
some doubts
that people had shared with me
about...
this career path that I wanted.
And she asked me, and she said,
"Well, do they work for NASA?"
And I said, "Well, what are you
talking about? No.
They're, ike, kids
aty high school, teaers."
And she said, "Well,
if they don't work for NASA,
I guess their opinion
doesn't matter, does it?"
And her point was
that I needed to keep going
until the people that actually
had that decision told me no.
And so I did.
-I can hear you guys
having so much fun out there.
I know you did a great job.
We're real proud of you.
-On the space station,
it's a very known environment.
We put it there. We built it.
When you go to the moon,
you're back to an exploration,
to the unknown.
You know, I often get asked,
"Why are we going back
to the moon?"
Why Anne McClain
wants to go to the mn
is because I think
that we can answer
some really exciting questions
about the origins
of life on Earth.
As a society, we're always
looking around the next corner
and saying, "What's out there?"
And I want to be
a part of a society
that always asks
those questions.
[ Down-tempo music plays ]
-I have some numbers for you
guys throughout that procedure.
I have saved them.
-Copy that, Christina.
Thank you for doing that.
We have some ground
commanding to complete
prior to your next
physical activity.
If you'd like,
we can give you a call
when we're ready
for that activity.
-Good morning.
And go ahead.
-We have had the chance
to learn from a previous crew
and have passed the baton
to the next crew.
This is a wheel that turns.
Crews pass the baton
to each other,
keeping this amazing outpost
of humanity functional
and productive and beautiful.
-All the way up there is...
-Already been six months
on board ISS.
In a few weeks,
I'm leaving back to Earth.
[ Down-tempo music plays ]
We hear these stories
from previous crew members
about how gravity
is not your friend
when you haven't been
in her presence for a long time.
So, we're gonna go back
in our little Soyuz.
Imagine this is
the curve of the Earth
and this is the curve
of our orbit.
They're exactly matched.
That's how we're falling around
the world constantly.
If we slow down
just a little bit,
a few percent
of our total speed,
that's just enough
that the curve of our orbit
will converge
towards the curve of the Earth.
And we slowly come down and down
until our spacecraft
hits the atmosphere.
It will just inflame
the capsule,
and we'll turn into
a giant shooting star.
Going back to Earth,
it's a bit scary, actually.
-[ Laughs ]
-Got a whole nother thing
of shrimp.
-You can put maybe a...
- Maybe a little lemon.
- How about a Craisin on top?
Give it a little sweet
at the end of that.
- Oh!
- Mint Life Saver.
-Whoa. A mint Life Saver.
[ Laughs ]
[ Music plays on stereo ]
-A Craisin... there might be
something there.
-I'm all for it.
Kind of like Brie and...
-I just tried
to soak up the moment
and remember these faces.
Alright.
Being able to pass each
other our favorite foods
across the table
without even having to ask...
You know,
that same group of people
won't ever be around that table
again.
-Stacked real high, though.
It's gonna be tough
to, like, do a trick.
-I'm just gonna...
-[ Speaks indistinctly ]
That is actually...
-I'm gonna hold the shrimp
and take the olive off.
-There's no way that goes...
[ Both laugh ]
-Watch the shirt.
Precious few.
-It's a rare shirt.
-Oh! You got it.
Round 2. [ Laughs ]
We really are like fish
in an aquarium.
[ Laughter ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-We wish you safe travels
and look forward
to seeing you in the future.
-When a crew leaves,
you're not just saying goodbye
to those people.
You're saying goodbye
to your group dynamic.
You're saying goodbye
to all of the memories
that you shared together
that are so hard
to explain to other people.
- [ Laughs ] To humans.
- Spectacular humans.
-We said goodbye to Anne
and David and Oleg,
our crewmates
from Expedition 59.
One of my favorite moments
in the departure
was literally right before
the hatch was closing
and we were hugging.
And so we're having,
you know, "Love you.
Happy landing. Soft landing.
See you on Earth."
-And then my crewmate Anne
takes a moment to yell at me,
"Oh, by the way,
I left you some almond butter."
- He's been on...
- [ Speaks indistinctly ]
- Congratulations, Aleksey...
- We're not hugging.
- on taking command of the
International Space Station.
-Bring it on in.
-It just reminds you that even
though we do these things
that are grandiose,
it's all done by people.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-One big flip. Six of us.
1...
-Ohh!
