00:00the privilege of opening the hatch and floating out and holding on to the space station you're
00:07going 17 500 miles an hour look around and it's the darkness of space but the beautiful
00:13vehicle of the space station and then 250 miles below your feet oh there goes baja california
00:19or there goes uh oh i recognize that that's italy and it's really an amazing environment uh to to
00:27work in
00:48have you always felt this passionate about space like when you were a student did you already want to be
00:53an astronaut the answer is no not at all um when i was you know eight ten twelve years old
00:59we were
00:59going to the moon so every the whole world was space crazy um and of course i played astronaut but
01:04there was i had no intention of going into space the first job i got was with a space company
01:09and i
01:10joined them because i wanted to design things and they were a design company my my entry into space
01:17was really a lifestyle choice i thought well i can do this for a while and as my career progressed
01:23opportunities came up to make take more and more interesting jobs and then all of a sudden uh the
01:28astronaut thing came up and and i applied for it and got very lucky april 1996 you were selected by
01:35nasa to be an astronaut candidate right how did you feel it was uh incredible so i'll back up about
01:42it uh
01:42three years before then i sent my application into the to nasa and i i i my feelings about sending
01:48my
01:48application to nasa were just like yours if you buy a lottery ticket which is you know there's a big
01:53dream for a second and then you put in your pocket and you completely forget about it and you think
01:57it's
01:58never going to happen and it it felt good that i was participating that i was you know part of
02:02this uh
02:03i'm going to try to be an you know i'm going to try to be an astronaut and then of
02:06course you get
02:06turned down yeah and uh it was the third time uh that i got the shock of my life when
02:11they actually
02:11called me and said hey do you want to come to the astronaut interview and uh so that changed
02:16everything and that's when the whole thing started playing my mind like wow this would really be cool
02:21and uh so i interviewed and then it took uh months and months before them before they made the decision
02:27so in april is when they made the phone calls and um uh the phone rang it's a very traditional
02:34phone call in that they don't they never say the word astronaut all they say is you want to come
02:38down work for us and so yeah so uh so they go absolutely yes yes sir yes ma'am and
02:45then you hang
02:45up and go i wonder what i just accepted yeah that sounds life-changing yeah kind of yeah yeah it's
02:50a
02:50big it was a big deal tell us what it's like to be out there in space yeah well it's
02:54awesome um well
02:55first but we're doing a spacewalk the suit that you're in is uh bulky heavy and very uncomfortable
03:01and so you're in that suit uh for a real spacewalk you're in that suit for almost 12 hours because
03:07you have to get in it you've got to uh get your body prepared it's a whole day even though
03:12if the
03:12spacewalk is six or seven hours you're in that suit for 10 or 12 hours and that's painful but the
03:19privilege of opening the hatch and floating out and holding on to the space station yeah you're going
03:2517 500 miles an hour you look around and it's the darkness of space but the beautiful uh vehicle
03:32of the space station the thing that's keeping you alive is is is uh in your view and then you
03:37look
03:37down at your feet and then 250 miles below your feet oh there goes baja california or there goes uh
03:44oh i recognize that that's italy and it's really an amazing environment uh to to work in but you know
03:51we're out there to build a space station or fix the space station so our real focus is on of
03:56course
03:56doing the job but there are moments where uh you're taking a break and uh or your your pal in
04:03the space
04:03station will say hey uh dan we're gonna go right over chicago so take a break and take a look
04:07at chicago
04:08and fantastic right i get to watch chicago yeah pass by me as as um as i'm working okay my
04:15last question
04:15for you you spent many months on the international space station that's a research station in low earth
04:21orbit and it's a joint project between united states russia japan canada and europe in an
04:26increasingly competitive environment how important is that type of cooperation it was huge it has been
04:34an incredible uh example of how international cooperation on a project for good can survive
04:42all the political bumps and bruises that happen and so uh this international space station will end in a
04:50few years and i'm sad about that yeah because of the station but i'm also sad about that because
04:55now the leaders of these uh 11 12 countries aren't going to be meeting as regularly about a particular
05:02thing so i'm a little bit worried that uh that this uh symbol of diplomacy that's the space station uh
05:09might dissolve uh along with the station so it has been fantastic for for international cooperation and for
05:17all the astronauts and cosmonauts and astronauts from all the other countries to get to know each
05:21other yeah on a on a level on a working level and uh and and you know it only takes
05:27a couple days before
05:28all the boundaries of nationality fall fall apart and we're just having fun as space flyers and there's
05:34a view of a view of dan leaving his home in space and headed back to the house
05:39you
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