How to Astronaut
Page 32
Next, friends and colleagues who are too numerous to list. You have contributed in so many ways, since my early days at the Air Force Academy all the way through my post-NASA career. At the end of the day people matter above all else, and what I learned from the remarkable people of the US Air Force and NASA during my career will never be matched by what I gave them in return. Of course, not everything is rosy and perfect in life, and I’ve learned a few things along the way about how not to treat people. To those who taught me sometimes-painful lessons, as we used to joke in the fighter squadron, you weren’t entirely useless—you served as a bad example. Thank you for showing me the path in life to avoid—something often more valuable than seeing the path to take.
A few months before beginning this book, I met a great American and fellow author named Clint Emerson. He recommended a book by a guy named King. You may have heard of him. Stephen King. So I picked up the first Stephen King book of my life (I’m not kidding)—On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and it was exactly what I needed as a new author. In it he emphasized the importance of cutting word count by saying things as succinctly as possible. Of avoiding adverbs—not “I lazily walked to the lake while wistfully recounting a story with my friend who was vigorously complaining about the gently falling snow in the deathly still air,” but rather “I walked to the lake while talking with my buddy who was whining about the cold.” Mr. King also motivated me to pick up a copy of The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E. B. White, the tried and true manual of grammar and the English language. I never imagined I’d read a book about how to write, and certainly not Strunk and White, but they were both indispensable on my journey to becoming a proper author. Thank you, Stephen and Clint and Strunk and White, I owe you.
I needed help from some of my NASA colleagues when dealing with my CRS in order to remember the many details I had forgotten. Rick Cole was one of my NASA flight surgeons during my Expedition 42/43 space mission, and Julia Wells was my Crew Medical Officer trainer, and they both helped my recollection for the space medicine chapters. Josh Matthew was my crew training officer for both my shuttle flight and my long-duration station flight, and he was always a great help for “Hey Josh, what does this acronym mean?” or “Do we still do that procedure?” Alex and Faruq, thank you for making those spacewalks possible and safe. Beth Turner was my family support person, and while others were trying to make life difficult, Beth made it tolerable. I am forever grateful to you for the support you gave me and my family.
To my STS-130 and Expedition 42/43 crewmates, you made my spaceflights safe, memorable, and experiences that I will always treasure as I attempt to share them with folks down here on Earth. All I can say is, more cowbell. . . .
Of course, Don Pettit must be thanked, for both his friendship as well as his photography mentorship. In an office full of smart people, Don is one of the smartest. More importantly, he is a great dude. He’s a legitimate genius, but also a very practical hands-on guy who can seemingly fix or invent anything. Being in the office with you was a highlight of my sixteen years at NASA, Don.
Jack Stuster is the world’s leading expert on expeditionary behavior, and his two-decade-long experiment, called Journals, has become the definitive work chronicling the psychological status of every long-duration NASA astronaut since the beginning of the space station program. Jack understands the mental and human requirements of lengthy expeditions more than anyone else on Earth, and his expertise is the key to our future endeavors exploring the far reaches of the solar system. He also showed amazing insight when he noticed that I was the first ever ISS astronaut to have an improved mood during the third quarter of his mission. Normally, that is when crews get down, and they improve toward the end, but I was unusual in that I improved at the midpoint of my Expedition 42/43 mission.
The highlight of my time in space was making the IMAX film A Beautiful Planet, directed by the late Toni Myers. Working with her, her director of photography James Neihouse, and space consultant and fellow astronaut Marsha Ivins was one of the most special experiences of my career. I have since begun a new filmmaking career, and I learned from the best. Thank you, Toni; we miss you terribly. And I promise, if I ever see aliens, I won’t not film them just because it’s not on the shot list!
This book would never have happened were it not for my agent, Geoffrey Jennings, who believed in me and was willing to pitch me to my excellent publisher, Workman. Without great partners in your agent and publisher, an author is up the creek (or stuck in orbit without a rocket engine for the deorbit burn). I gave Geoffrey some not-so-great ideas for a book, and he politely told me, “These are great, I recommend you continue your day job as a speaker.” When I brought him the idea for How to Astronaut he jumped to work, taking it immediately to our publisher.
