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>> It was eight weeks ago
tomorrow the last time
that a Soyuz spacecraft
returned to Earth,
bringing international space
station crew members home.
In this particular case,
after 188 days in space,
more than 3,000 orbits
of the Earth,
totaling some 79 million miles,
it delivered cosmonaut
Mikhail Tyurin, JAXA astronaut,
Koichi Wakata, and NASA's Rick
Mastracchio, who joins us here
in the flight control
room this morning.
Rick, it's nice to
see you back on Earth.
>> Good morning, Pat.
Happy to be here.
>> We've spent an awful
lot of time talking
about how astronauts take
care of themselves on orbit.
In fact, I've done it
already this morning.
To get prepared to return to
a one-gravity environment.
So first question
is how you do it?
How you feeling?
>> Oh, I'm feeling great.
We exercise quite a bit
onboard space station:
a couple hours a day.
I push myself very
hard in the hopes
that it would make my life
easier after I landed.
And I think I was
pretty successful;
I felt a lot better
than I expected.
I thought it would take many,
many weeks to really,
to feel good.
But I had some vestibular
for a couple hours.
That went away pretty quickly.
And in terms of muscle
strength, my strength never --
didn't change from pre-flight.
So, I'm feeling pretty good.
>> That's -- that is an
improvement, I think,
over much earlier in
the station program
where astronauts came home
and felt pretty crummy
for quite a long time.
Do you think that the work
that you're doing is
what's made the difference?
>> Yeah, of course.
You know, the engineers,
the scientists, the doctors,
they're getting much smarter.
They're figuring out the
right exercises for us.
We got better equipment.
And so, all that comes together
and if you work hard on orbit
and do what the exercise
folks tell you,
you could come back
pretty good shape.
>> Any thoughts about
improvements
that could be made in that area?
Or things that you
might want to do?
>> You know, there's
always room for improvement.
One of the things is that we
actually have to spend two,
two and a half hours
a day exercising.
So the goal now would
be try to now figure
out what exercise can we do
but shorten that length of time
so that the crew member can
spend more time doing science
and doing maintenance and
not as much time exercising.
But still come back
feeling as good
and being as healthy as he is.
>> This mission was your first
flight in a Soyuz spacecraft.
What was that like?
>> Soyuz is -- I flew
space shuttle three times,
so Soyuz is obviously
quite a different vehicle.
A space shuttle is much
bigger, much roomier,
has incredible capabilities;
whereas the Soyuz is a very
small, very compact vehicle,
but also very reliable,
very efficient.
So, going up wasn't much
different, but coming back,
it was a -- it was quite
a bit of a, kind of --
I called it the wild
ride to come home.
And it was quite interesting,
and it was actually kind of fun.
>> A bumpy ride?
When you say "wild ride..."
>> Yeah, a lot of
rotation, a lot of spinning,
a lot of being tossed
about, hitting hard
when you land on the ground.
So nothing like a space
shuttle, which is basically
like an airplane
landing: very comfortable.
>> Those retro rockets --
they fire a few feet
off the ground --
make all the difference?
>> Yeah, I assume they do.
It's hard to tell.
I only have one landing under
my belt with the rockets,
so I assumed they helped.
>> A hundred and
eighty-eight days in space,
your first long-duration
mission.
Was it what you expected
it to be going in?
You must have had
some preconceptions
of what it's going to
be like to have to spend
that much time in that place.
>> Yeah, I think it is.
You know, we do a
lot of training,
we do a lot of preparing for the
science, we do a lot of training
with the scientists
and the investigators
on their experiments.
So we -- you kind
of get a good feel
for what it's going to be like.
And of course, I've been to
space station several times
so I knew what living up
there was going to be like.
So I think it was
exactly what I expected.
>> Did it feel longer or
shorter than you expected?
>> Well, you know,
people ask me that.
But the days go by fast -- the
workdays go by very, very fast.
But there's just a
lot of those workdays;
188 days is a long time.
But it did -- of
course, you know,
time goes by fast the
older you get it seems.
