SpaceX Crew 9機組人員返回後舉行新聞發布會

早上好 歡迎來到納沙的約翰遜宇宙中心 為我們今天舉辦的Crew-9新聞會 今天我們請來在現場的Crew-9飛行員 尼克·黑格 桑尼·威廉斯和布切爾·威爾摩爾 在開始之前 我們先請尼克先說幾句 尼克 請說 謝謝 康妮 我想先說一些 Crew-9飛行員的意義 我認為 最終是獨特的 就像每個空中飛行員一樣 你不知道他們會怎麼發展 但我認為Crew-9飛行員 對它來說 對我來說 是安全和飛行員的重要性 以及兩者的平衡 如同大家所知 早在夏天 納沙正在平衡桑尼·威廉斯和布切爾·威廉斯的安全回歸 並且在兩年半的時間內 他們正在進行研究 為了人類的利益 因此我們決定 將亞歷克斯和我 帶來幾張空座 並將布切爾·威廉斯和桑尼·威廉斯 加入Crew-9的飛行員 並將他們帶回 長程飛行任務的結束 因此我們今天坐在這裡 除了亞歷克斯 他正在修復在俄羅斯 和他的朋友和家人 我們坐在這裡 為了這次任務的成功 我期待回答您的問題 是的 當然 我只想說謝謝 謝謝尼克和亞歷克斯 來到這裡 帶領我們回家 也感謝很多人 為我們的任務準備 航空公司和波音 還有SpaceX 讓我們準備好出發 所有在約翰遜空中心的訓練員 任務控制團隊 從佛羅裏達州到加利福尼亞 包括整個國家 還有我們正在做的事情 我們的團隊正在為我們準備 休息和接受新的挑戰 我感到很高興 因為我們已經回來了 差不多兩個星期 我昨天跑了三公里 所以我會給自己一個小擁抱 我們的訓練員正在努力 為我們準備好 幫助新的飛行員 準備他們的任務 所以我最想說的就是謝謝你 是的 謝謝尼克 讓我先說一個運動的例子 我們參與這項非常困難的任務 它是一項團隊運動 它包含了 全球各地的組織 聯合起來 航空公司的航班 總部 國際空中站的航班 每天都在背後一起努力 一起完成這項工作 然後再加上一個國家 聯合起來 關心人類航空計劃 為我們鼓掌 以及發生了什麼 這實際上超越了理解 然後這個組織 也加入了國際組織 它超越了我們的邊境 並帶入了世界 就像沒有其他組織 在或在地球上 我可以告訴你 這簡直是一個榮幸 參與了這一切 好的 謝謝你們的開場話 我們現在開始接受問題 如果你在房間裡 請舉起你的手 我們會確定 把麥克風交給你們 如果您是來自我們的電話橋 請按下一顆星 當您準備進入訊號時 由於我們今天收到的 大量的問題 我們要求媒體 先問一條問題 如果我們有時間 再進行第二回合 我們會再回到你身邊 我們先從第一條開始 有任何問題嗎 Marc 請開始 Marc Straussman CBS News 歡迎大家回來 很高興再次與你們一起討論 我們為了某種原因 這裡有大約60個 媒體輸出 還有大約120個 在手機上 慧珍 桑尼 你對你的 持續和激烈的興趣 是否感到驚訝 我必須說是 絕對的 你知道 我們去登陸是有趣的 我們知道 它是有點獨特的 當然 第一次 登陸一架新宇宙船 所以 對 那是 那是有趣的 但是 你知道 然後生命就在那裡 我昨天提到 你知道 我們轉變了方向 我們是 國際航空隊的成員 我們正在做 我們所有的 航空辦公室的朋友 就是去工作 訓練 進行科學 在國際航空站上 所以 你知道 我覺得你會 可能有一點 隧道視野 你的工作是什麼 你知道 做你的工作 那樣的事情 對吧 所以你不太意識到 這裡發生了什麼 我討厭這樣說 你知道 可能 世界不再繞圈圈 但我們繞圈圈 就像這樣 但是 你知道 所以 我覺得我們只是 專注於我們在做什麼 嘗試成為團隊的一部分 確保我們 為團隊付出了力量 當然 我們聽到一些事情 我會讓 你知道 當然 把這個交給Butch 聽到一些 我們朋友和家人的事情 人們對這件事感興趣 想知道發生了什麼 關心我們的健康 各種各樣的事情 我們在那裡 但是 我意思是 我們只是團隊的一部分 在做工作 在我們能做到的地方 然後 知道會有旋轉航班 我們將會回家 在旋轉航班上 所以 不 我不認為我們對學位有所意識 很榮幸 也很榮幸 因為我們回到家 哇 有很多人 對我們感興趣 非常感激 非常驚訝 我們能夠 希望能夠成為 一個正面的元素 帶領大家一起 我不知道 我能夠添加多少 只是感激 一個在乎的國家 一個在祈禱的國家 一個在過程中 對我們所有人來說都很重要 好的 我們接下來的問題 在房間裡 Tom 請 你好 我是Tom Costello 又是NBC News 歡迎回來 很高興見到你們 大家都在想你 也很擔心你 我很好奇 當你回到Tara Firma的時候 你們兩個想要做的第一件事是什麼 還有什麼食物 你們想要吃 在9個多月後 請說 哦 是的 我想親吻我丈夫 和我的狗 我會說那些 那些 但也許 也許不會 我只是在開玩笑 但是 當然 食物 我 你知道 有些東西 就像 在家裡 對我來說 就像是一些 非常 你知道 讓你回到家裡 而我 我父親是素食家 所以 我回到家的時候 吃了一個很好的烤芝士三明治 所以 這讓我想起了他 是的 當然 再次欣賞家庭 但是 也有機會 我已經說過幾次了 就是要說謝謝 對一個國家 參與了所有的事情 這 這讓它特別 不僅僅是對我們 而是對整個國家 所以謝謝 好的 我們接下來的問題 就在前面的這條路上 謝謝 我的問題是 Sunny 當你第一次下飛機 在休士頓 我們看到你擁抱了 Zena Cardman 而那裡有一個很好的交流 如果你可以描述 發生了什麼 以及你的感激 對於 團隊成員 離開了 所以你會有 席位 是的 這是一個很棒的觀察 所以非常感謝 Zena很棒 Stephanie Wilson很棒 你知道 當整件事 發生了 我的心跳 因為 就像 哇 你在等待你的空中飛行 特別是Zena 她的第一次飛行 哇 你知道 有點困難 知道 你會被移到 另一個飛機 但同時 你知道 她是一個很棒的人 一個很棒的飛行員 她會得到機會 你知道 這不是她 在那一刻的時間 所以我只是 給她一個很大的擁抱 我跟她說 我用了她的航空服飾 當我們在那邊 拍照的時候 但是我把它 裝起來 放在她的東西裡 開玩笑的 我只是想 告訴她 謝謝你 為團隊 這就是我們的辦公室 但她必須 得到這個承諾 好的 我們再接一條問題 在這個房間裡 然後我們會去 我們的電話橋 嗨 這條問題是 Suneeta的 我是Jeff Safferson 順帶一提 我來自NBC 在波士頓 你家鄉有很多人 你需要他們 他們一直在看著你 每一分每一秒 每一刻 是的 每個人在幼稚園 當你回家的時候 會有一個很大的監察派對 你對他們的訊息是什麼 他們一直很擔心 等著你回來 哦 我回來了 首先 我們總是會回來 我覺得人們需要知道 我們回來了 其實 跟很多人分享我們的故事 因為 你知道 就像你所說的 有些故事是有點獨特的 有些知識 其中的一部分 就是 堅持 能夠 做出 意料之外的轉變 做出最好的 我認為 這是我最想要 傳遞給 尤其是 孩子們 他們認為 他們的生活 應該是 直線 到你 想做的事情 你會做到 你知道 有時會有些轉變 有些右邊 有些左邊 你只要 專注於你的目標 其他門 可能會打開 所以我覺得 這是最大的訊息 好的 我們來回到電話橋 我們的第一條問題 是來自 Marsha Dunn 和Associated Press 歡迎回來 各位 Butch 這條問題是給您的 您對於您的星際飛行測試 有哪些責任 明顯地 星際飛行測試 沒有準備好 當它飛行時 您對於發生的一切 謝謝 這是一個問題 我無法回答 在幾個評論中 但我先開始 當然有些問題 發生在星際飛行測試 當然有些問題 阻止我們 回到星際飛行測試 我先開始 有些問題 我作為星際飛行測試的船長 我應該要回答 但我沒有回答 當時我並不知道 我需要回答 或許你可以稱之為 幻想 但我先開始 指出問題 然後我會責怪自己 我可以問一些問題 回答這些問題 可能會改變了答案 所以 責怪 這是一個詞語 我不喜歡這個詞語 但肯定有責任 在所有的程式中 當然 你可以和我一起開始 責任與波音 是的 責任與NASA 是的 一直到下一個階段 我們都負責任 我們都擁有這個 我們是 在這個生意 信任 你不能做這個生意 沒有信任 你必須有最終的信任 如果有人向前走 在這些不同的組織 說 嘿 我對這件事有責任 這很長一段時間 保持信任 所以我們不會回頭 說 這件事發生了 或那件事發生了 或那些人 或那些問題 或那些組織 來責怪 我們會向前走 然後說 我們將使用 從整個過程中學到的教訓 確保 我們將成功 在未來 這是一件艱難的生意 以此為例 它總是一條彎曲的路 在這件生意中 它永遠沒有直線 減少那些彎曲 彎曲 並成為 系統和過程中 避免一些彎曲 這就是我們必須做的 當我們離開地球宇宙 然後離開月球 然後離開那裡 所以 我們將向前看 那是 那是焦點 好的 我們的下一個問題 電話橋上的問題 來自安東尼 與Spectrum News Hello Welcome back everyone It's nice to see everyone returned healthy and safe I have a question for both you Sunny and Butch Given the opportunity would you guys go up on Starliner again Yes Because we are going to rectify all the issues that we encounter We are going to fix We are going to make it work Boeing is completely committed NASA is completely committed And with that I get on in a heartbeat Yeah I would agree The spacecraft is really capable There were a couple things that need to be fixed like Butch mentioned and folks are actively working on that But it is a great spacecraft and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don't have and to see that thing successful and to be part of that program is an honor Our next question is from Jackie with the Times of London Yes, hello and welcome back to Earth I wondered about the stuck, stranded, marooned narrative and to what extent were you aware of that narrative playing out around that down here and has that been frustrating for you to have to address Thank you I'm sorry that was a little garbled The stuck, marooned narrative Oh, the stuck, marooned narrative We heard about that Yeah, we heard about that Somebody mentioned that We've said this before We had a plan, right The plan went way off from what we had planned But because we're in human spaceflight We prepare for any number of contingencies Because this is a curvy road You never know where it's gonna go We prepare for this So we, as Sunny used the term and it's a great term We pivoted to all that training we did That we didn't think we needed to do And a lot of people didn't think we needed to do But we did it anyway As we pivoted to this other preparation And that is what makes human spaceflight Your human spaceflight program special It is hard, like I said And preparing for any number of contingencies is what we do It happened to be me and Sunny involved in this But it could have been any one of the astronauts There's 40 or so of us eligible for assignment It would have been any one of us that would have been in the same situation or could have been in the same situation and would have done the exact same thing that we did Because they would have gone prepared just like we did Yeah, and one addition