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From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.<\/p>\n
On episode 402, NASA\u2019s all-American 2025 astronaut candidates share a little about themselves by playing a fun icebreaker game. This episode was recorded September 19, 2025.<\/p>\n
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Transcript<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji (Host)<\/p>\n
Houston We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center Episode 402: On a Desert Island with Our New Class of Astronaut Candidates. I\u2019m Nilufar Ramji, and I\u2019ll be your host today on this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what\u2019s going on in the world of human space flight and more.<\/p>\n
NASA is welcoming its 24th class of astronaut candidates, and they\u2019ve just arrived at Johnson Space Center. The new class is eager to begin their two year training flow that eventually will lead them to graduating and becoming astronauts that are eligible to go to space.<\/p>\n
The candidates were announced on September 22 on a live NASA plus broadcast, and we were able to get them into our studio to introduce themselves ahead of the announcement. So they\u2019re all new, and it\u2019s like their first day of worker school. And we want you to get to know them. So we\u2019ll be doing something a little different today. We\u2019re going to play an icebreaker called Desert Island, and we\u2019ll do this with them in two groups.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s meet our new class!<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Thanks for joining us on Houston We Have a Podcast, and welcome to your first week for the rest of your life. We are so happy to have you, and we really want to get to know all of you, so I figure we could go around the table that we\u2019re sitting at right now and meet everyone. And let\u2019s start with your name, your hometown and your previous profession or area of study.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah. Hi. I\u2019m Becky Lawler, and I\u2019m from Little Elm, Texas, and at the time of selection, I was working as a test pilot for United Airlines.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Very cool. Welcome to NASA, and congratulations.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Now we\u2019ll go over to our next person.<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon <\/p>\n
My name is Anna Menon, and I am from Houston, Texas, and I am a biomedical engineer by training, but at the time of selection, I was working at SpaceX as a Space Operations Engineer and mission director.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
So two Texans so far. Perfect for Houston. We have a podcast. Let\u2019s go over to our next astronaut candidate.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller <\/p>\n
Hi, I\u2019m Imelda Muller. I sometimes go by Mel, and I\u2019m going to take us away from Texas a little bit to New York. I\u2019m from upstate New York, a small town called Copake Falls. And at the time of my selection, I had just finished anesthesia residency in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Congratulations.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Thanks!<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Go for it!<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
All right. Hi. Good morning. I\u2019m Ben Bailey. I\u2019m from Charlottesville, Virginia. Happy to be here now in Houston, Texas. And before astronaut candidate, I was a army helicopter test pilot.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Very cool. We have a bunch of test pilots in this class. Let\u2019s go over to our next astronaut candidate.<\/p>\n
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Yuri Kubo <\/p>\n
Great. Hi. My name is Yuri Kubo. I\u2019m from Columbus, Indiana, and I\u2019m an electrical engineer by trade. And, I guess, at time of selection, I was working at Electric Hydrogen as a senior executive running the engineering teams.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Well, you all come to us very decorated. And once again, congratulations. And I know this week is your first week on site. You know, drinking from a fire hose with everything that\u2019s going on, and I know that some of you have probably had a chance to get to know each other, but we want the rest of the world to get to know you. So what I\u2019d like to do is play a little fun ice breaker with you guys. It\u2019s called Desert Island. You guys ready for that? Okay, so you\u2019re going to be on a desert island for a full year, and all your basic needs are provided for, like your food, your shelter and clothing. But you also get to bring three other things with you, and these three things are a book, a music item, and a luxury item. Think about what those three things are. And I\u2019m going to start with Mel.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller <\/p>\n
Oh, goodness, okay, right on the spot. The book was first, I believe. And I really enjoy cooking. I\u2019m not very good at it, but I really enjoy it. And so I think I would bring some sort of cookbook that had the plants or animals from that island so that I could incorporate some maybe original recipes and keep people happy and fed.<\/p>\n
As far as music album. I just got a record player, and I\u2019ve been into picking random records based off of purely picture alone. So it\u2019s kind of like choose your own adventure. So I don\u2019t know, maybe I\u2019d pull a pull a random album, and we\u2019ll see how that goes. It might get me voted off the island, but that\u2019s, that\u2019s probably what I do, or Metallica. I like Metallica. So something, something along those lines.<\/p>\n
As far as luxury item, ooh, I don\u2019t know. I I think I\u2019m gonna stretch the item a little bit, and I\u2019m gonna say I\u2019m gonna bring my my cat Meatball. He\u2019s, uh, he\u2019s 22 and I bring him everywhere I can. So he\u2019s 22 Yeah, I think he would totally fit in as an island cat. He\u2019d love hanging out under the palm trees, just lounging. Yeah. He\u2019s got an island cat vibe.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Those are great, three great luxury items. And if I was with you, I\u2019d love for you to cook for me.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Absolutely anytime. No guarantees, but-<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
We\u2019ll, experiment. Anna, why don\u2019t you go next?<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sure. All right, so for book might be stretching this a little bit, but I would take the Throne of Glass boxed set of books.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Box set, smart!<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon <\/p>\n
Or a Kindle with all of that series.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Oh, that\u2019s great, too!<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon <\/p>\n
And for music album. I have a very eclectic music taste, so I would probably take a like, if I\u2019m allowed to take like, a mixed tape of like, salsa music or country music. Salsa, I feel like would be fun, because you could bring some dancing to the island.<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Is there, like salsa, country fusion?<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s, there is, and that might be the way to go. Great idea. And then for luxury item, I would bring a coffee maker with some coffee, and I acknowledge that there might not be electricity, in which case I would bring in like a French press variety.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yes, those are great.<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
There is electricity. We\u2019re gonna need it later.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I said all of your basic needs, like food, shelter and clothing, are provided for you. So we\u2019re gonna assume electricity as part of that.<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Excellent.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go to Ben.<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, perfect. I\u2019m gonna follow up with the electricity here shortly. Yep, Ben Bailey here. So as far as book goes, I It is uncommon that I will re-read a book. So I was looking for a book that I could kind of read once and then sort of get lost in it, you know, some sort of like world building book. So I went back to something I knew. I know, I said I don\u2019t re-read books but, but the Lord of the Rings, I figured, had enough lore that goes with it, and enough kind of breadth and depth that I could kind of get lost in that book and relive it over the course of a full year.<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So does that mean you need, you need a box to set also?<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I honestly, I would take the box set. Maybe with the The Silmarillion in there too, that kind of expands on everything going there.<\/p>\n
For music album, I was gonna say something that isn\u2019t gonna I\u2019m not gonna get sick of right away. It\u2019s not super jarring. Can be kind of in the background, or I can get lost in too. And I went with Pink Floyd, one of their, you know, Dark Side of the Moon, or The Wall, or something that that I could kind of just let play, and sort of it kind of ebbs and flows and, you know, just, kind of, you just kind of get lost in it. And then for luxury item, I think there\u2019s definitely electricity, because we\u2019re gonna need it. I\u2019m gonna bring a computer with the internet, and I know that it\u2019s cheating. I\u2019m not gonna have email, you know, outside contact me. But I would like to bring YouTube with me. The YouTube is like my favorite place to waste time or use time or spend time, because you can find help with anything on there.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I\u2019m constantly amazed at the altruism that is on YouTube. There\u2019s just one person somewhere that has this thing that you have, and he wants to show you how to take it apart, fix it and put it back together. And that is amazing. So I feel like I could get a lot of use out of YouTube over the course of a year.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
You know, YouTube, I\u2019m gonna do a little plug here, but our NASA YouTube channel has so much great content as well, so you can learn all about our missions and everything that\u2019s going on live as well as prerecorded. And it\u2019s fabulous. So you can learn all about NASA too.<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