-Gonna break something.
That's not a memento.
[ Laughter ]
-Like he's trying to escape.
-So, during my mission,
I broke the record
for the longest continuous time
spent in space by a woman.
But I happened to be in the
right place and the right time.
And that makes me grateful
for those that paved the way
for that to be an option.
My biggest hope, for the record,
is that it is broken
as soon as possible,
because that means
we are continuing
to push the boundaries.
In any given week,
my eyes see the same things,
the same colors.
Same for smells.
Same for the things we taste.
Same for the things we touch.
There aren't many differences to
sort of pin those memories on.
-Hey, Christina, please
stand by on space-to-ground 2.
I'll be with you
in just a minute.
-Living in space is not easy.
We've had some Americans
that have lived up here
for a long time,
but we have not had anybody go
for more than a year.
We think that missions to Mars
and the round trip
on the short end will be
somewhere 2, 2 1/2 years.
Those people
are not going to return to Earth
as the same people that left.
-The process
of welcoming a new crew
is really one of the milestones
of the life cycle
of a crew member
on board the space station.
I in particular really enjoyed
sort of setting up their rooms
so that they could
actually come into a space,
see photos of their families,
and have it feel
truly theirs immediately.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
When Jessica Meir arrived
to the space station,
I was so very excited
to see her.
-Hello!
-I joke that until I saw Jessica
arrive to space station,
I actually had forgot
that I was floating.
-Welcome, welcome, welcome.
-You look good.
-[ Squeals ]
- Good job!
- Welcome!
-So seeing her giddy to be there
and so excited
by all the little things
really reminded me that I was
in a unique environment.
-Welcome! Welcome!
[ Squeals, laughs ]
-I think Jessica and I share
a special bond,
because we went through so much
of our training together.
We spent time together
on the weekends.
We loved to do the same things.
I actually felt very alone
when I first got to space
and she wasn't there.
She is my best friend.
-And here's the last sample,
if you'd like to take a look.
-Jessica, NX Delta 1,
location empty.
-Just burn stuff.
-We are all checked out
and ready to go
on that camera you just set up.
Astronaut log, Jessica Meir.
-As long as you're not, like,
right above the camera
looking down
or something like that.
- Okay.
-And then the bias towards,
you know, having a camera,
like, at eye level,
but u can be upside wn,
you cabe sideways.
-Right.
Okay, thanks. Thank you.
- Bye!
[ Soft music plays ]
-After settling in a little bit,
I was very anxious
to get to the cupola.
We happened to be passing over
the Himalayas in my first view.
And seeing those mountain peaks
and the gradations
of the white snow
and all of the mountains
and valleys,
it was a breathtaking sight.
And the Himalayas are
of course quite special to me,
since before I was an astronaut,
I was studying
the bar-headed goose,
the species that migrate
over the Himalayas.
So there I was, my very first
moment on the space station,
looking out through the windows
of the cupola
and thinking about my geese
looking down at them.
-When you become
the senior crew member,
you realize that there's nobody
to turn around to
and ask a question to.
People are gonna be asking you
those questions.
And you really have to step up
and recognize
that sometimes
you might not know every answer,
but you can definitely rely on
your experience
to be the best person
to answer that question.
Alright. You guys good
to start the USOS part?
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Need a break or anything?
-That sounds good.
-So...
when you're new here,
there's so much going on
that I made these little, like,
cheat sheets
for Amer stuff so that
before you go to bed at night,
you can just, like, have
something to look at real quick
so that you know
when you go to bed
that if there's an alarm
overnight,
you've just refreshed
on what to do.
It's the quick and dirty.
-Okay.
- Yep.
- Just like the training ones,
only in perfect condition.
-Yeah. Exactly.
They've got the weird
emergency switch
where emergency
is actually clockwise.
-Yep.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-Good morning, and welcome
to Mission Control Houston
and NASA's coverage
of today's historic spacewalk
from the
International Space Station.
Astronauts Christina Koch
and Jessica Meir
have spent the past week getting
ready for this spacewalk,
which will be the first
to be conducted by two women.
And prep is proceeding
according to schedule so far.
They are already suited up
inside the Quest Airlock.
And as you can see now,
we are joined
by astronaut Anne McClain,
who is the most recent person on
Earth to have done a spacewalk.
So we appreciate you coming
to talk with us, Anne.
-It's great to be here
this morning.
