Morning with an Astronaut

This morning, (Valentines Day), Mom Robs and myself went to an invitation only event at the Boeing Future of Flight center here near Paine Field. The before opening of the museum event was to introduce the Destiny Module trainer, and to visit with a NASA astronaut, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper. Heide was a Navy Captain before going to work for NASA. She flew 2 space shuttle missions, and performed 5 EVA's (Space Walks) during those missions. She is (in)famous for working with a tool bag, removing some grease that had gotten loose, when ah shoot, the tool bag turned out to not be tethered to anything and drifted away.

We were in the module with her, sometimes with others, and even just us. She had a lot of great answers to peoples questions. She was pleasant, a little prone to tech talk, but very informative. Some random memories of things said.:

• It was funny on my second mission to see the first time spacewalkers perform the same movement that they needed to do in the water pool trainer, not yet realizing it wasn't needed in zero G. 
• Each astronaut has just a locker for everything that keep. They are urged to bring several toothbrushes.
• Yes, astronauts are human, and disagreements happen. On the station there are lots of places to get away from the others for a while.
• The Russians select teams with similar, compatible personalities, the US program doesn't. 
• It's pretty important to keep things clean. The "bathroom" and other spaces can really stink up the place, and at least some astronauts, are not really fastidious. Food (crumbs etc.) are a big bother to others in the crew as they drift through the station.
• If you lose something, check the intake vents to the circulation system. Likely that's where you'll find it. The air needs to be moving all the time, or else in zero G, your CO2 that you breath out will create a bubble around your face and at best cause a headache.
• You lose bone mass on orbit. Some astronauts have a hard time returning to the gravity of earth. One man said that on the landing he was so weak, that if the vehicle wa son fire, all he'd be able to do would be to watch.
• The view on an EVA of earth is more than spectacular.
• In an emergency the Soyuz can be on the ground (Somewhere)  in as little as 4 hours from undocking.
• Hedie's son is in the Navy as well. Explosives detonation specialist. Payback to mom being away so much(?) Oh, and her mom said when she was selected for a second flight, 'Couldn't they find anyone else'? Mom's are Moms!
• She took a book with pictures of family and friends, than took pictures of her holding the pictures as keepsakes

In the bottom picture, Hedie is on the Left.