NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps (right) and Matthew Dominick (left) spoke to Syracuse.com last Friday, May 3, 2024, from the International Space Station orbiting 250 miles above Earth. (NASA)
(Tribune News Service) — NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps and Matthew Dominick spoke to Syracuse.com last Friday from the International Space Station orbiting 250 miles above Earth.
During the interview, Epps and Dominick appeared standing side by side on a live video feed from the cramped interior of the ISS. They answered a wide range of questions about adjusting to life in space, the possibility of human travel to Mars, and the vital importance of space exploration.
The interview lasted about 20 minutes. As the pair spoke, a microphone often floated between them, a vivid reminder that this was no ordinary Zoom teleconference.
“Waking up in space every day is still amazing, but it is odd not to have really an up or down,” Epps remarked. “So you wake up disoriented almost every day, but then you realize you’re in space, then it’s awesome.”
“The funniest thing that happens to me is I’m just wildly disoriented,” Dominick said. “I wake up every morning just thinking I’m in some different orientation, upside down, and I have to reach for something and grab it to get orientation. But waking up and feeling you’re completely upside down all the time is super fascinating.”
This is the first space flight for both astronauts. Although they’ve been living in space now for two months, they said they’re still getting acclimated.
“Lately we’ve been practicing flips in space, so just learning to move is a new thing too,” Epps said, then asked Dominick to demonstrate a micro gravity flip. Dominick tucked his knees to his chest and twirled, finishing the maneuver upside down in relation to Epps.
NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps (right) and Matthew Dominick (left) spoke to Syracuse.com last Friday, May 3, 2024, from the International Space Station orbiting 250 miles above Earth. (NASA)
NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps (right) and Matthew Dominick (left) spoke to Syracuse.com last Friday, May 3, 2024, from the International Space Station orbiting 250 miles above Earth. (NASA)
“It’s really hard to have a conversation when you’re oriented like this,” Dominick said, seeming to hang from the ceiling like a bat. “If you’re going to have a serious conversation with somebody, it’s important to have the same orientation so you can interpret their body language correctly.”
The two astronauts are flight engineers for NASA’s six-member Expedition 71 crew, which launched into space on March 3. They will live aboard the ISS for approximately six-months and are expected to splash down on Earth sometime in late August.
Dominick, 42, is a Navy test pilot from Colorado with 61 combat missions under his belt. NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 2017. When asked what he was looking forward to in the coming months, he was most excited about conducting “dynamic ops,” he said, such as space walks.
“I like when things are going fast,” Dominick said. “When I like to settle down, I really love just going to the cupola and taking pictures out various windows. There’s just incredible sights to see. Going fast and taking pictures is what I look forward to.”
Born and raised in Syracuse to parents from Mississippi, Epps, 53, was selected by NASA in 2009 to become an astronaut. She took a moment to reflect on her family’s remarkable migration from the Deep South to near space in one generation.
“That is amazing, I mean, I keep using that word while I’m here in space, amazing: amazing, fantastic, exhilarating, you name it,” said Epps. “These thoughts that come to me are very reflective and it makes me think about the future. ... Being able to give back and contribute to all of this is very important to me.”
The astronauts concluded the interview by highlighting the importance of space exploration at a moment when problems here on Earth — war, poverty, global warming — seem intractable.
“As any country develops a space exploration program, they’re developing jobs for their country, they’re increasing the interest in science and technology, and hence innovation in their own country as well,” Epps said. “It generates a lot more for a country if you do have a space exploration program.”
Dominick said public spending on NASA programs should be considered an investment.
“Because if you only spent money on the status quo, you’d never advance,” he said. “We are just a tiny fraction that’s investing in the future of humanity.”
You can watch the full, unedited video below.
©2024 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit syracuse.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
