[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Scott,
welcome to Google.
SCOTT KELLY: Thank you.
SPEAKER 1: Thank
you for coming in.
SCOTT KELLY: Thank you.
SPEAKER 1: Perhaps
you could tell us what
got you interested in space.
SCOTT KELLY: Sure.
Well, first of all, I'd like
to say, it's great to be here.
It's great to be
anywhere with gravity.
Because now, I can sit down.
Can't do that in space.
So on the Space Station I
changed position so many times,
you would have thought I
was running for president.
Maybe I should have.
So to those of you
in the audience that
do not appear to
be space aliens,
I'd like to say, good afternoon.
And to the rest of
you, I come in peace.
What I'd like to do first,
before a talk about what
got me interested in
becoming an astronaut,
I want to read from
the book a little bit.
Because you can hear
it in my own voice.
And then you don't have to go
out and buy the audio book.
I know these are expensive.
Let's start at the
beginning of the story.
It's going to take
about five minutes.
I'm going to start at the
beginning of the story.
And it's really, sort
of, the end of the story.
Because I got home-- and
this was about 48 hours
after I got back, after
being on the Space Station
for an entire year.
"I'm sitting at the head
of my dining room table
at home in Houston,
finishing dinner
with my family, my longtime
girlfriend, Amiko"--
now my fiancee, in
the back of the room--
"my daughters, Samantha and
Charlotte; my twin brother
Mark; his wife, Gabby;
his daughter, Claudia;
our father, Richie; and
Amiko's son, Corbin.
It's a simple thing,
sitting at a table
and eating a meal
with those you love.
And many people do it every day
without giving it much thought.
For me, it's something I've been
dreaming of for almost a year.
I contemplated what it would
be like to eat this meal so
many times, now that
I'm finally here,
it doesn't seem entirely real.
The faces of the people I
love that I haven't seen
for so long, the chatter of
many people talking together,
the clink of silverware, the
swish of wine in a glass--
these are all unfamiliar.
Even the sensation of gravity
holding me in my chair
feels strange.
And every time I put a glass
or a fork down on the table,
there's a part of my mind that
is looking for a dot of Velcro
or a strip of duct tape
to hold it in place.
I've been back on
Earth for 48 hours.
I push back from the
table and struggle
to stand up, feeling like an old
man getting out of a recliner.
Stick a fork in me.
I'm done, I announce.
Everyone laughs and encourages
me to go get some rest.
So I go to sleep.
Then I wake up, a few hours
later, with flu-like symptoms,
not feeling very well at all.
I struggle to get up--
find the edge of the bed,
feet down, sit up, stand up.
At every stage, I feel like
I'm fighting through quicksand.
When I'm finally vertical,
the pain in my legs is awful.
And on top of that pain, I feel
something even more alarming.
All the blood in my body
is rushing to my legs,
like the sensation of the
blood rushing to your head
when you do a head-stand,
but in reverse.
I can feel the tissue
in my legs swelling.
I shuffle my way
to the bathroom,
moving my weight from one foot
to the other with deliberate
effort--
left, right, left, right.
I make it to the bathroom,
flip on the light,
and look down at my legs.
They are swollen and alien
stumps, not legs at all."
There are no kids
in here, right?
No kids?
No kids work at Google?
Not yet?
"Oh shit, I say.
Amiko, come look at this.
She kneels down and
squeezes one ankle.
And it squishes like
a water balloon.
She looks up at me
with worried eyes.
I can't even feel your
ankle bones, she says."
There's about 400
pages after that.
But anyway, so how did I
get interested in becoming
an astronaut?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, what
was the journey between I
want to be in space and there?
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, so I
was this atypical person--
kid-- that became an astronaut.
Because when I was younger,
I was a really bad student.
I didn't do well--
not something I'm proud of.
I spent more time
looking out the window,
wondering what was
going on outside,
or looking at the
clock, trying to will it
to run faster just so I could
get out of the classroom,
than I ever did paying
attention in school.
I managed to graduate
from high school
in the bottom half of my class.
And I went on to college,
because I was supposed
to go to college, I thought.
I actually went to
the wrong school.
Now, I don't mean I
went to this school
thinking this one over here
was a better fit for me.
What I mean is I applied
to and got accepted to
and showed up here, thinking I
was going to this other school.
Quite possibly the only person
that has ever done this.
And I get to my college.
And I'm there for a few days.
And I'm like, hey,
when's the football game?
And they're like, we don't
have a football team.
That's that other
school in Maryland.
And I was basically
doing the same thing
I did in high school.
It was impossible for
me to pay attention.
I think, if I was
a kid today, I'd
be the kid with ADD or ADHD.
And maybe I would have gotten
a little bit more help,
because we know what that is.
I couldn't study,
wasn't doing well.
Eventually, I'm really
not even going to class.
And one day, I just happen to
be walking across the school
campus.
And I go into the
college bookstore
to buy, like, gum or
something-- not a book.
I was not a big reader.
I walk into the bookstore.
And I happen to see this
book on the end of the shelf.
It's got this red,
white, and blue cover.
It's got a really cool title.
It made me pick it up--
not this book.
It made me pick it up.
I looked at the back.
Interested enough
in what the back
said that I looked through it.
Took my gum money,
purchased the book,
went back, and laid on
my unmade dorm-room bed
for the next three days, and
read the stories of the fighter
pilots that became
the test pilots that
became the original Mercury,
Gemini, and Apollo astronauts.
The book was "The Right
Stuff," by Tom Wolfe.
And I think a combination
between what these guys were
doing and how Tom wrote, in
this creative nonfiction way,
just captured my imagination.
And I felt like I had a lot
in common with those guys,
the early astronauts and test
pilots that became astronauts,
with one exception.
And that is, I was a bad student
and I couldn't pay attention.
And I thought, if I
could fix that one thing,
solve that one thing,
maybe I could be like them.
Maybe I could go and fly
airplanes in the Navy, land
on an aircraft carrier.
Maybe if I did well at that,
I could become a test pilot--
later, possibly an astronaut.
And I know what you're thinking.
