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good afternoon and welcome to NASA's
Johnson Space Center for our crew n crew
news conference today I am joined in
Studio by our crew9 crew going down the
line we have crew n Commander Zena
Cardman crew nine pilot Nick ha
and crew n Mission specialist Stephanie
Wilson and Alexander
gorinov we'll be taking questions from
here in the room and on our phone bridge
but before we kick it off we'll start
with opening remarks from Zena go ahead
thank you so much hello welcome I'm so
grateful to see everyone here present in
the room with us and also welcome to
those tuning in online I am absolutely
honored to be here with my crew mates
who have been an incredible team Nick
Stephanie and Alex they have shown know
so much technical Excellence they are
also deeply kind and incredible
teammates who have been really fun to
work with which has just made this a
dream assignment for me we're also just
a part of the Expedition 72 crew so our
colleagues alexe Ivonne and Don Pettit
will be launching on a soyu in September
we're very thrilled to be getting to
work on the International Space Station
yesterday actually marked the end of a
roughly 18-month training flow for us
and so right now we are excited and
focused as we turn towards this
pre-launch phase of our mission we're
very excited to be here and looking
forward to your
questions all right well we will start
with our first question here in the
room Hi Well Robinson Smith with space
flight now thank you so much for taking
the time to join us and talk with us
today Wonder just going down the the row
here obviously you know having the
opportunity to go into space is a time
to bring some special momentos with you
wonder are what things you're looking
for to taking with you and why you
happen to choose those as special things
thanks we have a few personal items
packed of course for me one big item is
photographs memories from home taking
with me people who are deeply meaningful
to me Family Friends those who have
supported us I'm also taking things for
our ground support teams the instructors
who have trained us prepared us for our
mission and the people who really make
human space flight happen on the ground
and so having a piece of them with us in
orbit is is really special a great
opportunity yeah one thing I'm taking
different than than last time uh is is
something that didn't exist last time a
space force flag uh as a active duty
space Force officer it's a it's a
privilege to be able to represent all
the Guardians that help support human
space flight uh as they watch the skies
and and the the cosmos that surrounds
the Earth keeping us safe every day so
that's one of the things I'm taking
along and similarly for me it's uh
important to be able to share this
opportunity in the moment with family
and friends and so I am also taking
personal photographs of family and
friends to be reminded of them and to
stay connected with them and also to
help me to tell the story uh of the
mission uh once it's all complete and
when we return home
I will also be taking photographs of my
family and my friends and there are also
some other items which are very
important for me and which represent
different Milestones of my
life uh for example uh the patch of our
uh class that's 2018 class
and also the flag of the uh high
education institution that I graduated
from in 2014 and next year it will be
the 95th Anniversary of this
institution okay we'll take another
question from here in the room go ahead
thank you Mark pero from Aviation weeken
Space technology um my question is is
looking uh forward to some of the
activities you'll be doing and I'm
particularly uh interested in maybe the
kinds of space walks and the activities
that you're prepared for uh during your
months on the
station we have a mission that is
jam-packed full of Science of course the
International Space Station is an
orbiting laboratory this is one of the
most important things that we do and so
for me coming from a scientific
background I'm actually very much
looking forward to doing research that's
very interdisciplinary very integrated
and is at varying levels of
technological Readiness some of it is
very fundamental research some of it is
more of a technology demonstration a lot
of the science that we'll be doing is
actually research on ourselves as human
bodies uh the way that we respond to the
space flight environment is incredibly
interesting we're still looking to
understand that as we move farther and
farther uh Beyond low earth orbit and
some of the effects that we experience
things like effects on our vascular
system um on our genetics um are very
similar to aging populations immun
compromised populations on Earth and a
lot of the research that we will be
doing therefore helps people on the
ground yeah t touching on the um
touching on you know the the spacewalk
aspect and the content of some of the
things we're going to be doing up there
obviously there's been changes space is
dynamic um and uh we're prepared to to
conduct uh not just what was originally
planned for us but we've been spending
the last couple weeks uh coming up to
speed on all those things that uh got
deferred from the summer uh it's a uh
it's a testament to our training team to
get us ready and to be ready to respond
and be flexible for all these things uh
it's also fun to have our chief training
officer here in the audience uh Grant
has done a phenomenal job getting us
