INTERVIEW WITH AN ASTRONAUT
Name: Terry Virts
Age: 51
Title at NASA: Astronaut
How long were you at NASA:
16 years
Where were you born? I was born in Baltimore, MD.
Do you have any brothers or sisters? I am an only child.
What was your favorite subject in school? Math was my favorite subject, it always came naturally to me and was easy. I also loved history and French, so I had diverse interests.
Who were your heroes or inspirational figures as a kid? The original astronauts from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
Did you always want to be
an astronaut? If not, what did you think you wanted to do? The first book I read in kindergarten was about Apollo, and ever since then I wanted to be an astronaut.
What was your major in college? I majored in applied mathematics at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and minored in French.
How old were you when you began working with NASA? 32
Did you apply to become an astronaut or did NASA recruit you? I applied. While I was still a student at Test Pilot School, NASA made an announcement that they were going to have a new class of shuttle astronauts, so I applied.
Did you have to learn Russian? Was learning Russian hard for you? I had to learn Russian in order to fly on the space station, and especially to launch and land in their Soyuz capsule. It was probably the hardest thing I did as an astronaut, it is much more difficult than French!
What was your astronaut training like? Was it difficult? Fun? I really enjoyed it because it was always a variety. There were some days that I was flying, some learning classroom lessons, some practicing spacewalks, and some doing science. Always something different every day.
What was your favorite part of your NASA training? I enjoyed learning about new camera equipment and how to film movies a lot.
How many times have you been to space? Twice, a two-week mission on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2010, and a 200-day mission in 2014/2015 on a Russian Soyuz.
Before your first mission, were you afraid to go into space? I was a little intimidated. It seemed a little bit...alien...to me.
What was your most exciting mission when you went to space? Nothing beats launching on a space shuttle! But doing space walks was pretty cool, too.
What was zero gravity like? It feels like you’re falling. My first two days were pretty painful, I had a bad headache. But after that I loved it. I eventually got really good at floating and moving around.
What part of being in space did you find the most unexpected? How beautiful Earth was—I knew it would be wonderful, but it was really powerful! So gorgeous.
How was the food on the spacecraft? It actually wasn’t bad, I enjoyed eating. We had a pretty good variety, between American, European, and Russian food.
How do you go to the bathroom in zero gravity? Very carefully! You use airflow to make sure everything goes in the right direction.
What was your favorite part of being in space? Taking pictures and movies of Earth. I could have spent years doing that.
Did anything scary happen during any of your missions? We had an ammonia alarm that made us think that the station was going to die. Luckily, it was a false alarm, but for a while we were pretty concerned.
Do you like standing on Earth or floating in space better? Floating in space, for sure!
What was it like seeing the Earth from outer space? Is there anything about that moment that stood out to you? The first time I saw the planet during daylight, we were flying into a sunrise and the atmosphere was a bright, intense, thin blue line. I had the thought, “I’ve never seen that shade of blue before.”
Do you have a family? Any children? I do. Two kids: a boy and a girl. They are 17 and 20.
How did it feel coming back to Earth? Was it strange being back in gravity? It felt very heavy and dizzy. Luckily, I was able to recover pretty quickly, after just a day or two.
What kind of clothes do you wear in the spacecraft? While I was in space I wore shorts and a polo or t-shirt. But for launch and landing, you wear a big astronaut spacesuit in case there is an air leak, so you can survive in a vacuum.
What piece of advice would you give someone who wants to become
an astronaut? Is there a particular degree and career they should choose? Don’t tell yourself “no”! It’s very hard to do, but unless you try, you’ll never know. NASA requires a technical degree, so some kind of math or science or engineering degree from college is necessary, as a minimum. Flying experience is really good too.
Do you get to keep souvenirs from your time at NASA and your missions to space? I brought some personal items like jewelry and clothes and watches that I kept.
Are you hoping to go back into space? Nope—I retired from NASA and am done.
What do you do now? I speak, write books, and am working on several TV / Movie projects.
In your opinion, what is the greatest mystery about space? How to travel to other star systems.
What do you think about the current space race to Mars? Do you think we will one day be able to live on Mars? Would you want to live there? I have written about this a lot—I hope we will develop the engines we need to get there faster, so a round-trip only takes a year. With current rockets, it would take about 3 years.
What are your hobbies outside of work? Do you fly for fun? If so, what do you like to fly the most? I liked flying the F-16 the most, but unfortunately I can’t anymore now that I’m retired from the Air Force!