Mission Journal 23 — James Talacek: Day 10: Wednesday, June 25th, 2003
WOW! What a day! Mission day ten is usually the day we return to the surface, so to still be here tonight is a great feeling. Since this is a NASA mission we had a special treat today. We participated in a live video link up with the International Space Station. What a feeling… sitting in the world’s only seafloor habitat, talking to the world’s only space station. It was great! Living under the sea is very cool, but “flying across the room” looked even cooler.
Currently living on the space station are astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Listening to Clay speak in Russian to Yuri was very impressive. Yuri played a song on his keyboard for us and we shared our “love” of space food with Ed. Part of our current “space simulation” mission requires us to eat only the same type of food as what is available to those guys. As I told my nephew Austin; “when it’s the ONLY food you have , it starts to taste better”.
Linking up with the space station, along with hearing Peggy’s first hand accounts of living up there for six months, creates a new task for my “to do” list… become an astronaut! Although my current path through life is not leading me in that direction, it is an honor to live underwater with people who have been there and those who are headed there.
Although Garrett & Clay have not flown yet, let me assure you, the have “the right stuff”! I look forward to hearing “we’ve be assigned a flight” from them. We can’t forget about my fellow habitat technician Ryan Snow, who also has “the right stuff”. Although he hasn’t applied to the astronaut office yet, I’ve got a hunch we’ll see him orbiting the earth someday too!
When I took for this job two and a half years ago I never thought I would be living underwater with astronauts. So I’m glad I didn’t stop applying for the job, even after receiving my second “we’ve chosen someone else” letter. Staying determined in my quest is what got me sitting here in the position to be writing this journal. After some of the astronauts told me it took up to ten years of applying for them to be selected , one point became very clear to me… if you’re determined to achieve a goal , NEVER give up trying, no matter what the obstacles are!
Good night from the bottom of conch reef!