18-year-old kid reads
a book, decides he's
going to become an astronaut.
It's kind of science fiction.
It's a giant leap.
Really, it started with
something very, very
challenging-- very hard--
which was to teach myself
how to pay attention and study.
Once I figured
that out, it really
became a bunch of
smaller manageable steps,
always with
opportunities to fail,
but always somehow managing
my way back on course.
And if you consider that
I read that book at 18--
fast forward 18 years later.
I was 36.
I was flying in space
for the very first time,
as the first American astronaut
in my class of 35 people
to fly.
That's a pretty
remarkable comeback.
That, for me, is
even hard to believe.
SPEAKER 1: Thank you very much.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: It's very, very cool.
The whole book is
absolutely fascinating.
I wondered if you
could talk about--
certainly, I learned a lot about
the International Space Station
itself.
And you spent a
long time up there--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: --a
year, the last time.
What's it like,
living on the ISS?
SCOTT KELLY: Well, there's
a few things about it
that come to mind.
It's fun, for one.
You're floating.
Which, after you getting over
the novelty of it being fun,
it makes most
things harder to do.
There's a few things easier.
We always say, say
there's two things easier
to do in zero gravity--
moving heavy objects
and getting in
awkward positions,
like to hook up the
coax cable on your TV.
Much easier when you can
turn upside down or sideways.
Actually, I said this
to a kid last night.
And he pointed
out a third thing.
And he said, acrobatics
is also easier.
Absolutely right.
Everything is harder, because
you can't put anything down.
You'll lose it.
Even brushing your
teeth is hard.
You have the
toothpaste, the brush,
maybe a cap on the toothpaste.
And then you have nothing
to do with the toothpaste
after you brush your teeth,
because there's no sink.
You can either spit it
out into a tissue, which
is uncomfortable in zero
gravity, or you can swallow it.
And half the people
do one thing--
I swallowed my toothpaste
for a whole year,
which I don't recommend.
You also have an incredible
view on the Space Station.
But it's a hard place
to live and work.
Maybe it wouldn't be
hard for you guys,
because you guys spend
a lot of time at work.
But they make it really
nice, so that you
want to spend time at work.
But when you go to
sleep, you're at work.
When you wake up,
you're at work.
You can't go outside.
No sun, no wind,
no rain, no freedom
of choice to do what you want
to do, when you want to do it.
Challenging--
because you're living
in this very risky environment.
You always have to be ready for
an emergency, even when you're
asleep.
But it's also this
magical place.
It's like living
in Disney World.
The Space Station is very big--
1 million pounds, size
of a football pitch,
a internal volume of
a really big house.
So you never feel closed in.
But it's a privilege
to have spent, for me,
500 days of my life there.
SPEAKER 1: And the last time
you went, that year-long study
was designed to find out
how people cope in space.
So if we were to go to
Mars, how would humans cope?
And what were the lessons that
you brought back from that?
What was the science
that we actually found?
SCOTT KELLY: So this year-long
mission, the idea behind it--
many of you might be aware,
we generally send astronauts
up there for about six months.
It's usually like
four to five and 1/2--
is how the schedule works.
But NASA started
talking about sending
an astronaut and a
cosmonaut to the Space
Station for a year with
the idea of, someday,
we're going to go to Mars.
To get to Mars, it's going to
take 200 days to get there.
You'll have to spend
a year on the surface.
So you're not in zero gravity.
But since you're
still in space--
Mars doesn't have
much of an atmosphere.
It's got 1/3 of the gravity
of Earth, a lot of radiation.
And it's going to take
you 200 days to get home.
And there are things that
happen to us in space,
to our physiology, that
we need to understand more
about-- bone loss, muscle
loss, effects on our vision,
effects on our immune system.
There are radiation effects
on us at a genetic level.
So we wanted to study this
for a longer period of time
and study it while we have
the Space Station, which
is an incredible
facility to do science,
before we lose
that in the next--
I don't know-- six or so years.
So the idea behind
this year-long mission
is to someday go to Mars.
And there was also
a side component.
So it was-- excuse me-- me and
this cosmonaut up on the Space
Station for a year.
There's also this side
study with my brother and I.
Because he's an
identical twin, NASA
has had data on him since 1995.
He's familiar with
how things work.
He's spent some time
in space as well.
He flew four times.
He spent 50 days in space.
So I would say 50,
compared to my 500.
Every chance, I
show that to my--
SPEAKER 1: Not that
there's a competition.
SCOTT KELLY: No, no
competition at all.
Yeah, so the idea behind
this genetic study
with my brother
and I is to see how
the space environment,
the radiation, stress,
the microgravity perhaps,
affects us genetically.
And they have found some
interesting results so far.
SPEAKER 1: Great.
And that's quite a
longitudinal study.
I assume that they'll--
SCOTT KELLY: Yes, it will go
on for the rest of my life.
And the way NASA
science works is it's
not driven by
investments and schedules
and trying to get results out,
because you're in competition
with somebody else.
So it generally
takes a few years.
So generally, from the
time you collect the data,
it's three to five
years to a result.
SPEAKER 1: OK, great.
So you want to get to
the ISS, of course.
So talk us through the
process of finding out that
you're going to be on a mission
through to actually arriving--
either the Soyuz or--
there's obviously
a lot of training--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: --years of training
that would lead up to that.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, so I
became an astronaut in 1996,
after spending time in the
Navy as a fighter pilot,
flying the F-14 Tomcat and then
as a test pilot in the Navy.
And then I went on to NASA.
And then, for the
next few years,
you basically get a PhD
in the space shuttle,
because it's the most
complicated aerospace
vehicle ever built--
2,000 switches and circuit
breakers inside, some of which,
if you throw a switch or push
a button at the wrong time,
you blow the thing up--
you or your crew
members along with you.
And yeah, so I spent
most of my time
over the next 3 and
1/2 years just--
for this kid who
probably had ADD,
learning how to fly this
most complicated thing
was a challenge.
And I worked really hard at it.
Happened to get assigned
to my first flight-- not
in the traditional way.
You would think you would
come into a large room
and somebody would
announce that, hey, you've
been assigned to this mission.