-I had heard a lot
of different stories
about coming out of the hatch
the first time,
but I of course didn't know
how I was gonna feel.
It actually does feel
different looking at Earth
just through your helmet visor
versus looking out
of the window.
The colors are even more vibrant
and I think, also,
just mentally realizing that,
you know, there is nothing
between the vacuum of space
except for this spacesuit
and your visor.
-You're translating port
to bay 12,
headed nadir of the FHRC.
-The temperature can swing
outside the space station,
depending if you're in the sun
or the shade,
a total of about 400 degrees.
And so a big part
of that life-support system
is t c cooling.
It is very fatiguing.
It's physically
and mentally taxing.
It can be
the metabolic equivalent
of running a marathon.
So they're getting toward the
20th mile of a marathon here.
But one of the things that
they're trained to do very well
is to hone in more mentally
when they're physically tired.
-You can drive all four bolts
to torque
with a minimum
of three additional turns.
Any order.
-Participating in the first
all-woman spacewalk
with Jessica was definitely
the highlight of my career
and maybe even my life
to this day.
I remember a moment where
we caught each other's eye.
At that point,
we knew we had done it.
We were two women
outside the airlock,
in the vacuum of space,
in our spacesuits.
And that would never change,
no matter what.
-Christina and Jessica,
incredible work today.
Welcome home.
We're glad to have you back,
and we're so proud
to be up here with you.
With that, under DCM,
if you would,
please take your O2 actuator
to press.
-Thank you.
- A pretty good pass up here.
- Perfect.
-I got something the other day,
but there were a couple other
spots that I wanted to look at.
-Awesome.
It's really nice
that we have these great passes
over the Amazon on the weekend
so we can actually get in here
and get some pretty...
- Oh, wow.
- I know.
I love seeing
the agricultural lands
and how they're centered
around rivers and stuff.
It just never ceases
to amaze me.
-I am very honored to feel like
I was part of
something historic,
given the first all-women
spacewalk.
I have actually been
pretty overwhelmed by that,
to see how much people
have paid attention to it,
how much
it has resonated and meant
to people
of all different backgrounds,
of all different ages.
The closer that we get
to making space more accessible
e everybody,
the closer we get to being
a truly spacefaring species.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-Station Houston on 2-4.
Jessica or Drew?
I just wanted to let you know
that we are ready for you...
-Time to wash the hair.
I'm going to apply
a little bit of shampoo
and work that through.
-So, it's Expedition 62 now.
It's just Drew Morgan,
OlOleg Skripochka, and myself.
Christina Koch
and Luca Parmitano
and Sasha Skvortsov
left just last week.
So a pretty big change for us
up here,
going from six people to three.
-Hey, Drew.
-Bridging that gap
from the Apollo program,
which is now 50 years behind us,
to the Artemis program,
NASA's new program
to return to the surface
of the moon,
is the ISS.
Because the ISS has taught us
about international partnership,
and it has taught us
how to live and work in space
for a continuous,
long period of time.
-It's a team effort up here.
-Here's an opportunity
to go to the moon...
and understand now
what we didn't know
hundreds of years ago
about "Hey, we are big enough
to have an impact
on an entire planet
by the things we do."
And they're visible from space.
We can see evidence
of urbanization
and glacial retreat.
We owe it to our moon
and to Mars
to minimize the impact
that we have
when we go there.
-One of the photographs
that really has played
a big role in my life
is that iconic
"Earthrise" photo.
That was captured
the very first time
looking back at our planet
with human eyes.
It really transformed
how human beings felt
about our own planet,
about themselves,
their significance
in the solar system.
And it's that Apollo image
that really was pivotal
in creating
the environmental movement.
And this time, with Artemis,
I think it will be
an even stronger impact
on that inspirational component,
because we'll be representing
a much more diverse population
coming from Earth.
-Hey, Jessica.
We had to reconfigure
some of your camera
routing in the cupola.
Thank you very much.
-I'm not really looking
forward to going home right now.
[ Soft music plays ]
And that is interesting
in a whole new way now,
given what is going on
back on Earth.
Since we have been up here
on the space station,
we have had this terrible
outbreak of COVID-19.
We're not the first humans
to see something
of great magnitude
while people were removed
from Earth up here
on the space station.
Frank Culbertson was up here
when the 9/11 attacks
took place.
Sergei Krikalev,
a Russian cosmonaut,
was up here in 1991,
and there was the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
But this one seems
ev the most extreme.
