Maret 07, 2017
>> okay, so i have to apologize for playing with the emotions the whole lights off thing, i did not do that. i was looking around is he coming. i don't know. thank you. it's awesome to be here.
as david said, i'm one of nasa's newest astronauts. it's an honor to be here. i'm the crew office, gsdo lead, i don't know if any of you work for gsdo, so i come here a lot. i come here because i love being at kennedy space center. it's the gateway to human space
light. such a special place. and i love the banner that you guys have on your website. it just encapsulates all that for me. i've been in the military for 20 years now, and i've been to unique places.
kennedy ranks right up there with some of the most profound places i've been in my professional life. i was fortunate to ply jets across the pacific from japan to california, and land at wake island, small corral reef in the middle of the ocean.
i stayed there for a couple of nights. paddling across the little bay in the middle of the island there, next to the runway, looking at the pillboxes and the gunning placements. just profound. they have signs on the beach
that say if you come across bones or any human remains, leave them in place out of respect for the dead. it's interesting to go to a place that has signs like that all around. another place is pearl harbor, that's the uss arizona memorial,
feeds oil to the surface to this day. if you can get on the base, the uss utah memorial is even more profound. you can see that's a ship. no memorial built on top of it. that's just the ship, lying where it was sunk.
and again, another special place that i've been fortunate to visit, and one of the most unique places, being stationed on a carrier in japan, the japanese government doesn't like us to do all of our touch and goes over tokyo. so they send us to what they
refer to as iwota, or what we call -- take from sand from the beach and look at the memorial up there, and oh, i'm not even a history buff and this place, just, it is engrained and just seeing it, and living there and being there for so long. kennedy space center is like
that for me. something special about kennedy space center among those other places that i mentioned. it didn't take a war and mass casualties for kennedy space center to become that kind of special place for me, and for thousands of hundreds of
thousands of people. we do something very special here. and i say we, because that's kind of the point of my talk. this is kind of three-parts. please, forgive me. i, like i said, i come here a lot, and i love being here.
i don't get to do this often, i'm usually in a meeting. this is an opportunity for me to actually talk to you and get to know you. so if it seems like i'm talking about random things, that's on purpose. maybe if i get to come out here
more often, but i'm going to talk to you i think this morning or this afternoon, and so one of them is how important kennedy space center to everybody, and to me especially. and my class came here for a visit, and standing there, it was one of the most profound
moments of my professional life. i have four daughters, seeing my kids born was one of the most profound things i've ever done. but this ranks right up there with it. we've achieved this. we've taken our lumps, right. but to be able to reach that
kind of significant for so many people, by doing something, to benefit everybody, that didn't involve a war, that's special. and i hope you don't take that for granted by being here. because if you do, you can go to houston and i'll come here and take place.
i love being here, if i hadn't said that already. and that's why i'm here. for you all. don't ask me who is in this picture. i found it on the internet. i was trying to figure out a way, and a way to do this, but i
can actually take my phone and then put, you know, scan the room, it will show it up there. i don't have -- i couldn't figure that one out. you're like really, yeah, i know, it might send me to mars, but i couldn't find that out. i'm here for you.
and so hopefully we can get to know each other in the next hour or so. and i won't belabor you too much. kennedy space center is special to all of us 47 in the office and this place is special. it's like the kids going to mom
and dad saying can we promise the car and promise to bring it back empty in this case. we realize how much you do for us and we are so grateful and from jsc, we're sending you a big hug. that's the point i want to make. how important family is and how
important that relationship is. one team, one fight. we're all trying to do the same thing. if you go to the gsdo meetings, you may not agree, but we're all trying to do the same thing. so i want to take you really quickly through my background.
i asked not to read too much. i was born in south california, and those are pictures of my cousins, preacher, mixed marshall artist, not far from los angeles and i went to -- is this thing like, does this sound strange? okay, i love that picture at the
top, because that picture is my then girlfriend, and i tutoring elementary and junior high school students about how to make mousetrap cars, and how to build bridges. and i played football, i wrestled in college. i was a division 1 athlete, but
this is what i did in my free time, because it was important to me then, just like it is now. and that lady would come on to become my wife and the mother of those four little girls we follow around all the time. that's how our relationship started, going around and
talking to young folks about the importance of what you do. graduated from california poly and anchors away joined the navy, got my wings in 2001. this is a picture over lake safar, this is me just popping a flare. this is me behind the tanker
over the lake in iraq. that's where we would refuel. i was there if you remember, operation al falaj, or you might remember fan ton furry, they took over fallujah in 2004 for six months deployed in the gulf. the navy has been so good to me. so many interesting experiences.