I love that perfect. Thank you for entertaining my wild luxury item.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler <\/p>\n
Ben, are you going to teach us how to do something on YouTube?<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a guy that already teaches it to you. I don\u2019t need to teach it. There\u2019s somebody there that does it. That\u2019s what I love. He gets nothing from it. You know, he\u2019s got seven followers, but he just wants to show you how to do it. That\u2019s so fantastic.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, Becky, top that!<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no chance! there\u2019s no chance! I\u2019m gonna be watching YouTube with Ben. All three of these categories are problematic because I\u2019m a huge book pusher, and I like to read and then recommend books to just about everybody. So I\u2019m going to try to, like, take all of these and just kind of, like, get them into a good sound bite for you. But Lynn Cox, she\u2019s like, this long distance swimmer. She has all these record holders, but she just writes really beautifully about the world, and she has this book that I just started called swimming. I think I\u2019m not sure if Swimming in Antarctica or Swimming to Antarctica. And also, like, as a working mom, being on an island for a year and just having a chance to read would probably be pretty nice. But, yeah, I think it would be something I could share with my crew, because it\u2019s just written really wonderfully. And maybe we could, like, swim off the island like, I don\u2019t know there\u2019s there. Maybe we could learn from the YouTube videos. That\u2019s my book.<\/p>\n
For a music album. Also, it could be problem. I don\u2019t want to like, I don\u2019t want to like, I\u2019m a Swifty, but I can listen to Taylor Swift\u2019s Lover album, like, over and over again, and it\u2019s just got like that nice pop feel to it, but I was talking to Mel, there\u2019s like an island vibe, so maybe. We\u2019ll see what record she brings, and then we\u2019ll kind of make it with the way extinction there. Yeah, the wild card. And then for luxury item, I was going to bring a French press, but we\u2019re good crew, because Anna already is bringing a coffee machine, perfect. So I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
You can never have too many. You can never have too many. In case one breaks.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if Chick fil A sauce counts as a luxury item, but if all the other food is provided, then maybe just to like that, to just sort of like change up some of the meals. But yeah, there\u2019s a lot of this. There\u2019s a lot we there\u2019s a lot of areas we could go here.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
My children are obsessed with Chick fil A sauce. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it. I\u2019m with you on that. Yeah, I love that. Okay, Yuri, close this out.<\/p>\n
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Yuri Kubo\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All right, yeah, this is Yuri again. Couple different things for book ran through my mind. I like to keep my hands busy. I like to build things. I like to, you- know, do stuff. So for a book, I don\u2019t have a specific title necessarily in mind, but there are a lot of books on kind of ancient inventions, or, you know, like early, early machines, kind of things, like, things that I could build potentially out of, like, you know, fallen palm trees or other things that I could, like, you know, make some rudimentary stone tools or whatever, and then, like, replicate some of these things. Like, maybe I could build a generator out of some coconuts or something. There\u2019s a Gilligan\u2019s Island, like, how-to book here that we could find. But that would, I think, tickle that fancy for me, for like, and keep my hands busy for the for the whole year, while also learning.<\/p>\n
Music album. It\u2019s gonna- this is a side of me that not very many people know about, actually. So this is, this is breaking news, and it\u2019s gonna be super nerdy. So I\u2019m really into video game music. I\u2019m not, I used to be a big gamer back in the day, but, like, I haven\u2019t just had time. It\u2019s just just a thing. But there\u2019s like this, this really beautiful growing subculture of, like, of video game music covers on the internet. Lots of them on YouTube, for instance. And there are a lot of folks that are making these, like, amazing albums of video game music on, like, acoustic guitar, on piano or whatever, like taking these things and make it their own. There\u2019s one gentleman, John Oath, that does just like, an incredible job with with an acoustic guitar. So he\u2019s got a bunch of music albums out that are just covers and like that would absolutely get me through. I can listen to those forever because there\u2019s, like, no words. So you can be doing homework, you can be studying, you can do doing whatever, and it doesn\u2019t like distract you. So that\u2019s my music album. Apologize for the the amount of nerd that I just laid on the table here.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
All that\u2019s playing in my head right now, are two Italian brothers from when I was a kid growing up. If you know who I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
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Yuri Kubo <\/p>\n
Indeed! We were talking about right before this. Like, it\u2019s just the amount that they were able to do with this super limited hardware. And, like, you know, making these, these incredible soundtracks with like, these limitations. They were just geniuses, like, of their time.<\/p>\n
So, and then luxury item. I wanted to bring a piano, but immediately realized that, like, Island air, humidity, temperature fluctuations, would detune the thing, basically, like immediately. So digital piano is what I\u2019ve decided. Assuming that there is, there\u2019s electricity, which it sounds like there is. Yeah, Ben has assured me that there is, I will bring a digital piano, and that will get me through.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
All right. So we have some practical books to help us build and cook. There\u2019s some caffeine to keep us going. There\u2019s some flavor with our sauces. And then there\u2019s YouTube. We are pretty much covered here. And I really love your guys\u2019 items outside of the box a little bit. And I think outside of getting to know you, we have a little glimpse of what your hobbies and interests are, some of your favorite things. But there are a couple of other things I wanted to ask you guys. So we have a lot of test pilots in this specific class. And I wanted to ask you, for those of you that come from the military background, is, how does your military experience prepare you to be an astronaut, whether those are deployments or being away from family or other areas?<\/p>\n
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Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
Sure, I\u2019ll kick that one off. Ben here. So I mean, aside from the the obvious ones, you know, time away, busy training schedules, long days and and and that sort of stuff, I also think that, the military does a great job with with leadership training, with communication, you know, being able to work with folks very closely for long periods of time is sort of an acquired skill, and I think everybody\u2019s capable of it, but they do a good job of sort of ingraining that in you. And then I was a warrant officer in the army, so it\u2019s a sort of a unique position. Position where you\u2019re not really the ultimate authority on anything, but you have a lot of experience, and so being able to kind of lead peers is sort of something that you focus on and sort of supporting the leadership that\u2019s above you, which I think translates well to NASA, where we kind of come in as a class and work together to try to make it through the next two years of training. So I\u2019m looking forward to kind of using that to help support the team here and and go from there.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s great. Becky.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been really fortunate as a test pilot to work, I was a test pilot initially in the Navy, and then I worked when I was a NOAA Corps officer as a NOAA hurricane hunter. I also got to work as a test pilot for that organization, and then now at United and it doesn\u2019t really in each of those organizations, it\u2019s about bringing a team together to solve a problem. It\u2019s the thing, same thing that makes me really excited to work here at NASA, because a scientist will come, or an engineer, or some company will come to you with this idea, and they are like, here\u2019s this thing that\u2019s important to me, because I want to measure this, and I\u2019ve never, it\u2019s never flown before. Like, how can we take this idea and turn it into, like, operational science or something that we could safely put on an airplane? And all these different people are coming from different disciplines and different levels of expertise and different opinions, and you\u2019re all just constantly like working together to just like, get this science to fly. And so I\u2019m excited about bringing those different experiences and just the excitement that I have for working in those teams to our class as we try to get through the next two years, to get ourselves ready to fly, and then to get the equipment and the technology that\u2019s going to take us to the moon and Mars.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
I love that. I\u2019m thinking about all of the science that\u2019s currently performed on space station as well, and how, how this team will potentially contribute to some of that science as well.<\/p>\n
So for a lot of you, this may not necessarily be your first introductions to NASA. And I know that we have a flight controller in our, in our presence, we have a seven time NASA intern in our presence.<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That was really cool.<\/p>\n
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Yuri Kubo<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s counting?<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