to that You know, this is a lot bigger than You know, Butch and myself Like we've talked about already This is the International Space Station program And there's a lot of, you know Wheels that are turning And wickets that we have to go through To get people up to The International Space Station To do all of the amazing science That we're doing up there We recognize that We know that Just like anybody else In the astronaut office And we came, as Butch has mentioned before Prepared And we were ready to do that pivot And be part of that bigger thing That's not just about us Knowing that everybody on the ground There's a huge team of people Like I quickly mentioned in my quick thank you But there's a huge group of people Who are looking at the whole program And understanding how And what was the best time And way to get us back home We knew that And we were ready to wait Until that decision was made And that was fine And I'll also add that We're grateful for people that I don't think they were looking just at us When they make recommendations We can do this We can do that They're looking what's best For the human space flight program For our nation's goals They're not looking just about Sunny and Butch And we appreciate those entities that do that And reach out and say Hey we can do this We can do that And NASA says Hey we got a plan We came prepared Here's what our plan is And we think this is the best plan Because it doesn't disrupt the flow Of how these missions lay out So and that's the one we went with All right We'll take our next question Here in the room Andrea go ahead Thank you guys For being available today So your mission became Unusually political Given your experience Do you think other astronauts Are going to get nervous That they could be caught In the middle of a political fight And is there a point where This starts to jeopardize Safety of a mission When you start looking at All these politics That come into play Thank you You know I think Nick's Got some good insight on this Good job So the way I'd like to answer that Is that when we're up there Operating in space You don't feel the politics You don't feel any of that It's focused strictly on mission And you know if I step back A little bit to the question before Butch and Sonny talk up here They make it sound like you know Well you know everybody figured out What they could do with us The reality is they are highly skilled Very technically competent And it took everything I had On every day to keep up with them As they're moving along So they were more than just Gap fillers on the station They were productive Pushing the station mission forward And Sonny was the station commander So she was calling the shots So you get in that environment That operational environment The politics they don't make it up there We are working as a part of An international team That spans the globe And works with you know Half a dozen mission control centers Spread around the globe That are talking in multiple languages And we just figure out How to make it happen And that's the magic of human space flight Is that we can focus on something So positive that pulls people together And we've been doing that for a long time All right we'll take our next question Here in the room Hi I'm Jay Wong with KPRC The NBC affiliate in Houston This question is for Butch I actually stopped by your church Right before I came here And I heard that you were still attending Your church services from space Right Can you tell me a bit about Why that was important for you to do Well goodness The word of God Continually infilling me I need it My pastors are the finest pastors On or off in this case the planet And to tie in and to worship With my church family was vital I mean it's part of what makes me go And not only that I also tied into Grace Baptist Church In Mount Juliet, Tennessee A buddy of mine As an elder there and a pastor there And I would watch their services well Every single week And it was invigorating It was part of what I need As a believer in Jesus Christ To continue that focus It assisted me day in and day out Because I need that fellowship Even though it's fellowship from afar And it's not like being fellowship up close But still I need it So yeah thank you for that Okay we'll head back to our phone bridge Next up is Ryan with nasaspaceflight.com Hi thank you For the whole crew Of course this narrative That's being pushed out Has made your mission Probably the most popular NASA mission To the general public For as long as I can remember Probably since the retirement of the shuttle But for the whole crew Do you think this extra attention Has been a net positive or a net negative For the agency's sort of popularity And the spaceflight industry as a whole Thank you I'll start with this one You know it's again an honor That actually people are paying attention And I'm very thankful That people are paying attention And you know sometimes Good news bad news It's just news And it's good for space exploration And that's what we're all about You know our mission of course Building and working on The international space station Was just awesome And we all had the opportunity to do that But we also have bigger goals Of exploring our solar system Going back to the moon Going on to Mars And to get people understanding That it is hard It is difficult And what we do up there Is really awesome And I think at least that We had a little bit of that That came with the interest in this mission And if we can perpetuate that And tell people a little bit more And have the opportunity The forum to do that I'm very thankful for that All right our next question is from Nicole With the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Hi there Could you perhaps talk about How difficult it was Being away from your friends and family Particularly since you Hadn't prepared for that Difficult Yes I would say it was