This story was updated at 1:51 p.m. EDT.
Astronaut
Garrett Reisman spent three unforgettable months living in space, but after
landing he ended up on a different mission of sorts aboard the fictional
spaceship Battlestar Galactica.
Just weeks
after his return from the International Space Station to Earth last summer,
Reisman found himself on the set of Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica," watching
actors play at spaceflight as they filmed the final episode of the science
fiction television series. The two-hour series finale airs Friday night.
"The whole
spaceflight thing was still very fresh," Reisman, 41, told SPACE.com in
a recent interview. "And then to be on the set where they're simulating it, it
was pretty neat to experience."
Reisman
didn't just watch. He donned the garb of Galactica's
Colonial Marines for a short scene, though whether it will end up in the
final cut is anyone's guess, he said.
"There's an
extremely good chance that it will not even be in it at all," Reisman said,
adding that the scene is not integral to the plot.
In a Jan.
15 issue of the entertainment trade magazine Variety, Reisman described
the scene and his visit to the Vancouver set. Someone throws up on him and then
he dies.
"I had so
much fun that day," he told SPACE.com.
Real
station, fake spaceship
Reisman
watched the original "Battlestar Galactica" series as a child and followed its
recent rebirth, which retells the story of an immense space battleship as it
protects a fleet of civilian spacecraft while fending off attacks from the
robot Cylon enemy.
While he
was in space, Reisman turned the lights down aboard the space station and
tuned in to the new series via computer with the station's then-skipper, fellow
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, as Galactica's commander Bill Adama tried to keep
his fleet together on the road to find Earth. The astronauts briefly spoke, while
in space, with the show's producers Ron Moore and David Eick.
While
watching the show aboard the station, one glaring omission came to light,
Reisman said. No one was floating
around in weightlessness.
"Being able
to shoot across the room and fly, you just can't beat it," Reisman said. "Why
would you deny yourself the incredible pleasure?"
But Reisman
answered his own question as he recalled the hours of exercise he had to do
each day just to stay healthy in space.
"There are
actually scientific reasons you might want to do that," he said. "We have to
work really hard to counteract the effects of zero gravity on the human body."
It's also a
lot simpler and cheaper to film a show without constantly mimicking
weightlessness, so that probably helps too, he added.
Reisman was
also surprised with how similar the communications protocols on "Battlestar
Galactica" are to those used between the International Space Station, its
various Mission Controls in the U.S, Russia, Europe and Japan, and other
spacecraft.
"There are
a lot of things on the show that they got right, as far as the communications,"
he said, "especially the communications between ships."
Getting
the word out
During his
2008 spaceflight, Reisman was interviewed for Comedy Central's "Colbert Report,"
but he's not the only professional astronaut to appear on television.
Other spaceflyers
have appeared on a variety of shows, included the International Space Station's
current commander Michael Fincke, who appeared with fellow astronaut Terry
Virts in the last episode
of "Star Trek: Enterprise" and had a line of dialogue.
Science
fiction, Reisman said, has a very real ability to inspire the public in
real-life space exploration, though his passion was sparked by NASA's Apollo
moon missions. Growing up in Parsippany, N.J, he watched Super 8 films of those
missions until they wore out, then he spliced them back together and watched
them again.
"Science
fiction works best when it's done as an allegory," Reisman said. "That's what's
so powerful about the new show. They take on a lot of contemporary issues."
Unlike the
original "Star Trek" television series, which tended to portray societal issues
as moral parables, the modern "Battlestar" takes a more nuanced approach, the
astronaut explained.
"The new
mission drives at the gray area, where you assume what's right and wrong, and
it forces you to reexamine your concept of that," Reisman said. "Well, couple
that with some good spaceship shoot 'em ups."
Watching
the glitzy spaceships on "Battlestar Galactica" zoom through space battles
while the International Space Station stays firmly locked in Earth orbit could
feel a bit disheartening at times, but there was a very positive upshot, Reisman said.
"When
you're on the space station, nobody is actually shooting at you," he said with
a laugh. "So that's nice."
The
2-hour series finale of "Battlestar Galactica" airs Friday night on the SciFi
Channel at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT. Check local listings.
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