No, who\u2019s counting? Not me. So I want to ask you, not necessarily about your NASA experience, because we get to learn a lot about that in your bios, but with your work, with the agency before you got this specific job. Do you have like a core NASA memory that has inspired you to explore the universe, or have a calling to be an astronaut? Tell us a little bit about that. And for those of you without the NASA experience, if there is a core memory that you have of your first exposure to NASA, or what you remember that sticks out to you that inspired you to even apply for this job, tell us a little bit about that. Anybody.<\/p>\n
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Yuri Kubo\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, this is Yuri again. I can, I can kick this one off back when I was go. I\u2019m not sure if they still do it or not, I hope they do, but they allowed us to watch Apollo 13. They did a screening of Apollo 13 in historic mission control. So all the co-ops would kind of get together, and then in the evening, they would watch Apollo 13 in historic mission control. It was, like, the most transformative- it was, it was just- you\u2019re sitting in these chairs on the at these consoles, watching the people in the same setting, like working through the most like complex, kind of, like challenging scenario in space you could imagine. And like, it really hit home. Like, this is, this is real. I\u2019m a part of this. These people around me, and the footsteps that I\u2019m following in are, like, just incredible. These are my heroes kind of a thing. And like, just to be in the gravity of that situation, while also kind of like being in that location, watching it happen. It was, was unreal. It really solidified my kind of love of space, love of the agency, love of kind of the mission. And, yeah, I couldn\u2019t, couldn\u2019t have asked for any, like, single moment that was better than that.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Love that. Anna?<\/p>\n
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Anna Menon <\/p>\n
So I think the the first moment that inspired me to want to be a part of NASA was a field trip that I took when in the fourth grade. I grew up in Houston, and one of my teachers had a unique access to NASA through her family and her father was actually on the Challenger, and she, as a result of that, like, shared NASA with us, and in that experience, I had the chance to kind of role play the life of an astronaut and the life of a flight controller and mission control, and I fell in love with it. I loved the team aspect of it. I loved the solving problems together, and was inspired by by the mission as well. And so that experience just lit this fire in me to want to do this work, and really drove me ever since to dream of being here. And this is a dream come true to be back.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
I\u2019m feeling inspired by both of your guys\u2019 words. Historic Apollo Mission Control has now become a official historic landmark during the Apollo 50th anniversary in 2019 so they don\u2019t do that anymore for the interns, but it is they do other experiences, I\u2019m sure. Yeah. Then back email. What about you guys?<\/p>\n
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Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Well, previous to going back to anesthesia residency, I was an undersea medical officer with the Navy, and some of our work brought us to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. I was part of an experimental diving unit that did a lot of work with just learning about human physiology and what we could do with different equipment, and we worked a lot with saturation diving, and so at the time, I was really heavily involved with some of the medical planning, and I remember sitting on the pool deck at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. And at that point, I really, really loved my job. It was a great opportunity. And the aspects that I loved about my job was working with people from so many different backgrounds, who, even though we spoke a slightly different work language, everybody was very unified by our particular mission at the time. And when I was sitting on this pool deck, kind of looking around, I realized that I was also surrounded by that at NASA, and I\u2019d always sort of like abstractly wanted to be an astronaut and go to space, but that was the moment where I realized, like, oh, actually, you maybe could pursue this. And so it was a very inspiring moment, but it also was, like a very scary moment, because I hadn\u2019t let myself think it could be a real thing up until then.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I think a lot of people that work at NASA or or start their careers elsewhere, and then eventually make it over to NASA, most people I\u2019ve encountered think, well, I could never work there. And it\u2019s once you get here, you\u2019re like, Wow, I can\u2019t I still, several years later, I still feel that same way.<\/p>\n
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Rebecca Lawler <\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t, like this clear vision for me to become an astronaut. I don\u2019t think. I think when I think early on as a kid, and even now, I can\u2019t think of many days there\u2019s most days when I look over the sky, I want to be in it, like, I just, I love flying, like I love aviation. And you do, you stare at the moon as a kid, and you just like, think, you\u2019re like, wow, it\u2019s just like this concept that\u2019s just so wild. And I\u2019m from Little Elm used to be a small town in Texas, and I just, it just seemed so inaccessible. And I think there\u2019s probably, maybe there\u2019s a lot of people that are listening or who haven\u2019t even thought about it, because it seems like just like this impossible goal that\u2019s out there, and these people are just absolutely incredible and perfect, and I\u2019m sitting in a room with a lot of them, so that\u2019s it\u2019s true, but I just never felt like it was something that I couldn\u2019t like, like you said, Mel, like, I think you said, it\u2019s like I couldn\u2019t even I was hard to like, get scared, to even let yourself think that that was a possibility. But when I knew I wanted to be in the sky, and then I knew, like, I wanted to be a test pilot, once I found out that was a job, and there was an astronaut, and he\u2019s current, so I\u2019m not gonna name him, just not gonna get that out of me. But he came and spoke to our test pilot school class, and he was like, every flight is a test flight. And I\u2019m like, well, here I am achieving this lifelong dream of becoming a test pilot, and now you\u2019re telling me this is like another way to contribute and to serve as a test pilot in this new capacity. And that\u2019s when the dream really started. And I still can\u2019t believe I\u2019m sitting here, but I hope that people who haven\u2019t let themselves have that dream can give themselves access to that, because it can change your life.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s very inspiring. I love that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imelda Muller <\/p>\n
Yeah, Becky, that really resonates with me, because it was very similarly when I was a kiddo we lived in the middle of kind of nowhere, but we had these magnificent skies. You could see every star, and I loved that. I was back a few weeks ago, and I still was, like, overwhelmed by the sky, but it just was never on my radar. It wasn\u2019t we didn\u2019t really talk about space growing up there. It wasn\u2019t, like, widely spread in the community. I don\u2019t remember people dressing up as astronauts when there were kiddos for Halloween like so it was completely not a something that was, you know, in your face as like a potential, you know, career that you could pursue, or anything related to space. And so I think it is cool that hopefully we\u2019ll get to talk a little bit more to some kiddos in those communities. And inspire them a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Yeah, inspiring our next generation of explorers is incredibly important. So, you know, a lot are, this class in particular, as well as a few that have come before. You are not part of the Apollo generation. So that wasn\u2019t, you know, the moon landing wasn\u2019t always front and center. Some came from the shuttle generation, but now we are heading towards the Moon and Mars with beginning with Artemis. So Ben, close us out with your NASA memory.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
I think I\u2019m very much in the same category as Becky. Where I\u2026 I don\u2019t know, I would maybe consider myself dangerously pragmatic. Where I set. I set what I consider to be lofty but achievable goals. And I don\u2019t know that I had considered NASA to be a achievable goal for a lot of my life, so-<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Lofty, though?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Lofty, yes. Like I will set lofty goals, but but at the very edge of what I think is achievable. And so, you know, I\u2019ve always been in awe of what NASA does. You know, I\u2019ve always really loved to see the missions that they\u2019re working and the and the things that they\u2019re doing. But you know, when I left college as an engineer, one of the folks from my class, just one of the friendliest but sharpest and hardest working people I know, went to work for NASA, and I was not in the same category of student that he was, and I he\u2019s still working for NASA NOW, at some point, hopefully I\u2019ll run into him again. But I was, you know, just in awe of the things that he was gonna go do. And I went off to work a great job in engineering, and I really enjoyed it, and I, you know, put a bunch of time and effort into that. And then I left that job and I joined the Army, and I didn\u2019t do it to try to get to NASA. I did it because it was something I was really passionate about and excited. Passionate about and excited about, and I went there and I did that, and tried to do it to the best of my ability. And then I went to Test Pilot School, same thing. I wasn\u2019t really considering NASA at that. It was just I was trying to do the best with things that I was excited about. And then somewhere along the way, all of those things sort of coalesced into something that maybe I could contribute to NASA, something that might make me a good astronaut candidate. And that was the first point where I was like, actually, now it seems achievable to me. And so let me, let me see if I can pursue this path and I\u2019m so thankful to be here. So it\u2019s, it\u2019s an interesting thing to say that like, life changes, ebbs and flows, goals change. You know, the things that the things that people pursue, you wouldn\u2019t necessarily expect them to all wind up where they wind up, but I think what wound up contributing to me being here is just finding stuff that I was passionate in and pursuing them to the best that I could. And it just happened that I wound up here, and it\u2019s been, it\u2019s been awesome.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Well, congratulations to all of you on making it this far, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck for your training that\u2019s ahead. But I know that we\u2019ve asked this question before in previous, with previous classes, but there\u2019s always an interesting way of how you got the call, or what was it like? Who did you tell? Because you can\u2019t tell anybody that you got this job, but you are, your family is moving to Houston, so you have to tell the people in your household. So were any of you in an interesting place, or have an interesting story about what it was like to get that call or where you were anyone?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yuri Kubo <\/p>\n