ready so thank
you additionally we will have uh cargo
vehicles that will uh visit us on the
International Space Station we'll have
space X3 1 which will bring cargo to the
International Space Station and uh
additionally uh Dreamchaser is uh also
scheduled for 2024 so we'll be working
with those experiments and those uh new
uh systems uh components that will
arrive at the International Space
Station to complete the mission
objectives okay we have another question
here in the room Gina go ahead uh Jina
sineri ABC news for
Nick okay Al uh sorry for Nick uh you
talked about the US space force uh tell
me the advantage you have going to the
space station to expand the US space
force presence and you're a guardian uh
how does this all play together for you
yeah you know so inside of the astronaut
Corps we have uh you know several active
duty military members that are assigned
to work for NASA and that's a we've got
a long history of that level of
cooperation and so it's great to be able
to to serve not only in the space force
but also serve my nation as part of the
astronaut Corps um expanding the you
know what I think the biggest impact of
me being on this Mission as a guardian
is going to be is just raising awareness
uh there are a lot of things that the
space force does that are instrumental
to making human space flight possible
whether that's providing us support to
launch and land or keeping us safe by by
moving us out of the way or warning us
of potential
debris okay we'll head over to our phone
Bridge now but if there are any
additional questions in the room please
be sure to get our attention we will
start with Robert Pearlman with collect
space thank you um looking at your the
patches that are representing your
mission the crew9 patch is colorful and
full symbolism and then you look at the
exposition 72 patch and it's almost the
most straightforward patch since
exhibition one did did your did the did
your crew lead the design of both
patches and how did
that um how did those two come
about the crew9 patch of course was
designed with inputs from crew 9 this
one was designed by Blake dessel who has
done a lot of patches for NASA and crude
flights in the past um there's a lot of
symbolism in every patch so for the crew
n patch we of course have a falcon this
is some Synergy between crew 9 and the
Falcon 9 rocket on which we will launch
our destination is the International
Space Station the constellation in the
background is Draco as a nod to our
Dragon spacecraft and the engines that
will take us there uh the colors are
also symbolic the red yellow white and
black is actually a nod to the maritime
signaling flag for the number nine uh
fun fact and the purple was
serendipitous but we happen to have
embraced it deeply uh the Expedition 72
patch was actually led by Don pedit uh
who is already in Star City on his way
to the international space station in
September and it really is a nod to the
long-standing history of the space
station which has been human occupied
for more than 20 years now but you'll
notice of course the space station looks
quite a bit different than it did in
Expedition one and I'm very grateful to
be flying with people who actually
helped in its
construction okay we'll take our next
question on the phone Bridge from Bill
Harwood with CBS
News uh thank thank you very much this
is a question for Nick I think um how is
the only guy there I know of anyway
who's who's been through a a rocket
anomaly how closely have you guys been
able to follow the Falcon 9 N
investigation and how confident are you
uh in in your rocket uh any thoughts you
have would be
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appreciated yeah I'm extremely confident
in the the team the approach that
they've taken the the integrated
approach and which NASA has been
incorporated into the response and uh am
excited to to strap onto the rocket when
the team decides it's time to go um yeah
we've been integrated we actually were
out at at SpaceX and Hawthorne training
uh and it was the day after the the
anomaly and and from the get-go they
they brought us into the conversation
and and told us everything that they
knew so um it's been a spectacular
response yeah I completely agree we've
been so grateful for the transparency
and the collaborative nature of this as
we understand uh what happened and how
we move forward we are really confident
and we will go when the crew is ready
when the rocket is ready the capsule is
ready and the space station is ready for
us okay we'll head back to the phone
Bridge our next question is from
Elizabeth Howell withs
space.com thanks everyone for finding
the time um I was curious if you're
going to be doing anything fun for some
of the sports events that happen
especially in the fall and so I was
thinking maybe the World Series or if
you're staying that long for the Super
Bowl um what do you what do you folks
want to do
we would love to be involved with any
and all of the sports events and uh
there's a wonderful public affairs team
at uh at Nasa that I'm sure will uh work
those events for us and and tell us the
best ways that we can contribute but uh
celebrating Sports and wonderful events
on Earth is a nice way for us to stay
connected for us to have a little bit of
fun uh aboard the International Space
Station so we look forward to uh
participating in those sporting events
uh as we're able to and as the uh PR
team uh assembles that uh that plan
together for