Congratulations.
The way I found out is the
commander of the upcoming
mission I was going to be on,
this Hubble Space Telescope
repair mission--
he said, hey, come
in this office.
I need to talk to you.
And I'd never really
talked to this guy before.
He was this space
shuttle commander--
kind of had a little
bit of a reputation.
And he pokes me in the chest.
And he goes, you better
have your shit together,
because we're flying
in space in six months.
I was like, yes, sir.
I'll get my shit
together right away.
And then we trained.
We wound up flying nine months
later, because of some delays.
But pretty soon, you've made
terms with your situation.
You consider the risks.
After this last
accident we had, you
have a 1/70 chance of
dying on this flight.
It's kind of like if
I took a deck of cards
and left the jokers and
all the extra cards in it.
I threw it out in the audience,
a couple decks of cards.
Everyone that got the Ace of
Spades didn't go home tonight.
That's how risky it is--
demonstrated risk.
And so you think
about that leading up
to you first mission, and
even subsequent missions.
Every flight, I always
wrote letters to my family.
I would give them to my brother.
And then, when I came
back, he would throw them
in the garbage.
The idea was, if I didn't come
back, he would hand them out.
And I did the same thing
for him when he flew.
And pretty soon, you're
heading up to the launch pad
on your first flight.
Mine was on the space
shuttle Discovery.
And the launch pad is
completely abandoned.
Because the shuttle's a giant
bomb on the top of this hill--
fully fueled, 5 million
pounds of liquid oxygen,
liquid hydrogen, two
solid rocket motors.
Place is abandoned, with the
exception of you and your six
crewmates and a few
people that are going
to help you get strapped in.
And you get in the space shuttle
about 3 and 1/2 hours prior
to launch.
You get strapped in tight.
You're lying on your back in
your orange pressure suit.
The guys and girls that get you
strapped in, they tell you they
bold the hatch
closed and take off
and get about five miles away.
The clock starts
counting down towards 0.
And you're getting all these
systems ready for launch--
the auxiliary power unit
that powers the hydraulics,
the electrical system,
all the different engines,
the main engines that
use for lift-off,
environmental control system--
which is the life support
system-- the computers.
They all have to be perfect.
Clock gets to 9
minutes and it stops.
That's to give you
time to catch up,
if you happen to be behind
in what you're doing.
It's also the time you think,
man, this is really stupid.
Flying into space
for the first time--
it's not something you
really expect to ever think
you'd do for real, at
least for me, this kid that
couldn't do his homework.
But you can't get away,
you're strapped in
and hatch is bolted closed.
Plus, you wouldn't want to
be the first astronaut ever
running away from the rocket.
SPEAKER 1: That wouldn't
look good on the CV.
SCOTT KELLY: No,
it'd be a bad thing.
Yeah, that would not be
good on your resume--
ran away from space launch--
first ever.
Clock picks up, gets to
1 minute and 30 seconds.
At 30 seconds, the space shuttle
computers take over the launch.
6 seconds, the main
engines light--
1 million pounds of thrust.
But you don't go
anywhere, because you're
bolted to the launch pad
by these eight giant bolts.
And the clock goes,
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Those bolts are exploded open.
Simultaneously, the solid
rocket motors are lit.
And it feels like
the hand of God
has just picked you
up off the launch pad
and is throwing you
out into outer space.
You feel every pound of that
7 million pounds of thrust.
And I know, if you've watched
the shuttle launch on TV
or been there in
person, it looks
like it's lifting off slowly.
When you're inside, there
is nothing slow about this.
You get the feeling
you're going somewhere.
You're not sure
where you're going.
But you know you're not
coming back to Florida.
And after 8 and
1/2 minutes, you're
flying around the Earth
at 17,500 miles-an-hour,
floating around
the Earth in 0 G.
Now, to contrast this
with the Soyuz launch--
the Shuttle and the Soyuz.
I flew twice on the
Shuttle and then twice
on the Russian Soyuz.
SPEAKER 1: And the
shuttle was disbanded in--
SCOTT KELLY: 2011
was the last flight.
SPEAKER 1: So the only way
for a manned launch to the ISS
is now the Soyuz.
SCOTT KELLY: Yes, so now
our access to space for--
China has the ability
to launch people.
They don't do it very often.
But the access to space for the
rest of the world, with people,
is through Russia.
And the Soyuz and the Shuttle
are similar in that they both
launch people into space.
And that's where the
similarity stops.
My first Soyuz
launch was in 2010.
And then I flew my
last Soyuz launch--
I launched in March of 2015
for this year-in-space mission,
landed a year later practically.
And just the contrast--
I'll tell you a little bit
about the Soyuz launch.
The Soyuz is smaller
than the Shuttle, also
a bomb on the top of a hill,
fully fueled with liquid oxygen
and liquid kerosene--
is the fuel
they use instead of hydrogen.
And you get in a similar--
you get in a bus and
head up to the launch
pad with your crewmates.
Soyuz is a bomb on a launch
pad on the top of this hill,
just like the Shuttle.
But you get up there and
the place is not abandoned.
There's, like, 100
people up there, milling
around the base of this
fully-fueled rocket,
all this vapor
coming off the thing.
And the Russians-- and I tell
a few jokes about the Russians.
But I have a lot of respect for
the cosmonauts and the people
I've worked in the
space program with.
Just, different cultures look
at things different ways.
And what's very important
to a Russian is,
if your friends are
going on a long trip,
you're going to be
there to say goodbye,
even if it's at the base
of a fully-fueled rocket.
So there are hundreds
people up there.
And you're just trying
to get through them
to get to the launch pad.
Some of them are
smoking cigarettes.
I swear to god.
You're like, that guy's smoking.
So you want to get in that
rocket as fast as you can,
because there's an emergency
escape system up on top.
They actually had a rocket
blow up on the launch pad
and killed, like,
over 100 people.
SPEAKER 1: Wow
SCOTT KELLY: And they still
allow smoking up there.
So you get in.
And it's cramped.
It's loud.
It's hot.
Your visor's fogging up.