being able to flay this jet off of a carrier. i went to test pilot school, see what controls response we get, that's why my leg was up on the dash. i flew test missions for a couple of year, to school a couple of times and back to the
fleet. this is a picture of me in my last squad drone on the uss george washington. and that was a very special squad drone. this jet is a super hornet. wow. yeah, that's a beautiful
machine. a beautiful machine. and if you're not familiar with the carrier, four cables and you notice where i'm landing. there is not a cable. you see them kind of evenly spaced-out. the one farthest out, we target
the three wire. we have to change them out. they happened to change them out. what i'm telling you, this is was a good landing, even though there is no wire for me to grab. i wound up grabbing number four, but it wasn't my fault.
i love flying this machine, so i'm going to come back why i left the picture up there in a little while. but that is not long after, the fly off, one of the most inspiring things, we fly off of our jets off the carrier and bring them all home at once.
my kids run out and give hugs and they run around and take pictures. it's on my desk, shelf, computer screen safer, because there is so much wrapped up into this one of the reasons i'm sharing it to you, trying to get to know you, this is the most important
stuff in my life. personally, obviously and professionally. that thing that you see there behind me means so much to me. and it's because it is a symbol, just like if you by a houston starbucks mug, you know what's on there, the space shuttle,
because the space shuttle is an icon. that f-18, it's not about the machine, the electronics, the battery, the 225 people that make that thing run. that's what it represents to me. that's why this picture encapsulates so much for me.
when i got this job, i was working in congress, so we left japan, went to d.c., and i didn't want to work at the pain, which you know is the pentagon. i applied for a fellowship and got to work in congress for a couple of years. this was the high point.
i haven't even told you who i worked for, but this man, icon, congressman john lewis, is my hero. and i got to sit down with him, i called his office and said, i work for -- i want to come meet your boss. the chief of staff said what,
come on over. i walked over. you see the capitol. it's between the house and senate. we are from the capitol this direction, the other side, i walked and got to sit there and talk to him on the balcony.
this is one of, again, one of those profound moments. of this is what i was doing when i got selected for this awesome gig. this is who i worked for. one of the best bosses i've ever had. this isn't about politics.
it's about leadership and working for him. everyday i got to talk to this man about leadership. he saw every three and four star general, admiral in our military and we used to sit down one-on-one and talk about leadership.
again, boy, the navy was very good to me. that's what i was doing when i got this gig. and so not a bad -- not a bad a blast, two years, run you through some of the stuff we've done in the last two years. hopefully you've seen this
before, but if you haven't, boy, you need to come to houston so i can show it to you in person. and i will. if you make it to houston, i will give you a tour. so 21st class, 2013 astronaut candidates back then and we got to do some really neat thing.
i can't put it all into this presentation, but i'll talk to you about what we did. we had to learn russian [ speaking in a foreign language ] . in my opinion, it's a very hard language to learn.
could i explain to you why, but it means, it's because my english grammar, not so good. we have to learn iss systems. this is the biggest, the russian is the biggest part of the curriculum actually. you have to get pretty efficient.
block wise, you have to learn about this ship, the space station. the reason, something will break. especially the toilet. it's always break en. you can't call the may tag man. you have to learn how to fly the
robotic arm, that's htb, and great fun. we call it flying the arm, because it is. it's much more like flying than computer programming, even though you're doing both at the same time. and one of the biggest treats
for me, as a guy coming in from the service who is already flying, putting on the space suit and getting in the lab to do space walk training. this was like flying for the first time. it's close and it's a spacecraft.
that's awesome. this was one of the most amazing things i've ever done. what i like about these pictures that i'm showing you, it takes an amazing team of people to make this happen. all of these pictures, even the ones i zoomed in on, you don't
see me by myself. and i know what you're thinking. oh, he has his back to us, he didn't realize the picture up there, because he's by himself, in the lower right-hand corner, that's the head of a safety diver, that's the flippers of the another safety diver.
