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>> Kelly Humphries: Hi.
Welcome to Mission Control Houston.
I'm Kelly Humphries, and with me today is Sandy Fletcher.
She's the lead spacewalk systems expert for Expedition 34,
and that's the International Space Station crew that's
on orbit right now.
And we're really happy to be joining the students
at Northtowne Elementary in Columbus, Ohio.
Hi, guys.
>> Hi.
>> What is it like to live in space?
>> Sandy Fletcher: Well, I'm a flight controller and trainer.
So I get to talk to the astronauts,
and what they tell me is it's a lot of fun because they get
to float around the space station
and pretend to fly like Superman.
And they also get to play with their food,
which is not encouraged when you're on the ground,
but it's OK when you're an astronaut
on board the International Space Station.
But they do a lot of experiments, and they also have
to do exercise two hours a day to make sure that their bones
and their muscle mass is still strong
when they come back to the Earth.
>> Go ahead.
>> What is -
>> Are astronauts -
>> What is to live is space?
>> Are astronauts still going into space is her question.
>> Sandy Fletcher: Oh, yes.
They certainly are.
Some people believe that because
of Space Shuttle system was retired last year
that we aren't flying astronauts anymore,
but we actually have two NASA astronauts on board right now,
that's Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn,
and a Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield,
who will be the commander of the International Space Station
in the, I think two months or so,
and there are three Russian crew members on board.
And we've had people on board Space Station
for about 11 years now continuously on orbit,
which is quite an achievement.
>> How can I join the space program?
[ Pause ]
How can I join the space program?
>> It's on you.
>> Sandy Fletcher: Well, there's quite a number
of different ways, actually.
The civil servant jobs
and astronaut jobs are actually posted online
through the various websites.
I work for a small company actually, I don't work
for NASA directly, and they post their jobs online as well.
So there are a lot of different avenues into space.
[ Pause ]
>> What does it take to be a Mission Control Specialist?
>> Sandy Fletcher: Well, I'm fairly unique
in that I actually have a physics background.
Most of the colleagues that are flight controllers
and trainers along with me have various engineering backgrounds,
whether that's aeronautical engineering
or mechanical engineering, but NASA also employs people who are
of different backgrounds as well.
There's actually a legal department.
So we have lawyers.
We have flight surgeons who make sure the astronauts
stay healthy.
And so those are medical doctors.
We have people who are professional scuba divers.
They work out at our neutral buoyancy lab
for when our crew members practice their spacewalks.
We have scuba divers in the pool with them
to make sure they're safe.
And you also have people who, like Kelly Humphries here,
who's actually a journalist.
So you might not think that, you know,
journalists would necessarily be employed by the space program,
but there are very many different opportunities here.
>> What should I focus on in school in order to work at NASA?
>> Sandy Fletcher: That's a really good question,
and I think whatever you focus on, the best thing to do is
to make sure that you really, really love it.
If you love it, then you're going to work hard
at it, and you'll do well.
So while I happened to choose physics, and I'll be honest,
my interest in physics was peaked when I noticed
that the astronauts that NASA was hiring, there were a bunch
of physicists in there.
They also hire military pilots.
So I would say find something that you really love doing,
and then focus on doing that very well, but also, you know,
take good care of yourself physically,
and be interested in other people.
One of the surprising aspects of this job is working
with other people, and if you can't work
with other people very well, you're going
to have a hard time in life.
So I've been very fortunate that I've had very good co-workers,
and we actually have a lot of fun.
>> Kelly Humphries: Well, you know, and even not just studies,
but teamwork is something you can learn doing a lot
of extracurricular activities
and doing sports and things like that.
You know, this whole Center here works on teamwork
as does the international partnership
that makes the Space Station work.
So it really helps to get that kind of background,
but the majority of folks here are in the science, technology,
engineering, and math fields from what they study,
but as Sandy says, do something that you really love doing,
and that means that you're going to ensure you do it well,
and that's going to put you in the best position to get a job
at NASA, or for that matter,
anywhere else you might decide to go in your life.
>> Why did choose to work at NASA?