You're all strapped in tight
a few hours before launch.
There's no countdown
clock in the Soyuz.
They didn't see the need to
put a countdown clock in there.
This was going to be
one of the rockets that
launched nuclear missiles
during the Cold War.
After a while, you're like,
hey, what time are we leaving?
It's, like, 10:10, right?
Is that Moscow time
or Baikonur time?
Eventually, someone comes up on
the radio and says, ignition.
And I can just picture that guy
smoking just running out there
with his lighter.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, asking
the same question.
What time do we launch?
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, yeah.
And then you do lift
off slowly in the Soyuz,
because there's no
solid rocket motors.
But still, within
9 minutes, you're
flying around the Earth at
25 times the speed of sound.
SPEAKER 1: I quite liked--
you talked about the rituals
as you launch.
And the Russians have so many.
And it seemed to be, well,
it worked the first time.
And no one's dead.
So let's keep doing--
perhaps you could talk to a
couple of the stranger ones.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
the Russians are
a little bit more
superstitious than Americans,
I think, by culture.
But we also have superstitions
in the US Space Program.
As an example, after
you get suited up
in your orange space suit,
you play a card game,
low-ball poker.
It's got a specific name.
I forget the name of it.
I think I may have
mentioned it in the book.
But the commander of
the mission has to lose,
or you can't leave the building.
And if he is doing really well,
people start to get nervous.
Because you're
looking at this clock.
And you have to be walking
out at a certain time,
because you have this
schedule to keep.
And if the guy keeps winning--
eventually, what you do is you
kick people out of the game
until it's just one-on-one.
But I've seen
people keep winning.
And--
SPEAKER 1: And that's
so his bad luck is--
SCOTT KELLY: His
bad luck is used up.
SPEAKER 1: --dumped there,
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
he has to lose,
so he uses up his
bad luck before you
go to the launch pad.
And then--
SPEAKER 1: They do know that
you're also on the launch pad,
right?
So your bad luck
just doesn't matter.
SCOTT KELLY: Oh, but yeah.
The commander represents
the whole crew.
SPEAKER 1: OK, [INAUDIBLE].
SCOTT KELLY: So yeah,
it's just about him.
I don't think it really
matters if he wins or loses,
to be honest with you.
But it's tradition.
In the Russian space program,
there's also traditions.
We always watch the same movie,
"The White Sun of the Desert"
or something.
It's a comedy.
Because they had an
accident in the Soyuz.
And the next crew
watched that movie.
And they never had
another accident.
So they'll be watching
that movie all the way
until they have another
accident-- hopefully not.
We also stop the bus on
the way to the launch pad
in the same exact spot.
Yuri Gagarin stopped the
bus, because he had to pee.
So we get out of the bus.
We undo our pressure suit
that's just been extensively
pressure checked.
We break the seal.
And we pee on the bus
tire, in the same spot
Yuri Gagarin peed.
SPEAKER 1: And the female
astronauts bring a small bottle
with them as well.
Is--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
they bring a bottle.
I've heard they spray their
water or, in some cases, urine.
If they're really
superstitious, they
brought some of their
own urine with them,
so they don't have to
completely get out of the suit.
It's funny though.
People are like, wow, you
do that pressure check.
You spend all that time to
make sure the suit works
and is sealed.
And then you just go
undo the whole thing
and get into the Soyuz?
They say, I can't believe
the Russians do that.
And I go, we do the
same thing in the US.
We just have a bathroom
on the launch pad--
the last toilet on earth.
And if you're leaving
Earth, you're damn well
going to use that last toilet.
So you do the same thing.
You get out of your suit.
You pee.
You put it all back on,
get in the shuttle, and go.
SPEAKER 1: That's great.
SCOTT KELLY: I mean, launch--
[INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER 1: That's great.
I'm still interested
with your year in space.
How did you cope
with the isolation?
There's a period in the
book where you talk about,
you were the only person
in the US section.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Did it
start off as a, phew!
I've got the area to
myself, a bit more space.
Is isolation training
something that you get taught?
SCOTT KELLY: It's not
something they teach you.
They definitely make sure you're
not, like, claustrophobic.
When you do the
astronaut selection,
they'll actually hook you
up with a heart monitor,
put you in a small rubber bag--
thick, rubber bag, zip it up,
and push you into a dark
closet, and leave you there,
not telling you how long
you're going to be in it.
And there's no way you could
fake not being claustrophobic
in that environment.
But they do check that.
I was--
SPEAKER 1: You had
a nap, you say.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
I fell asleep.
SPEAKER 1: Smart-- smart.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, but I
was fortunate in that I
flew for six months
before I flew
for a year, which is good
training for a year in space.
Because I knew what
I was getting into.
I actually like being on the
US side of the Space Station
by myself.
Not that I don't like the
people I'm there with.
But it's just easier
in a lot of ways.
It's very quiet.
It's peaceful.
When you put
something somewhere,
you know it's going to be
there when you come back.
You can have it very orderly.
So actually, on
this last flight,
I was alone basically on the
US side of the Space Station
for about six weeks.
SPEAKER 1: OK.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
it wasn't bad.
I liked it.
SPEAKER 1: And--
SCOTT KELLY: But to answer
your full question--
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How
SCOTT KELLY: --how do you
deal with the isolation?
You have good
connectivity with Earth.
You can make phone calls.
You have email.
You have video
conferencing capability.
People are amazed
at the ability we
have to communicate
with the ground, which
I find fascinating that
people are shocked.
You can have email in space?
I'm like, yeah-- you know--
satellite communication--
satellite?
SPEAKER 1: And
with the internet,
I guess social media
plays an increasing part
in an astronaut's--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: --that
public perception thing.
Did you The social
media on the--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, I did.
Before I launched,
President Obama
invited me to the State
of the Union address.
And during the
address, he challenged
me to Instagram the experience.
So of course, I tried to
do that as best I could.
It actually felt like
engaging with the public
with the social media was
kind of a responsibility.
The public pays
for this program.
And to keep them
involved is important.