difficult It wasn't in the preparation But in my family We talk about these possibilities We discussed all of this We never said we were going to be gone For nine months But it turned out that way But the discussions we had And it's not just discussions Prior to the mission launch This is the way we've trained our daughters From the time they were born Because I am You know their dad Isn't a unique occupation right This is not the norm leaving the planet And they understand that And they again use that term pivoted And got on board understanding That this is part of what families And these type of businesses do And it's not just in human space flight This is military, armed forces, police forces All across all different types of occupations That are involved in the possibility Of extended stays away And we're not unique in that And so they understand that They have friends that have parents in other areas Where they've been involved In similar type situations And all of that came together And you know the Lord's help We persevered They persevered And I can tell you I am very proud of them We'll take another question On our phone bridge And then head back into the room Our next question is from Tom With Sky News London So taking my question Congratulations on your extended mission And your safe return Although the political situation around this Did bring a lot of attention to space And to the International Space Station Some of the statements that were made During your stay up there Caused embarrassment to NASA Forced them to make corrections to statements Now that you're back Did the politics around your stay Make the difficult situation worse I'm not sure I understood I didn't understand the question exactly Yeah you came in just You were broken up just a little bit Could you please try to repeat Your question one more time Yes I will Can you hear me I was asking whether Although the political wrangling Around your extended stay in space Brought a lot of attention to human space flight It did Some of the political statements raised Caused embarrassment to NASA Forced to make denials about various things That were offered and not offered And sometimes to your astronaut colleagues Did the politics around your mission Make a difficult situation worse Thank you for the question I talked about the How the politics kind of They don't make it up there When we're trying to make operational decisions So as the commander of crew nine Responsible for the safety of this crew And getting them back safely I can tell you that The entire time up there I launched with that singular objective Of showing up to the station And having to integrate Butch and Sunny into a crew With Alex and myself And then we were planning From day one to return Toward the end of February That all predicated on the fact That we would have A replacement crew show up And we'd have adequate handover With that crew before we left That's important to maintain The mission of the International Space Station To continue pushing research And exploration And that was never in question The entire time There were a lot of options That were discussed And the ground team And the team on the ground We've alluded to it A couple of times already Is gigantic And everybody was working With singular focus On how do we end the crew nine mission At the right time And maintain the safety And the success Of the space station mission And launching in September Given all the unique dynamics Surrounding this mission And coming back Originally targeting The end of February And hitting the middle of March That's pretty much on target If you look at the track record Of human space flight It's dynamic It's challenging The weather doesn't always cooperate But somehow we figure out How to make it work All right We will take our next question Here in the room Welcome back to H-Town Sunny and Bush Both of you all have a long history Of being active in athletes But with that being said Obviously you all spent Nearly nine months in space What does that Recuperation and recovery process Look like Getting acclimated back here to Earth I'll start I can tell you We have a group of individuals Astronaut strength conditioning And rehabilitation specialists And we are directly integrated with them Day in and day out They send us protocols to work out And I can tell you I'm not as young as I used to be But I was stronger on space station Doing more weight and more reps on exercises Than I have in my entire life Because this group of professionals Worked to get us stronger and stronger We're trying to minimize muscle atrophy Minimize our bone loss So if we go to other planets The moon and other planets In the foreseeable future We will be able to function When we get there It's a whole science Built around this team of individuals That are working to help us Better understand human physiology And what zero gravity does to it And how we can mitigate the effects Of the bone loss and the muscle atrophy So day in and day out I worked out every single day We went into quarantine On the 22nd of April And starting on the 22nd of April I never missed a single day of workout Because your body can recuperate In zero gravity It doesn't have the normal stresses Of gravity on it all the time So you work out real hard You hurt for an hour And it finally fades away And you're ready to go the next day So I applaud those individuals They are making huge gains In the preparation To go beyond low Earth orbit And it's science that is taking place Day in and day out It has for years And we're still learning And we're still progressing Yeah, Ed, like day 265 on the ARED Because it counts all your days That you go and do a workout I was thinking I wish the hay was in the barn But every single day Just like Butch is saying You got to get on the machine And work out And it actually is A really great stress relief To be able to have that