Interview With Astronaut Don Pettit
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about space now. The U.S. and Russia have some business there. Astronaut Mike Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri will lift off from Kazakhstan tomorrow for the International Space Station. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft is to dock with the space station on Monday. Foale and Kaleri are to spend six and a half months aboard. And on the heels of that news, we have a special guest this morning. He's traveled, oh, some 285 (sic) miles from space just to be with us on DAYBREAK. He's live at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, veteran astronaut Don Pettit. Good morning, Don.</s>DON PETTIT, ASTRONAUT: Carol, I'm happy to be here with you folks.</s>COSTELLO: Are you happy to be back from space?</s>PETTIT: It's great to be back on Earth and be with my family, although there is a certain side to you that it will never be the same and always wanting to go back into space again.</s>COSTELLO: You were on board the International Space Station. I don't think many Americans know exactly what you guys do up there.</s>PETTIT: Well, we did a number of operations. One, we're still building the space station, so there's construction going on. It's kind of like living in your house while you're building it, and you have a table saw set up in the dining room at the same time you're trying to eat and work there. So, the construction is going on. And then, of course, you have to do maintenance on the equipment that's currently up there and working. And then, we do science. And space is a place rich in discovery, and being able to have a laboratory in space in order to do experiments is a marvelous facility.</s>COSTELLO: Don, you know, China has now joined this space race. How do you feel about that? How does NASA feel about that?</s>PETTIT: I think it is great. The more international people that travel into space, the better it's going to be for everybody.</s>COSTELLO: Well, you know, China kept this mission very secret, because I guess its first attempt was rather embarrassing. How is China perceived in your community as far as space travel is concerned?</s>PETTIT: I think we see China as a very serious explorer of human and robotic operations in space.</s>COSTELLO: Do you think that they should take part in the International Space Station?</s>PETTIT: That's something that I think is best left up to higher level folks. Certainly, something like that may be possible, but the actual negotiation of that is left -- it's left up to the administrations on both sides.</s>COSTELLO: Well, that was a cagey way to avoid my question, Don. Let's talk about being on the International Space Station right now. What was the strangest thing that you encountered up there?</s>PETTIT: Probably the strangest thing is just your ability to fly. You know, people dream about flying, or at least I've dreamed about flying, where you just stick your arms out and flap them a little bit and you just drift off. And in space, you can do that. And it's the most wonderful feeling, and it takes awhile to learn how to move around without bumping into things. And after a few weeks of being in space, you find that you can translate and end up at a particular location with the velocity and body position that you want. It's sort of like watching birds fly and arrive at their intended perch, where they just have to stick their foot out and grab on. And you'll find that human beings end up doing that, and I found that that was an experience that you just cannot have while being on Earth.</s>COSTELLO: No, definitely not. Would you go back?</s>PETTIT: Oh, I'd go back in a heartbeat. I've actually discussed that with my family, and they're willing to support me to do that, too. The line is fairly long, and, as you know, it's moving slow now with only two people at a time being on the station, but I'm ready to go back.</s>COSTELLO: And you were up there actually when the Challenger accident happened. What was that like?</s>PETTIT: Our reaction was not any different than folks on the ground. There was shock, and then when the reality set in that indeed we had lost the crew, we were struck with our own grief. And we couldn't put life on hold, because we had operations to do and things that needed to be done on a daily basis. So, we had to set about our business. But we did have our moments where we could grieve in private.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, I meant to say Columbia, not the Challenger. I want to correct myself. I guess you must prepare yourself for an event like that. Do you? How do you do that?</s>PETTIT: I think you prepare yourself for these kinds of things when you decide to put an application in to be an astronaut, because there is a certain level of risk, and you think about it. And then, after that you put that piece of information away, and then you concentrate on the tasks that need to be done.</s>COSTELLO: Definitely so. Don Pettit, many thanks for joining us on DAYBREAK. We enjoyed it so much.</s>PETTIT: It's my pleasure.</s>COSTELLO: And I hope you do get to go back up there.</s>PETTIT: The same here.</s>COSTELLO: Stay safe. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.