My publisher, Workman, has been absolutely wonderful to work with every step of the way. Suzie Bolotin, the publisher, supported the idea for this book from the start and never gave us a chance to even talk to any other publishers—that meant the world to me. Workman’s CEO, Dan Reynolds, signed off on this project without ever meeting me, when I had only one book to date under my belt. I needed two editors to encourage me and help turn my chicken scratch (in a figurative, Microsoft Word kind of way) into this beautiful work: Bruce Tracy and John Meils, as well as a spectacular copyeditor, Claudia Sorsby. Thanks as well to Kate Karol, Barbara Peragine, and Galen Smith. I’m just a fighter pilot, and I needed your help to bring HTA together, making sure the nouns and verbs and (rarely) adverbs would be fun for the reader. Moving on to the fun part of the book, thanks to Janet Vicario for an amazing book design, and to Vaughn Andrews for a book cover that will keep this work flying off shelves for many years to come! Finally, to Rebecca Carlisle and Diana Griffin, thank you for suffering my endless ideas for marketing and book-tour stops. Without your work none of us would have a job!
Lani, you’re the best.
The people responsible for getting me in shape for my flights, and then even more importantly getting me readapted back to Earth afterward, are known as ASCRs (NASA acronym for strength and conditioning trainers). Mine were Bruce Nieschwitz for Expedition 43 and Corey Twine, Christi Baker Keeler, Mark Guilliams, and Jamie Chauvin for STS-130 and general training. After 200 days in space I had lost 0.0 percent of my bone density, so they must have been doing something right.
One more thank-you. For the person whom FS calls, in her Australian accent, “race car, race car, race car,” thank you. I wouldn’t be alive without you.
This writing thing is a blast. I have enjoyed it much more than I ever thought possible, and I hope I have many more books in me, fiction and nonfiction. I also hope that you, the reader, enjoyed this book, laughed, and occasionally said, “Wow! I never knew that.”
Terry Virts
March 2020
Locked down in quarantine
Houston, Texas, USA
Earth
Index
Note: Page references in italics indicate photographs.
Page numbers have been removed from the index for this electronic edition. To locate any of the following terms, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
A ⃒B ⃒C ⃒D ⃒E ⃒F ⃒G ⃒H ⃒I ⃒J ⃒K ⃒L ⃒M ⃒N ⃒O ⃒P ⃒R ⃒S ⃒T ⃒U ⃒V ⃒W ⃒Z ⃒
A
A Beautiful Planet documentary
accidents. See also Challenger accident; Columbia accident
ACY (ISS toilet)
adversity, facing
AET (tether)
Air Force tracking network
airlock
Aldrin, Buzz
aliens
Ames Research Center
ammonia leaks
Anderson, Mike
animal experiments
about
MICRO-5 experiment
training
transporting specimens
Antisatellite (ASAT) testing
APFR (foot restraint
)
Apollo Applications Program (AAP)
Apollo-Soyuz Test Program
ARED (weightlifting machine)
Arnold, Ricky
ASCAN. See astronauts
ASCRs (personal trainers)
astronauts
the “Bugs” class
commander duties
Crew Medical Officer (CMO)
daily schedule
demographics
pilot (PLT) duties (See also pilot training (shuttle program))
qualifications
retired
soft skills
tasks in space
training (See training)
Astro Palate (experiment)
Astrovan
Auroras
B
Baikonur Cosmodrome
balance, post-flight
barf bags
bathing
bathrooms. See bathing; toilets
the bends
Blue Origin
BOB (food bag)
Bolden, Charlie
bone degradation
Brown, Dave
BRT (tether)
bureaucracy
Burtt, Ben
Bush, George W.