time up there And run or bike or lift weights It's really great And the folks that Butch is talking about Along with the nutritionists Really are looking out for us And making sure that When we get back here to planet Earth With gravity We'll be able to function So yeah, it's an adjustment When we get back And they're here right with us From day one when we landed Ready to, one, evaluate us And see how we're doing And then work on a protocol To get us back And like I said I sneakily went for a run yesterday But that's all as a result of their hard work Yeah, I mean, who would even imagine That you come back from 10 months in space Roughly 10 months And within a week You run 2 miles at an 8-minute pace I mean, that's not even conceivable That the body could handle that But these folks get us ready To where those type of things happen Okay, we'll take our next question Here in the room Yes, hello I'm just wondering You know, there are a lot of people That depend on jobs Here in the aerospace industry In the Houston area 23,000 total In the past When there have been issues With NASA spacecrafts There have been delays And now we have another issue With the Boeing Starliner Is there any concern That your issues with Boeing May delay future projects Future missions And what would you say To one of your fellow astronauts Before they go up On another test flight That's a great question Yeah, it's a great question And, you know, I think We all have alluded to it There's lessons learned And that's like a piece of hope, right We're not just sitting here Doing the same thing over and over again And we're learning from every mistake Potentially or maybe Maybe a decision that we've made And how we could make that better And do better the next time When we go to the moon We won't have an international space station To maybe take a stop at We really have to get it right And because of our mission I think that highlighted some areas Where maybe we need to work on And get it right For our fellow astronauts I think they're encouraged by that, right You learn and you move on And you get better And I think that's part of the learning process It's part of the exploration process I mean, we are scheduled on Wednesday To meet with Boeing leadership The program managers Senior chief engineers To discuss some of these issues They want to come together with us Sunny and myself Because we live through this with them And get on board with what the future looks like And having flight crew With background in test and acquisition Involved in the processes going forward To make sure that we're dotting every I And crossing every T But still, that doesn't mean That you're guaranteed success in anything Like we've said many times This is a tough business And we're learning all the time To go further and further and further We'll take another question here in the room I'm Chang from New York Times This is for all you guys I was wondering if you could start talking about Your personal future Sorry There's been a lot of talk about There's uncertainty about the future Of the human space flight program Suggestions that ISS should be Operated in a few years There should be a pivot from the moon to Mars How do astronauts feel about These potential changes And 3 years is a lot longer than 8 months So we've each been able to do Multiple missions to the space station And I'll let Butch and Sonny add on to this But one of the things that I noticed Was a dramatic increase in the complexity And just the weightiness of the experiments That we were conducting this time around On the station since 6 years ago When I was last there And it just gives you this sense That we are in the golden age Of the space station right now In terms of the return on investment And what we're able to do there And it's not just focused on Return to, you know, benefit the Earth It's also focused on enabling All those things that we're going to need As we go to the moon and on to Mars And so I am really optimistic When I think about the future Of human space flight Yeah, I would add on to, you know It was over a decade Since I've been up there last And I was pretty excited About what was going on There was a lot going on When we first got there It was an honor to be working with Crew 8 And seeing all that they were doing And just trying to help them with their stuff And then, you know, being, you know, prime Moving up to the prime spots for Crew 9 And Expedition 72 As we took on a lot of experiments ourselves As well as spacewalks And what the space station is doing To help us in exploration Is really encouraging And it's exciting And I, you know, I'm a little envious Of the future astronauts You know, the guys who are coming behind us They're going to have so many Wonderful opportunities To do the same as us Add to that exploration Add to trying to find the answers To the next questions It's going to be an exciting future So I'm not worried about aerospace industry I think there's a lot going on And it's a great time to be in it We'll take our next question right here Hi, Ed Lavandera with CNN Thanks for taking the time today When you reentered the Earth's atmosphere And came back to gravity Can you talk specifically About any kind of weird Either sensations or experiences That you've had dealing with that Over the last couple of weeks And more importantly Did you know that you guys Had been greeted by dolphins When you splashed out I can tell you that Returning from space to Earth Through the atmosphere Inside of a 3000 degree fireball of plasma Is weird Regardless of how you look at it Doesn't matter what type Yeah, doesn't matter what type It's thrilling It's amazing I remember thinking about The structure of the capsule And the stresses that it was taking That was ongoing as the droves came out And the whole capsule starts shaking and twisting And thinking about the stresses taking place And