SpaceX’s very first Crew Dragon astronauts have been on the International Space Station for several weeks now.
On Tuesday, June 16, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley gave their second live interview from space, answering questions from a number of news networks.
Asked what advice they would have for the many boys and girls watching from around the world who are inspired by what they’re doing and what they’ve achieved, Behnken offered some words of encouragement on how to prosper in the years ahead.
“Nothing is more important than what you’re doing right now, and being successful at that. If you have dreams of becoming an astronaut, the path to that goal is accomplished by a series of successes, it’s not just a single event that you can accomplish and then be selected to be an astronaut.
“It’s an education of excellence, it’s a career of excellence, and folks are selected from that group, and so try to focus at being excellent at what you’re doing right now, and of course, education is a critical piece of that.
“Both Doug and I can look back at our younger years and find things in science or mathematics that inspired us to continue our education, inspired us to go into engineering fields, and inspired us to eventually go into the military to fly or work on airplanes, and then on to be astronauts. So I’d say search for that inspiration and just be excellent at it.”
In the 25-minute interview, the pair also talked about what surprised them most during the ride up in the Crew Dragon, the work they’re doing on the space station, and their thoughts about the journey back, likely to take place sometime in August 2020.
The two NASA astronauts gave their first live interview from the space station earlier this month. The pair made history on May 30 when they became the first astronauts to ride inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in a mission that marked the first crewed launch from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.
Fancy taking a look around the space station where Behnken and Hurley, along with their three colleagues, will be living and working for the coming months? Then check out this page for some suggestions on how to peek inside.
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