Clayton Anderson on the Stranded Astronauts

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great to welcome Clayton Anderson back to the program, Nebraska's
very own astronaut Clayton.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, morning Gary. How you doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well? I appreciate you coming on, because this story is
getting more and more vexing and in some ways confusing.
Our two astronauts up there on the space station. They
made it up there on the Boeing star Liner, but barely,
and now the NASA's sam well, it could be February
before we get them back. So I have several questions,

(00:30):
but let's start with this one. Clayton, how do you deal?
I assume that a space station you've been up there,
they have plenty of room, plenty of supplies for as
long as they need.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right, Yeah, none of this has affected the ability of
NASA and the other entities Russia to send cargo ships
up right. Cargo ships keep coming on a regular basis,
so there's plenty of food, water, oxygen, all that good stuff,
clothing that they need. So that's not a worry at all.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay. The most obvious thing to me, and obviously I'm
not a NASA, why can't we can't we send another
one up there and bring them back on another vessel.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, that's part of the dilemma. Starlink, the Starliner test
article is exactly that, a spaceship that was designed to
be in space to be tested, and Butch and Sunny
are the test pilot. So once we got them to
space safely docked to the space station, they're in a
great place. They're safe, they've got food and all that stuff.

(01:31):
They're helping out with the current space station crew. And
meanwhile they're working with Boeing and the engineers to see
if they can test and figure out what's exactly happening
with the thruster system and the helium tanks on star Line,
ok because they operate differently right in the space environment
than they do in a lab or in a testing
environment on the ground. So that's what they're trying to

(01:55):
do is figure out to the best of their ability,
what is actually happening within the spaceship.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Okay, extent that they can bring it back home, yes,
but I assume their lives are not in danger then, right,
I mean they can come back. If worse comes to worse,
they can come back on a different vessel.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
If they do, it would be the SpaceX. And that's
when people get to talking about we have to launch
another SpaceX with only two astronauts suits for Butcher and Sonny,
And once we launch and doc that one, then we're
going to go through their whole six month increment, So
Sonny and Butch can't come home until next February. I

(02:35):
don't really like that answer. I'm not intimately involved in
all the details, but I think the Boeing Starliner will
be safe enough for them to come home on it.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay. I understand that the NASA was considering flying it
back empty and doing repairs on the ground, but that
may not be a good option, right.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, the issue with that is when the no matter
what happens with people or without, when the Starliner undocks
and comes home, not all of the pieces come home.
So the engines and the helium tanks and the things
that some of the things are having issues with, they
get jettison before the parachutes come out and they come
through the atmosphere and all that good stuff, and those

(03:17):
things burn up, so you don't get a chance to
look at some of this when it gets back on
the ground.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Clayton Anderson weathers late what what is it when you're
on a space station? How big is that. And in
other words, when we think of you've been you've been
in kfab right, you've been in our building, uh like
in our in our on air studio. Here is it
Is there room like that to like walk around and
move around, float around, et cetera. Or is it is

(03:44):
it relatively cramped? Uh?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
In places it can be cramped. But what you guys
have to realize is that you sit in your studio
this morning, you can only use the floor right right,
because gravity holds you down. And however, you can't be
on the ceiling. We can be on the ceiling, you know.
So we're using the volume versus the area. Yeah, and
so it seems a little bigger to us. And the

(04:09):
space station is actually quite roomy. It's about a four
bedroom house with a couple of bathrooms, a couple of
kitchen stations. So I was very comfortable there. I had
a lot of fun. It's great to fly around. You
got enough room to to be dangerous and it's a
good time.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I'll bet hey, there's there's omaha. So Ashland's got to.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Be right over there, right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Okay, Well I feel a little better the way it sounded,
and some of the reports I heard as they could
be they could be stranded and die up there, and
I suppose that's all. Look, there's a risk and everything,
and this is a high risk profession, but it doesn't
sound like it's that dire in terms of their lives,
at least for the moment.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
That's correct. And I think the hardest part for them
is if they get into the city situation where they're
going to have to ride home with the SpaceX and
come home next February. Now it's a mental game for them,
for each of them individually to figure out how they're
going to adapt mentally to that scenario. NASA provides them
with psychological support, they provide them with medical support. They

(05:16):
can talk to their families and friends on the ground
and have video conferences. So all that goes a long
way to help you mentally be able to sustain that.
But it would be tough for me personally to be
ready to come home and see my wife and kids
and then somebody say, oh, hey, by the way, you
got to stay up there till February. That'd be a
bit of a downer. Yeah, But we're also a professional

(05:37):
astronauts and we're being paid and trained to do that,
and so that's what our job is, That's what our
role is. So they'll come to grips with that in
their own way.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let me ask you this, if there were to be
an emergency with one of the astronauts, a medical emergency,
would they be brought back home? Could they be brought
back home?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yes, if it's bad enough. Each astronaut has their own vehicle,
their own seat in their own vehicle. So the Russians,
for example, have their seat in the soy use. The
four astronauts that came up on SpaceX, they have their
seats in the SpaceX, Butch and Sonny have their seats
on the Starliner. So then if there was a dire emergency,

(06:19):
then NASA and whoever would have to figure out who's
coming home, what vehicle they're coming home in, and is
it going to be safe to do? But in an emergency, right,
all bets are off.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Fascinating, great and always great to have you on. Appreciate
the time this morning

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Hey, my pleasure anytime,