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SPACE.COM: Have you been up yet?

YC: No I’ll be going up in support of the new international space station.

"You need minds that are willing to entertain the extreme in an exploration setting."
     

SPACE.COM: From your point of view, what did they get right? What rang true for you?

YC: What really rang true were the details of the training, the fidelity of the training that we go through in preparation for space flight. Even down to details of the scripting that we use as we make milestone calls during shuttle launches and mission operations.

We call that CRM, Crew Resource Management, which is a way that we choreograph our communications to each other in the cockpit and during mission operations. And their CRM was right along with the techs that we use.

SPACE.COM: Could you give me an example of what that’s looks like?

YC: A perfect example was when they were coming in for a landing, both during the simulations and a the end of the movie. If you notice, they were calling out airspeeds and saying "you’re in the pre-flare, get the nose down," things like that where the commander is flying the aircraft and the pilot is backing him up with signposting calls.

Another good example was on launch, when they were saying things like "roll program" and "negative return." These are critical milestones that we have to recognize and acknowledge that give us situational awareness to say we’re where we need to be or we’re off track, we need to reconfigure.

SPACE.COM: What, if anything, was a false note for you?

YC: Their accuracy was very good. Certainly this is not a documentary, it’s an incredible drama, but there were some small details that, short of training and knowing how critical it is for mission operations in space flight, [don't] take away from the essence of the movie. One of the very few key points was when they went out into the payload bay for the first time to walk in or float in space. We have a protocol that says "make, then break." You never break a tether without making another tether attachment point, so you’re never free floating in space.

And so when they came outside without being tethered, I know every astronaut just kind of cringed a little bit. They drill this into us: when you’re floating free, make sure you’re made [tether] before you make any move, conduct any operation, or go outside that door.

SPACE.COM: It’s funny because, as a civilian, that really bugged me too. Because you see them jumping around in the payload bay like it's a swimming pool.

YC: Even in the [water practice] pool we have that tether protocol and we get dinged big time if we don’t make before we break. You’ve got to remember and you’ve got to make your way back in space so it’s something we’re very conscious of in the pool. It’s not like they [the pool’s safety divers will] go and catch you. They’ll let you float some, let you say, "wow, [in] real time, this would not be a good thing."

SPACE.COM: What do you think of the special effects?

YC: This movie not just transforms me but it translates me out of my seat into orbit and makes me not want to come home. It is just so incredibly awesome. The first time I saw it at the Houston premiere, I came away floating. I’m serious.

And I thought it was just an adrenaline rush because you see the things that you love and train and you’re aspiring for. The second time I saw the movie I realized it’s more than adrenaline, it truly is art. There are breathtaking scenes. The launch scene is so dramatic and so real and you hear it and you feel it and it’s great.

When they show them in orbit and opening the payload bay doors, when the robotic arm is being released, that is the most classic shot. When they’re showing the contrail, when the shuttle is coming back into orbit, it’s just amazing. It’s breathtaking. The topography of the earth being viewed from space, it’s almost as close as being there.

SPACE.COM: What do you think this movie will do for NASA?

YC: I think it will kind of convey and magnify the excitement of exploration. I think it will stimulate innovative and ingenious minds of all ages to explore the boundaries of where we can go and what we can do beyond our own planet.

And I think it will certainly profile the degree of discipline, proficiency and professionalism that is required in order to train for space flight and to successfully conduct missions and bring crews home safely in order to fly again. ‘Cause that’s what it’s all about.

SPACE.COM: Have their been movies or television shows in the past that inspired you to become an astronaut?

YC: Yeah, well, my background is medicine, so certainly Star Trek. Bones was just my idol. And Lieutenant Uhura was just great, she just made me feel like you just decide what you want to do in life and make yourself the very best at it, prepare yourself and conduct yourself professionally and you can take it to as far as you want to go. The sky’s not even the limit.

SPACE.COM: How long did you train before you became an astronaut?

YC: It’s about an 18-month training program. And then you continue to do what we call proficiency training, until you’re assigned to a flight and then you have flight specific training that focuses on the flight profile and the payloads that are being flown.

SPACE.COM: And if you were on a fast track from "Hi, I’d like to be an astronaut" to getting into space, the fastest sounds like two years?

YC: Yeah. Your figure actually may be 2-1/2 years.

SPACE.COM: The guys in the movie did it in 30 days.

YC: There’s a couple of things you have to look at. One, certainly their background is as military test pilots, and these folks were doing similar profiles, flight configurations, aerodynamic packages throughout their career. And they even put together some of the technology, even though it was obsolete.

But they have some familiarity with the process, with the Crew Resource Management, with the training and with flight profiles and space flight and pushing the envelope. So feasibly, 30 days? No, probably not. But certainly their background provided them with some preparation where they’d be on the turbo track, we’ll put it, to refresh and familiarize themselves with the way things are being conducted.

And in the setting of a world crisis situation like that, I’m not saying that you could necessarily do it, but it would certainly accelerate what we needed in a national emergency.

SPACE.COM: Did you get a chance to meet or talk with any of the stars?

YC: Yes, all of them. Well, pretty much all of them.

SPACE.COM: And what was that like?

YC: It was great. It was absolutely wonderful. They interacted so well, there was such chemistry between them, that you didn’t know when the cameras were rolling and when they were ad libbing.