It was also good for Amiko and
I and our relationship for us
to have something-- it was like
a personal project to do that
had daily feedback in how
well you were doing at it with
lights and--
SPEAKER 1: Because Amiko
worked in PR for NASA.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, she worked
at the NASA public affairs.
Although, they made her do
this outside of her work hours,
which is hard to believe
that that was the case.
But yeah, so I tried
to engage the public.
I often would, in my free time,
do some tweet chats and things.
One day, actually, I'm answering
questions on a Saturday
on Twitter.
And President Obama
asks a question.
He says, hey, Scott, do you
ever look out the window
and just freak out?
And I'm like, no, Mr. President.
I don't really freak out
about anything except getting
a Twitter question from you.
Within seconds, Buzz Aldrin
jumps into the conversation.
And he says, Mr. President,
he's only in low-Earth orbit.
I went all the way to the moon.
SPEAKER 1: So that--
SCOTT KELLY: So I got
trolled, while I was in space,
by the second man on the moon.
It's like the
greatest thing that's
ever happened in my life.
SPEAKER 1: What's your
next big challenge?
I'm interested-- you're
not going back into space.
Presumably, that part of
your life is finished now.
You're still heavily
involved in NASA though.
You're on the board to decide,
who is in the next program.
SCOTT KELLY: I call my next
big challenge Tomorrow.
SPEAKER 1: OK.
SCOTT KELLY: [INAUDIBLE]
it's just been
going one day after another.
Especially, writing this book--
we've been on this book tour
since October 16, with one
day off on the weekends.
It's challenging coming
back after a year in space.
You don't feel well.
It's hard to adjust back to
life without this very stringent
schedule.
I went from being a government
employee for nearly 30 years
to, basically, an employee--
I forget, I don't even
know what the right term
is-- a small business owner.
SPEAKER 1: Freelance.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
like a consultant--
and had to establish, very
quickly, to high-end keynote
speeches.
I wrote this book,
which took 18 months.
I wrote a kid's book.
I did the audio book,
signed 27,000 [INAUDIBLE]
for this thing.
All these things-- it's
just been one after another
after another.
So come January, I'll start
to think harder about,
what do I really want to do
for the next 5 to 10 years?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, well, I'd
love to take some questions
from the audience.
SCOTT KELLY: Maybe
I'll work for Google.
SPEAKER 1: There you go.
I'm sure we would
love to have you.
So have a think
about some questions.
And we'll pass the mic around.
I've got one more.
You're talking about--
SCOTT KELLY: Let me--
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, no, go on.
SCOTT KELLY: --say
something first.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SCOTT KELLY: This
made me think of this.
So speaking of Google--
so I'm in Russia and the head
of the NASA office in Star City.
And I was, like, the
lead NASA guy there.
And the guy who was,
like, the safety engineer,
he says to me one day-- he
goes, hey, I want to show you
something.
And he opens up his computer.
And he says, see this?
There was a little
rectangular window.
And it said Google underneath.
He said, see this, you
should invest all your money
in this right now.
And I'm looking at it.
And I'm like, nah,
I don't get it.
How wrong I was.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
You talk about being
in the astronaut office
and being surrounded by these
great astronauts of history,
of which one was Senator Glenn.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Have you ever thought
about going into politics?
Is that something
you'd be interested in?
SCOTT KELLY: I think I would
have a lot to contribute.
The problem I have is--
well, there are a few problems.
One is that I'm neither a
Democrat nor a Republican.
In the US, I'm not a
registered Independent.
But I voted for Republicans.
I voted for Democrats.
I'm kind of in the middle.
On some issues, I look
like a Republican.
On others, I look
like a Democrat.
But the bigger problem
is, in the United States--
and you guys might not
even understand this.
Because this is, perhaps,
a uniquely US thing.
But we have two things
that prevent moderates
from winning elections.
One is called gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is
when you create
a political district
that includes
all the people of one party.
And what you do is,
if you're that party,
you sue the government to say,
I'm going to take this swath.
And it's going to be
mostly Democrats or mostly
Republicans.
And the people in
the United States
that run in the primaries
are the hard core people
in the party.
They're the extreme right
or the extreme left.
And if you're running in one of
these gerrymandered districts--
so if you're a Democrat
and you're running
in a gerrymandered
Democrat district,
you have to be on the
left side of the party--
the extreme left.
Likewise, the extreme
right for a Republican.
So you can't even
get on the ticket
unless you're an extremist.
And the key-- you either have
to be an extremist or you
have to be a very clever liar.
You have to make believe
you're on the extreme
and then, somehow,
pivot to the center.
Very, very hard to do.
So it doesn't make the
situation acceptable or workable
for people that are moderates.
We have an Independent
party in the United States.
But it's not one that's ever
been very successful, because
of things like this thing
called Citizens United.
Citizens United was a lawsuit.
But it allows corporations to
give unlimited amounts of money
to political action committees
that support candidates.
So basically, you become
beholden to these donors that
are giving you tons of money.
And if you don't want
to be somebody's--
working for some corporation,
when you're really
supposed to be representing
the people, it's hard to win.
SPEAKER 1: But you
did vote from space.
SCOTT KELLY: I voted, yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, how was that?
Quite an easy process?
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah?
SCOTT KELLY: Pretty easy.
I didn't have to wait in line.
SPEAKER 1: Pop the
ballot-- yeah, it was good.
Questions-- there must
be good questions.
Yeah, there's a
microphone on your left.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thank you so much for
coming to visit us.
I really appreciate that.
A question about the
Hubble telescope--
how was it?
How was it to work on?
What's it like?
SCOTT KELLY: So, yeah, my
first flight was to Hubble.
And it's really big.
It's like the size of a
school bus, maybe bigger.
One side of it that
you rarely see is--
I don't know why you
rarely see this side.
But the one side
always faces the sun.
It's kind of burnt, like
burnt to a crisp almost.
But it's amazing to see
an instrument that's
been out in space for so
long that has shown us--
at least the general public--
more about the universe
than anything else ever.
So I really enjoyed
working on it.
I didn't do any
of the spacewalks.
Because I was the
pilot of the mission.
