1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,760
Speaker 1: This has going to be a movie one day, hasn't it?

2
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,280
Speaker 1: After nine months stranded in space, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore

3
00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,399
Speaker 1: and Sonny Williams will be back on Earth today. Their

4
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:11,840
Speaker 1: stay on the International Space Station was only supposed to

5
00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:15,040
Speaker 1: last eight days, but their mission had to be extended

6
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,040
Speaker 1: after the spacecraft they arrived on experienced technical issues, so

7
00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,000
Speaker 1: then it ended out being nine months. We're expecting spashdown

8
00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:24,920
Speaker 1: just before eleven o'clock. I'm joined now by retired NASA

9
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:28,720
Speaker 1: or astronaut Clayton Anderson CLA. Clayton, Good morning.

10
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:30,600
Speaker 2: To well it is it? Good morning, good night, good

11
00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:32,040
Speaker 2: day in.

12
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:34,360
Speaker 1: New Zealand, whatever you like. You're in space, man, every

13
00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:36,839
Speaker 1: day was night and every night was day. So you

14
00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,880
Speaker 1: spend one hundred and sixty six days up there? Could

15
00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 1: you have done nine months?

16
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,080
Speaker 2: Good question. My wife and I talked toward the end

17
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,000
Speaker 2: of my five months day because there was some uncertainty

18
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,800
Speaker 2: going on and between the two of us, given her

19
00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,640
Speaker 2: role as the general down on Earth with my family,

20
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 2: figured we could go one or two months after but

21
00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:05,080
Speaker 2: if we had to go much longer than that, it

22
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:06,720
Speaker 2: would start to strain everything.

23
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,520
Speaker 1: Hell, what was the strain I mean, you're up there,

24
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,120
Speaker 1: you're having the world's most extraordinary experience, you'd know that

25
00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:14,600
Speaker 1: there's a risk of it all. So how does it

26
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:16,040
Speaker 1: strain things?

27
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if you think about Butch and Sonny,

28
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,959
Speaker 2: since that's kind of the topic of the day. You know,

29
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,280
Speaker 2: when you don't know the end date, it can make

30
00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:30,600
Speaker 2: it harder, it can make it easy if you don't

31
00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:32,880
Speaker 2: focus on an end date, which is what I did, right.

32
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:34,959
Speaker 2: I tried not to think about the end because I

33
00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,760
Speaker 2: didn't know when the end was coming. That would that

34
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 2: made it easier to deal with missing the wife, missing

35
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,319
Speaker 2: the kids. But you know, I was counting on my

36
00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,600
Speaker 2: wife to do a lot for my family, and that

37
00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:50,720
Speaker 2: you know, nobody talks about the toll of the wife

38
00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:54,120
Speaker 2: and the family down below. Uh, you know, she was

39
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,080
Speaker 2: the mom, the dad, the driver, the coach, the nurse,

40
00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 2: the she did everything. And my wife was a NASA employee.

41
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 2: She cut her job down. She had to have a

42
00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,480
Speaker 2: signed agreement with NASA to allow her to reduce her

43
00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:12,440
Speaker 2: work week to thirty hours per week so that she

44
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,840
Speaker 2: wouldn't get in trouble because she had so much to

45
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 2: do to take care of my kids at the time,

46
00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,359
Speaker 2: So you know, that's a big sacrifice for the other

47
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:21,400
Speaker 2: half of your family.

48
00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,200
Speaker 1: It does kind of show that, Butch and Sonny, if

49
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,840
Speaker 1: they've got through it, well have what it takes, the

50
00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,200
Speaker 1: right stuff, you might want to say. It's also, i mean,

51
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,160
Speaker 1: apart from the Boeing ship breaking down, it's also in

52
00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,800
Speaker 1: my view, American exceptionalism because no one was expecting people

53
00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: to be there for nine months on the eight days,

54
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 1: and yet you kept them supplied with food, you keep

55
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: them supplied with oxygen. It was quite a remarkable thing.

56
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:50,720
Speaker 2: Well, you know, yes it was. But the supply process

57
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,000
Speaker 2: was never affected by any of this. So supply ships

58
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,320
Speaker 2: are typically cargo only things like a Russian progress that

59
00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,560
Speaker 2: come up and bring things on a regular basis. An

60
00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:06,320
Speaker 2: uncrewed dragon capsule can bring supplies lots of ways to

61
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,520
Speaker 2: do it. That was never affected. So even though they

62
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,560
Speaker 2: had two extra guests on board, it probably wasn't a

63
00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,680
Speaker 2: big deal for them to keep them supplied with food, water, oxygen,

64
00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,960
Speaker 2: and clothing. You know, it might have been a little

65
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,040
Speaker 2: tough at first until the first cargo ship came up,

66
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 2: but I'm sure they were scrambling on the ground to

67
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,800
Speaker 2: make sure that Sonny and Butch got some stuff of

68
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,120
Speaker 2: theirs on that cargo ship to bring it up. So

69
00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,720
Speaker 2: you know, it's a process that's pretty well understood.

70
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,360
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Clayton, Yes, exactly right, and they showed

71
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 1: the right stuff. And thank you to our listeners who

72
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:42,480
Speaker 1: said the Bone Capsule came back to with without astronauts

73
00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,440
Speaker 1: about three months after it reached for more familiarly edition

74
00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:47,480
Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge.

75
00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:50,440
Speaker 2: Listen live to news Talks it Be from five am

76
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,320
Speaker 2: weekdays well follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.