every person in a suit has two safety divers right there. then there a float diver who has a camera, that camera, we take lots of videos, that guy is there so that the test conductor and director can see to make sure things are safe. so that's three people.
just dedicated to you. they rotate every two hours. the reason i'm talking about this, it's such a team effort. it's not about the two people in the suits. it's about the 40 people making sure you're safe. we get down under water and go
to work training to make repairs on the international space i've got a video about the teamwork it takes to make this happen. top left, that's float camera one, driver i told you about with the camera looking at ev!, looking at ev2.
the camera is the of the ev member looking back at the float diver and the bottom right is the same for the other guy. so it's kind of a confusing, but it will make sense -- >> speakers in the water so the divers can hear. >> first thing we do is check,
about safety. >> that was a -- >> 81, copy. >> 81 sounds good. >> thank you. >> that's exactly why i choose this clip. on this dive, that will come into play later, and the couple
is cutting in and out. i'll tell you after this video is done playing, at a crucial time. they put a portable life support later on and we have to go hand over hand to the bottom of the pool for a reason. because if we have a problem,
see me holding my fist up there, my ear would not clear, and i'm putting my nose, and clearing my ears, just like when you fly in an airplane, i'm doing the exact same thing here. it is clear and i didn't have any more problems, but they make up motor ourselves at the bottom
of the pool so no one gets hurt. then once we get to the bottom, the divers take you over and do their weigh out. this is my favorite actually. a lot of fun. you sit there and they have foam and weights, to not just make you neutral, but they also don't
let you -- \m \m >> this is what is playing under water. all of us can hear the music. [ inaudible ] >> the divers have the toughest job and it starts right there. i love showing that clip,
because it convinces so many of the important things, teamwork and communication. you know, this, this was like flying for the first time. like i said. if you can't tell, i have so much fun. just watching this video, i'm
sitting here having a good time. i'm bobbing my head to the music. we went to six flags with my daughter's choir, me and a bunch of junior high school girls. i told them, i said, i have one rule. what's my rule.
my daughter says that we have fun. i said but how do we have fun. nobody gets lost. everybody has a buddy and we stay safe. we do those things, then we have that's the reason that i can sit in the water and enjoy myself,
because we're all trained. we communicate. and we all have a mission to accomplish. if we're all doing the mission, we're going to have fun and do good work. but we'll have fun, which is important to me.
and then obviously, t-38 flying, astronaut training, remembrance file in 2015. we did the same thing this year. i use this clip, because it shows the coordination. >> we went to all the different centers. >> you're living in a
four-bedroom apartment for six months in close proximity to five other people, so you better be a good person to live with, right, you don't want to have the roommate problems, you have the roommate, or you were the roommate. so this is a bunch of pictures
from different events we did, and i mentioned the expedition training and we had a graduation event. we went to the national outdoor leadership school, one of the campuses in wyoming the last astronaut to go there was
columbia. we did this picture for them. that's a special moment. it was to help us understand the agency and what we have to do and what our job is as astronauts, operators, no matter what background we come from, military, educator, science,
physics, we're all operators. i like this picture, anybody know what's in that picture? shout it out. anybody? you better, somebody better. nope. new horizon. pluto.
and? sheron. i like this picture, because for me, it synthesizes what i've been trying to do of na sa's mission. we've changed the way we see the world, the universe in ourselves.
that's really what we're trying to get our minds around. i mean, like i said, we're operators, but we're also ambassadors of this agency. i am a military guy. the navy's budget is $180 billion or so. the dod is $600 billion.
nasa is $18 billion. it's a fraction of what we spend on defense. but with that, we change people's perspective. that's amazing. i'm thrilled to be apart of that. so we graduated, july of last
year and we've all been assigned different jobs. i have iss operation, safety, rob bot particulars, and i work in the expiration, and i'm the crew operation, which means i have to come here a lot. i love my job. i really do.
i haven't said that before, i love coming here. and so the eight of us started together, we finished together and there is no guarantee, until you get your pen, the office is like, hey, you might not be if you don't pass the training, you're going back to where you
came from. i don't know if that's ever happened, but you know, you feel like pressure. you don't want to be the first person that hey, i didn't know you were coming back to the navy. oh, i don't want to talk about
it. and so hopefully, you enjoyed that's the two years in a nutshell, and like i said, my job has been to get to know the agency. i've been in the navy 18 years. nasa for two and a half, so i'm still a new guy.
