Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily OS. It's Thursday, the twentieth of March. I'm Billy,
Speaker 1: I'm Zara. Yesterday you likely saw the news that the
Speaker 1: two astronauts, Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore, arrived back on
Speaker 1: Earth after an unplanned nine months at the International Space Station.
Speaker 1: The capsule carrying the astronauts splashed down yesterday morning our time,
Speaker 1: surrounded by dolphins on a beautiful sunny day. It was
Speaker 1: an extraordinary ending to a long saga that has captured
Speaker 1: the attention of the world. Today, we're going to take
Speaker 1: you back to why the astronauts were in space for
Speaker 1: so long in the first place, and what happens now
Speaker 1: that they are back on Earth.
Speaker 2: Billy, we did a podcast on this very topic a
Speaker 2: few months I remember you were dying to tell the
Speaker 2: story of these two astronauts back then. And now they
Speaker 2: finally arrived back to Earth. That is cause for celebration.
Speaker 2: But I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, so
Speaker 2: I do just want to start, maybe for those who
Speaker 2: didn't listen to that last episode, with just some context
Speaker 2: setting as to why the hell we're talking about these
Speaker 2: astronauts for a second time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's so interesting. So this all has
Speaker 1: to do with commercial space travels, so the privatization of
Speaker 1: the space industry, and it all starts because of Boeing,
Speaker 1: which you likely will be familiar with because they are
Speaker 1: the US plane manufacturer and they were wanting to test
Speaker 1: their first crewed spacecraft.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people will also know Boeing
Speaker 2: because they've made headlines a lot recently.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is not why people know them. They know them.
Speaker 1: You know. Boeing is often the aircraft that we would
Speaker 1: travel on when traveling via plane. But we're talking about
Speaker 1: them today because in this scenario, they were wanting to
Speaker 1: test their first crewed spacecraft. So they were wanting to
Speaker 1: send humans into space for the time via their own spacecrafts,
Speaker 1: and so they had this deal with NASA. Now, the
Speaker 1: deal was that NASA would provide the astronauts and Boeing
Speaker 1: would provide the spacecraft, and the whole aim was to
Speaker 1: see if Boeing could provide a safe way to get
Speaker 1: to the International Space Station, which, if you're not familiar
Speaker 1: with the ISS, it is just a large spacecraft that
Speaker 1: orbits Earth and it allows astronauts from all different countries
Speaker 1: to live there in space. Now with this Boeing basically
Speaker 1: this Boeing experiment, there were two astronauts on board and
Speaker 1: they were called Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams. Now they
Speaker 1: took off in early June. I should mention there was
Speaker 1: this whole saga leading up to it. You know, there
Speaker 1: were so many delays even before this launch. It was
Speaker 1: really a decade process of getting to the point that
Speaker 1: they were able to lift off. But we're starting in
Speaker 1: early June last year when they did lift off and
Speaker 1: they arrived at the International Space Station safely a few
Speaker 1: days later. Now, the plan, as I'm sure many of
Speaker 1: us are now familiar with, was for them to only
Speaker 1: be there for about a week or about eight days,
Speaker 1: and then they were going to return to Earth on
Speaker 1: the Boeing spacecraft that they had arrived in, which is
Speaker 1: called the star Liner. But long story short, there were
Speaker 1: many issues with that with star Liner, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: safe for them to come home, and so their return
Speaker 1: to Earth kept getting delayed, and eventually it was decided
Speaker 1: in September last year that star Liner would return to Earth,
Speaker 1: but without Butch and Sonny. So Butch and Sunny would
Speaker 1: stay at the International Space Station.
Speaker 2: And so it was about this time that this narrative
Speaker 2: really emerged, at least in the media, that these two
Speaker 2: astronauts were essentially just stuck in space. I guess indefinitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that word stuck or stranded is another word that
Speaker 1: keeps being thrown around by the media, although Butch and
Speaker 1: Sunny and also NASA, they have always rejected that wording
Speaker 1: that they are stuck or stranded. The other day, I
Speaker 1: was listening to an interview that they did with The
Speaker 1: New York Times The Daily podcast, and Michael Babaro, the host, said,
Speaker 1: if you guys don't want us to describe you as
Speaker 1: stuck or stranded, how do we describe this situation where
Speaker 1: you have been in space and at every step it
Speaker 1: really has been delayed.
Speaker 2: You're meant to be there for a week, and you've
Speaker 2: been for many, many months.
Speaker 1: And their answer was, we're just working and having fun.
Speaker 1: And I thought that response really speaks to their spirit
Speaker 1: this entire time. You know, whilst down here on Earth
Speaker 1: we have been saying, oh my goodness, we kind of
Speaker 1: all see it as like this horrific prolonged work trip
Speaker 1: that we would all hate to be on. But their
Speaker 1: spirit and their attitude towards this the entire time has
Speaker 1: been so positive.
Speaker 2: We did have a discussion in the office about who
Speaker 2: in our office would be best suited to being stuck
Speaker 2: in space. We quickly ruled ourselves out as viable options.