We actually launched right
before Y2K on this flight,
in December.
And NASA had us land early,
because they were worried
that the computers
on the space shuttle
were going to divide
by 0 and we were going
to go through some wormhole--
end up on the other
side of the galaxy.
We'll have to wait
another 1,000 years to see
if that would have happened.
SPEAKER 1: You did get to
see the outside of the Space
Station quite a lot.
And you talk about
how that was--
you could see the tiny
asteroids with pock marks.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, I had the
opportunity on this flight
to do three spacewalks.
I'd never done a
spacewalk before because,
as the pilot or commander
of the space shuttle,
you just don't do them.
Because it's risky and
you're critical to landing
the spacecraft safely.
The mission specialists
are more expendable.
But yeah, going outside for
the first time is pretty crazy.
Neither of us had done
a spacewalk before.
So I was the more
experienced guy.
So I got to go out first
and open the hatch.
And you open the hatch.
And Earth is 250
miles below you.
And you're going
17,500 miles-an-hour.
And for one, it's
hard to get out.
Because the suit
and the hole that is
the hatch are almost
the exact same size.
And it's square.
The suit's kind of square.
But the hatch is round.
It's like putting a square
peg in a round hole.
It has to be perfect to get out.
And it feels like,
at first, you're
climbing down with your
head down towards the Earth.
Although, you
don't have gravity.
So you don't physically feel
like you're upside down.
But visually, you feel
like you're upside down.
And it was interesting.
When I got halfway out, all
of a sudden, my orientation,
my reference frame, shifted.
So now, all of a sudden, I
felt like I was climbing out
of the sunroof of a car.
And there was this alien
planet over my head,
like in a science fiction
movie, like right there.
And I felt like I was on Earth.
And there was this alien planet.
And it looked like
it was just going
to come crashing down upon me.
SPEAKER 1: Wow.
SCOTT KELLY: But I had to
really focus so I didn't like
lose anything or--
very distracting, that
kind of situation.
SPEAKER 1: I think
you talk about,
if you lost focus and were no
longer tethered to the ISS,
you're done for.
And if you're a mile or an
inch away, it's the same.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
well, in the US suit,
we do have a jet pack that
has a little bit of fuel,
that you could potentially
fly yourself back
if you became detached.
It's challenging to use.
Often, when you're practicing
this in a VR situation,
you miss the station altogether.
And in those cases, if you're an
inch away and you can't reach,
you might as well
be a mile away.
The results are still the same.
SPEAKER 1: Wow.
Who's got the microphone?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: So I'm interested to
hear what the experiences were
like, once you returned to
Earth after you were in space.
And was it harder to readjust
from a mental or physical
perspective?
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, so there's, I
think, two general adjustments.
There's the physical and
the psychological part.
Physically, at first,
you're nauseous.
Although, I didn't
throw up this time.
I threw up after six months.
Surprisingly, I didn't
throw up after a year.
I wish I could have.
But I couldn't.
I would have felt a lot better
if I could have just puked
my guts up.
I don't know if some of
you ever saw pictures
of me coming out of the Soyuz.
I don't know if there's one--
SPEAKER 1: I'll find one.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, but anyway--
it's interesting.
The UK book has
different pictures.
But I had this big smile
on my face when I landed.
And it was not because I was
feeling well, because I wasn't.
I was just trying to look better
than the two guys I was with.
I was actually hoping
to get an Academy Award.
But I understand they
sometimes make mistakes.
So maybe next time I
fly in space for a year.
SPEAKER 1: You talked
about that they [INAUDIBLE]
you to chairs for
the Russian doctors.
Whereas--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: --actually
you wanted to walk out.
SCOTT KELLY: You could
walk if you had to.
You wouldn't walk well.
The first time I started
walking, I make a comment.
There's actually this PBS
special that just came out.
And they actually show the
video of me in the tent,
doing some post-flight tests
right after I got back.
And I say something like--
I'm walking.
And I'm going like this.
I'm walking like Jar Jar Binks.
I felt like Jar Jar Binks.
But for the first few
days, you're sore.
Your joints, your
muscles, are stiff.
I was nauseous for a week.
Anywhere my skin
touched anything,
I had rashes and hives
for a couple of weeks.
Like I said, when I was
reading, when I stood up,
my legs would swell.
I could actually see them
swelling-- no kidding-- just
like this.
Feeling all the
blood just infusing
in the bottom of my legs-- it
was like, this is not good.
SPEAKER 1: And how long
does that take to get over?
SCOTT KELLY: I would
say, the physical stuff--
completely-- a couple of months.
The mental part of it--
probably more like eight months.
Because you live in this very
controlled environment, where
you have a schedule that you are
following every five minutes.
Now sometimes,
the blocks of time
that are dedicated
to your activity
are 10 hours, if
it's a spacewalk.
Other times, if it's, throw
this switch, it's five minutes.
But you are following that,
all the time, for a year.
And then when you get home,
you don't have that anymore.
And both times, after
my long flights,
I would find myself just
sitting on the couch with all
this stuff to do.
But because no one was
telling me when to do it
or what I had to do,
I just sat there.
And it took a while to
re-adapt to living on Earth.
There are actually some
good physical things
about being in space
for a long time.
And that is, when you
don't use your feet,
all the calluses, they fall off.
It takes a few months.
It's kind of disgusting, when
you take your socks off and you
get this-- "psh!"--
big cloud of foot dandruff.
You never want to
take your socks off
in the vicinity of
one of your crewmates.
But then, after a few months,
you have these baby feet.
And after my first long flight,
when no one knew who I was
and that I was up there, like,
two days after I got home,
I went to get a massage at one
of these commercial massage
places.
You know, at the end of the
massage, they rub your feet.
The lady's rubbing my feet.
And she says, you have the
softest feet I have ever
felt in my entire life.
All I said to her
was, thank you.
I'm very proud of them.
And then I left.
Shes probably still
talking about that bald guy
with the soft feet.
SPEAKER 1: Let's take
a question over here.
AUDIENCE: You have
a unique experience
working with the Russians.