This is Yuri again. I was in a meeting with some of my peers, and look down. And my phones get a lot of spam calls. I got another one of those. Looked down. I was like, \u201cOh no, I know this number,\u201d and I know the area code, yeah, exactly. It\u2019s like, I gotta, I gotta step out. So I, like, kind of played it cool, stepped out. Got super giddy on my way to the to the different conference room that happened to be open, super excited for the call, and then at the end, he\u2019s like, and you can\u2019t tell anyone. Oh, okay, how am I gonna navigate this going back into a meeting with a bunch of my people? Like, I don\u2019t know how to not look it\u2019s the most exciting thing ever. Yeah, exactly. So like channeling all of my previous acting capability and just like, went in stone faced and just sat back down. Was everything okay? Like, yes, everything\u2019s fine. Let\u2019s go back to talking about what we were talking about before. Please look away from me. Yeah, it was, it was tough. It was really tough. But, yeah, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
You can\u2019t play poker.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yuri Kubo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
No, absolutely no. That guy\u2019s got a two seven off suit. It\u2019s like, well, you\u2019re not wrong<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Anyone else?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
This is Becky, and I\u2019m a pilot, so this is probably unsurprising, but I was at an airport when I got the call, and I was actually headed out on a trip, and I had to go. I was working for United Airlines, so I was going through Houston to get to mobile for to pick up a new plane. And part you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re getting the call, so it\u2019s, like, a little bit, it was a little bit metaphorical, like, I\u2019m just trying to get Houston, and I keep getting delayed, and then I get this phone call and I\u2019m like, Oh, I\u2019ll actually be going to Houston permanently, but you can\u2019t, but you can\u2019t. So I get this call, but I you can\u2019t really tell anybody. And so then, so I got delayed. I made it to mobile the next day for delivering a brand new airplane, which is always fun, but I show up and I\u2019m super excited. And you don\u2019t see your coworkers very often in the job that I\u2019m in, and the guy I was flying was like, So what\u2019s new? And actually we haven\u2019t had this conversation. So this is actually he doesn\u2019t, he still doesn\u2019t know up to this point. He\u2019s like, what\u2019s new? I was like, nothing. He\u2019s like, Oh, you seem pretty excited. I\u2019m like, I love these flights. And we got there and we landed. I was like, Can we take a picture together? And he was like, why? And I can\u2019t be like, well, this might be my last flight here as a United Airlines. I couldn\u2019t do I was like, well, let\u2019s just take a picture together. And he\u2019s like\u2026 Okay.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Now he\u2019ll want that picture.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
He has no idea, like, this could be our last, but I couldn\u2019t be like, this could be our last flight together, because I\u2019m not going anywhere, but I\u2019m always gonna look when he\u2019s like, kind of stay. He\u2019s like, kind of stand. He\u2019s like, sort of like, do I just give, like, the military, like, sort of, like, hands on the hip thing or whatever. But I was like, please take a picture with me. He\u2019s like, this wasn\u2019t even a fun flight. I\u2019m like, No, this is great. So I\u2019m always gonna, I\u2019m always gonna be happy looking back at that picture.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
That\u2019s great. Okay, we\u2019re limited on time, so wrap us up. Tell us one thing that people may not know about you. Someone can kick us off, or I can choose somebody\u2026 Anna!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anna Menon <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see. So one thing I definitely don\u2019t think many people know is that I love to scrap the book. I really I love photography. I don\u2019t claim to be good at it, and I also just love capturing memories. And so I, over the years, have done a number of scrapbooks. I like scrapbook my family\u2019s year every year, like I like that. Created kind of records of that, and then created scrapbooks for other various moments in time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
I can\u2019t wait to see what your scrapbook looks like after your first NASA mission. I\u2019d love to see your Polaris Dawn scraps too.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anna Menon <\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I still end up solo traveling quite a bit, and anytime I\u2019m, like, on a trip, I actually have a tiny watercolor kit with me, because it\u2019s something to do when you\u2019re by yourself. It\u2019s kind of awkward to, like, read at a restaurant or something, but I\u2019ll just kind of do something with it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So, a painter?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, just water color, a dabble. You know.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imelda Muller <\/p>\n
Take it on the island. Yeah, take on the island.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca Lawler\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019ll already be with me. It\u2019s implied. It\u2019s implied.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yuri Kubo <\/p>\n
Well, you already got one thing out of me in terms of things the other, the other thing maybe I\u2019ll mention is, I mean, obviously, I\u2019m probably, maybe, maybe, obviously, I\u2019m a huge space nerd. So my wife and I actually got married at Space Center Houston, in front, yeah, in front of the Apollo landscape over there, the moon landing. Super cool. Yeah, excited to, excited to go back for real.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, Ben, top that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
I can\u2019t. Let\u2019s see, my wife and I, our hobbies sort of come and go based on where we live. And we\u2019ve moved a fair amount over the last few years. And so we pick up whatever is available in that place. And one of my favorites is sailboat racing. And so coming from Virginia, you know, the Chesapeake Bay has a fair amount of that. And then when I joined the army, I moved to Alabama. Not a lot of sailing in Alabama. There are places, you know, Mobile, but that\u2019s not where we were. And then out to Washington State, and there\u2019s a lot there, so that was a lot of fun. And then back to Alabama, And then back to Virginia, back into sailboat racing. And I\u2019m, I feel fortunate to move to Houston, Galveston Bay, and I\u2019ve already been looking for a boat. So if anybody\u2019s listening to this podcast, knows a good boat to race on. You know, reach out to NASA.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Mel, wrap us up.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imelda Muller\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sure. Well, hard to top, but fun fact, but embarrassing fact. Maybe. Depending on if you play with me or not. But I just, I just learned how to play pickleball. It\u2019s this thing everybody knows about pickleball, and I feel like I was probably the last person on this planet to find out about pickleball.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Bailey <\/p>\n
My paddle is in my car. It\u2019s one of those hobbies based on locality.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imelda Muller <\/p>\n
I see some tournaments in our future, but my extended family spent some time together in the summer, and I was lucky enough to go this year, and they were very kind and patient and gave me all of their tips and pointers, and I still was the worst person on the court, but maybe they\u2019ll have me back next year and then you can teach me your skills.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Bailey\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I would be happy to.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s great. Thank you guys so much for joining us. It\u2019s been an honor, and once again, congratulations. I wish you all the best with your training and everything that\u2019s ahead of you, and we look forward to having you back on the podcast.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everyone <\/p>\n
Thank you so much. Thank you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Thank you everyone for being here with us today. We are on group number two of our astronaut candidate class, and I got to speak to five of your best friends just earlier. And now I\u2019m going to speak to the five of you, and I have some of the same questions, and I\u2019m going to try and mix it up a little bit. So first things first, I just want to say, Welcome to NASA. And like I told the last group. This is the first day of the rest of your life. You\u2019ve had a really fun week here with us this week, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been drinking from a fire hose. It\u2019s been, it\u2019s probably been overwhelming but exciting all at the same time. So first go around, I want to get to know all of you. I want our listeners to get to know all of you. So we\u2019ll start off with your name, your hometown, and your previous profession, or perhaps what you what you did in school. Erin!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash <\/p>\n
