Welcome to NASA's Johnson Space Center
where we're joined today by astronaut
Jessica Meir who just got her first
flight assignment she'll be launching in
September and we're joined from space by
astronaut Christina Koch who had just
found out officially that her missions
gonna be extended and she'll be staying
in space until February. Congratulations
to you both we're so excited for you and
we just want to check in and see kind of
how how that feels so let's jump right
in let's start with Christina. Christina
I know you've known that this extension
was a possibility for a while but now
that you officially have the word that
you're going to be staying in space for
almost a year how does that feel?
Yes hi Brandi hi Jessica it's great to
be with you welcome onboard the space
station and Jessica congratulations on
your flight assignment I'm so happy for
you. To get to your question Brandi it
feels awesome I have known that this was
a possibility for a long time and it's
truly a dream come true to know that I
can continue to work on the program that
I've valued so highly my whole life to
be able to contribute to that to give my
best every day to that for as long as
possible is a true honor in a dream
come true. All right and Jessica I know
you've been training for years for this
and I it's very exciting but do you have
time to celebrate for your mission or
are you too busy training? I tried to
celebrate it a little bit but you're
right we've been working really hard the
whole time since we were selected back
as astronaut candidates in 2013 and the
last year when I started training for a
space station flight and over in Russia
as well so they keep us incredibly busy
especially right now going back and
forth between training trips in Russia
and here learning how to be the copilot
of the Soyuz which I'll be doing and
then coming back here and learning all
about all the different space station
space station systems all the science
and everything that will be doing
onboard so definitely a lot of work but
trying to enjoy it and revel in it a
little bit as well. Well you two are both
selected as astronauts in 2013 I know
you've been training together you're up
there already Christina is there with a
couple of other astronauts from the 2013
class and McClain and Nick Hague and
then Drew Morgan is also going to be
launching in July so it's like one big
class party for y'all are you staying in
contact talking about that is that
increased the excitement? It absolutely
does this is
something that we never dreamed could
happen you know when we first started
training together all eight of us we sat
there and there was actually a joke made
one day of talking about if we could
actually end up flying together and
usually you don't have many rookies in
the same flight at least at least that's
how it worked out in the past so we were
really excited about it we we couldn't
believe that this would actually be
happening that's still I still kind of
can't believe that we'll all be up there
together but for us it is really the
dream behind that dream come true
because we all know each other so well
and we truly are like a family so it's
going to mean even more so much for me
to share my first flight with all of my
other classmates as well.
Christina anything to add? Jessica said
it really well and in particular I'm
just really excited for Jessica to join us.
She and I trained together almost all of
last year going back and forth to Russia
and as you can imagine going through an
experience like that you truly bond and
so I'm ready for her to get up here and
for us to have a good time and to get to
work up here put it to put our training
to work. In addition to the having so
many 2013 astronauts were also seeing a
lot of women recently onboard the space
station I think starting with Serena
Aunon Chancellor back in June of last
year she was there to welcome and McLain
and McLain was there to welcome
Christina. Christina will be there for
Jessica and we've also got down the line
the Nicole Mann scheduled to launch on
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner before the
end of the year so lots of women I know
that y'all kind of see all astronauts is
being equal but it seems like a
milestone worth worth noting right? Yeah
absolutely I think it's something
especially for our class that we're
really just used to now you know where
our class was the first 50 percent
female 50 percent male representative
and so we're used to being in that equal
environment already so I think it's
really just reflecting where we are now
in society and that makes it even better
for us we can celebrate that and I think
you know if it does help us inspire the
young girls that are out there we are
absolutely there to do that as well
because we remember what it was like
yep I agree with everything Jessica said
it's a great honor to hopefully inspire
people
I think examples do matter I know that
seeing women in doing awesome work in
positions and engineering and science
and fulfilling all of their dreams
it truly inspired me and so it's part of
paying homage to those people that paved
the way for us to be where we are today
as well as inspiring the future
I do think examples matter and so it's
important that people just see that it's
normal for people of all shapes sizes
genders to to be able to fulfill the
dreams that they have that's a
record-setting chain and I guess
Christina you'll also be breaking a
record that's already been set by Peggy
Whitson for the longest single
continuous space flight by a woman is
that something that you are tracking at
all or is our things too busy up there
definitely busy up here but it's my
honor to fall in
Peggy's footsteps Peggy has been a
mentor and a heroine of mine for many
many years
she always stepped in and helped our
class through tough times and challenges
when we were in our training program and
so I hope that me being up here and