i heard we have a bunch of interns in the room. there are probably some of you that worked for nasa longer than i have. i met an intern that was an intern, intern for four years. i'm like man, i need to ask you some questions.
and of course, pictures. i want to take a picture with you guys. so i didn't know what the theme for today was. but i just wanted to share that with you any way. i was going to do that any way. i do want to share a couple of
little thoughts about things, and like i said, i feel like we're a family, you know. as family, you can talk about things that might be challenging, you know. and so that's what i'm going to do. this is stuff that i thought
about for the 18 years i've been in the navy. people have talked to me about. and so i want to just share some thoughts with you. this time of year, you know, we have a lot of the remembrance ceremonies and this is, this is the way i -- i am a little bit
of a strange person, i know, i wrestled in college, i told you. i may not have all my marbles. i feel this way about the navy, i feel like this about my sports team, california poly, i feel like this way about myself personally, and i'm reading this book by general stanley
mccrystal, revamps special -- in the introduction to the book, he makes the point that all of those great things we did, they're not going to just stay by themselves. if you stop just like the fitness that keeps our soldiers able to take it, it's not going
to last. and worst, it's not even going to stay where you left it. if you stopped pushing, it will grow backwards. i love this quote. he's talking about organization, but fitness is also tied into all of that stuff that you saw
in the videos, it requires fitness. and i like to talk about all of, mental, physical and spiritual. it's very important. and so i love the fact that this quote synthesizes all of those things. as a new guy, i want to share an
observation that i've had. i came from the department of defense. the average sailor, airman and marine is 27. gung ho. a little more physically fit emotionally fit. and spiritually fit than the
average person because you do a job that potentially has consequences, you may be told go take the hill. that might be your mount. you may not come home from that. so that pushes you to be the best that you can be. and that commitment to
excellence. mentally, physically and spiritually is important. i think they're connected. all of those things that we do, the physical fitness piece of it is very important. flying in high performance aircraft, your ability to adapt
aero physiologically, being upside down, your inner ear, that stuff is, that transition is eased by being aerobically in shape. that actually applies to sitting in these meetings. if you haven't been to a gsdo meeting, come with me, you'll
see what i'm talking about. but it helps your ability to deal with stress. physical or emotional stress. and so take that for what you will. they're all important, mental, physical and spiritual or emotional.
if you don't like that word spiritual, emotional excellence. so, but this quote also makes me think of two challenges that i have to take on. one is you probably heard the term the gray wave, the aero space industry, baby boomers retiring and business and
marketing becoming more popular than science, technology. so we're having trouble replacing them. so we have to tell our story better, you know. if you've seen that movie, mark zuckerberg movie. he is a techy, but that guy is
good at telling a story. michael bloomberg, that name, he is an electrical engineer. he is an engineer, okay. apple ceo. these kind of guys, they're really good at telling stories and it makes them commercial successes.
each one of us needs to be better at telling our stories so we can inspire the next generation. remember the picture of my wife and i talking to the kids about what you do. we have to do that. it is not optional.
this today is. but that's not. if you want them to succeed that the world we live in, there are not enough jobs in this country to hire every engineer coming out of india and china. so we have a challenge. the second thing that it makes
me think of, if you one of those baby boomers, you are that much more important. we need you. we need you in the fight. i know this is not a fight. i am a navy guy. i'm sorry. it's even more important.
back to my comment earlier, mental, physical, spiritual we need you to be healthy so you can be here. because your mind and your motivation walk around in this. you only get one vehicle to walk this earth in, and we need you to take care of it, because we
need you here. okay, enough of this. but this is very important to me. this is the way i think, and i'm sorry if this is a little strange and preachy. i don't mean to. i'm just sharing the way i
process things. this time of year, we do this. and this is how i process this. you know, we take time to, i am a puritan. we think about apollo 204. we think about fts 61 l, fts 107, but i think the word remember, it's not just an
intellectual activity. it cannot be. not for us. for the people outside the gait, that's okay. in the bible, and i'm just going to read this to you, but be not only deceiving yourself, for if anyone is doer, man observing
his natural face in the mirror, and he observes himself and goes away and forgets what kind of man he was. he who looks in the perfect law of liberty and not is forgetful but a doer, a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
i'm not saying this to preach at you. what i'm saying is the bible, which was written over a period of 1,600 years in a whole bunch of places, captured this a long time ago, but scientists are saying the same thing. this might impress some of you
more, a neuro scientist from johns hopkins was interviewed last year on npr, yes, i listen to npr and they asked him that question that we would ask a neuro scientist if we asked one. what do you do to take care of your brain. he said i move my body.