going, wow, hope those cables hold And then the parachutes open up And you're like, I've said it many times There's not a better feeling Returning from space The parachutes open and work And I didn't have the view in front of me And thankfully Nick did He had a view of the camera Going out right off the top And he said, three parachutes Four good parachutes And I'll tell you what It's a great feeling And it's exhilarating Because this, again I can't help because it's within me This is our national focus National goals We don't do this because NASA decides to do this or this or this This is Congress And everything coming together To affect a human space flight program With a purpose And part of that purpose Includes bringing those astronauts Back to Earth And it's a thrilling ride Like no other that you could imagine And satisfying, yeah And I had requested dolphins As kind of a joke Yeah Somehow somebody pulled it off Yeah, I'll just I just hats off like Butcha to Nick for He was just commentating The whole way down So there was obviously We had trained this And gone over it While we were up On the space station And reviewed But just to hear Everything as it was Ticking along It's just really awesome Like you can envision it You had a display I think there's a camera That goes up, right To see it And Butch and I Both had a window On either side Where we were And I was watching Through the window As much as I could But then all of a sudden With the heating It glazes over And then you can't see outside A funny thing that happened After you can't see You can still sort of See through it And we knew It was daylight And we knew the folks Were coming out To rig the spacecraft And I see a little Tennis shoe Sort of going in front Of the window So I'm like, okay Our friends are here Getting us ready To get back on the boat And that was That was pretty special, too I didn't see a fin, though I wish I had Saw a fin Okay, we'll head To our phone bridge Our next question From Margaret Smith Hi, everyone This is Margaret Smith From Worcester, Massachusetts I don't know Where Robert got it He started it all Thanks for taking The time today And my question To both of you is For those who Maybe are not Especially familiar Or who may sort of Question the need For the space station Can you all make the case For why that work is important Why the space station is important Oh, the space station Is amazing, right So just sort of Like we've talked about A little bit earlier In this conversation So we're doing A bunch of stuff Like Butch alluded to Physiology, understanding What happens to humans As they're in space For a longer period of time That brings in Lots of science experiments In chemistry, in biology Some of that stuff All comes back to Earth Because we're doing Some amazing stuff In the microgravity environment Some of it is mirrored For example, in our own human bodies And so there's a lot of stuff That's happening for us For exploration, for the humans As well as for Earth And then as Nick alluded to There's all sorts of systems And other things that We're testing up there To help us take those next steps To go back to the moon And on to Mars Figuring out all these Exploration systems Including docking vehicles Like different types of spacecraft That we have up there Other types of commercial spacecraft That are coming up for resupply That's all a huge program To get us to understand How we're going to take The next steps in exploration I can't help also but talk about STEM I mean, all of this is STEM, right Science, technology, engineering, and math And I'm hoping the work That we've done up there Also encourages the next generation Of kids to understand How important that is And how they can become involved We did lots of experiments up there With kids and universities and companies Trying out new guidance Navigation control algorithms And robots that were flying Inside the space station Competitions, for example, for them And that's pretty awesome That you can really touch And talk to kids on the ground As you're doing experiments up there And they have their finger On the pulse of science experiments And they can understand that And think to themselves I could be part of this one day Our next question on the phone bridge Is from Neil with ITV News Congratulations on a great job, everyone Sunny, can I ask how your body Is recovering to life with gravity After 9 months And Butch, what's your message to others From your experience The delays that you guys faced And any lessons in patience For the rest of us down here Oh, I think I'm doing okay I was just joking around And showing off a little bit But, no, seriously We talked a little bit about our group The Astronauts Strength Reconditioning Folks that are getting us back in shape And every day feeling better and better It's pretty much a miracle to see How your human body can adapt I mean, the first day we got back When all of us came down the ladder And greeted everybody It was a little bit We were all a little bit wobbly at that time And it's amazing within 24 hours How the neurovestibular system kicks in Your brain understands what's going on And then the agility and the weightlifting That occurs in the next week That makes you feel good enough to actually Like I mentioned, go out, run Actually lift weights Get in there, do squats and deadlifts And stuff already That's pretty incredible So I knew it was gonna happen We all knew it We've all flown before We all knew that there's just This little bit of a hump to get over And then you can get back on it Hope to do a couple of races in the springtime I think the clear message is that Like I said when I started It takes a team It takes a team of motivated And passionate individuals We don't have a human space flight program You don't have folks sitting up here in a blue suit Without the massive team That's making it all happen We get to ride