Skip to main content

‘We fixed the treadmill’ — Crew Dragon’s Doug and Bob chat from space

SpaceX’s very first Crew Dragon astronauts appear to be settling into life on the International Space Station (ISS) following their arrival there last week.

Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken gave their first full interview (below) from the ISS on Monday, discussing topics during the 20-minute broadcast that included the trip up, what they’ve been up to since arriving, and how they hope their work will inspire others.

Expedition 63 InFlight Event with ABC and NBC - June 8, 2020

Behnken said he was impressed with how well SpaceX and NASA’s training and simulation program matched the actual experience of the trip to the space station from launch to docking, though he added, “You just can’t simulate what it feels like to ride on a rocket into orbit — the vibrations, the coming alive of the engines, the coming alive of each stage as you sequence through the activities of loading, and the first stage igniting, and then the second stage igniting and continuing all the way into orbit, and finally the small engines that are around the vehicle that fire,” noting the “interesting melody” that could be heard while executing a burn to edge the spacecraft toward the ISS.

Asked what they’ve been up to in recent days, Hurley said they’d managed to fix the treadmill, part of the station’s important exercise equipment that helps astronauts keep fit during their stay on the orbiting outpost. The pair are also working on a range of science experiments as well as prepping for spacewalks toward the end of the month, among other tasks.

Hurley praised SpaceX for the way the team worked quickly to solve problems in the development of the Crew Dragon, an effort that culminated in the first astronaut launch from U.S. soil since the ending of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

“When SpaceX put their mind to a particular problem in the development of the Crew Dragon, it’s all hands on deck and they worked very hard, and very quickly to what Bob and I were used to in the military as test pilots,” Hurley said. “It was really neat to see the teams come together to develop solutions to the problems that we encountered as we worked through the full development of the Crew Dragon.”

The two astronauts also spoke of their desire to see the younger generation follow in their footsteps, saying they hoped their mission, and others like it, “inspire children to jump into the science and technology field, engineering.”

There’s also a fair bit of talk about Tremor the dinosaur, a soft toy the astronauts’ young sons chose to join their fathers on their groundbreaking space trip.

Fancy taking a virtual trip around the living space currently occupied by Hurley and Behnken? Then dive into this Street View-style panoramic experience on board the space station and take a look around.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Four Crew-5 astronauts return home safe from International Space Station
Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, left, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, right, are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Shannon shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Saturday, March 11, 2023. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina are returning after 157 days in space as part of Expedition 68 aboard the International Space Station.

A crew of four astronauts has returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS), splashing down  in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, late on Saturday, March 13. The Crew-5 astronauts traveled in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and made a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. ET (6:02 p.m. PT), at which point, they were picked up using a recovery ship and taken back to Tampa to catch a plane to Houston.

The crew consisted of NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, plus Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. The four have spent nearly six months on the orbiting space station, working on projects including scientific research and spacewalks to upgrade space station hardware.

Read more
SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts arrive safely at space station
The space station crew all together following the arrival of SpaceX's Crew-6 in March 2023.

SpaceX's four Crew-6 members have safely boarded the International Space Station (ISS) following a voyage that lasted about 27 hours.

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:34 a.m. ET on Thursday and reached the orbital outpost about 24 hours later.

Read more
NASA eyes weather for Thursday’s Crew-6 launch. Here’s how it’s looking
From left, NASA astronauts Warren “Woody” Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a dress rehearsal for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission launch on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.

NASA and SpaceX are making final preparations for its first crewed launch since October 2022.

The Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:34 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 2 (9:34 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1).

Read more