Okay, good morning. I am Erin Overcash. Call sign is Loft. I\u2019m a lieutenant commander in the US Navy. I\u2019m from Goshen, Kentucky originally, which is a suburbs in the outskirts of Louisville, the biggest city in Kentucky. Grew up with a fortunately, really good public school system and some challenging teachers, and still had exposure to kind of all the art, science culture that a big city brings. Went to college at the University of Colorado. I knew I wanted to study aerospace engineering. I was that kid obsessed with airplanes and space flights. So knowing I wanted to study that there were no programs within the state of Kentucky when I was looking so was privileged to get into the Navy ROTC program. They paid for school, definitely could not have afforded out of state tuition without an opportunity like that. So really leaned into kind of naval service and serving my country. My first job in the Navy was actually in the world class athlete program, so I was effectively a professional athlete, living and training full time with the USA Rugby Team as a Naval ensign. After that, I went through flight school, earned jet grades, earned my wings, ended up in F-18s, went through Lamour, California for training, spent my first three year operational sea tour in Japan, actually, which was an awesome experience and totally unexpected, but had a really good time out there. And then went through US Naval Test Pilot School, and then most previously the X-23 Salty Dogs in Pawtuxet River, Maryland, as a FA-18 test pilot. So some of the things I did as a test pilot that hoping to bring to the class were a lot of out of control departure demonstration, teaching and instructing. I got to do some really unique flight tests there. Worked with some incredible people, and, you know, excited to be here and join this team.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s so exciting. I feel like you spent half your life in the air. Is that right? Sound accurate?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I wish it was more. I wish it was close to that. But yeah, it feels like it. I mean, probably every major decision in life has been driven by this passion for aviation and space flight.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love that, Katherine, and I\u2019m going to let you pick the next person.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies <\/p>\n
Oh, I love that. A lot of responsibility. My name is Katherine Spies. I\u2019m originally from Southern California, and similar to Erin, I think, you know, growing up in that region really has a rich history in aerospace and really informed the path that I ended up choosing. I was, you know, as in our family, we would attend air shows up and down the coastline, and then was very lucky as a kid to attend some Shuttle landings. The shuttles, as we remember, used to take off from the East Coast, but sometimes they would land. Sometimes they would land on the West Coast, up at Edwards Air Force Base. And so was very lucky to attend some of those. And there\u2019s, you know, as a kid, a super vivid memory where actually the dry lake bed was quite muddy. Just remember my brother kind of being caked head to toe, and and seeing the shuttle kind of re-enter. And you just kind of wonder, like, what, what does it take for me to be there? And set a trajectory. And so certainly, you always interested in in science and math. I don\u2019t think at that age I knew what an engineer was, but luckily, we figured that out eventually. And and similar to Aaron, you know, I was in ROTC at the University of Southern California, I guess slightly different, because it wasn\u2019t UC Boulder, but it was in ROTC. So I went to University of Southern California on an ROTC scholarship and joined the United States Marine Corps. And kind of had an idea that I wanted to be a pilot and a test pilot. And so that trajectory took me initially to the Marine Corps training ground in Quantico, Virginia, and then to Camp Pendleton, and then on a series of deployments to Test Pilot School. And then I was super lucky when I, you know, at a pivotal point where I either was going to go on a on another, you know, tour in the Marine Corps, or potentially look at another layer of education. So ended up at Harvard University for a joint degree there and then out of Amazon. And then my most previous role was at Gulfstream aerospace, working on the G-700 and G-800 certification. And then lucky to be here in Class 24 with all of my new best friends and and just feel so honored and privileged to start this journey and to be able to join the JSC team, and already in this first week, we\u2019ve seen so much of what they do, and we\u2019re just, I think, also honored to get to work with you, you all here and to see how we can contribute with our past experiences.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s an honor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And so for my next pick, Cameron.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All right. Is it because I was sitting right next to you? Thanks.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Cameron Jones. I grew up in a small town in Northwest Illinois called Savannah, about 3000 people. I then went to the University of Illinois, got my undergrad and graduate degrees. There also an ROTC graduate, but from the Air Force side. So I did that to get my commission, and then went out to pilot training, where then I got my wings and started flying F-22s, which I did for most of my career, went from Langley Air Force Base up to Alaska down to Nellis for in Las Vegas to become a weapons officer for a little bit, and did that job. And then eventually went to Test Pilot School, became a test pilot, which is what I was doing just before coming here. Did a quick stint in the DC area at DARPA, and now here at NASA.<\/p>\n
Like you guys, I\u2019m super excited to be here. I grew up, you know, always wanting to be an astronaut. My dad was a private pilot, which helped give me the aviation bug. We didn\u2019t really have any military in my immediate family, but knew it was a path to get to here. Like Erin, I played sports growing up. Unlike Erin, I was not elite at any of them. You could call me slightly average, so knew that that wasn\u2019t going to be the path, but I liked the teamwork aspect of it, being part of awesome teams, high performing teams, which led me towards this career path. And that\u2019s been true in all the fighter squadrons I\u2019ve been in, and in the short week of meeting everyone here, it\u2019s also definitely been true. So also super excited to be here, and yeah, looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Congratulations.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Who\u2019s your next victim?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I pick Lauren.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar <\/p>\n
All right. Hi everyone. I\u2019m Lauren Edgar. And I grew up in Sammamish, Washington, which is just outside of Seattle. And I think growing up in the Pacific Northwest really gave me an appreciation for the outdoors as well, as you know the rich aviation history that exists there as well. So I resonate with Kate on that one. I grew up going to the Museum of Flight and feeling inspired by pursuing a career in aerospace. But actually, when I was in second grade, I had the chance to see a shuttle launch, and that was the moment that I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. And I\u2019m that little kid that never gave up on that dream. So I went off to college, thought I was going to pursue engineering, and then ultimately found geology, and I just loved being able to explain why the landscape looks the way that it does. And it kind of connected my passion for the outdoors with the field of study. And so did my undergrad at Dartmouth, and then grad school at Caltech, which was where I first got involved in some of NASA missions, like the Mars Exploration Rovers. So my background is more on the planetary science side. I\u2019ve contributed to missions to Mars and the Moon, as well as doing a lot of field work here on earth to understand what we\u2019re seeing on other planets. So for the last decade, I\u2019ve been working at the US Geological Survey, and I\u2019ve been working with NASA a lot, and so it\u2019s really wonderful to be here, finally contributing in this role, and along with some really awesome classmates here that can\u2019t wait for you to get to know a bit more. So with that, I\u2019ll turn to Adam.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Wait, Lauren, can I ask a quick question? You know, the USGS things on the top of mountains?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yes, the survey markers?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, the survey markers. Have you ever done one of those?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I have never installed one. But I have taken many a photo with those.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Are there any left that we can go do?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Oh, to add new markers?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, or they\u2019ve all been done?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That is a great question. I do not know. There\u2019s more to explore!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
We should get to the bottom of this.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I always wondered. I desperately want to participate.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I will say there are none on other planets. So\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yet. *cough* Moon *cough*<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Fuhrmann <\/p>\n
Okay, I guess I\u2019ll close out our group. Hey everybody, I\u2019m Adam Fuhrmann. I\u2019m a major in the US Air Force. My flying call sign is Hawk. I grew up in Leesburg, Virginia, which is Northern Virginia, kind of outside the DC metro area. And I kind of got my passion for aerospace, aviation, space flight, when I was about 7, 8, 9 years old. There\u2019s a specific moment for me where my dad was an aerospace engineer, and it was a take your kid to work day. And at the time, it was Orbital Sciences, now part of Northrop Grumman there in the Northern Virginia area. And he took me in when they were building the X-34 space planes, the unmanned hypersonic space planes. Unfortunately, those never actually got to fly in space, but walking in as an eight year old and seeing all these engineers in the clean suits like inside this space plane was just amazing to me. And just seeing that human beings could build something like that and work together to do that really kind of ignited the spark in me for aerospace, and then also have a lot of pilots in my family too. So those two kind of things kind of set the trajectory of my career and what I wanted to do with my life.<\/p>\n
