One Of The Things I Always Find To Be Most Fascinating About Spaceflight Is That I Can Be On The Phone

"So I got started working on black holes my first year in graduate school.  I actually tried another research project first about cosmology, but frankly the math was just too difficult for me, so I decided to go into easier things: black holes."

I love astrophysics and especially black holes and I want to pursue a career on them, but to be honest I'm scared to be not good enough or not clever enough. How did you decide to work on black holes? How did you become the person you are today?

When you first get into the capsule sitting on top of the rocket, it actually feels incredibly familiar.  It looks like the simulator that we've trained in for years and years, and so you sit down and you strap in, and it feels like you're just gonna go for another three hour sim.  And it might be really boring, and then there might be a fire, and then all of a sudden as you're thinking about those things the rocket starts to lift off and you realize it's not a simulation.  

So there's a lot of g-forces, the rockets shake, and the whole time you're thinking, "this is the most amazing experience I've ever had."  And really, the whole thing culminates at the end of it, after that nine-minute ride when you look out the window and you see the planet.  

We never get to see that in the simulator.

How does it feel to into space for the first time? Like liftoff and leaving earth’s atmosphere? It seems like the world’s terrifying roller coaster, but what’s it really like?

In my 28 years here, I've been able to participate in a lot of exciting missions, but out of all of the future missions we have planned the one I'm looking forward to the most is being a part of boots on the moon in 2024.

What future missions are you looking forward to the most?

"So I think what we mean when we say a "gentle" black hole is probably that there's not a lot of hot gas, x-rays, gamma rays, relativistic jets around the black hole.  That makes it safe to go closer to.  In terms of that actually, the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*, is a pretty gentle black hole.  But even so it still would be far too dangerous to get close to and survive."

Is there such thing as a ‘gentle black hole’ (as in Interstellar) that would one day be a candidate for sending probes? Or is it a lost cause?

Yeah!  So if you want to be an astronaut, my best piece of advice is definitely to study something in the science field.  Basically every astronaut has some kind of background in science, technology, engineering.  Everybody has--even the fighter pilots have studied something and done a Masters degree in some kind of STEM field.  So if you start there, you're definitely headed in the right direction.

What is your advice to someone who wants to follow the same steps you take?

"So, I think we're studying them simply because they're fascinating.  This is how a lot of pure science is motivated.  What are the questions about the world around us that fascinate us, and for me at least black holes is at the top of that list.  If we're looking for more technical applications, like is it going to make the next new cell phone work better?  Probably not.  

But a hundred years from now we really never know where some of these pure science ideas are going to go.  For example, if you think about electricity and magnetism and quantum mechanics a hundred years ago, similairly in the pure pure science realm and now they dominate every aspect of our lives."

Why are we studying them? What’s purpose of this field for us on earth?

Ah, that's a really good question!  I think I would say, study as much as you did, but also try to have a little bit of fun.

Hey, Kate! What would you say/what advice would you give to your younger self? ✨

So when I was inside the space station, one of my favorite things to do was go in the Cupola, which is an area that has a whole bunch of windows.  You can actually get your whole body into the Cupola and just see the Milky Way and the universe from the Cupola.  And that was amazing.  

It was, um–you know terrifying is almost a good word because it was so awe-inspiring to just be in the universe and see the stars–but it was one of the most interesting things to do because it was always changing.  Your view was changing as you go around the planet; even at nighttime you can see different aspects of the planet at night as well. 

And so whenever I could, I would spend a few minutes when we were in a dark orbit and just try to poke my head into the Cupola and see the stars. It never got old.

What is like to be surrounded by the stars and darkness? Is it terrifying or calming?

Other than flying in combat in my military days, I would say my time at NASA when I've been exploring--probably the scariest time that I had was taking off in the ER-2 behind me on the island of Oahu off a cliff into the ocean of Kaneohe Bay.  

And the reason for that is it climbs up so steep on initial take-off that at night you just go into pitch black, and all you can see is dark sky and dark water, so you can't tell what's what.  And that gets a little unnerving for about the first minute or two of the flight until you know your way up and away from the water.  Otherwise it's a little disorienting and you could be diving into the water.

Have you ever been scared while flying? What was the event that scared you the most?What's your favorite plane to fly?

Mission Control is a unique environment.  The people who work there are the cream of the crop.  The tops in their graduating classes, the high performers in industry.  And so working in Mission control, my favorite thing is that I get to work with such uniquely talented people, and of all ages.  So it's a place where we can all come together, everybody with their own skill set, and solve the day's problems.

What was your favorite thing about working in Mission Control? (Also, you are the best