But yeah, it went
by pretty quick.
>> Did you get enough
opportunity to maintain contact
with your family and friends so
that you still feel connected?
>> Oh, yes.
Yeah, yeah.
The space station we have quite
a few tools to stay contact --
connected with our families.
We have the Internet,
of course, with email.
We have telephone, the IP phone.
And we have the video
conferencing once a week.
So I felt very connected to
my wife and kids and friends.
I've called friends that I
haven't talked to in years,
usually I don't make many phone
calls when I'm here on Earth,
but I took the opportunity
to call a lot of friends
and all my family members
while I was up there.
>> That must have been quite
a surprise from somebody
out of the blue calling
from space?
>> Yeah, I think they --
I think folks enjoy it.
So it was fun to talk
to folks, get caught up.
>> Do you get to feel like
you live there instead
of just being visiting there?
>> Oh yeah, you absolutely
feel like you live there.
I mean, you sleep there, you
eat there, you work there,
and on the weekends
you're there.
So you are there 24/7,
so you absolutely feel
like you're living
there for a long time.
>> What were the most memorable
events for you from this flight?
>> Like any space mission,
the most memorable events
are the dynamic events.
The things like ascent
and entry,
the things like the spacewalks.
We did several spacewalks.
And of course, the
visiting vehicles;
it was always a fun day when
a visiting vehicle came,
it brought food, it brought
science, it brought equipment.
So it was always a great day
when a visiting vehicle came.
We got to open the hatch
to a new shiny vehicle.
So all those events are
obviously very memorable.
>> The space walks, as you
mentioned, that just gets
to be something of a memory
since they were not expected;
they were added after
you arrived.
>> Yeah, absolutely they
were not expected in any way.
But, you know, the space station
is getting a little older
and we have a lot of
spare parts up there.
So the system is made to go
out and repair these components
as they fail, that's
how it was all designed.
And yeah, we got
to do a few of them
and get the space station
back up and running.
>> Now those weren't
your first spacewalks,
but another opportunity
to go crawl around on
that thing must be --
must be pretty exciting.
>> Yeah, spacewalks
are a lot of work,
they're very challenging
mentally and physically.
But they're very rewarding.
It's great when you're
out there,
you get great views
of the Earth.
It's just -- it's
enjoyable to be working
on the hardware out there.
>> You mentioned
visiting vehicles
and the station right now has
got another visiting vehicle,
a Cygnus vehicle, that
should be arriving next week.
That must be pretty interesting,
too, to do that prep work
that Steve Swanson and
his crewmates are involved
in right now, to brush up on
the skills that will be needed
to go reach out and
grab that thing.
>> Yeah, absolutely, it's --
we have a great trainer
up there called Brobot,
where the crew members can
actually practice capturing the
visiting vehicles
with the robotic arm.
It's a great tool, it
prepares the crew very well
for the actual operations
in the Cupola.
And of course, the actual day
of the capture is a
very exciting day.
It's a very busy
day for the crew.
But it's also very
rewarding; at the end,
you have another module hooked
up to the space station,
a visiting vehicle.
And you open the hatch and you
got all this great equipment
being delivered to you.
>> And with any luck
a little fresh food.
>> Yeah, usually there's some --
a few surprises onboard that
everybody really enjoys.
>> You spent about seven
months of your life off
of the planet now, which I guess
is not something you expected
was going to happen when
you were a young boy
or like a college student.
Looking forward,
what's next for you now?
You were saying a moment ago
that you got some
unused vacation time.
>> Oh yeah, of course I have
lots of unused vacation time.
I'm going to take some
time off and enjoy myself
and recharge my batteries.
But I think we're -- the United
States space program is coming
into a very exciting time.
We got Orion and we have the
commercial vehicles being
developed and we'll be
launching soon in a few years.
So I hope to get involved
in that and the design
and the development
of those vehicles.
>> Rick, I really appreciate
you taking a couple of minutes
to talk about it
and welcome back.
>> Thank you.
>> NASA astronaut,
Rick Mastracchio,
back from 188 days in space.
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