us okay we'll take our next question
from Sophie with Cosmic
Chicago good afternoon thank you for
taking my call um this question is for
Stephanie um several years uh about 14
have passed since your last space flight
and I noticed on your bio that you've
done a lot of behindth scenes work um
prior to different missions a lot of us
don't get to see that work um one of the
panels that you worked on was the as a
representative to increased crew size
generic operations panel doesn't have an
acronym as long as far as I know but um
can you tell me a little bit about some
of the work that you've done that's
informed the current situation on Space
Station or what you hope to see um given
that right now we have a huge number of
astronauts on station thank you uh thank
you for the question and uh yes as part
of my work uh in between missions I
participated in a panel uh as you said
called the 7 crew a joint operations
panel and at the time uh uh as we were
building the International Space Station
initially starting as a crew of three
building up to a crew of six and then
having a a team to look at how we would
uh in a stepwise manner uh Institute and
build up the systems that could support
seven crew and so all of that work laid
the foundation to our operations for
today as we're able to have seven crew
members aboard the International Space
Station uh as a steady state um uh as a
Ste State operation and um so excited
that as part of being able to build the
International Space Station now having
an opportunity to return and to see it
all assembled and actually to have a
chance to uh visit uh some of the
components that I brought up on earlier
space flights but to really see that
ongoing presence to see how the systems
continue to operate and uh in some cases
some of the science experiments also
have continued or stopped for a portion
and then reconed really looking forward
to seeing how things are operating now
and uh having a chance to experience
that and tell the
story okay our next question is from
Douglas with
payload yeah hi can you hear me yes we
can hear
you okay great so um my question I think
it was Zena that mentioned that a lot of
the science would be studying how their
bodies um uh react to a longer stay in
space I just wondering what the
mentality is going into uh a six Monon
stay on the ISS knowing that your body
is going to be undergoing a lot of
stress and like you said um kind of
mimicking the aging process uh how do
you kind of reconcile that and prepare
yourself mentally uh for that aspect of
the
mission for me personally it's actually
incredibly fulfilling it's such a
privilege to fly in space and if what
our bodies are experiencing can then
also help us understand uh diseases and
different effects uh to compromised
populations on the earth this is
incredibly valuable and so for me this
is just a giant privilege of course we
know that our bodies are going to
experience changes we do so much to help
mitigate and prevent those changes from
exercise to support from
nutritionists I think it's fascinating
and I'm really looking forward to
participating in research as both a
scientist and a subject
okay we'll take our next next question
here in the room go
ahead this can be for whoever wants to
answer this um over the last few crew
rotation missions we've seen some really
interesting uh fights at the Apple if
you will of how to share what you know
the day in life is like on board station
do any of you have anything particular
either in collaboration with some folks
that are currently on station or have
been on station that you're kind of you
know cooking up behind the scenes that
you can share with us yes I think we all
have different approaches to this which
I absolutely love uh on board during our
Expedition we will have crew members who
were born in the ' 50s 60s 7s ' 80s and
90s and so we all have a really complex
story to tell uh don Pettit our crewmate
launching on soyu uh is an incredible
photographer I'm really looking forward
to not only seeing what he produces but
learning from him and hoping that I can
get even a tiny little bit of his
expertise while we're there and
Stephanie meanwhile really wants to
share the story of house station has
evolved since she started participating
in its construction but I'll let other
people uh add how they want to
contribute yes I would as Zena mentioned
like to uh in a way Chronicle uh the
Assembly of the International Space
Station and uh over uh the period
highlight certain components or systems
or payloads or uh window facilities that
we have added to the International Space
Station and try to tell the story of
perhaps how that uh component blue and
some initial uh information about the
background and then how it's being
operating today I think that that's a
great way to tell the story of the
International Space Station it is a
wonderful orbiting laboratory that we
have the honor of working uh with our
colleagues our International colleagues
and doing this International research
and uh it's just one way that we can
tell our story and uh bring everyone
along with
us okay we'll take another question here
in the room J Ander ABC News actually
for all of you um you know two of you
have been to the space station before
and last week we heard the plans on how
station will be deorbited so is this a
little Bittersweet for you guys going up
to
station you know there's there's a lot
of time before we get to 2030 and so I'm
