Share This Article
Mountain Home students put their questions directly to a NASA astronaut orbiting Earth on Wednesday, asking Capt. Jack Hathaway about life on the International Space Station, his Navy career and what it feels like to ride a rocket into orbit.
Hathaway opened the Q&A session by giving students a live look at Earth from the cupola of the space station before taking their questions. The event was held in Dunbar Auditorium and streamed to other district schools and the public over the district’s YouTube channel.
Mountain Home Public School Board Member Scott Booth coordinated the event with NASA. Booth and Hathaway flew together earlier in their careers, and Hathaway referenced their shared military aviation background several times during the session.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Hathaway told students of the view from orbit. He said the station travels at roughly 17,500 mph and crosses the continental United States in about five or six minutes.
The session ran into brief technical issues. Audio cut out early in the program, and the video link dropped for a short time as the station handed off between satellites before reconnecting.
Students lined up at a microphone to ask their questions. Topics ranged from microgravity science and onboard repairs to what astronauts eat and what they miss about home.
Hathaway said the hardest habit to adjust to in microgravity is keeping track of objects. He said items float away the moment an astronaut sets them down, and crew members rely on Velcro to hold tools, water bottles and even snacks in place.
One student asked what most people would not expect about life on the station. Hathaway pulled back to show his feet on camera.
“You don’t wear shoes,” he said. “Everybody just wears socks.”
Asked which skills from his military background carried over, Hathaway pointed to adaptability. He said flying in the Navy and the Marine Corps taught him and Booth how to work through unfamiliar problems with limited information.
Hathaway described spacewalk training as the toughest part of his preparation for the mission. NASA submerges a near-full-scale mockup of the space station in a 200-foot pool, and astronauts work in 400-pound suits made neutrally buoyant by support divers.
He told students the crew is running a range of experiments. He said he installed a new chamber the day before for the Cold Atom Lab, which chills atoms to nearly absolute zero so researchers can study quantum mechanics in conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth.
Other experiments are aimed at practical use. Hathaway said crystals and biological molecules grow differently in microgravity, opening a path toward growing tissues and possibly organs for future transplants.
When asked which onboard technology he relies on most, Hathaway listed the water reclamation system, the carbon dioxide scrubbers and the thermal control systems that keep the station livable. He said the crew now reclaims more than 95 percent of its water, including moisture pulled from the air and water recovered from urine.
“Water is heavy to launch to space,” he said, explaining that recycling reduces the volume that has to be flown up on cargo missions and will be essential for future trips to the moon and Mars.
A student asked how the crew fixes things that break. Hathaway said astronauts train on electrical and plumbing systems and keep spare parts on board, and ground teams walk them through repair procedures step by step.
He gave one recent example. The crew was installing new exercise equipment when a power plug did not match the receptacle, and rather than wait six weeks for the next cargo vessel, the crew built a custom electrical junction with help from engineers on the ground.
For students considering NASA careers, Hathaway said the key is finding a specific field they love. He said engineering, medicine and the sciences all have roles in space exploration, and that forcing an interest will show up in the work.
“Find something that you’re excited about,” he said.
Hathaway named the Cosmic Brownie as his favorite dessert on the station. Asked what he misses from Earth, he listed his family, hot showers and being able to order takeout.
He closed by describing the launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. He said the booster wobbled in the wind on the pad, the first stage shutdown threw him forward against his straps, and the second stage fired before cutting off and leaving the crew floating.
Hathaway also told students about surface tension in microgravity, describing how water from a drink bag holds itself together in a floating bubble that astronauts can drink straight out of the air.
Hathaway is a U.S. Navy captain and a member of NASA’s 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class. He launched to the station Feb. 13 as the pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission and is serving on Expeditions 74 and 75.
A Connecticut native, Hathaway holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and history from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master’s in flight dynamics from Cranfield University in England and a master’s in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College.
He was designated a naval aviator in 2006 and a developmental test pilot in 2010. He has logged more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 types of aircraft, more than 500 carrier arrested landings and 39 combat missions.
Hathaway is scheduled to return to Earth in about six months.