And I would like to
ask you about, how
would you like to see--
SCOTT KELLY: [RUSSIAN]?
AUDIENCE: Da, [RUSSIAN]---- the
future of collaboration with
Russia in the manned flight.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, I think our
space cooperation with Russia
is a great example of
how two countries that,
at times were enemies, sometimes
not friends, often conflict--
but how we can work together
in this international program
for something that
we both believe in,
feel strongly about,
and do it as a team.
And in space-- even on
the ground, working,
preparing for spaceflight--
any kind of conflict
that we ever had,
our government's ever had,
does not affect our working
relationship.
We are friends.
We are colleagues.
What is more important to us
is supporting one another.
Our personal safety-- we
have to rely on each other,
sometimes for our lives.
That any issues
between our countries--
we never really
even discuss much.
Sometimes, you do.
Like, when I was on
the Space Station,
it was when Russia
moved into Syria.
And there was real
concern that, pretty soon,
due to some kind of an accident,
the US and the Russian military
would get into some
kind of skirmishes.
Fortunately, that
never happened.
We talked about that
on the Space Station.
But we were talking about it,
kind of, in an abstract way.
Like, we were talking about,
not the United States and Russia
but, like, China and Germany.
And then we just realized,
hey, this is on Earth.
And we're in space.
And those issues don't
really translate up here.
Misha Kornienko--
Mikhail Kornienko,
my Russian brother from
another mother that I
spent a year in space with.
A few times during the
year, he says, you know,
if our country's ever want
to solve the issues we have
with one another,
all we need to do
is put our two presidents in
space for a year together.
Although, those two guys
might like it too much.
SPEAKER 1: All right, let's
take one from the back.
AUDIENCE: Hello.
Very nice work.
Congratulations.
So we are computer
science, right?
So whenever we watch
a movie and there's
a computer guy doing stuff,
we look at that, say,
yeah, that's never
going to happen.
That's not like that.
How do you feel when you watch
films like "Interstellar"
and "The Martian," "Gravity,"
all these kind of movies
from space that, from
our point-of-view-- oh,
that looks amazing.
Might be like that.
How do you feel about it?
SCOTT KELLY: Well, I watched
all of those movies in space.
SPEAKER 1: I think you
mentioned "Gravity" in the book.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah--
maybe no "Interstellar,"
but I definitely watch
"The Martian" and "Gravity"
in space.
Actually, they sent us
"The Martian" a couple
of days before it came out.
We watched, like, a preview.
I actually talked to Matt Damon
on the phone, a couple of days
before it came out.
And he was interested
in what we were doing.
It seems like he
knew about as much
about space as, maybe,
George Clooney does.
But "The Martian" was
pretty accurate, I think.
There are always things that
are wrong with these movies.
Like, that storm
they had on Mars--
there's like no
atmosphere on Mars.
You wouldn't have something like
800 mile-an-hour-- you might
have an 800 mile-an-hour wind.
But it's not going to
knock anything over,
because there's no air.
The other thing that was
weird with "The Martian"
is they always called the female
commander on the rescue ship--
they would call her "Commander."
We're on a first-name basis.
And then "Gravity"--
"Gravity" has got all kinds
of technical problems with it.
But it's an exciting movie.
I think it's good that
they took that license
to make it really dramatic.
We watched it on
the Space Station.
They had this screen set up in
the node 1 of the space station
which--
the US laboratory
module is in the back.
And it's kind of like watching
a movie of your house burning
down--
SPEAKER 1: Whilst
you're in there.
SCOTT KELLY: --while
you're inside of it.
But the biggest regret
of my whole year in space
was, we're watching that movie.
And Sandra Bullock
in this scene,
with her short dark hair, is
floating through the lab module
in her underwear.
And Samantha Cristoforetti,
this Italian astronaut woman,
with her short dark
hair comes floating
by in her, like, Spandex
gym shorts she ran in
and a t-shirt, looking
exactly like her.
And I'm thinking, I've got
to get a picture of this.
And then I didn't, because
I felt weird about it.
Because, you know, she
was in her gym clothes.
And Sandra Bullock
was in her underwear.
But it would have been the
biggest tweet ever from space.
SPEAKER 1: Actually, I
think you talk about--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, I talk
about that in the book.
SPEAKER 1: And you were compared
with Mark Watney, unfavorably,
when you let some flowers--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Well, you
didn't let the flowers--
the system let
some flowers down.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah, I was
just following NASA's rules
on taking care of--
we grew some vegetables--
lettuce-- in space.
Then, we grew some zinnias--
flowers, which
apparently you can eat.
But you don't eat them.
The idea being, if
you can grow a flower,
you can grow, maybe,
something like a tomato.
And I was growing these
flowers and just following
the directions.
Water them.
Don't water them.
Water them.
There was so much time-delay
in the NASA system
of looking at the photos about
the condition of the flowers,
when they would tell
me to water them,
they would be almost dead.
When they would tell me
to stop watering them,
they would be wet
and covered in mold.
And I was fine with that.
Because it's not my experiment.
I was just doing
what I was told.
And then, one day, I post
a picture of the flowers.
And some guy comes up.
And he says, you
are no Mark Watney.
Fight was on then, right?
And then I told NASA--
I said, OK.
If you want these
flowers to live,
you're going to have to just let
me decide when to water them,
because there's too much
time-delay in the system.
So I started touching them
and brought them back to life
and got them really nice.
Occasionally, I'd take them
down to the Russian segment
and put them on the duct
tape on their table,
as a little centerpiece
when we're having dinner.
And they got a lot of attention.
And people liked the flowers.
One day, Sergey Volkov--
Russian guy-- he says
to me-- he goes, Scott,
why are you growing
these flowers?
And I say, Sergey,
we're growing these so,
if we can grow these
flowers, maybe we
can grow something that's
more nutritious that we
can eat, to supplement our
nutrition on the Space Station,
especially if we're
going to Mars.
I go, the plan is, we
grow these flowers.
Then, we can grow
tomatoes that we can eat.
He goes, why would you
want to grow tomatoes?
And I go, so we can eat them.
