By Jay Greene
Published: Dec. 14, 2021 at 10:06 AM CST
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Cedar Falls native Commander Raja Chari has been in outer space for about a month now. He’s aboard the International Space Station with three other astronauts as part of the latest SpaceX crew.
KCRG-TV9′s Jay Greene had a chance to talk to him about life in outer space. The transcript is below.
Jay Greene: It’s great to be speaking with you. What’s life like in outer space?
Commander Chari: It’s been great. We’ve been here hard to believe we’ve been here over a month and yeah, time is flying by. But yeah, it’s been amazing getting to work and do science and float. It’s a pretty incredible job.
Jay: What’s been your biggest adjustment other than no gravity?
Chari: I think that’s the biggest one. I think the biggest thing is realizing the workspace is three-dimensional and you can walk on the walls, the ceilings, as you can kind of see. There are wires all over the place, so being conscious of where your feet are at but also being able to rotate and do work. You know on a rack that’s on the wall normally, and that being completely natural. So yeah, getting used to that and constantly reorienting your body to whatever the task is takes some getting used to. You were actually set to be part of this a few years ago.
Jay: Do you remember the exact time you got the phone call? That said, “you’re doing this,” and what was going through your mind at the time?
Chari: Yeah, I actually remember it really well. I was actually at Edwards Air Force Base. I was getting ready to go fly, so I was about to go brief for a flight and I had told the folks I was working with I might get a phone call as we knew the calls were going out that day. So literally as I was walking out to go brief the flight, the phone rang and some of the other people in the flight were standing around and one of the things they told us is we couldn’t tell anyone. So I had to stand on the phone and they’re all watching. They knew we were getting calls and I had to pretend like it was no big deal, like it was just another phone call. So I was just like “uh-huh, yep, yep” and put the phone down and tried to act like nothing was going on. After the brief, I called my wife and told her and then it wasn’t for several weeks that actually everyone figured out that that was actually the phone call telling me I had gotten picked.
Jay: What do you hope to accomplish up there in your six months?
Chari: So, Jay, we have about 300 pieces of science we’re doing to include this thing that just floated off the wall at me that tests out some basic drone technology and autonomous Intel. But yeah, coming up on SpaceX and Cargo Dragon in a few weeks, there are some experiments will be doing for cancer protein research to basically work on different ways to deliver cancer drugs as well as some things, some basically 3D printed bandages to help wounds grow, repair faster. So every day it’s kind of a different set of experiments. It’s kind of the beauty of this job is you never know what you’re gonna be working that next day. Every day is a new set of hopefully life-changing science for people on Earth.
Jay: You went to high school in Waterloo, right? Did you know you wanted to go into space when you were in high school?
Chari: So I think as a young kid, like 5 years old, I definitely wanted to go to space, I think. In junior high, in high school, I think in the idea of trying to set realistic goals thinking an astronaut was never a thing I could do. I had really fixated on going to the Air Force Academy and that was really my goal and it wasn’t until I got a little older that I actually revisited that original dream and realized actually become an astronaut, that that was actually a possibility, but it was definitely something I was the idea of flying and exploring and kind of pushing human knowledge was something I was definitely interested in high school.
Jay: What was the reaction from your family when you said “hey, dad, is going into outer space!”?
Chari: I think it varied. My kids are of varying ages. I think the youngest one was like “whatever, yeah,” didn’t really register until I think we went to Florida to go on the rocket. The other ones were pretty excited and, you know, I get to talk to them on the phone and video calls from time to time and they’re pretty excited and it’s pretty cool to see them and talk to them and hear about what’s going on back home. And obviously, I miss them, but we stay really well connected and they’re definitely excited and happy to be part of the journey.
Jay: Any chance that you’ll all walk on Mars?
Chari: That’d be great. Hopefully, humans get there. A lot of what we’re doing here on the station is to test out technology for the moon and Mars, so we have the benefit here of being close to home and with backup systems so that something breaks we have something else to use, but a lot of what we’re doing is testing the life support systems that we would use to sustain human presence on the moon and then eventually on Mars. But yeah, the Artemis program, that’s what we’re doing right now, is working on that technology and my class as well as everyone with the Astronaut Office is helping with that development.
Jay: What is your biggest challenge?
Chari: In the near term, I think just staying ahead of things so every day is different. So a lot of what we’re doing is the result of years of research and work by scientists on the ground. So trying to make sure that we do our due diligence to succeed and make sure that their experiments work well, so, a lot of work on our part to make sure that works. So that’s the near term. I think in the long term for the Artemis program, you know it’s the human Lander system. We have the gateway which is the station around the moon. We have the SLS rocket, we have the Orion module and the HLS. The Lander that gets us from the gateway down to the surface is the thing we’re working on now, so that’s a lot of engineers and astronauts working on developing that program as we speak, and it’s coming along quickly, but I think that will be the biggest challenge here as we move forward and send humans back to the moon to stay.
Jay: One final question for you, what do you want to say to the people of eastern Iowa?
Chair: I will say I got to see from space the other day, I was able to trace back the Mississippi and then look west and see the snow line so I could tell there are some folks in Iowa who have snow and others that are lucky to not have it, but definitely thank the folks of Iowa for the upbringing. Definitely, you know those Midwest ethics and work values are why I’m here and you know that that culture of a small town, you know, community, but also lots of opportunities. So to the people of Cedar Falls, Waterloo and all of northeast Iowa, thanks for getting me here and I love looking down there and seeing that snow line halfway through this.
Copyright 2021 KCRG. All rights reserved.