the pointy end of the rocket It is wonderful We get to go to the space station We're the arms and the eyes Or PIs here on Earth They're the ones that are doing the hard work We're just setting up and doing And switching and changing So it takes a team And I would say any part of this team Is a great and wonderful place to be And because we're proud of all of them Because we don't have it without them Our next question is from Marcia Smith With Space Policy Online Thanks so much for taking my question But you mentioned that you were gonna be meeting With the Boeing leadership To talk about Starliner And I'm wondering Are you surprised That after all these months I mean it's been almost What, seven months Since Starliner landed That they still haven't resolved All these problems And will you and Sonny Be assigned to work with them Over these next many months Getting Starliner ready? Okay, so a couple of questions there Am I surprised? I'm not surprised I mean this like We've said it several times again Human space flight is hard It's not that no work has been done to this point There's a great deal of work being done But we have insight That not many other people have We worked this program for six years Before we launched We talked to everyone Up and down the chain of command And we have insight That other people don't have And we want to share that As much as possible We tried to share it for more But that's hard, right? We're not face to face Is how you communicate It's very difficult to communicate When you can't even see The other person that you're talking to So we've had some conversations But now it's time to get serious And get together And talk about some of these issues And some of these things And get us And not get us We're already tracking on the right path But maybe a little tweaking Here and there Because it's an insight That we'll be able to give them That's the purpose of that thing And they're eager to do it as are we We'll take our next question Here in the room Jacob Raston, KHOU11 I wonder what you would say About the life lesson I think we can all relate to We've all made plans We've all been excited About those plans And we've all watched those plans Kind of fall apart What would you say About what allows you To meet the moment With courage, with serenity Or maybe you didn't You know, internally But what would you say About that life lesson I think we can all relate to Well, I'll start I'll start I'm sure you want to add Both of you Because I think every flight Is a little bit different Than what you go in Planning it to be It doesn't matter If it was this one Or many other flights Or many things in life Just like you alluded to, right I think the go-to thought there is What is the opportunity In front of me Like it's not a missed opportunity It's actually another opportunity That I didn't really think about And wow, that opens a lot of Like I mentioned earlier A lot of doors Or a lot of things to learn So I think it was a It's great I think that's the opportunity That's the point, I think Of the whole thing It's like when something Doesn't go your way You just have to take the blinders off And look around you And see what other really great things Are waiting for you And then just take advantage of that Learn as much as you can While you're Wherever you are Whatever your situation is And move on from there And then share that lesson Well I I sort of had a similar question on orbit And I think my answer would be similar Life is a Our life, all of our lives Are bound up in many things For me And I It's faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ He is the end-all be-all He forgives us He teaches us when His Word says About being content in all situations Because He's working out His plan And His purposes For His glory and our good And I believe that Because the Bible says that And that's the message that I lived We lived it My family lived it We taught them these things Throughout their lives And that's contentment It doesn't mean always happy It doesn't mean there's no pain But content in knowing That God's in control A sovereign God's in control Working out His plan and His purpose And you might say Well goodness That wasn't a very good thing God did that Well He's working out His plan and His purpose I mean who's Who's lived a life without pain I mean no one That's the nature of existence Who's lived a life without sorrow Who's lived a life without challenges It grows us We learn from it And that's the focus That I try to take from it What's the Lord trying to show me And what's He teaching me Because there's so much to learn in life And there's so much to learn From this evolution And I think we're all I know my daughters Are better off for it And I'm grateful for that And I think we are as well If there's any additional questions here in the room please be sure to raise your hand and we'll get a microphone over to you In the meantime we'll head over to the phone bridge to joshwithspace.com Captain thank you all so much for doing this This question's for all three of you What were the most out of this world and your favorite experiments or tech demos you got to be a part of on this mission and for Williams and Will more specifically did your did the extension of your mission create any new opportunities for experiments or research that was not originally planned for the expedition You start Sure So while I was up there we performed about 150 different experiments Of those the ones that you know the most about are the ones where you end up being one of the guinea pigs in the experiment So there's about a dozen different experiments where we were doing things to me and seeing how my body adapted whether that was a vascular aging experiment where we're measuring how stiff my arteries get because life in space tends to manifest itself as accelerated aging and so we can better understand how the