The COVID-19 outbreak
is something
that has swept across
the entire planet
and is really affecting
every other human
but the three of us up here.
with you on three.
-It's been a good mission,
a successful mission.
10 EVAs conducted.
Got to do robotics support,
captured visiting vehicles.
But I found
that I missed my family
more than I thought I would.
I have four kids at home.
I missed an entire school year
of their lives.
I'd say I'm ready to go.
Nine months is l lg g time.
-1,001.
This will be
r r trtronaut log number three.
This is gonna be
my last log experience.
I'm worried that once
I get back down to the ground
that it's going
to start seeming like a dream,
like it never actually happene
-Great job, guys.
Good luck on the trip back home.
-Okay. It's stardate 107.
And it'separtuture day.
-Expedition 62 departing
[ Bellininging ]
There's so mh h going on
just in terms of your body
dealing with returning
to gvivity again
and the thrill, really,
of the ride down.
-All three of tonight's
departing crew members
here in e framame.
And the hatch n now closed
on the Soyuz.
-It's a ve i interesting time
right now in hanan spaceflight.
We areuiuiing nenew vehicles
in the U..
Thate can n launch aga
from Amecacan soil
withpapaceX and Boeing.
Hope t that we have
a spectaculasusuccess rate
with our new
coerercial spacecraft,
and I hope
that we do so internationally.
No one count o on their own
can accomplish something
truly sptatacula
likeetettingllll t way to Mars,
icich ththinmakekes it
all the rerexcitining.
Becacae juju likikhere at
the Internatioiol Space Statatn,
Becacdodoing someining at
the Inwiwi a d divsese teamtatn,
willllakake itucuch momo specici
and imimpaful mission
for evererybod
-And that was s good
voice check, loud and clear,
so we are e ady to begin
the welcoming ceremony.
[ Applause ]
-And there they are.
First across the hatch,
Mike Hopkins.
Today begins the first
full-duration science mission
of NASA's
Commercial Crew Program.
And here's Victor Glover.
-As a test pilot flying
the first operational mission
of the Crew Dragon
was literally the dream mission.
This is an important step
in our journey to the moon
and eventually on to Mars.
-And recording has now started.
-Victor Glover, astronaut log,
in the Columbus module,
on GMT 3:59,
Christmas Eve, 2020.
Apollo happened
in the '60s and '70s.
And so the world was in
a very interesting place...
The Civil Rights Movement,
Vietnam.
So Apollo happened
while all of those real-life
things were happening.
And it was uplifting to a lot
of people all around the world,
but it also missed
a lot of people.
-Hey, Mike, we are a go
with your plan
to take off some of those ties,
and we'd just appreciate
pictures when you're done.
-I think that that is another
strength of the Artemis program,
is that
because it's happening today,
it has a greater chance to bring
the world collectively together,
especially because that crew
could potentially look much more
like the rest of the planet.
-Okay, big picture,
our game plan is for you
to do the APFR relocate
and the O.I. lift relocate,
as well.
-That's a good view.
On two.
-This space station...
It has given us a process
to test out technology,
to test out spacesuits,
to test out
laboratory facilities,
manufacturing capabilities.
But it haslso gin us place
to lea to exist in space.
And so that process is more
important than an end state.
I think the biggest thing
I learned
on the International
Space Station
during my time in space
is that you have to listen
to space
and let it teach you.
-The most significant
realization
I had on this mission
is that if I had been born
50 years ago,
I would have never had
this opportunity.
And I look back at the Earth,
and I wonder,
"Who do we exclude now?"
-The one thing that I hope
that I can convey
and share with people
is that we are all in this
together.
We need to live our lives
that way.
It's so easy to understand
when you're looking back
at the planet from above.
It just makes sense.
-Our beautiful, blue planet
in the middle of
the deadly vacuum of space,
with no new air, no new water.
It's all recycled.
When you see that, it's obvious
that this is our spaceship
for the whole of humanity.
-Together, we're exploring.
And to me,
that's an important reason
why we even have a space station
and a space program.
You know, if we're not moving
forward, we're moving backward.
And this is the moving-forward
part of what we do as humanity.
-5...
Core stage engine start.
3... 2... 1...
Boosters and ignition.
And liftoff of Artemis I.
We rise together,
back to the moon and beyond.
[ Dramatic music plays ]