looking forward to all the things we're
going to accomplish before we get there
um it is amazing what you are able to to
get involved in over the course of six
or seven months um it it's you just
become part of this machine uh this
living breathing laboratory that's up
there and you feel the extension on the
ground to the to the hundreds and
thousands of people that are supporting
you day in and day out and and then you
land and you've almost forgotten
everything that you did up there because
you were going so fast and and chasing
that red line and trying to get
everything done that you could possibly
do um so I'm excited to grab the Baton
again and see what we can
accomplish and in that same vein uh
having lived through or been part of the
space shuttle program and seeing that uh
retire uh of course is Bittersweet uh
and then continuing the International
Space Station program again uh with the
deorbit vehicle and having uh the
potential end of the International Space
Station program will also be bitter
sweet but in ending programs that also
means that we're able to extend our work
in other programs so looking forward
then to the research and the uh long
duration missions deep space missions
that we will conduct with our lunar
missions and and our Mars missions after
that so of course it does mean that
we're closing the book so to speak on
one phase but it enables us to do more
extensive work in the next
phase okay our next question is from
David with about space
today good afternoon I'd like just to uh
talked to uh Alex about uh his
impression of being possibly trained in
a
soil and now going to sit in a dragon
Space Capsule what is it like to him
I have great impressions uh from dragon
and from training and anticipating the
upcoming
flight uh of course I had a very long
training uh for so flights starting from
uh my uh ascan uh program
and uh right now for about a year I had
uh training mostly focused on dragon and
a US
segment and of course there are um
aspects of training that I can compare
between so and dragon
Miss and uh I think it's better to
compare not training on so uh versus
training on Dragon but more training for
specific roles like for example on so
flight 2 which is right seat um is
similar to Mission specialist on
Dragon in terms of uh time uh needed for
this training and the responsibilities
these two positions they're pretty
similar
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so the main responsibilities for both
Mission specialist on dragon and flight
engineer to on so that uh to provide um
their own safety during the flight uh
whether it's a ninal flight or during
ofn normal situations
so this is going to be my first mission
and I I hope not my last one so I still
hope to have an opportunity late in the
future to compare uh training and flying
flying on soos and
dragon okay my question would be uh
going a little bit beyond that is is it
like from being in a soos like a small
apartment and now going to a luxury
apartment in comparison
I don't have a
translation repeat the question can you
repeat the question
please true training in in a soos it's
that like a a being in a small apartment
and now getting into the dragon which is
like a luxury apartment
yes that's correct the size of the
vehicles is different so uses smaller
and dragon is larger but don't forget
that uh so has basically two rooms uh
two smaller rooms and dragon has one
larger
room okay our next question comes from
Reed
kelbach hi thank you for taking the call
first of all just want to wish you all
the best of luck on your upcoming
Mission um I have a question for
Stephanie uh we cover a area in Upstate
New York near Albany and that includes
your actual Alma monitor of tonic High
School School uh so I was wondering if
there's any message You' like to share
with them and any advice you would like
to give to kids from our area who may
have similar aspirations to One Day end
up like you yes I uh very much uh
enjoyed my time growing up in western
Mass and uh I miss uh that part of the
country it's a beautiful uh area I miss
the weather and the snow and the skiing
and the change of seasons and um the
wonderful Community that's there uh for
for my high school tonic high school and
other uh students in the area it is a
small town and um when I was growing up
there were about 40,000 people uh living
in a town of Pittsfield Massachusetts
and I'd like to say that um Big Dreams
can come from small places and uh I had
great support from my family from my
parents uh for whom uh education was
very important and so I'm very thankful
that they were uh encouraging of me
throughout my education and the teachers
uh that I had in that Community were
also very supportive and instructive and
uh my message is really find your dream
find what you're passionate about pursue
it uh with all that you can and um even
though you might come from a small place
remember that Big Dreams can come from
small
places a great message to end on and
that's all the questions we have for
today thank you all for tuning in thanks
to our crew for being here and answering
the questions you can follow the latest
on crew 9's mission to the International
Space Station on nasa.gov commmercial
crew and a quick note for our media Don
Pettit will be available for live shots
remotely from Star City Russia on August
16th and we have more information about
that coming soon thanks for joining
we'll be back soon
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