Speaker 2: Sam put his hand up as a viable option forgetting
Speaker 2: that he has significant asthma and can't see out of
Speaker 2: one eye. So look, the prospects are dwindling, but it's
Speaker 2: clear that there is a temperament and certainly an optimism
Speaker 2: that is built into the people that go to space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they clearly are really calm personalities. I remember the
Speaker 1: story about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on
Speaker 1: the Moon, and they said that his heart rate was
Speaker 1: ridiculously low when he took off from Earth.
Speaker 2: My heart rate goes off the charts when we go
Speaker 2: through like mild turbulence on a flight to Melbourne.
Speaker 1: For many of us, that is true, But I guess
Speaker 1: astronauts are just built differently. I've watched so many press
Speaker 1: conferences and so many interviews that these two have done,
Speaker 1: and again, their attitude is just so positive. Here's Sunny
Speaker 1: talking earlier this month.
Speaker 3: Oh don't remind him the snipey my last flights. That's
Speaker 3: a little sad. I'm trying not to think about it
Speaker 3: too much, you know, because, like I mentioned earlier, being
Speaker 3: in space is just pretty spectacular, and you know, having
Speaker 3: the opportunity to come up here, I know, we're very,
Speaker 3: very lucky, and having the opportunity to come up here
Speaker 3: three times has just been amazing.
Speaker 1: So while we're all talking about, oh my god, when
Speaker 1: are they coming home, she's saying, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is going to be the last trip that I probably
Speaker 1: do in space. I'm just trying to savor every last moment.
Speaker 2: Look, it is really a matter of perspective and certainly
Speaker 2: an interesting thing to witness from down here on Earth.
Speaker 2: I am really curious, though, what do we know, or
Speaker 2: what do we understand at least about what the astronauts
Speaker 2: were doing up there, whether or not they were stuck,
Speaker 2: stranded or anything else.
Speaker 1: No, they were just having fun, just having fun. Well,
Speaker 1: they literally just worked. They did what astronauts do at
Speaker 1: the International Space Station, so they did a lot of
Speaker 1: maintenance on the station. They also did nearly one thousand
Speaker 1: hours of scientific research.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I just have to interrupt you. I was just
Speaker 2: thinking about the facts that we have right to disconnect
Speaker 2: laws as and imagine that they were like, now you
Speaker 2: contracted us for a week, you cannot contact us outside
Speaker 2: of this week. Sorry, go on.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, their entire life literally revolved around being in space.
Speaker 1: They also completed spacewalks, and whilst they were there, Sunny
Speaker 1: actually set the record for the most time spent on
Speaker 1: spacewalks cumulatively for a female. So she has now spent
Speaker 1: sixty two hours and six minutes over her career doing spacewalks. Reminder,
Speaker 1: this is her third time in space, so that's not
Speaker 1: just the time spent on spacewalks this trip. This is
Speaker 1: now her third and like I said, probably her last
Speaker 1: time in space.
Speaker 2: I imagine that if you're spending that much time doing spacewalks,
Speaker 2: you'd see some pretty incredible things.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Even just from the International Space Station, you can literally
Speaker 1: see Earth. Quick side note, they have been able to
Speaker 1: see quite a few natural disasters from space, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure would have been at times quite devastating to watch
Speaker 1: on and probably feeling so helpless. Last July, they actually
Speaker 1: saw a hurricane hit Houston, where they're from, and storm
Speaker 1: that they were watching actually took off the roof of
Speaker 1: Butch Wilmore's home.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So he heard that news from his family, who
Speaker 1: they have been able to communicate with while they have
Speaker 1: been in space. And they also saw the fires in
Speaker 1: La unfold earlier this year, so they have been able
Speaker 1: to see a lot from.
Speaker 2: Space, really a bird's eye view of everything that's happening here.
Speaker 2: So bially that brings us to now to the present
Speaker 2: where we have finally had these astronauts return home. What
Speaker 2: did that journey look like and why? Now? How did
Speaker 2: it happen?
Speaker 1: It actually has a lot to do with Elon Musk. So,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure many of you know, Elon Musk, the billionaire,
Speaker 1: one of the richest men in the world. He is
Speaker 1: the owner of X, He's the co founder of Tezla,
Speaker 1: and he also is the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting that we've obviously spoken about Elon Musk
Speaker 2: a lot on this podcast, but often for very different reasons.
Speaker 2: I've spoken about it in the context of X, now,
Speaker 2: in the context of the US presidency, and now in
Speaker 2: a completely different context as the CEO of SpaceX.
Speaker 1: A man with many fingers in many different pies. So
Speaker 1: SpaceX also has a deal with NASA, just like Boeing,
Speaker 1: as I was mentioning earlier, to send astronauts into space.
Speaker 1: And actually in twenty twenty, SpaceX was the first private
Speaker 1: company to launch humans into space. So that again goes
Speaker 1: to the conversation about the commercial space travel industry. And
Speaker 1: so SpaceX sent two astronauts into space. They sent them
Speaker 1: to the International Space Station, and they returned them home safely.
