Space Station

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I’m astronaut. I flew on space shuttle twice, and I lived on International Space Station for almost six months. people often ask me same question, which is, “What’s it like in space?” as if it was secret. space belongs to all of us, and I’d like to help you understand why it’s place that is magic for all of us.

day after my 50th birthday, I climbed aboard Russian capsule, in Russia, and launched into space. launching is most dangerous thing that we do, and it’s also most thrilling. Three, two, one … liftoff! I felt every single bit of controlled fury of those rocket engines as they blasted us off Earth. We went faster and faster and faster, until, after eight and half minutes, on purpose, those engines stop — kabunk! — and we are weightless. And mission and magic begin.

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Dmitry and Paolo and I are circling Earth in our tiny spacecraft, approaching space station carefully. It’s intricate dance at 17,500 miles hour between our capsule, size of Smart Car, and space station, size of football field. We arrive when those two craft dock with gentle thunk. We open hatches, have sloppy zero-G hugs with each other, and now we’re six. We’re space family, instant family.

My favourite part about living up there was flying. I loved it. It was like being Peter Pan. It’s not about floating. Just touch of finger can actually push you across entire space station, and then you sort of tuck in with your toes. One of my favorite things was drifting silently through space station, which was humming along at night. I wondered sometimes if it knew I was there, just silent. But sharing wonder of that with crew was also part of what was important to me.

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typical day in space starts with perfect commute. I wake up, cruise down to lab and say hello to best morning view ever. It’s really fast commute, only 30 seconds, and we never get tired of looking out that window. I think it reminds us that we’re actually still very close to Earth.

Our crew was second ever to use Canadian robotic arm to capture supply ship size of school bus containing about dozen different experiments and only chocolate that we would see for next four months. Now, chocolate aside, every single one of those experiments enables yet one more scientific question answered that we can’t do down here on Earth. And so, it’s like different lens, allowing us to see answers to questions like, “What about combustion?” “What about fluid dynamics?”

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For me, music was way to stay connected to rest of world. I played duet between Earth and space with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull on 50th anniversary of human spaceflight.

Connecting to family was so important. I talked with my family almost every day whole time I was up there, and I would actually read books to my son as way for us just to be together. So important. Now, when space station would go over Massachusetts, my family would run outside, and they would watch brightest star sailing across sky. And when I looked down, I couldn’t see my house, but it meant lot to me to know that people I loved most were looking up while I was looking down.

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So space station, for me, is place where mission and magic come together. mission, work are vital steps in our quest to go further than our planet and imperative for understanding sustainability here on Earth. I loved being part of that, and if I could have taken my family with me, I never would have come home.

And so my view from station showed me that we are all from same place. We all have our roles to play. Because, Earth is our ship. space is our home. And we are crew of Spaceship Earth.