i do things. i get out and i get active. get out of your chair and do something. whoa. my comment earlier. mental, physical spiritual this is why i put this here now. to remember, the bible said it,
do not be forgetful. be doers of the work. cognitive function, your brain is connected to your body's ability to do physical work. that's deep for me. so when i think about remembering, i personally think of what i'm going to do in
remembrance. and here are some things i challenge you. very high level, not going to get into details, i don't want to preach at you, but this is what i've committed to. communication. it is the foundation of any
successful team. goes without saying. if you ask my wife, i'm not very good at this, but i still practice a lot. teamwork. i told you, i started this off with a big hug from johnson space center, because we are a
family. my family is the most important team in my life. my country is an important team. i am a military officer. nasa is a very important team. but you know what, we all are stewards of the public's resources.
their people and treasurer. this, we have to. the public doesn't have time for us not to get it right. yeah, we have our little sibling rivalry, but when it comes down to getting the work done, we are a team. the last, like i said earlier,
commitment to excellence, mental, physical and spiritual, these are the things that i think about this time of year when we start talking about those folks. and that is it. i hope that i've left you with something you think is useful as
we work on making the future reality. thank you for your time. [ applause ] >> thank you, victor for sharing. and letting us get to know you better. we look forward to seeing you
those exciting gsdo meetings. >> you're all welcome to join >> we look forward to the day that we're going to take you to the pad and put you on the >> you and me both. >> so here is a challenge coin from my organization. i would like you to have it to
remember this visit. i will put one in the mail for >> all right. thank you very much. >> thanks. >> i'm being told we do have time for questions. ten minutes. any question.
>> afterward, mike, you look like you want to ask me questions. no. >> okay, so any way. >> it's a small question, but i think noticed, when you showed your first picture of you as an astronaut that your win wings
were silver. >> not a small question. army pilots, air force pilots, they wear wings of led. silver. even in the olympics, what is that, second place? i'm a naval aviator, we wear wings of gold only.
no, i don't know what -- these are the only wings i've ever had are wings of gold. if you ever noticed, the yellow border, you'll see with the blue background, army or air force and if you see a red background with the yellow border, that's a marine.
the blue and white is also for civilians as well. the military folks wear representatives of their service. great question. >> any other questions? >> on the class picture, i noticed it was 50% guys, 50%
girls. is that the first time? >> the first by a long shot 100 against the -- it wasn't even close. i think being 50/50, it's significant. and it was intentional. hopefully a sign of good things
to come. >> one of the things i remember most on my journey in the navy was watching new pilots come in and learn how to land on carriers, how many boats. >> i have a little over 400 landings, so probably a little over 400.
what i. >> what i meant to say, how many bolt teres before your first success. >> my first try, i ended on the carrier, but i showed you that picture, we target the three wire, you intentionally pass one and two to hit number three.
and then four is there, so sometimes the hook hits the deck and bounces, and it just happens. my first arrested landing was on that one wire. the problem with that is, on a plane landing that normal spot i landed on that good one, my hook
crosses the ramp 12 feet. that's normal. so if you hit a one wire, your hook is -- and that round down, we call that the round down, the back of the ship. it doesn't lose the fight. if you hit it, it wins. so it wasn't a good thing that i
trapped that first one. it's better to bolter. we call that a no grade pass, if you hit that one low and that's a worst grade. every landing is graded. another thing that requires a team. there is a whole -- the
equivalent of a civilian air traffic controller on the carrier, but then, because it's still such a combination of art and science, there are gentlemen that stand on the back of the ship with no head gear, they have their sunglasses, they're looking at you, the movement of
the ship, the movement of the airplane and what i call a four quadrant approach on the ship there, there are these tvs that everybody watches, they have cross hairs, if you have an approach, lined up with quadrant, they hit the button and send you around.
you start adding power. that's why when you bolter, you have energy on the jet. boltering is not a bad thing. being low is worst than boltering. great question, and thank you for your service. >> thank you for yours.