human body responds to that and hopefully provide some treatments on the ground to help with with problems that as you get older you encounter How our immune system works did a whole study on the immune system and how my body was responding life on orbit tends to suppress the immune system and why does that happen and we're trying to understand that so that we can help design better treatments on the ground but also understand how we can support crews that go deeper into space on longer missions Probably one of the most shocking experiments Butch and Sonny got me to got to watch me wire myself up to muscle stimulation pads and shock myself and trying to figure out how do we keep our muscles strong when we don't have access to all the equipment we have on the International Space Station because as we go to the moon and on to Mars that's a lot of extra mass and if we can do it with smaller equipment maybe that works The side benefit of that is anybody that's been bedridden on the ground that's also a treatment for how you can support somebody that's been kind of tied to a bed for a long period of time and help keep them healthy so there's a benefit directly to the ground That's three of them They're all interesting and I'm one of many subjects and it takes years to get enough subjects to go through the space station to be able to generate enough data to draw some conclusions and so that's why research up there takes a long time but the value is clear Just very briefly There's some medications on Earth that work well with a certain age group but the same medication doesn't work so well with another So it's a capillary flow experiment to try to understand how that medication is flowing through our bodies and maybe there's something we can figure out as to why those things are and we're trying to figure that out and that's very beneficial obviously to mankind and may benefit some of our families one day And I just want to highlight some other science that's going on up there because we have just an amazing person Don Pettit who's up on the space station getting ready to come home and every day he's up to something and just trying to highlight what microgravity does and how it is as well as amazing photography which I'm sure a lot of you have probably seen out there and the fact that he can take a picture of a red sprite or a blue jet and have a picture from the space station looking down on a lightning cloud is just incredible and it enlightens all of us into what is actually going on in the universe and that's just simply because he's curious and that is something that's actually, like I said we're sharing and we're showing off to everybody like, wow, you know we think we know what's going on but we really don't and if you just open your eyes and make some observations like Don does every morning at 4 a.m. we'd learn a whole lot Don, it's a great place Don's taking potatoes he's growing and the nitrogen produced in the roots of the potatoes to nourish the peanuts that he's growing I mean, it's pretty special He's a special guy He's awesome Our next question on our phone bridge is from Robert Perlman Hi, for Butch and Sunny You're now the first astronauts to fly on both Starliner and Dragon admittedly one on the way up and one on the way down Was there anything about either spacecraft that you found you liked more about the other that stood out as a feature especially in terms of crew amenities More Velcro on SpaceX, on Dragon That's a crew amenity We've talked about that That's why I said that They're both unique and they both have their purpose and made to do the same thing But I think what's really cool is give a problem to two different people and see how they solve it Starliner is a really awesome spacecraft like Butch had mentioned with the integration of manual control as well as automation as well as its vision systems Dragon is a very comfortable spacecraft that tells you what it's doing which is very nice versus having to interpret displays as we have done throughout the space programs with, you know, former programs including shuttle So they're both different They're both unique They both have their place in history Very honored to be have had that opportunity to see both of them up close and personal and ride them both I don't know if I have a preference Honestly, they're both great for different reasons Our next question on the phone bridge is from David Curley Thank you very much Butch, you mentioned lessons learned Sunny, you mentioned earlier about the ability of the Starliner When you meet with Boeing what is the overarching message you'll deliver to the company? We don't have enough time to go into all that If you don't If you understand the spacecraft that we have now We have Dragon We have Orion And we have Starliner In my opinion Starliner has the most capability when you think about its ability to maneuver automatically You think about its ability to maneuver manually in all phases of flight And then we have a mode If those modes have failure modes we have a backup mode where we can go directly from controllers to the reaction control system jets and maneuver the spacecraft There's no spacecraft that has all of this capability I mean, I jokingly said a couple of times before we launched that I could literally do a barrel roll over the top of the space station I would never do that But you can in this spacecraft It is very, very capable If we can figure out a couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system Starliner is ready to go We have to do some tests We have to do some integrated tests We have to bring it all together in a process of qualification that is not going to happen overnight but it has to take place And Starliner will be right in line with the number of missions that Dragon and affect what it is designed to do That's ferry crews to and from the International Space Station and cargo And