I went to undergrad at MIT up in Boston and studied aerospace there, where I also did Air Force ROTC was where I got my commission out of there. And then after I graduated, I went to pilot training at Columbus, Mississippi to become an Air Force pilot. That\u2019s where I met my wife. She was studying to be a veterinarian at Mississippi State at the time, we got to meet there, and then became an F-16 pilot in the Air Force. Had assignments in South Carolina deployments. I was in Korea for a bit, taught as an instructor at New Mexico, and then went to Test Pilot School in at Edwards Air Force Base. And as test pilot, spent about four or five years, kind of working on improving the F-16 as well as the F-35 and have been doing that up until the point I got selected to be a part of this class. And I\u2019m super excited to be joining this amazing group of, you know, nine other human beings. Really, everyone I met in the selection process was absolutely incredible, and I\u2019m just honored to be here.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
One of 8000, Adam. You\u2019re one of 8000 applicants. Congratulations.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann <\/p>\n
I still feel like they maybe made a mistake, but hopefully-<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
You\u2019re here for a reason, and I appreciate getting to know all of you. I have so many more questions, but I do want to play the ice breaker we played with the previous group. We have a different set of items that we\u2019d like you to bring with you on your desert island. So this ice breaker, as I told the last group, is called Desert Island, and if you\u2019ve heard of it, you\u2019re going to be on a desert island for a full year. And basically all of your regular needs, like food, shelter, clothing, those are provided for you, but you get to bring three other items with you. And for you all, it\u2019s a book, a movie and a special food. So gonna give you a second to think a little bit about that. And I\u2019m gonna start with Cameron. Let\u2019s talk to you about your three favorite things you\u2019re gonna bring with you on your desert island.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones <\/p>\n
Well, you\u2019ll be able to tell I didn\u2019t pick a theme for any of these, and my tastes are pretty different, and all the things that I like. So picking favorites is hard. My wife would say I\u2019ve got a really good memory for my work stuff, but not so much for my home stuff. So I\u2019ve really got to think about things like what my favorites are, and things of that nature. Luckily, I remember birthdays and anniversaries, since those are numbers for me. So that\u2019s good. That\u2019s a definite, definite benefit in that field. For the book, I think right now it\u2019d probably be a book called 11\/22\/63, it\u2019s a historical fiction by Stephen King. It\u2019s really interesting, compelling book, not horror, like the rest of his books. So yeah, something I enjoyed, but I had an hour and a half commute at my last job, so I got to digest a lot of different audio books and figure that out all along the way.<\/p>\n
For a movie, it\u2019s probably Remember the Titans, like I said earlier, like being part of awesome, strong teams, and that\u2019s kind of like the pinnacle of that for me, of storming, norming, performing for a strong team.<\/p>\n
And then special food, easy. Pizza. You know, never get tired of it ever, I will always go to pizza with any of you.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, we\u2019ll hold you to that.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, you can.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All right, Katherine.<\/p>\n
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Katherine Spies <\/p>\n
Books is hard because I just. Just am a voracious reader and love books, so I want to take all my books with me, but I would say I would probably choose Ender\u2019s Game. It\u2019s just has evolved from such a- it\u2019s just so crazy to read now versus when I first read it. So the first in that trilogy.<\/p>\n
And then for movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, I will say that early 2000 version is my favorite. The newest one is pretty good, but pretty good. But I would also watch any of those Count of Monte Cristos or bring the book. So I think that would be my movie.<\/p>\n
And then for special food, I would probably say bon bon candies. It\u2019s like a Swedish candy. And you put those bad boys in the fridge and they are so good. So if we\u2019re having pizza, I\u2019m having Bon Bon candies.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Good combo. Nice. Adam.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, let\u2019s see. For for book, I\u2019d have to go with The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. The reason is, I\u2019ve probably read that six different times now, and every time I approach it a different phase of my life, I read it completely differently and get a different lesson out of it. And I\u2019m sure I could read it, you know, another dozen times until I\u2019m, you know, 80 years old, and get a different lesson out of it each time. And it\u2019s probably also fitting reading it on a desert island, because it\u2019s a somewhat, you know, adventurous, philosophical book.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, as far as movie I would say The Matrix. The original one, because I really like the Sci Fi genre, but that one also has a lot of, like, really high philosophy to it, and also it came out when I was nine years old. So as you could tell, I was a pretty impressionable nine year old. So that one stuck with me, and I\u2019ll always watch that when it\u2019s on.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s see food. This is kind of cheating, but like a meat and cheese board, or like a charcuterie board, it\u2019s really like 30 different foods, which is why I love it.<\/p>\n
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Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, it does feel like a luxury, yeah.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And I tell my wife whenever she\u2019s like, \u201cHey, what do you want to have for your birthday? Or what should we have for a party?\u201d I\u2019m like, Let\u2019s do, like, a spread of a bunch of stuff. And so I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s cheating, but that\u2019s what I do.<\/p>\n
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Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Love that. Adult Lunchables.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, they\u2019re adult Lunchables. Thank you. Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So Lauren top that one.<\/p>\n
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Lauren Edgar <\/p>\n
Oh boy, for a book, I might actually take the creative solution and say I would want to bring a photo book with pictures of family, friends and my dog. I know that that would if I was away from them for a year, I\u2019d want to see their faces.<\/p>\n
For a movie. If we\u2019re on a desert island, I\u2019m leaning towards something like Castaway or Swiss Family Robinson. Maybe for some inspiration, get some ideas of how we would live there for a bit.<\/p>\n
And then special food can\u2019t go wrong with ice cream. And you know, after we\u2019ve had our pizza and bon bons, let\u2019s wash it down and some ice cream. The charcuterie board can be the appetizer to start us off. But I feel like ice cream always lifts me up when I\u2019m in a in a low mood.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love that. Favorite flavor of ice cream?<\/p>\n
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Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It is so hard to pick just one flavor. I think growing up, I would have said mint chocolate chip. But, you know, there\u2019s cookie dough. And I love, like, you know, some of the more creative flavors that are out now, like, give me a good pumpkin spice would be really nice this time of year. I can\u2019t choose.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I was gonna say, are you a chocolate or a fruit person?<\/p>\n
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Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I do tend to lean more on the sweet end, like chocolate or vanilla base with things mixed in, but sometimes a nice strawberry ice cream. Like, sounds great, yeah. Who wants to go out for ice cream after this?<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, pizza and ice cream.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 18:23<\/p>\n
Love that. Erin?<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All right, for book I love to read, so it\u2019s hard to pick a favorite. Right now, my current spiel is, I\u2019m on this journey of like human history. I had a collection of essays given to me by a mentor one time called The Lessons of History. And it was so well written by these historians who had spent their whole life publishing, traveling the world and publishing about human history, that it kind of inspired me to go on this journey. So I\u2019m in the midst of their like 10 volume, 1000s of pages, trying to gain some perspective. So probably just like a big book of human history that will keep me entertained for a long time.<\/p>\n
All right, for movie, I\u2019ve always been a fan of the original Twister with Helen Hunt, and-<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I just watched that.<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Oh, it\u2019s so good. I think it\u2019s something about the theme of, like, a strong female protagonist leading a team of scientists on this epic adventure, and there\u2019s like, a positive outcome at the end. It kind of seems fitting for like a life story. But watch the movie if you haven\u2019t seen it. Great soundtrack as well.<\/p>\n