He goes, you should
grow potatoes.
He goes, you can
live on potatoes.
You can't live on tomatoes.
And you can make vodka.
He's a great guy.
SPEAKER 1: Well,
one more question.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Hi, thank you very
much for your talk-- very
inspiring.
SCOTT KELLY: Mm-hm.
AUDIENCE: Can you
share some thoughts
about the potential of
building a colony on Mars?
The necessity, feasibility,
and maybe even timeline?
SCOTT KELLY: Hm.
SPEAKER 1: What about
the journey to Mars--
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: --and then
a colony to Mars.
SCOTT KELLY: I was
asked a question,
when I was on the Space
Station, by a reporter.
And the question was, now that
NASA has determined that there
is liquid water on Mars
sometime during the year,
will that help us
get there any sooner?
Eh, I said, I don't know.
Maybe.
Now, if we found
money on Mars, that
would help us get
there real quick.
Because that's what
we need, is money.
My brother often
says, going to Mars
is not about rocket science.
It's about the
political science.
I think we know a
lot of what we need
to know to get the crew to Mars,
to support them on the surface.
It's just going to
be really expensive.
And to do that, you need
representatives in government
that are science-minded people,
that believe in science.
We don't have enough of
that in the United States.
So I think, us getting
to Mars is doable.
I think it's doable today.
But I don't think it's going
to happen anytime soon.
Because at least, in
the US government--
my concern is less about
going to Mars than it
is about members of
Congress not believing
that 97% of the
experts, scientists,
are correct when they
say, we are in some ways
responsible for climate change.
That's a bigger concern of mine.
When you have people
that don't come
from a technical
background and can say,
I disagree with
all these experts.
That's arrogance to
an amazing degree--
that we have to get past that
before we can do anything,
like going to Mars someday.
SPEAKER 1: So I have
one more question
on commercial space travel.
SCOTT KELLY: Mm-hm.
SPEAKER 1: So with Virgin
Galactic and SpaceX,
the space tourism seems
to be inching ever closer.
Do you think that we'll
ever reduce the risk enough
that that will happen?
You talk about the 1/70 odds.
Do you think that's
where the risk lies?
SCOTT KELLY: Absolutely.
I think we are on a cusp of
technological advances that--
whether it's in space flight
or self-driving vehicles,
self-piloted cars--
I think we're getting
into a revolution.
Certainly, with spaceflight,
it's going to be risky.
People will die, just like in
the early days of aviation.
But hopefully,
within our lifetimes,
you're going be able to hop
on a rocket-powered airplane
or whatever you want
to call it and be
in New York in 30 minutes.
It's going to be really cool.
SPEAKER 1: Would you be
first in line for that?
SCOTT KELLY: It depends
on how much they paid me.
SPEAKER 1: OK,
that's fair enough.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: All right, let's take
one more question [INAUDIBLE]..
SCOTT KELLY: One more question.
Then I want to just--
SPEAKER 1: Yeah.
SCOTT KELLY: --leave you
with a final thought.
SPEAKER 1: Great.
Man at the back--
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
So my question is, thinking
about your entire career,
from first day at school
to first time flying
on your own, first time in
space, doing a spacewalk--
what was the biggest
jump in scariness?
And did the previous
jumps help you with that?
SCOTT KELLY: Definitely--
AUDIENCE: Entire career.
SCOTT KELLY: Yeah,
definitely building block--
I would say, the scariest
thing I've ever done
is landing on an aircraft
carrier at night.
Half the time, it's terrifying.
The other half, it's just scary.
The most holy-shit
moment though would
be the first time you fly in
space and those solid rocket
motors light.
And you feel every pound of
that 7 million pound of thrust.
And that's more than
a holy-shit moment.
That's like a holy--
something else moment, where
it is so shocking and so
surprising and so
unexpected that, I
flew my first flight three
years before my brother
ever flew into space.
So I had three years
to explain to him
what that was going to be like.
And he was a combat pilot, flew
the A6 in the Gulf War, a test
pilot, same astronaut class--
basically, same DNA as me.
I tried to explain that to him.
When he landed and the
hatch opened and he came out
of the shuttle, the first
thing he said to me--
I was waiting right
there-- he said,
I had no idea what that
was going to be like--
none.
That is how amazing--
absolutely amazing-- it is.
Thank you.
So before we leave--
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, final thought.
SCOTT KELLY: --I'd
just like to leave you
all with one final thought
on my experience in space.
And that is, when I was leaving
the Space Station-- this
is a space station I
spent 500 days of my life
on over three flights.
When I flew my first flight
to Hubble, it was a weak.
Second flight was two weeks.
Third flight-- 159 days.
Fourth flight was 340.
Some smart guy told me that's
a second order polynomial
if you graph it.
If I fly in space again,
I don't really come back.
It goes asymptotic almost.
Maybe it's like a 5
and 1/2 year mission.
But I'm leaving
the Space Station.
I'm looking at this thing
out the window-- what I
can see from the little window.
And I'm thinking, we
built this thing--
1 million pounds, the size of
a football field or football
pitch, while flying around the
Earth at 17,500 miles-an-hour,
in a vacuum, in extremes of
temperatures of plus and minus
270 degrees--
built with this international
partnership of 15
different countries,
different cultures,
different languages,
different technical ways
of doing things--
put together by astronauts
and cosmonauts in space,
in these difficult to work
space suits, connecting
these modules, some of
which had never touched
each other before on Earth.
First time they ever
met was in space.
This is the hardest
thing we've ever done--
absolutely convinced of it.
Harder than going to the moon.
And if we can do this,
we can do anything.
If we want to go to
Mars, we can go to Mars.
If we want to cure cancer and
put the resources behind it,
we can cure cancer.
If we want to fix our problems
with the environment--
Challenges in my
country, in the United
States, which there are many,
I think they are all solvable.
Challenges you guys have in your
industry, in your country here,
or wherever you may come from--
I was absolutely inspired,
after spending a year in space
that, if we can dream
it, we can do it.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
SPEAKER 1: Scott Kelly.
[APPLAUSE]
SCOTT KELLY: Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