SPACE.COM: What are you gonna do on the space station?

YC: It will depend on my mission assignment. As a doctor, there’s a likelihood I may be assigned crew medical officer, and certainly I’ll be involved in the life science research that we’ll be doing on the international space station.

It’ll be the largest laboratory, and definitely the only floating laboratory known to man -- or "humanity," I should say. And then we all have our roles within our crew position as crewmembers in terms of the flight profile and our roles in terms of the mission itself.

SPACE.COM: It seems that for astronauts half of your mission -- or more than half of your mission -- takes place on earth telling people about what you do in space.

YC: I’m glad you said that. That is probably -- short of flying safely and flying again -- the most important role that we have, because folks are always telling us what heroes or heroines we are. And I always tell folks in return, and I believe it so much, the true heroes and heroines are those who can not just do what is regarded highly or considered noble, but are truly those who can tell the story. Who can come back and convey what they’ve experienced and transform humanity for the better.

SPACE.COM: So you’re a missionary?

YC: Truly we’re space ambassadors, you’re right.

SPACE.COM: You don’t know when you’re going up, do you?

YC: No. [They] keep that in the dark until the phone rings. When the phone rang just now I was thinking, "okay, either this is SPACE.com or this is my mission."

SPACE.COM: Well we’ll get off the phone right now so that the NASA call can come in. Thank you very much.

WARNING: DO NOT READ THE NEXT SECTION UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT DRAMATIC TURNING POINTS AND THE MOVIE’S ENDING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. DO NOT COMPLAIN TO THE EDITOR ABOUT HOW SPACE.COM RUINED THE MOVIE FOR YOU.

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SPACE.COM: There’s a scene where Frank [played by Clint Eastwood] goes up in the Russian satellite and sees the ICBMs, and he says "we’re going back," and then Ethan [played by Loren Dean] continues to go on his own space walk. What did you think of that?

YC: That was very distressing because that clearly was a violation of the direct mission objectives and orders.

You want to work as a team, you want everybody to be pulling in the same direction, because whatever the best move is, no move is going to be successful or strong unless everybody is working together as a team.

So for the story's purposes it was very dramatic [but] in real life that is something like an honor code. We make sure before we do anything that deviates from the format or from the checklist or from the plan, that we talk it over.

Consensus -- from the crew, from the ground and then the commander, with authorization from the flight director -- makes the final decision about what course of action you’ll be taking.

SPACE.COM: In the movie, when they discover that Ikon is carrying Russian missiles, they have to abort, just as Clint Eastwood did. For those types of decisions, that would go all the way to the White House, wouldn’t it?

YC: Yeah, absolutely, our commander-in-chief. And as an astronaut corps, our ultimate commander-in-chief is the President of the United States.

SPACE.COM: This is more a geopolitical question than an astronaut question, but if you found yourself attached to Russian missiles in a decaying orbit, what would you do?

YC: Wow. I’ll put it this way, that’s way above my pay rate.

SPACE.COM: Let’s talk about Ikon breaking apart and Ethan being left outside. First of all Ethan is knocked unconscious. Wouldn’t he really be killed?

YC: It’s hard to say. If the impact were great enough, where he sustained some severe brain injury and shock or internal hemorrhaging, he would be.

But on the other hand, he might have been lucky enough where he was just knocked unconscious. The important thing to recognize is that, from inside the orbiter, you don’t know.

There are ways that we have of monitoring crews during EVA, and that information is available primarily through ground operations from Mission Control.

The second thing is you don’t know if he received a puncture to the suit. That’s the real issue right there. If his suit is punctured hugely, he’s expired. If he has a small puncture and there’s a slow leak, the clock is ticking.

It’s just a question of what kind of time parameters you’re dealing with. You just don’t know. That’s a tough call.

SPACE.COM: So the people on the ground know that, but the people on the shuttle don’t? Let’s say that there are communication drops between the two? Is that the case, that the people on the shuttle don’t have readouts on anybody doing EVA?

YC: There’s different parameters that they have access to. And how that’s divided up between the ground and the crew is something that the crew surgeon determines and works out with the crew and Mission Control.

SPACE.COM: But generally speaking, the shuttle crew would be in the dark as far as the condition of the astronaut?

YC: Not entirely in the dark. I would just say they probably wouldn’t know if he’s alive or not.

SPACE.COM: After Ikon breaks up, they put together this plan to take the jet packs to the Russian missiles and fire the missiles towards the moon. How feasible is this?

YC: I give them high marks for innovation and ingenuity. In terms of practicality and feasibility, that’s why this is entertainment and not a documentary.

But I want folks who are thinking like that. You need minds that are willing to entertain the extreme in an exploration setting. It’s a little bit beyond the scope of feasibility or practicality, but you gotta be thinking like that when you’re that many miles from home.

SPACE.COM: So that brings up the next question, the last shot of the movie is Tommy Lee Jones, sort of camped out on the moon.

YC: Chillin’.

SPACE.COM: All he needs is a brewski.

YC: Well, with the sort of trail of debris [that] leads up to that, my mind is going, I want to find out what reverse thrusters and landing devices he used to make such an incredibly soft landing. And that’s what we need to put on our Mars Lander.