Out of the 184 days that NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson logged on her most up-to-date mission on board the Worldwide Area Station, there are 31 minutes that stand out to her as being amongst her most interesting.
Dyson mirrored on her time in area throughout a post-flight press convention at NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston on Friday (Oct. 4). She returned to Earth lower than two weeks in the past on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that touched down in Kazakhstan.
“It’s in some methods emotionally onerous to speak about my spacewalks, as a result of the 2 makes an attempt that we made did not end in clearing the aims that we had getting in,” she mentioned, replying to a query from Area.com. “However private emotions apart, these two makes an attempt have been a fantastic second for us as a workforce, each on orbit and with the interactions that we had with our workforce on the bottom.”
A member of the NASA astronaut corps since 1998, Dyson’s earlier long-duration keep on the area station was 14 years in the past. In interviews she gave previous to her launch in March, she mentioned she was wanting ahead to going out on a couple of EVAs (extravehicular actions, or spacewalks), and three outings have been certainly deliberate.
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However, as she additionally mentioned on the time, “issues simply have a means of fixing if you stand up there.”
“On our first try … my accomplice, Matt Dominick, had some go well with points that have been too vital to handle earlier than going out into the vacuum,” Dyson mentioned on Friday, referring to a “spacesuit discomfort challenge” that occurred on June 13.
NASA changed Dominick with Michael Barratt for the subsequent strive, citing that Barratt already had a go well with sized to him. Dyson and Barratt have been to exit and obtain the identical duties — bringing in an antenna and performing some microorganism swabbing (“a Covid check for the Worldwide Area Station,” quipped Dyson), however they by no means acquired past opening the hatch.
“On the second try, it was … the station’s umbilical that gives cooling and knowledge and oxygen that had a leak. It wasn’t found till eradicating the umbilical as soon as we have been at vacuum within the crew-lock,” Dyson instructed Area.com. “The entire occasions that occurred in that time frame have been very character-building for me, but additionally I felt throughout these moments have been a number of the most interesting when it comes to communication, and that’s what I believe human interactions are all about — is communication.”
“Nothing was extra vital to me throughout that time frame than with the ability to talk — not simply with the bottom, however with my crewmate Mike Barratt who was within the crew-lock with me, in addition to the remainder of our crew,” she mentioned.
Communications have been key, Dyson defined, as a result of she was the one one who may see what was taking place. Barratt’s and her helmet cameras weren’t but turned on, and the exterior-mounted video cameras didn’t have angle into the crew-lock.
“Mainly, it was a firehose of water and slush popping out my umbilical and it coated my visor with ice, so I couldn’t see what was happening. It took a couple of microseconds to determine what wanted to be achieved,” mentioned Dyson. “Suffice it to say, it was nice teamwork that introduced us in in 31 minutes, and I’m going to hold on to these 31 minutes as a number of the most character-building moments of my life in area.”
Past that half hour, Dyson recounted a number of the highlights of her time on serving on station’s Expedition 70 and Expedition 71 crews. Saying that the work, alone, was definitely worth the time she spent off the planet, Dyson spoke about utilizing the station’s bio fabrication facility to 3D-print cardiac and meniscus tissue samples; overseeing the departure of a Northrop Grumman provide ship named for a late class member of hers; and adjusting to the prolonged period of time that Boeing’s Starliner crew spent aboard the station slightly than return to Earth after as little as per week to shut out the troubled check flight.
“For me — and I do know for Suni [Williams], too, as a result of we’e shut buddies — it was considerably bittersweet. I needed her to remain, and he or she needed to remain,” mentioned Dyson. “I believe that the best way we dealt with it’s the means we deal with any sudden occasion, which we as astronauts, as an area program, are at all times ready to deal with, and that’s, we went with the stream.”
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Dyson additionally waxed a bit about witnessing the 2024 North American complete photo voltaic eclipse from orbit and shared what turned considered one of her favourite meals.
“I used to make a tortilla with beef brisket and braised pink cabbage, in the event you can consider that,” she mentioned with fun.
In line with a schedule launched by Roscosmos, Russia’s federal area company, Dyson could also be one of many final People to fly on the Soyuz. After a deliberate flight by NASA astronaut Jonny Kim subsequent yr, the Soyuz human flights introduced by means of 2026 have all-Russian crews.
“In my private opinion, I believe [the crew exchanges] strengthen our partnership with them, and it interprets to the work that we do on orbit as a crewmate as properly,” Dyson mentioned.
“All that we undergo in coaching, not simply sitting in a simulator, however by means of all of the water and land survival and all of the onerous issues that we do, from the each day to seeing one another … actually interprets properly into the relationships and dealing atmosphere that we’ve got on board station,” she added. “So, from that perspective alone, I’d hope that we might have the ability to proceed flying doing this commerce of Soyuz and U.S. industrial crewmembers.”
