- 12 minutes ago
Get to know a little bit about NASA's 2024 astronaut candidates.
The candidates are "U.S. Army CW3 Ben Bailey, U.S. Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, Dr. Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Dr. Imelda Muller," according to NASA.
Credit: NASA
The candidates are "U.S. Army CW3 Ben Bailey, U.S. Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, Dr. Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Dr. Imelda Muller," according to NASA.
Credit: NASA
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TechTranscript
00:00All right, now for some of you, this is not your first introduction to NASA, and we are excited
00:04to have you back. So Lauren, Yuri, and Becky, tell us about your previous experiences here at NASA
00:11and what your job was at the time of selection. All right, I'm Lauren Edgar, and I am so excited
00:18and honored to be here today. My NASA experience actually dates back to my days as a NASA intern
00:23working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I spent two summers there, and then I participated
00:28in a number of NASA programs throughout college and grad school. More recently, I've been
00:33working at the U.S. Geological Survey and helping to contribute to the exploration of the moon
00:38and Mars. So I've participated in NASA missions, I've contributed to some of the geology training
00:44and testing, I've worked on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Curiosity Mars Rover Mission,
00:49working with JPL, and most recently, the Artemis III science team. And through these experiences,
00:54I've had the chance to see the amazing team that makes this all possible, and I just
00:58wanted to say I am so excited to be officially part of the NASA family, and can't wait to be
01:03serving
01:03in this role along with all of my new classmates here. Thank you.
01:14Hi, my name is Yuri Kubo. Super excited to be here and deeply honored to be a part of this
01:19class,
01:20as well as the NASA family. Actually, much like Lauren, I started here back in college. I was a co
01:27-op,
01:28right here at the Johnson Space Center, actually, feels a lot like a kind of a homecoming, a really
01:32nice homecoming to come back. So I spent seven tours here at Johnson Space Center across both the
01:37engineering side of the house, as well as the flight operations side. So I got a good taste of what
01:43it
01:43was to be a part of this incredible community of dedicated people. Fast forward to more recently,
01:49I was, at the time of selection, I was a senior vice president of engineering at a company called
01:54Electric Hydrogen, where I was working with an amazing team trying to build electrolyzers that split
02:01water into oxygen and hydrogen to make energy for a lot of key industries. Thanks.
02:15Hi, I'm Becky Lawler, and it is just an awesome honor to be able to be up here today. My
02:21previous work
02:22with NASA was actually through interagency work that NASA does. When I was in the Navy, I flew as a
02:27guest
02:27research pilot on Operation Ice Bridge in the NASA P3 out of northern Greenland. I was giving away the next
02:34part. My second time working with NASA when I was working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
02:40Administration, sometimes referred to as NOAA, and I was a NOAA commissioned officer, and I got to work
02:46with NASA on certifying instruments that were really important in forecasting hurricanes during hurricane
02:52seasons for the NOAA hurricane hunters. And at the time of my selection, I was United Airlines flight test
02:58captain and technical pilot, which is a test pilot. And I'm so excited to use all those experiences and
03:04everything to be a part of this incredible team and play my role in our endeavors as a class.
03:17Okay, and now two of you come to us with a medical background. So Anna and Mel, tell us a
03:23little bit about your background and what you're excited for in the future of space medicine.
03:29Hi, I'm Anna Menon, and I was here at NASA's Johnson Space Center. I worked as a biomedical flight controller,
03:37and in that role, our job was to support the medical hardware and software on the International Space Station and
03:44help keep the astronauts healthy and safe from mission control.
03:47I am so thrilled to be back here with the NASA family. And, you know, as I reflect on the
03:53future of space medicine, I think it's really bright.
03:56We are born into 1G. And so when you go into 0G, so many things change. As more and more
04:05people venture into space and we seek to go further than ever before, we have this awesome opportunity to learn
04:11a tremendous amount to help support those astronauts and those people that are flying in those
04:17adventures and help keep them healthy and safe. So it's an exciting time to be here and I couldn't be
04:21more thrilled than honored.
04:30My name is Imelda Muller. I sometimes go by Mel. And previously, I was an undersea medical officer with the
04:37Navy. And that experience gave me the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams in experimental and saturation diving.
04:44And I developed a passion for learning about the way the body adapts in extreme environments. And this led me
04:52to pursue medical residency training in anesthesia, where I deepened that understanding of how our body responds when it's under
04:59stress.
05:00I'm incredibly excited to be here alongside this team and to build on that foundation with the greater NASA community
05:08because, as Anna alluded to, with upcoming exploration missions, we are pushing the boundaries of human performance.
05:15And the lessons that we learn, the knowledge that we gain, all of these things are going to help us
05:21to excel not just in space, but in areas of human health here on Earth.
05:26The future of space medicine is now and I'm incredibly honored to be here with this team.
05:41We have six test pilots in the group. The following questions are for a few of you. Our jet pilots,
05:49Adam, Cameron and Aaron.
05:51One of the highlights of my career was being the person, along with April Jordan, to let you know that
06:00you had been selected to join the astronaut corps.
06:04The responses were varied and they were awesome.
06:09So, two questions. What was it like to get that call and how do you think your flight test background
06:18will help you in your astronaut training?
06:22Hello, everyone.
06:23At first, I was just in disbelief. I had to take the first exit and finish the conversation in a
06:29parking lot just to make sure I was hearing you right, Joe.
06:32But then came the excitement and just extreme gratitude for the opportunity to join this amazing team.