Special food, I would say, like fresh vegetables. That sounds silly and lame, but like, it\u2019s so hard to get fresh vegetables when you eat out or, like, especially. She on an island where everything has to be like brought in. You know, it\u2019s hard to get produce. I think that would be a good, a happy balance.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Wow. So between the five of you, I think we have a good gourmet meal. We have some amazing pizza, hot, cold, frozen, all of it, all of it. I agree too. What\u2019s amazing I would I want to be on a desert island with this particular group, no biases, but you guys have all a lot of my favorites, the movies, the books I love, that Cameron your book had a title of a number.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah. Maybe that\u2019s telling, huh?<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, a little bit.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Huh, strange.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
So four out of five of you have mentioned your ROTC, ROTC experience, and so I wanted to ask you a little bit about your background in your military experience and how that compares to being an astronaut. So have you thought a little bit about that? And can you tell us if what you\u2019ve experienced in your previous life, your previous career, has prepared you for what you\u2019re about to begin?<\/p>\n
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Katherine Spies <\/p>\n
One thing I know, actually Adam and I were talking about just the other day, is how much of what we learn in the military is about understanding the risk in front of you and then determining or figuring out a way to mitigate that risk, right? And so we just developed that skill set over many years, inside and outside the cockpit as aviators. And I think that skill set, particularly coming to the NASA team, there\u2019s a really nice overlap there with what we anticipate the work here being. And I think sometimes, you know the mitigation is, is where we focus, but it\u2019s really identifying those risks, being able to take the time, and you need the right people in the room to be able to do it right. So that\u2019s a that\u2019s that\u2019s a team event. You need people with different perspectives and different backgrounds to come together to be able to highlight those different areas of risk so that you can start to figure out a path forward. And I think when we look towards our previous work in our squadrons, but then certainly now here at JSC, like, you know, we\u2019ve been here for five days. So there\u2019s people that have been here, you know, for 30 or 40 years, and so being able to be at the table with such seasoned professionals will be super exciting, as we\u2019re able to layer our perspective with their perspectives and and see what\u2019s in front of us and how we achieve the missions put before us.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann <\/p>\n
Yeah, and to pile on to what Kate said, we get to practice those skills operationally, but then when you move into test flying, we also get the experience of, you know, the majority of your time is not in the cockpit doing the thing in the air to get the mission. It\u2019s all the planning that you do with the engineering team ahead of time. The planning, the practice, the simulation, so that when you do that flight to get the data to accomplish the mission, you\u2019re as prepared as you can possibly be for every contingency, and you\u2019ve worked as a team and practiced all that together with the folks in the control room and the engineers on the ground beforehand. So having not been on the other side myself, I would expect that would translate pretty well to what NASA does. But instead of airplanes, it\u2019s for human space flight.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yeah, and pile on for the test perspective, I think just evaluating airplanes that have infinite degrees of freedom in terms of design space, it\u2019s pretty easy for a pilot to look at something and be like, I don\u2019t like this, or I do like this, but figuring out the solution that 95% of people are going to like and why that is the case, I think is directly applicable when you\u2019re designing any new widget, like a new spacecraft, for example. So I think that\u2019ll be useful.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Erin, what about you?<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash <\/p>\n
I think there is a misperception from a lot of people around me, you know, like wanting to be an astronaut, but they don\u2019t have the background or the desire to be a test pilot. You definitely don\u2019t have to be a test pilot. It seems like the perspective test pilots bring is probably from the test test pilot school really teaches you, like on an academic level, how do you communicate technical details? How do I explain the fact that I\u2019m feeling negative G in the cockpit, like my legs are floating up, but I somehow have to go full lateral stick, but I also have no like reference to push my body around, and what that feels like, and how that affects my controllability of the airplane, and what the airplane is doing in response to communicate something that dynamic in words and phrases that people who are not aviators can connect to. I think that\u2019s probably like the skill that we bring just because Test Pilot School provides that academic background and that training. So, you know, a lot of people in our class have test pilot backgrounds, but really, I think that\u2019s, you know, we\u2019re bringing this like technical communication, technical writing ability with us. You know, just for all those people out there who don\u2019t have any intent of joining the military or learning how to fly.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
I have a follow up question for you. Okay, at the beginning of our podcast, when you introduced yourself, you shared your call sign with us. Can we hear a little bit about that story?<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yes, My call sign is politically correct. Loft stands for \u201clook out for that tree.\u201d I was not flying. Don\u2019t worry. I was walking.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
You were walking! Okay.<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The context is, there was an there was a day I was gonna go do this, like, once in a lifetime flight, and I got to shoot this really cool, really large weapon, and we were gonna go sink a ship, and it was all for training. And my wing man was an O6. He was my boss\u2019s boss. So like, the highest ranking person in our air wing. It was a big deal that he was next to us. And it was a big deal that my, my WSO and I were able my weapon systems officer, that\u2019s the back seat of the F-18. We were going to get to have this opportunity. So the highest ranking guy and my commanding officer, my boss, were our wing man to, like, make sure we didn\u2019t mess up. No pressure.<\/p>\n
So I have the keys to the rental car. I\u2019m looking behind me as we walk out of the building. We have to fly to our jets on the flight line. We were in Guam and of the like, four parking lots and two grass fields, there was one tree, and I managed to walk right into it while looking backwards, and I hit my head so hard that my squadron mates turned and looked around. They\u2019re like, Oh my gosh. Are you okay? Yeah. And I had broken my glasses. They were like, hanging crooked off my face. I had split my eyebrow open, so I was, I was like, dripping tons of blood, and here comes my boss\u2019s boss, who\u2019s riding in the car with me, and he\u2019s the first person to see me bleeding. And he\u2019s like, are you okay? Can you still fly? And I\u2019m like, desperately wiping this off my face at this point. I\u2019m like, yeah, absolutely everything\u2019s fine, sir. Here\u2019s the keys you can drive.<\/p>\n
So we walk into the maintenance desk to, like, actually sign for our jets. And that\u2019s when my commanding officer sees me, my boss, and he\u2019s like, Oh my gosh. Are you okay? Like, it looked worse. So into the story we like, we still go fly the flight. I had like, a band aid on, and at some point I was pulling Gs in the jet, and it felt like I was crying tears of blood, but it was like the blood coming out of my face. So anyway, I landed. I absolutely needed stitches, but I was like, my wound was, like, swollen and a little bit dried out at that point, and so I couldn\u2019t get stitches. And my flight doc was mad at me. Walked around with this huge open gash on my face, which looked terrible for a month, but we shot the weapon, and it was a successful flight, and it was awesome.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love that.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Worth it.<\/p>\n
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Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And amazingly, you don\u2019t have a scar or anything! Wow!<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So that\u2019s where that call sign came from.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s where that that\u2019s where Loft comes from.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Wow, did the four of you know this story?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar <\/p>\n
No, I\u2019m I\u2019m learning today,<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Adam, you mentioned your call sign too.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann <\/p>\n
I did. However, my story is not as good as as Loft\u2019s and in the Air Force, we have the tradition of not sharing your call sign story unless someone buys you a beer. So if anyone on the podcast finds me someday, I\u2019ll be happy to show you the story of that one, but\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I\u2019m buying you a beer.<\/p>\n
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Adam Fuhrmann\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Okay, yeah, let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Thank you guys so much for that background. Now I know that there is always an interesting way that you get this job. You get the call. You\u2019re probably beside yourself when you get the call, or you\u2019re like me, really, I can\u2019t believe it. So we\u2019ve had people in interesting places that have received the call, and if you have an interesting place you were in, I would love to hear where you were when you received the call to say, Hey, you\u2019re about to become an astronaut candidate. Or if you don\u2019t have an interesting story about where you were, I would love to hear because you you have to move to Houston, so you have to tell your family. So who is the first person you told?<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones <\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s Cameron. I\u2019ll start this off. So we found out about two months ago that we got the job. About two months and three days ago, I made a military move from California to Washington, DC. So I was sitting on the floor of my new house with my wife and daughter next to me when Joe gave us the call to say, Hey, do you want the job? So we hadn\u2019t even gotten any furniture or our box was delivered for that house yet, but we were still super pumped, and everyone was around me that\u2019s close to me, so it was really cool to get to share that moment, and then we had to figure out how we were gonna get out of that house and into a house down here. So that was the last two months.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Well, at least you didn\u2019t have to pack again.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. We kind of camped for the six weeks we were in DC, in the house, and left about 90% of everything packed, and then got to find out what. Was broken when we got here, nice, kind of waiting game.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That\u2019s actually really cool. That was interesting.<\/p>\n