Speaker 1: And like I said, that's exactly what Boeing was trying
Speaker 1: to do but wasn't quite able to do. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that was in twenty twenty one way to escape a
Speaker 1: pandemic by going to stay true.
Speaker 2: So then how does SpaceX enter this story? What's Ela
Speaker 2: Musk's role in this?
Speaker 1: So because Boeing couldn't provide a safe spacecraft to return
Speaker 1: the astronauts to Earth, SpaceX then stepped in and sent
Speaker 1: their spacecraft to save the astronauts. Now it's because of
Speaker 1: this that this story actually became somewhat of a political storm.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year, President Trump and Elon Musk basically accused
Speaker 1: the former administration under Joe Biden of abandoning Butcher and Sonny,
Speaker 1: and they phrased the launching of SpaceX to go get
Speaker 1: them as basically this big rescue mission ordered by the
Speaker 1: White House. Mask also claimed that the Biden administration rejected
Speaker 1: his offer to bring them home sooner. NASA has said
Speaker 1: that they don't know exactly about that offer, and they've
Speaker 1: really tried to steer the conversation away from politics. And
Speaker 1: I think every time they hear NASA and also Butcher
Speaker 1: and Sunny talking about what they're doing at the International
Speaker 1: Space Station, they really talk about doing this for the
Speaker 1: betterment of society and for humankind, and they really tried
Speaker 1: to steer the conversation away from politics. But once the
Speaker 1: astronauts did splash down yesterday, Musk thanked Trump for prioritizing
Speaker 1: the mission.
Speaker 2: Billy, there's one thing that I have not such thinking
Speaker 2: about since these astronauts hit planet Earth, and that is
Speaker 2: what that long in space would do to your body,
Speaker 2: into your mind. You know. It's one thing to prepare
Speaker 2: for a mission that is going to take a certain
Speaker 2: period of time. It's another to be there, I guess
Speaker 2: by accident. For that long have we heard from them, like,
Speaker 2: what has this done to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, part of the research that they were doing
Speaker 1: at the International Space Station was looking at what that
Speaker 1: kind of time in space does do to the human body.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: The first thing to take note of is the fact
Speaker 1: that there is obviously no gravity in space, so whenever
Speaker 1: you see the press conferences of them, you'll see them
Speaker 1: floating around, you'll see the hair floating.
Speaker 2: An I'm time why they don't put their hair in ponytails.
Speaker 1: I looked this up and the answer was basically, there's
Speaker 1: no need for ponytails because if the idea of that
Speaker 1: is to put your hair back, the lack of gravity
Speaker 1: basically does that for you. So there's literally just no need.
Speaker 2: It feels it would be annoying, but that's just my
Speaker 2: absolutely no empirical basis point.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was fascinated by that as well, because when
Speaker 1: the other astronauts arrived earlier this week, another female also
Speaker 1: had her hair just everywhere, and that's why I looked
Speaker 1: it up, because I was like, surely it's annoying, but
Speaker 1: apparently the answer is no. Just on the absence of gravity,
Speaker 1: it really does have a huge impact on the human body,
Speaker 1: particularly on the density of bones, so astronauts have to
Speaker 1: be super fit, particularly when they are there in space.
Speaker 1: They actually need to exercise for two hours every single day,
Speaker 1: every day, every single day, two hours. Yeah, to counteract
Speaker 1: the fact that they are losing bone density whilst they're
Speaker 1: and so they have things like they have they have
Speaker 1: a treadmill there and they kind of have this harness
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're not floating away. They also
Speaker 1: have special space weights so that again they can make
Speaker 1: sure that their bone density is still keep up. And
Speaker 1: so that's the kind of things that they have to
Speaker 1: do to prevent there being a huge impact once they
Speaker 1: arrive back on Earth, and now that they are home,
Speaker 1: NASA and their medical team will be doing a lot
Speaker 1: of research on testing to better understand the impact of
Speaker 1: spaceflight on the human body. But as we speak at
Speaker 1: the moment, they very likely have doctors around them making
Speaker 1: sure that they are all good to go and that
Speaker 1: they can readapt to life on Earth because even something
Speaker 1: like walking, that's something that they have not done for
Speaker 1: nine months, so they really need to readapt to Earth again.
Speaker 2: Can you just imagine going to bed for the first
Speaker 2: time that night, Yeah, Like, what would you be thinking about?
Speaker 2: I just want to talk to them. Maybe we'll get
Speaker 2: them on the podcast. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, I thought about this. I was like, we should
Speaker 1: reach out to NASA, and then I remember the time
Speaker 1: that they did an interview with NASA and I forgot
Speaker 1: to hit record and it was one of the most
Speaker 1: embarrassing moments of my life. And I shall never be
Speaker 1: reaching out to them again.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, NASA, if you're listening, we would love to
Speaker 2: speak to your incredible astronauts, so you can make that happen.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, Billy, thank you so much for explaining
Speaker 2: good story, and thank you for joining us for another
Speaker 2: episode of The Daily Oas. We'll be back as usual
Speaker 2: with the afternoon headlines later today, but until then, have
Speaker 2: a great day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Chalcuton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.