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Who do you think's got the harder job?
This is, this is sort of a loaded question and you're going to be biased about this, of course,
in your answer but who's got the harder job, a Shuttle Commander for a short sprint type
of mission, if you will, or a Station Commander who has to oversee a giant complex
for a half year in a multi-national environment?
Scott - Well, I think I can probably better answer that question although, you know,
I haven't been the Station Commander but having had all the training and, and,
having a fairly good understanding of what the job entails, they're clearly different,
you know, The missions are, are different, you know.
The shuttle is very, you know, a shuttle mission timeline is very scripted.
You train practically everything you're, you're going to do multiple times.
You have a, you know, large, you know, larger support structure, I think here at the,
at the Johnson Space Center when you're, when you're training.
As a station crew member the, in some ways the training's somewhat more autonomous
in that you do a lot of it by yourself.
It's in, it's in, you know, various countries, different systems and different, you know,
types of, you know, philosophies of design in the, the hardware.
And then, you know, the other thing, too, is it's more of a, you know,
we call it an expedition for a reason.
It's a, you know, it's a long duration mission that involves, you know,
being isolated from, from friends and family.
The training also has somewhat of that aspect,
that you travel around to these different countries so I think, you know,
overall I think probably the, the, the station flight per-, per-, presents more difficulty
but they're, they're kind of really hard to compare 'cuz they are so much different.
Mark - I think, Rob, I think you almost answered the question in your question.
You said the short sprint or the long duration, you know, ex-, expedition and I think,
you know, just like a race, right?
What's harder, the sprint or the...
Scott - Um mm.
Mark - you know, the long, you know, the long run and they're just,
they're hard for their own reasons and, you know, they just have unique different things
about 'em that are both difficult.
Scott, before we press ahead with a few other types of personal questions
about what lies ahead for you all, I'm intrigued always by Soyuz' landings.
I've been to the landing site many times myself.
You've seen the landings on TV.
Obviously you've trained now for them.
It's not wheel-stop Houston.
It's thump and *** and they call it the E-ticket.
Any, any U.S. astronaut who has rode home on the Soyuz calls it the E-ticket basically.
What do you think that's going to be like for you?
Scott - Well, I think it's an E-ticket if you consider
like crashing, you know, an, an E-ticket ride.
I mean, you know, my understanding is it's a, you know, it's kind of a violent reentry and,
and impact with the earth that has really gotten some people's attention.
I'm glad I've talked to a lot of people about it so hopefully it won't be as big
of a surprise but, you know, it can be, you know, higher G-forces.
You know, the, the Soyuz spins up underneath the parachute.
There's an equalization of pressure that, you know, causes the, inside of the vehicle,
depending on atmospheric conditions to fill up with condensation seem, can be,
can seem rather smoky to, to people and then, you know, when you hit the ground it's hard
and then the, you know, the vehicle as you've seen can, can roll and,
be in a weird orientation and all that, you know, combined with the fact that your,
you know, body's somewhat de-conditioned
and your vestibular system is affected can make it for, for, you know,
quite the, violent surprising event.