I think that very quickly we can get on that track And that's part of the discussions that we'll have Our next question is from Carolyn with Fortune Magazine Hello, thank you Hello and welcome home Can you share maybe any special times or conversations you've had just with family or friends since you've been home Conversations you've had with family and friends since you've been home Since we've been home Well, for me, it's making plans My family had been making plans for while I was gone because we thought we were only going to be gone for about a week and a half two weeks or something And so there was definitely plans throughout the summer There was plans throughout the fall We, you know, personally We have a house up in New England And my husband's been talking about When we're going to get up there And do a lot of fun stuff up there And I think that's probably appropriate When it gets hot and humid Here in the summer Take a little reprieve up there So those are mostly the conversations About just like, what's next? What's next on the list? What else do you want to do? You know, where else in the world Would you like to go see? Because, you know, when you come back From space, it's really hard to sit where you just are Because there were so many Amazing places that you saw You know, like, Patagonia, for example For me, it was like There's a bigger bucket list That I had when I left Which is unfortunate for my family But we're all going to We're fortunate for my family We're all going to be taking some trips So I think that's That's mostly the conversations About just being home And enjoying each other's company And going and seeing new things Yeah, I think when you've had This period of recuperation And getting back in the swing of life On Earth It's pretty close As far as the people That you interact with Your family, folks at church So I think my message At least in the short term here Has been thank you for the support of us Thank you for the support of my family But then it goes beyond that To my home state of Tennessee There's an immense amount of support By my family there And friends there And the whole state, as a matter of fact Tennessee's a wonderful state Put in my pitch for Tennessee But getting up there eventually And relaying the same thank you to them And to, like I said, to a nation That cares And a nation that prayed And this opportunity right now To say thank you to our nation Our wonderful nation Our next question on the phone bridge Comes from Utarish Go ahead Welcome everyone My question to Suni is that Indian Space Research Organization ISRO chief has said that India wishes to utilize your expertise In space exploration So is there any scope of hope That we can see you working Or collaborating with ISRO That is Indian Space Research Organization In future And second part of this question is While being in ISS And seeing India from space Is there any moment You would like to share How does India look from space, Suni Let me address the second question Real quickly India is amazing Every time we went over the Himalayas And I'll tell you Butch got some incredible pictures Of the Himalayas Just amazing And you can see Like I've described it before Just like this ripple that happened Obviously when the plates collided And then as it flows down into India It's many, many colors I think when you come from the east Going into like Gujarat and Mumbai The fishing fleet that's off the coast there Gives you a little bit of a beacon That here we come And then all throughout India I think the impression I had It was just like this network of lights From the bigger cities going down Through the smaller cities Just incredible to look at at night As well as during the day Highlighted of course by the Himalayas Which is just incredible As a forefront going down into India I hope and I think for sure I'm going to be going back To my father's home country And visiting with people And getting excited about the first Or not the first But the Indian astronauts Who's going up on the Axiom mission Coming up Pretty awesome They'll have a hometown hero there Of their own That will be able to talk about How wonderful the International Space Station Is from his perspective But I hope I can meet up At some point in time And we can share our experiences With as many people in India as possible Because it's a great country Another wonderful democracy That's trying to put its foot In the space countries And we'd love to be part of that And help them along Do you plan to take your crew members On that trip with you Absolutely You might stick out a little bit But that's okay We'll get you all primed With some spicy food We'll be good OK we have time For one final question On the phone bridge From Jim Siegel Everybody Jim Siegel here From Florida Media Now Thank you for taking my question Butch and Sunny You missed a couple of holidays While you were back up At the International Space Station Christmas and Thanksgiving Whether you have done Or planning to do anything special With your family and friends For those holidays Thank you I don't think we missed them I think we celebrated every single one We actually had a reindeer That we built And rode like a bull I don't know if you saw those pictures But we celebrated in style Trust me Oh yeah And Nick was great Because he came up Anticipating that we were all Gonna obviously be there For those holidays So he was like Santa Claus Had his little bag of goodies For all of us And it was pretty awesome To have the holidays up there It's pretty unique And not many of us get to do that So it was a lot of fun But this holiday season Will be special Yeah for sure Absolutely All right That's all the time we have for today Thank you for joining in On our news conference today And thank you for your Continued interest in NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission We'll see you next time