>> ivy flown out of patrick air force base, and i had a problem with ground effect. does the planes that you fly have problems where ground effect landing on the carrier, and then next question is you're pretty excited about going to mars, what does your wife think
about that? >> hey, we are a -- family. you know, my wife, as long, she knows, we're going to do it right. we're not trying to send anybody out there one way. you know, i'm a realist. i want to fly in space, whether
it's 250 miles, or 240,000 miles away, any where close to mars, i want to do my part to move the ball forward. i'm excited to fly. my wife knows, we've been in the navy 18 years. she knows i'm not going to sign up for anything crazy, because i
want to be there with my girls and her. so she is excited. she is excited, because i'm living my dream and she knows this makes me happy. but the time that we spend apart, right. ground effect, it affects all
airplanes. we happened to have this other thing called after burner and we run out of it. interesting, though, at the ship, at the ship, something called the verbal, this is even more inside than the main thing. the verbal.
complex interaction of the ship, water, weather and your airplane, when you land in a big airport behind a jumbo jet, that white turbulence can last for minutes. we have to wait four minutes while you have an aircraft carrier, moving in front of you.
it's either going 30 knots to create wind, or either way, there is this giant structure, 80 feet off the water standing in front of you. as you come behind it, wind goes up over it and it does like this. creates a miniature version of
mountain turbulence. it pushes you up at the wrong time so you want fall power and it sucks you down. so it can create a problem landing. but we learn. we train through that. the only place is the ship,
though. it's a verbal. it does have an effect of us on the ship as well. once you get over the back of the ship, you actually fly over the steel deck of the ship for 100 feet or so. you still have ground effect.
>> i have a question for you. >> the gentleman in the -- >> i've been with nasa for many years, known a number of as is -- astronaut, what do you have to have do? >> you have to complete the syllabus, robotics, flying the t 38 and space walking, you have
to attain a certain level in each one of those. all kinds of ancillary training. a pretty packed two years, like going to graduate school and flight school at the same time. and also, most of us are at the age where we have a family and other things going on.
we're not new in our careers. and then once you do it all, they give you a pin. >> so like 70%. >> no, it's -- there is a very high standard. nowadays, we don't have specialties, no mission specialists or robotics
operators space station has to be qualified to do everything. from speaking to the space walking, so that's why it takes two years now. the candidate training is longer now than it was for the shuttle air. its's because they pack a whole
lot in it. you're eligible for a space flight. i've been out here for a while too, 35 years. i met a lot of astronauts do you know where you were when space shuttle challenger blew, that's the first question i have.
and the second question, did you grow up wanting to be an astronaut, and you decided after the navy. >> that's a string of great questions and they're connected. i was in fourth grade, i'm a california, we were broke, not because we were military.
and i happened to move to texas. we were living outside of dallas. i was ten years old. i was in fourth grade and we were at school. and we had an assembly in the cafeteria. we knew something had happened.
they brought it up. and we got to watch on tv. and the first time i saw a shuttle launch, i thought i want to fly that. i wanted to be a policeman, fireman, stunt man. my father was a policeman and i wanted to be a shuttleman.
but that was sort of one of those childhood fantasy things. that event, and happened to be in texas, was one of the most profound feelings i had as a kid. in the cafeteria, and it was sad, i understood it was sad, but when i looked around and saw
not a dry eye, and i'm talking other students, the administrators and teachers as well, i thought, oh, this is a whole lot bigger than i realized. and, so, but it did stay in the realm of childhood fantasy for me for a long time.
my, i would say the tipping point for this decision was listening to pam mel roy talk about her mission. that was the one where we extended the solar array it tore and they went out there and made it happened and fixed it. that still on orbit, the speck
you see on the array, their repair. listening to her in person talk about that, the people she worked with and how much she admired what they brought to the fight and who they were, i didn't hear one of the technical things that she said.
if you can't tell, i'm not a big techy. i am an operator. that stuck with me. i was in test pilot school at the time. i thought, wow, yeah, i don't want to just fly the space shuttle.
i want to be part of that team. >> thank you for your inspiring coming to visit also as well. i am a little bit nervous. >> me too, me too. i. >> i also want to tell you, my father was also navy and my brother was army.