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Katherine Spies\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And like Cameron said, you know, it\u2019s a long time to wait. And so the first person I told was my mom, and I\u2019m sure, like all moms before her, when they find out their kid is going to be a NASA, they\u2019re just like, over the moon, right? It\u2019s, it\u2019s cool for a parent and but I will say, you know, like, Mom, you really can\u2019t share it with anybody. And, you know, she\u2019s right, but you know, maybe my, my dear friends that I walk with, I\u2019m like, Mom, you you can\u2019t tell anybody, like you\u2019re not allowed to tell anybody. And it\u2019s like, you know, what about the the 150 people at church, or, like, the all the people at the pickleball club, at the book club? At the end, you\u2019re like, it has been a tough two months to be Jeannie Spies, and she is bursting at the seams and so excited for Monday so that she can share. And I think, like all, you know, all parents, they\u2019re all so excited for us. And it\u2019s been a, it\u2019s a hard, it\u2019s a hard two months to wait with that information.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Jones <\/p>\n
I can echo that sentiment from my side.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Who else? Lauren?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar <\/p>\n
Yeah, so I actually gotten a heads up that calls might be going out that day. And so you kind of look at the clock, and you start, you know, wondering if a call is going to come through. And then, you know, business hours in Houston kind of came and went, and you\u2019re like, bummer. Didn\u2019t get a call. Like, you know, thanks for playing, but try again. And so I was home at that point and a call comes through from an unknown number. But I actually had a contractor planning to come to my house the next day. So I thought it was probably like calling to confirm your appointment, and then answered the phone, and, you know, Joe [Acaba] introduced himself, and April Jordan was there too, and they started laughing, probably because I sounded so surprised that that was who was on the other end of the line. So yeah, I was super excited and humbled to get that call. The first person I told, I guess, was my dog, because she was the only one home with me, and then immediately called my husband and my family, and I have some family that lives in Sydney, Australia, and so it was really fun to connect with them and tell my niece and nephew about this. But I think everyone is really excited to be able to talk freely about this. Instead of keeping this secret that we have had for two months.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
You have some really good secret keepers in your family is two months, and we still have a whole weekend!<\/p>\n
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Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And probably some really bad secret keepers too.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I imagine there are some leaks.<\/p>\n
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Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Well, I know the world can\u2019t wait to meet you, Erin or Adam. Do you guys have a fun story?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Fuhrmann <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see. When I got the call, I was driving home from work on a pretty busy highway, like Rush Hour, and when, you know, I answered the phone and it was Joe, I could hear what he was saying, but it didn\u2019t really sink in. And in order to not run off the road, I just took the first exit that was available and just parked in a random parking lot to let it sink in. And it was definitely a strange combination of disbelief, excitement and then just gratitude to be able to have the opportunity to join this team. And then finished up the drive home and immediately told my wife and kids, and then I think my parents, are who I called that night. But it\u2019s really cool moment, something you dream of.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
I can only imagine. Erin?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash <\/p>\n
Yeah, it was a Monday evening, and I remember there had been like a JSC all hands, something or other. So people who worked here had heard that calls had gone out, and all of a sudden our, like, chat group with our interview people, our fellow interview people, were like, Did you guys hear about this? Is this true? Did anyone get a call? What\u2019s going on? Did you get a call? And, like, I hadn\u2019t gotten a call. I was at the gym. It was like seven o\u2019clock. I\u2019m like, Okay, well, I guess that\u2019s it for me. I\u2019ll just, you know, go home, keep living my life, about to go on deployment, we\u2019ll keep training. And it was like 8:30 that night, and similar to Lauren, like, you get the call, and it\u2019s just an unlisted number. It says unknown. And I remember my spouse and I were on the couch together, and all of a sudden we\u2019re like, oh my, this might be it. And so we\u2019re like, flinging blankets and pillows trying to find the remote to turn the TV off. And we had this, like, last moment of looking at each other, knowing that, like, our lives could be about to change. And then, you know, answered the call, and it was Joe and April, and they, they offered us, that offered me the job, and they said, if you still want it, and my first words on this phone call were, \u201cno way. I mean, I mean, yes, of course. But like, no way.\u201d And I\u2019m sure, as we, like, we probably all experienced, like you can\u2019t go to sleep after that, like you\u2019re just so amped up, like it\u2019s such an awesome moment. So Liz and I went for a walk on the beach, and for like, the rest of the evening, the only word I could say was, every few minutes I would just look at her and be like, \u201cWow\u2026 Wow. Wow! Can you believe it? Wow!\u201d Oh, it was awesome.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren Edgar\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s actually several days where you don\u2019t hear anything and you think you were hallucinating, yeah, and all you have is an unknown number at a certain time to point back to on your phone. You\u2019re like, was that convinced that you, like, dreamed the whole thing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash <\/p>\n
And you like, have to you, like, need to tell your job so that they can replace you. Like, I had a squadron waiting for me, and they\u2019re on the boat crossing the ocean to go to a combat zone. And I\u2019m like, well, I need to tell my next boss that I\u2019m not coming so you can, like, execute your backup plan. But I also had, like, no official anything from anyone. I had just had this phone call from an unknown number. I can\u2019t even give you, like, a point of contact to talk to, maybe.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones <\/p>\n
Trust me, Boss, I\u2019m an astronaut.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erin Overcash\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Please take my word for it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
My goodness, I think we need to ask the astronaut office to record the phone calls next time and put them as part of the podcast, just to hear \u201cNo way!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Jones <\/p>\n
Might be an embarrassing reaction.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love that. Well, thank you guys so much. I really enjoyed chatting with all of you, and I hope the world gets to know you. Congratulations once again. I wish you nothing but the best as you begin the next two years of the rest of your life. Thanks for being here.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everyone<\/p>\n
Awesome. Thank you.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nilufar Ramji <\/p>\n
Thank you so much for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed getting to know this new astronaut candidate class.<\/p>\n
You can check out the latest from all around the agency at nasa.gov<\/a> and you can find out more about the new class of astronaut candidates at nasa.gov\/astronauts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our full collection of episodes and all of the wonderful NASA podcasts are online at nasa.gov\/podcasts<\/a>. And to find out more about the astronaut application process, check out episodes 136<\/a> and 325.5<\/a>, and then you can also meet the previous astronaut classes on episodes 2<\/a>, 325<\/a>, and 392<\/a>.<\/p>\n On social media, we are on the NASA Johnson Space Center pages of Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>. And if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, you can email us at nasa-houstonpodcast@mail.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n This interview was recorded on September 19, 2025.<\/p>\n Our producer is Dane Turner. Audio engineers are Will Flato and Daniel Tohill. And our social media is managed by Kelcie Howren. Houston, we have a podcast was created and is supervised by Gary Jordan. Big thanks to Chelsey Ballarte for helping to bring this episode to life. And of course, thanks again to our NASA astronaut group 24 for taking the time to come on the show.<\/p>\n Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you\u2019re listening to us on, and tell us what you think of our podcast. We\u2019ll be back next week.<\/p>\n 3\u2026 2\u2026 1\u2026 This is an official NASA podcast.<\/p>\n