00:00This is the farthest that any human astronaut will have flown.
00:05Maybe, maybe, maybe in the 21st century, right?
00:08Truth.
00:10And so I'm really curious how you get yourself and the crew comfortable.
00:14I mean, the heat.
00:15But I mean, there's a lot of things that have to go right with the risk involved in this
00:19compared.
00:20To an ISS mission.
00:21And then how you also, I guess, discuss that with your family so that they understand.
00:25How it's different from what they've seen before.
00:27One of the neat parts on this mission is.
00:30It's just a series of burns to increase our distance from Earth, really.
00:34It's really just.
00:35Three kind of primary burns.
00:37And we've developed a little checklist inside the crew that, hey.
00:40We are setting up for the Apogee Rays burn.
00:42This burn is going to commit us to 24-hour.
00:45And then we go through all of our vehicle systems and our own, like, how are we feeling?
00:50And then we inject our go into mission control.
00:53And the big one is translunar injection.
00:55We are setting up for translunar injection.
00:56This is committing us to eight days away from planet Earth.
00:59And are we.
01:00We're ready to go.
01:00And we talk about that as a crew because the crew matters in that technical decision.
01:05Are we go or not go?
01:06So that is a neat way we've broken down this thought process.
01:10And then when you really get into the nuts and bolts of it, though, we are operators and we.
01:15We know what is coming and we know the risks and we are ready to go take on those challenges.
01:20How do we prepare our families for that?
01:21It's difficult.
01:22I mean, it is definitely difficult.
01:24We are dealing.
01:25We are dealing with numbers that are very unique.
01:27We are going to be going Mach 39 when we hit Earth's atmosphere.
01:30On reentry, we are going to go 250,000 miles away from planet Earth.
01:34We're going to be.
01:35Completely lost calm with Earth for 45 minutes on the far side of the moon.
01:38Those are big deals.
01:40And, you know, I'm an only parent with two daughters and they they're teenagers.
01:43They understand the risk, but they.
01:45They also understand the value of human exploration, human ingenuity that drive.
01:50of humanity to go see what is on the other side of that mountain, to go see things that
01:54no human is.
01:55ever seen before.
01:56Right now, there are only four humans on planet Earth that have this opportunity.
01:59I'm lucky to be one.
02:00And I'm flying with three of the best people I've ever met, Victor Glover, Christina Cook
02:03and Jeremy Hansen.
02:05And to get to be a part of this, no one can say no to that.
02:08I'm just curious because.
02:10People are going to learn, I guess, more about you on this mission as.
02:15As the months go by, we get closer to launch.
02:16But is there one surprising thing.
02:20that you would like people to know that maybe they're not going to get from your NASA bio
02:23and is there a secret Easter egg.
02:25in this mission that, you know, people might be surprised to look for or that they should.
02:30be looking for on the flight.
02:33I will just say yes to the second.
02:35one, so let's see.
02:36But my crew loves Easter eggs.
02:37There's some Easter eggs in our patches.
02:39Some of the folks.
02:40online have already discovered that the Earth in this is the Apollo 8 Earth ride.
02:45cloud formation.
02:46So some astute folks have picked up on that on the internet, which I really love.
02:50I love that people actually recognize that.
02:51It was very intentional that we put that on there.
02:54I.
02:55I think when people, I try very hard in my professional.
03:00career to remind people that we are humans, we are not these.
03:05exceptional beings, we are sometimes careless, we're sometimes foolish, we sometimes make
03:10the wrong decision when it comes to the end of the day, we try to execute with.
03:15absolute professionalism and excellence, like that is what we are aiming for.
03:18And I'm seeing my crew get to that.
03:20at that point and it takes work, but we're humans.
03:23I mean, like, just come sit down and talk to me.
03:25Have a cup of coffee with me.
03:26Like, hopefully I can make you laugh and hopefully you can make me laugh and we are, we are very.
03:30much more alike than people would understand and that I think that comes from my military.
03:35service from being in the Navy and traveling the world on aircraft carriers, I think some people think.
03:40the flying was the best part or, you know, defending the country was the best part, but for me.
03:45Honestly, the best part was pulling into these various ports in the Middle East, in Europe, in Japan.
03:50Australia.
03:51And when you go out and meet these people that you think were your enemies or you think your.
03:55you're in conflict with, if you meet them in their environment and you meet them as.
04:00human beings, maybe with their family, you realize we all are the same.
04:03We're all fighting for the same thing.
04:05We really all just, we love each other.
04:07We love our families.
04:08We love our friends.
04:09That is what it is to be a human.
04:10And so the more that I have worked around the planet, the more I realized like, this is us.
04:15This is who we are.
04:16I'm just curious.
04:17So you, you will be at the moon.
04:18You'll have this precious few hours.
04:20As you circle around.
04:21And I'm just, I'm wondering what if.
04:25There's one thing you want to make sure that you either see or that you register in that moment.
04:30that you've been preparing for to, to try to really make the most of like those precious.
04:35moments as you circle the moon to get the most possible.
04:38Yeah.
04:39As an astronaut, we, we are.
04:40We are rehearsing this, right?
04:41We, we have procedures and we have roles and we're swapping roles and we have.
04:45We have all of our products there that we need to get done.
04:48We have this amazing lunar observation.
04:50program that the science team has made us to show us a look at Jackson crater now, but don't.
04:55forget in three hours, you're going to look at Jackson crater again, because the sun angle,
04:58the illumination will be totally different.
04:59We want.
05:00to see what this is like from all these different angles.
05:02Cause we don't get to see that with LRO.
05:04We don't get to see it.
05:05We don't get to see that with other observation platforms.
05:06So that is a well oiled machine, but I'm a human.
05:10And so there's really two things that I have found very profound, which is we did a simulation
05:15the other.
05:15The other day and earth rise occurred in that simulation.
05:18And it doesn't look quite like Apollo eight cause they.
05:20I've cropped and zoomed in that picture.
05:21Yeah.
05:22But the earth is small.
05:23The earth is really small and it's really.
05:25Really gorgeous.
05:26And so just being able to process that from the human side, you can.
05:30You can hear it in the Apollo eight transcription of their audio, or if you listen to their audio
05:34that we've recorded.
05:35You can tell that was fascinating and unexpected to them.
05:38So I can't wait to feel that.
05:40But.
05:40Then the other thing, when I stand on the surface of earth now, and I look at the moon at night
05:44and I'm.
05:45I might see a waxing gibbous, but I know now on the far side, that's a waning crust.
05:49And just.
05:50I'm understanding that it's going to be, I'm flipping my brain around to all.
05:55Of those things.
05:56And.
05:57Just.
05:58Understanding that I've never spent time.
06:00In my entire life thinking about that.
06:02But now it's the.
06:03I cannot see it now.
06:04It's all I think about.
06:05And then when I.
06:05When I think about that.
06:06And I think about what is the loom on the far side right now is oriental inch.
06:10What is the shadow?
06:11Is it.
06:12Is it in illumination?
06:13What are the shadows doing coming off the ridges of those.
06:15Like thecriptions and oriental?
06:16And then I think about Jackson and oh, and I think about Tsiolkowski.
06:20Musk.
06:25You.
06:26You.
06:27You.
06:40You.
06:41You.
06:42You.
06:43You.
06:44You.
06:20and all these places that we've learned.
06:22And I'm just imagining it.
06:23Every time I look up the moon,
06:24I'm imagining what are they?
06:25Look like on the far side.
06:30I'm imagining what are they?
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