06:37And I was happy to finish the drive home and share that news with my wife and kids who are
06:41here with us today.
06:43As far as experience in flight test, as test pilots, we don't do anything on our own.
06:48We work with amazing teams of engineers and maintenance professionals to plan, simulate, and then execute complex and sometimes risky
06:57missions in aircraft to collect data and accomplish a mission.
07:00All while assessing risk and making smart calls as a team to do that as safely as possible.
07:06And I'm happy to try to bring some of that experience to do the same thing with the NASA team
07:09and learn from everyone at Johnson Space Center how to apply those lessons to human space flight.
07:21Hey, everybody. I'm Cameron Jones. I got the call from Joe in April about two months ago.
07:27And about two months and three days ago, I just finished a cross-country move from California to D.C.
07:32So we were sitting on the floor of our new empty house, my wife, my daughter, and I with no
07:39furniture.
07:40And the call came through. And I don't think my one-year-old knew exactly what was going on, but
07:44I must have had a pretty big smile on my face
07:46because she let out a perfectly timed gleeful scream that went through both sides of the call and got good
07:51laughs from the other end of the phone as well.
07:53So I'm also really excited to be here, but that brings up my test pilot skill that I'm going to
07:58focus on, which is adaptability and resiliency.
08:00So maybe it's a move across country. Maybe it's a dynamic situation up in an airplane.
08:05But I think that'll transport into this domain.
08:16Hello. I'm Erin Overcash, callsign loft. And when I got the call, I was about a week away from joining
08:22my next squadron on deployment.
08:24So I had my sea bags packed, ready to go meet the aircraft carrier. I had just finished flight training
08:29for the day.
08:29And my spouse and I were on the couch. We get a call from an unknown number and we both
08:34look at each other.
08:35And then we were like throwing blankets and pillows. Oh my gosh, where's the remote? Turn the TV off.
08:40And we had like one last pause of a moment, make an eye contact knowing that this phone call could
08:45change our lives.
08:46And it did. Then the way Joe phrased his part of the conversation, he effectively said, do you still want
08:52the job?
08:53And the first words that I said on the phone were, no way. I mean, I mean, yes, of course,
09:00but like, no way.
09:03And then not specific to my flight test, but just being in the Navy, I think any sailor would tell
09:07you we spend a lot of time stuck in a hot metal box or sometimes a cold metal box in
09:11the middle of the ocean.
09:13And when you share that space with 5,000 people, there's no such thing as privacy or personal space.
09:18And you really have to get to know your people that you work with very well, both good and bad.
09:23You have to learn how to set clear boundaries and respect each other, not just to survive, but really thrive
09:27as a team.
09:28And so that's some perspective I hope to bring to our astronaut candidate group.
09:41We're all very glad that no way meant yes.
09:45So thanks for that.
09:46Now let's talk to our two helicopter pilots, Ben and Kate.
09:51What are you most excited about for your upcoming training?
09:56Yeah, good morning.
09:57I'm Ben Bailey, and the next two years of ASCAN training are exciting.
10:05You know, language training, flight training, spacewalk training, robotics, all of that.
10:11Each one of those would be very exciting in its own right.
10:14I would be excited to do any one of those individually and to look and combine all of those over
10:19the next two years is extremely exciting.
10:21So I can't pick out a single one alone, but all of them together are just fantastic.
10:27And more than that, I'm really excited that the next two years will be spent with the other nine here
10:32on stage with me.
10:33I'm really excited to see everybody's strengths as we tackle those challenges together.
10:45Good morning.
10:46I'm Kathryn Spies, and Ben knows this, but when you're flying a helicopter and you're sitting in the cockpit, there
10:52is a lot going on.
10:54The rotors are vibrating your seat, and you can see the flicker of the blades over the top of your
11:01field of view, and you're reading the instruments, and you've got voices coming into the radio in your helmet.
11:06And all of these inputs are the language of your aircraft.
11:10And it's the same language that connects us across squadrons and other disciplines and even countries.
11:16And this is what makes big things happen.
11:21And I think in the next two years of astronaut candidate training, the thing that I'm super pumped about is
11:27learning the language of human space flight.
11:46Not that we're not having fun already, but how about a little more fun?
11:50So y'all have worked around the world and trained for various career or personal events.
11:56So why don't you share with us something that maybe not everyone would know about you?
12:02Okay, I'll start.
12:03I spent my first year as a naval officer in the Navy's world-class athlete program, so I was effectively
12:09a professional rugby player.
12:11I lived and trained full-time at the Olympic Training Center with the USA rugby team.
12:22I'll go next.
12:24Some of you might be familiar with a sport called Ultimate Frisbee.
12:28What some of you might not know is it became a professional sport, actually, in 2012.
12:33And I had the honor of representing Indianapolis, Indiana as a professional athlete for the inaugural year of that sport.
12:45All right, well, those who know me well, including my nine new best friends on the stage here, know that
12:50I love to do handstands everywhere that I go.
12:53I grew up doing gymnastics, and I've always loved the outdoors.
12:57So it kind of evolved from climb a mountain to a handstand at the top.
13:00But it seems to have followed me everywhere around the world on tops of mountains, on top of glaciers, the
13:05bottom of the Grand Canyon,
13:06pretty much everywhere that I've gone except on this stage today.
13:18Well, Lauren, that is great news.
13:21My New Year's resolution this year was to learn to walk on my hands.
13:25I have made zero progress.
13:29But maybe before the end of December, I can get a few pointers.
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