27 months in iraq. i wanted to ask, thank you for your service, sir. i wanted to ask a question. as far as one of the interns and as far as the new class come here this coming year, we're obviously very veteran heavy, many of us our veterans what,
would you say as far as us bringing up the next generation of nasa as far as engineers and powering these programs coming up and with our previous military experience, what would you say as inspiring words for long-term goals at nasa. >> those three things for me is
how i do in remembrance. you guys have context of inter weaving that into an organization. no matter what you did in the military. and that experience is valuable they asked me to be the class leader of our astronaut leader.
it turns out, leadership is invaluable. it's always needed. and you can lead by example, as a new guy. one of my classmates is one of the best leaders i've ever met. i watch him work, and i'm just amazed.
she is a phenomenal leader, technician, operator. even though she doesn't have a position of authority, people in the office learn from her. that's true. and she's military. so i think you bring something to the fight.
you bring something from the fight that is valuable and needed, no matter where you go, which is why fortune 500 companies recruit you like they >> hi, thank you so much for first, i want to say i'm also from inland empire too. i grew up ontario too.
i just wanted to ask you and mention, so for all the astronauts, there are no more specialists, everybody is trained in the same thing. how do they assign people to flight if everybody is sort of, you know, good at the same thing?
>> if i knew that, i wouldn't be up here right now. you know, i don't know. people still have their background. i mean, one of my classmates is a doctor, who also graduated from ranger school. he is an army ranger school.
kick your butt and -- five of us are graduates of test pilot school. one is a physicist, navy test pilot, air force test engineer. you know, our backgrounds are still important, and i'm a pilot. i fly t-38s.
we're qualified. you still have your specialties, but what i mean is nasa didn't hire us to be program managers or engineers. we are operators. and so you still have skills that you bring to the fight, and those things i think matter as
we try to utilize the station more for research. the researchers in our office have a much greater say, and it's not just about that six months you're on station. but the way we think about the space station is affected by those scientists and researchers
that we have on the ground. they affect the way that we train, which affects the way that we perform on orbit. so those specialties still matter. what i'm saying is, the roles, we used to hire pile astronauts, we don't have that any more.
long duration space plight, jack-of-all-trades. >> you said you went to air force test pilot school. how does a navy guy get to go, and most interesting experience you got from test pilot school? >> oh, yes. so we have an exchange program
and the navy test pilot school is in maryland, and the air force pilot school is in colorado, where he broke the sound barrier. duh, no brainer. i'm from southern california. i wanted to be back in california, and so my outfit
wanted to do weapons in you've i don't know nicks testing, on the west coast, so i went right up to china lake, all in the mojave, and i got it. but the most interesting thing, wow, such a hard to pull one out of, i mean, i got to fly the good year blimp over donald
trump's backyard. i mean, it's that big. it goes through. i was over his backyard over the whole time. there was a week, it's a grind. it is graduate education, when your laboratory is an airplane. it's not always the same
airplane. that's the thumbnail sketch. so you have lot of writing to do, again, i'm not a techy guy. i just want to get in and do we had a week where i flew in five days five different that's my favorite page in my logbook.
one of them was a mig 15. and so that week was just, wow, that's why i went to test pilot i'm at 42 airplanes. i have flown 42 airplanes, 2,500 or so hours. and i love it. love it. another thing about that
picture, when you see me with my family in front of the f-18, i didn't know it at the time, because i didn't know i was going to get this gig, that was the last time i would fly off of an aircraft carrier. another reason that picture is special to me.
i love what i'm doing now, but i miss the carrier. the people, the mission. i do. i would have been very happy going back to the ship and being a squadron commander, trying to be at least, and so long answer to your question, that week
where i got to fly a bunch of different airplanes, that's why i went to test pilot school. >> i think we can take one more question in the back. >> this is an easy one. i want to just thank you for not only your service to the country, but also for the
wonderful presentation that you've given us here this evening. this afternoon. my question is why was russian the language of choice for training. why not some other language? why russia.
>> great question. i'm happy to be here. this is good for me. i hope i didn't bore you, because i had a ball. because the station, the space station is half russian. the crew, really, there are three cosmonauts on any time, it
could be an eastern astronaut, canadian or a nasa astronaut, so those folks, you might have three other languages on the uso side, but you have three people on the other side. and so we have to learn it. i think it's so that we can appreciate it.
it's really more about appreciating the language. because they speak english better than we speak russian. so i think it's, now owe, apart of playing nice as well. >> all right, we need to let victor get back.
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