>> Sandy Fletcher: Well, I grew up in rural New England,
which we didn't have a lot of exposure
to the space program at that point.
This was actually, Skylab was really the first thing I really
remember on.
And, but what really got me interested
in space was actually a movie called "Star Wars".
I was about nine years old, and I went to see "Star Wars",
and I'll be honest, I went to see it
because my older sister wanted to go see it, but I just fell
in love with the whole concept of living and working in space,
and, you know, I'm one of the very lucky kids who wanted
to be involved with the space program,
and ended up actually being involved with the space program.
So it can happen.
>> Kelly Humphries: And I ended up getting to stay home
from kindergarten to watch Alan Shepard launch.
My mom was a big space fan way back, I'm a little older
than Sandy, when we first started flying humans in space,
and Alan Shepard was the first American to get launched
into space, and I got to stay home from kindergarten
and watch that, and I've been a space fan ever since then.
[ Pause ]
>> What fun and interesting parts are there
to being a NASA specialist?
>> Sandy Fletcher: I'll be honest, it is really cool
to be involved with the space program.
People know what you talk about when you say you work at NASA
or you work on the space program.
Most people have a general idea what that means,
and they're very enthusiastic about it.
Kelly had mentioned earlier that it's a lot of teamwork,
and I really enjoy working not only with the astronauts
and training them, but I also work really well
with the colleagues.
We all have the same goal.
You know, we're from all over the United States and actually
from different countries, but we all share the same goal,
that the space program is really important.
Exploring other worlds is something that's exciting to us,
and it's an amazing experience to be part of a large team
that all believes the same thing.
>> Kelly Humphries: Well, and we got to admit,
it's pretty cool working in Mission Control
where everything comes together, and it's also really neat
to be able to go out and see launches and things like that
and to get out with our colleagues at the laboratories
that help develop these systems and technology that we do.
You know, we were talking earlier about how astronauts get
to the Space Station, and right now where all the Americans
and everybody, for that matter is flying
up on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
And it's kind of interesting because we used to be
in a Cold War with what was then the Soviet Union,
and now it's the Russian Federal Space Agency that we work with.
And so that's how we get folks up and down
into space right now, but NASA also is working
on new spacecraft, we're working on the Orion spacecraft,
which is designed to take us farther
than we've ever gone in space.
Way past the moon out to asteroids and Mars
and elsewhere, and people in Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama are developing a new space launch
system rocket that'll carry tons and tons of cargo into space
at once and working together here with Johnson Space Center
with the folks developing the Orion capsule.
So there's all kinds of things coming up in addition
to what we're doing now on the International Space Station,
but this Space Station is kind of like the learning place
where we are learning what it takes to live for a long time
in the microgravity environment.
It has all kinds of effects on our bodies
and on how physics work, on how different mechanisms work,
and so it's really important for us
to learn what we're doing now, but the real goal is
to go even farther out there
so that we can help spread humanity throughout the
solar system.
>> Sandy Fletcher: And that's where actually you guys come
in because, you know, we're working
on the space program right now.
We were handed off the space program by people who worked
for Mercury, through Gemini, Apollo,
and all these other programs that built the foundations
of what we do not only in Mission Control
but all of space exploration.
And so I feel like our generation right now is
caretaking it for your generation,
and it's very important for you guys to be excited
about space exploration, too, because some day you're going
to be sitting up here and trying
to encourage the next generation.
This is a very long-term project.
It's not going to be done by the time I retire.
You're still going to have plenty of opportunities.
>> Kelly Humphries: And we know
that Ohio has a really rich space history of people
like John Glenn, who made historic contributions
to our space exploration effort, and we're looking for you guys
to be the next John Glenn or the next Gene Kranz sitting here
in Mission Control guiding the mission.
[ Pause ]
>> Thank you.
That was our questions.
>> Kelly Humphries: Well, thank you,
guys for being with us today.
We hope your learned a lot about space exploration
in your studies, and that you go on to do great things,
whatever you choose to do.
>> Sandy Fletcher: Take care guys,
and thanks for your great questions.