C
Cabana, Bob
Canadarm (SRMS)
Canadarm2 (SSRMS)
cancer, risk of
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE)
carbon dioxide exposure training
carbon dioxide scrubbers
care packages
cargo resupply ships
care packages
docking
fresh food
incidents
unpacking
CEVIS (stationary bike)
Challenger accident
lessons learned
management mistakes
Chang-Díaz, Franklin
Chawla, Kalpana
circadian rhythm
Clark, Laurel
cleaning the ISS
clothing
Cocoa Beach
cognitive impairment
Columbia accident
account from the ground
family White House visit
lessons learned
management mistakes
communication
among crew
with earth
compartmentalization (mental)
Constellation program
Crew Medical Officer (CMO)
about
duties
training
crew quarters
Cristoforetti, Samantha
as an IV
Capitol Hill visit
fame in Italy
hairstyling
on the ISS
language skills
physics experiment
cross-range
CUBESATs
Cupola module
Cygnus (spacecraft)
D
daily schedule
DAM (debris avoidance maneuver)
day/night cycles
death in space
debris in space
dehydrated food
Delta-v
dental hygiene
dental training
Department of Defense (DoD)
Dextre (SPDM) robotic arm
diapers
DNA, effect of radiation on
Dragon (SpaceX)
dreaming in space
E
earth, viewed from space
EI (entry-interface)
Einstein, Albert
electric in-space propulsion
email
EMU. See Extravehicular Mobility Unit
Endeavour. See also STS-130
entertainment in space
Epps, Jeanette
ERCM (tether)
EVA (extravehicular activity). See spacewalking
exercise
preparing for spaceflight
rehabilitation after spaceflight
in space
Expedition 42
Expedition 42/43
Expedition 43
experiments. See also medical research
on animals
zero-gravity flight testing
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)
base layers
putting on
sizes and adjustment
training
eyesight problems (VIIP)
F
F-16 Viper
Falcon 9 (SpaceX)
Falcon Heavy (SpaceX)
family support
FGB (Zarya) module
Flight Operations Directorate (FOD)
flight training
jets
shuttle pilot
turboprops
float, learning to
food in space
foot restraint (APFR)
foreign language training
FTS (flight termination system)
G
Gagarin, Yuri
Gateway (lunar orbit space station)
generator (RTG)
geosynchronous orbit
Gerstenmaier, Bill
Glenn, John
glove rubber (RTV)
gloves
God
gravity
on earth, adjusting to
feeling of falling
gradient
at launch
zero, getting used to
zero, training for
Griffin, Mike
H
haircuts in space
Hale, Wayne
health problems
bone degradation
carbon dioxide exposure
cognitive impairment
eyesight
insomnia
muscle degradation
nervous system effects
radiation
skin problems
space adaptation syndrome (SAS)
heat shields
heavy-lift rockets
Helios B (satellite)
Hire, Kay
Hobaugh, Charlie
Hubble Space Telescope
Husband, Rick
HUT (EMU upper section)
hygiene
I
IMAX movies
inclination (orbital)
insomnia. See also sleeping in space
international relations
International Space Station (ISS)
alarm system
atmosphere
building
capturing cargo ships
chores and cleaning
communication with earth
cooling system
docking
food
gravity
maneuvering
mission
module limitations
orbit
participating countries
privacy
robotic arms
toilets
undocking
internet
ionizing radiation, dangers of
ISLE (prebreathe protocol)
isolation
IV (intravehicular)
Ivins, Marsha
J
Japanese HTV (cargo ship)
Japanese ISS segment
JEM-RMS (robotic arm)
jet lag
jet trainers
Johnson Space Center
Journals (experiment)
K
Kanelakos, Alex
KC-135 “Vomit Comet”
Kennedy Space Center
Kessler syndrome
Kornienko, Misha
Ku-band radio
L
LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared at Night)
LEE R&R (robotic arm maintenance)
Lousma, Jack
LTA (EMU lower section)
M
MAG (diaper)
magnetic field of earth
marooned in
space
Mars
attractive characteristics
equipment needed
mission duration
Marshall Space Flight Center
Mastracchio, Rick
Max-q
McCool, Willie
medical research
medical training
medication
medium-lift rockets
MELFI (freezer)
Melvin, Leland
military rations (MREs)
Mir space station
movies, shooting in space
movies, watching
MREs (military rations)
Mucha, Waclaw
muscle degradation
music
MWS EE (tether)
Myers, Toni
about
artistic direction
A Beautiful Planet
N
NASA. See also specific facilities
arbitrary rules
astronaut application process
doctors
family support
human spaceflight policy
medical coverage
mission
mistakes made by
privatization
psychologists
Neihouse, James
nervous system, effects of spaceflight on
Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL)
New Armstrong (Blue Origin)
New Glenn (Blue Origin)
Nieschwitz, Bruce
nitrogen gas, in blood and tissues
Node 1 (Unity)
Node 3 (Tranquility)
installation
uses
NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course
Northrop Grumman
nuclear power
O
Obama, Barack
OBSS (inspection boom)
OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography)
OmegA (Northrop Grumman)
orbital mechanics
organization, importance of
Orlan (Russian EVA suit)
Oval Office visits
oxygen
P
packing for space
paper bag training
personal items
personal space
personal time
personal trainers (ASCRs)
Pettit, Don
phone calls
photography in space. See also IMAX movies
physical training for spaceflight
pilot training (shuttle program)
PMM (module)
politics
Polyakov, Valery
pressure suits. See spacesuits
privatization
Progress (Russian spacecraft)
Proxima Centauri
psychology. See also isolation
R
radiation, dangers of
Ramon, Ilan
“Red Button”