giving my best every day is a way for me
to say thank you to people like her who
not only paved the way through their
examples but actively reached out to
make sure that we could be successful as
well I don't necessarily count days or
numbers it's definitely a lot very early
in the process to start talking about
records but I just really take it one
day at a time
Christina sought advice from Peggy yet
or Scott Kelly or any of these laundry
duration cute crew members then on what
to expect and what to start thinking
about you know what we have and it's
been a really neat process we when we
found out that it could be a possibility
and when I say we I do mean Drew Morgan
and I who are both extending into a
third expedition on board we were given
the advice to reach out and we did and I
talked to both Peggy and Scott and I
think they had some great words Peggy
particulars she said find what you love
and make sure you have it up there and
that you embrace it and you're able to
to do it because that's what's gonna
sustain you and I'm Scott Kelly had some
great advice I'm talking about pacing
and making sure that you're ready for
the long haul and also my husband and I
actually together were listening to his
book because there's a lot of advice in
there that that has helped us so I am
they've been instrumental actually and
it's great to see how much they have
reached out to us and been willing to
share their experiences let me both of
you to kind of weigh in and what you
think the impact is on little girls and
even little boys around the world of
seeing women setting records and and
doing things in space you know is that
does that help them reach their their
dreams their goals yeah I think it's
always useful to have that kind of role
model to see somebody that embodies
something that you can identify with
whether that's you know your background
or something some piece of your
background or some piece of your
personality or perhaps even what you
look like in terms of thinking wow maybe
I could do that too I think that is
really important it's one of the reasons
why I think it's also really important
for us to do outreach in terms that are
really have an individual impact and a
personal impact one of my favorite
appearances was when I went back to my
hometown and went to the school system
there and talked to the students and one
girl after the talk came up to me
afterward and said that just changed
everything for me that was really
game-changing because I grew up in the
same town as you and it just suddenly
made me realize that I could really do
anything I wanted and so having that
kind of personal connection that kind of
role model that someone can identify
with from their own perspective I think
really can be invaluable in the long run
yep Jessica I completely agree you
couldn't have said it better another
thing that comes along with a time where
NASA's setting records is it's just
demonstrating all of the awesome things
that NASA is doing the fact that we're
in a really dynamic environment right
now in space exploration how many new
exciting projects are on the horizon
going back to the moon gateway having
long-duration missions more regularly
because we are learning more about
long-duration and understanding it and
it is almost turning into not that big
of a deal to have somebody onboard
station for 10 11 months because we've
done it before we're good at it and
we're gonna keep doing it to have people
for long durations but the scientists I
think would with are still getting
excited so Cristina can you tell us a
little bit about what some of the
scientific benefits for a long-duration
say--is yeah definitely I think the
human research side of it is the side
that benefits the most from
long-duration stays and we're sort of in
an era where we're able to kind of hone
in on some of the more the effects of
microgravity that tell us more about our
own bodies our immune responses how our
musculoskeletal system reacts and things
of that nature so I'm able to
participate in some studies that both
Scott Kelly and Peggy Whitson
participated in and anytime you increase
the diversity of a pool of folks
participating in any of those human
research studies you make the results of
those studies more robust so we're happy
to be participating in those and to get
the numbers up okay and I think we're
just about out of time but we I think
have time for one more question and
Christina I was gonna see if you had any
tips for Jessica as she gets ready for
her own flight
well Jessica and I you know we share a
lot she has a lot of tips for me and I
think my main thing for her would just
be to enjoy the ride it's gonna come
fast and I can't wait to see you we
share advice all the time so I'm very
much looking forward to her spacewalk
skills getting up here she's an ace and
this
suit and just looking forward to
learning from each other questions for
Christina Jessica yeah like Christina
said we're talking all the time that's
one of the really interesting things
about the space station now where we
have this these great communication
assets so I'll be talking on the phone
or sending e-mails back and forth with
especially now that all my classmates
are up there so with an and and Nick and
Christina too so we're constantly
trading advice and tidbits and I'm so
looking forward to joining all of them
up there it's really going to be an
incredible experience all right that's
the last that we have time for today but
we mentioned that they're going to be
joined in space by their crew member
drew or their crew mate drew Morgan he's
gonna be launching in July he wasn't
able to join us today because he's
actually training under water in our
neutral buoyancy lab but he is gonna be
having a news conference with his other
crewmates
coming up on Friday you can tune in to
that here on NASA TV at 1:00 p.m.
Central Time on Friday that April 19th
thanks so much
you
