00:00All right, now for some of you, this is not your first introduction to NASA, and we are excited
00:04to have you back. So Lauren, Yuri, and Becky, tell us about your previous experiences here at NASA
00:11and what your job was at the time of selection. All right, I'm Lauren Edgar, and I am so excited
00:18and honored to be here today. My NASA experience actually dates back to my days as a NASA intern
00:23working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I spent two summers there, and then I participated
00:28in a number of NASA programs throughout college and grad school. More recently, I've been
00:33working at the U.S. Geological Survey and helping to contribute to the exploration of the moon
00:38and Mars. So I've participated in NASA missions, I've contributed to some of the geology training
00:44and testing, I've worked on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Curiosity Mars Rover Mission,
00:49working with JPL, and most recently, the Artemis III science team. And through these experiences,
00:54I've had the chance to see the amazing team that makes this all possible, and I just
00:58wanted to say I am so excited to be officially part of the NASA family, and can't wait to be
01:03serving
01:03in this role along with all of my new classmates here. Thank you.
01:14Hi, my name is Yuri Kubo. Super excited to be here and deeply honored to be a part of this
01:19class,
01:20as well as the NASA family. Actually, much like Lauren, I started here back in college. I was a co
01:27-op,
01:28right here at the Johnson Space Center, actually, feels a lot like a kind of a homecoming, a really
01:32nice homecoming to come back. So I spent seven tours here at Johnson Space Center across both the
01:37engineering side of the house, as well as the flight operations side. So I got a good taste of what
01:43it
01:43was to be a part of this incredible community of dedicated people. Fast forward to more recently,
01:49I was, at the time of selection, I was a senior vice president of engineering at a company called
01:54Electric Hydrogen, where I was working with an amazing team trying to build electrolyzers that split
02:01water into oxygen and hydrogen to make energy for a lot of key industries. Thanks.
02:15Hi, I'm Becky Lawler, and it is just an awesome honor to be able to be up here today. My
02:21previous work
02:22with NASA was actually through interagency work that NASA does. When I was in the Navy, I flew as a
02:27guest
02:27research pilot on Operation Ice Bridge in the NASA P3 out of northern Greenland. I was giving away the next
02:34part. My second time working with NASA when I was working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
02:40Administration, sometimes referred to as NOAA, and I was a NOAA commissioned officer, and I got to work
02:46with NASA on certifying instruments that were really important in forecasting hurricanes during hurricane
02:52seasons for the NOAA hurricane hunters. And at the time of my selection, I was United Airlines flight test
02:58captain and technical pilot, which is a test pilot. And I'm so excited to use all those experiences and
03:04everything to be a part of this incredible team and play my role in our endeavors as a class.
03:17Okay, and now two of you come to us with a medical background. So Anna and Mel, tell us a
03:23little bit about your background and what you're excited for in the future of space medicine.
03:29Hi, I'm Anna Menon, and I was here at NASA's Johnson Space Center. I worked as a biomedical flight controller,
03:37and in that role, our job was to support the medical hardware and software on the International Space Station and
03:44help keep the astronauts healthy and safe from mission control.
03:47I am so thrilled to be back here with the NASA family. And, you know, as I reflect on the
03:53future of space medicine, I think it's really bright.
03:56We are born into 1G. And so when you go into 0G, so many things change. As more and more
04:05people venture into space and we seek to go further than ever before, we have this awesome opportunity to learn
04:11a tremendous amount to help support those astronauts and those people that are flying in those
04:17adventures and help keep them healthy and safe. So it's an exciting time to be here and I couldn't be
04:21more thrilled than honored.
04:30My name is Imelda Muller. I sometimes go by Mel. And previously, I was an undersea medical officer with the
04:37Navy. And that experience gave me the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams in experimental and saturation diving.
04:44And I developed a passion for learning about the way the body adapts in extreme environments. And this led me
04:52to pursue medical residency training in anesthesia, where I deepened that understanding of how our body responds when it's under
04:59stress.
05:00I'm incredibly excited to be here alongside this team and to build on that foundation with the greater NASA community
05:08because, as Anna alluded to, with upcoming exploration missions, we are pushing the boundaries of human performance.
05:15And the lessons that we learn, the knowledge that we gain, all of these things are going to help us
05:21to excel not just in space, but in areas of human health here on Earth.
05:26The future of space medicine is now and I'm incredibly honored to be here with this team.
05:41We have six test pilots in the group. The following questions are for a few of you. Our jet pilots,
05:49Adam, Cameron and Aaron.
05:51One of the highlights of my career was being the person, along with April Jordan, to let you know that
06:00you had been selected to join the astronaut corps.
06:04The responses were varied and they were awesome.
06:09So, two questions. What was it like to get that call and how do you think your flight test background
06:18will help you in your astronaut training?
06:22Hello, everyone.
06:23At first, I was just in disbelief. I had to take the first exit and finish the conversation in a
06:29parking lot just to make sure I was hearing you right, Joe.
06:32But then came the excitement and just extreme gratitude for the opportunity to join this amazing team.
06:37And I was happy to finish the drive home and share that news with my wife and kids who are
06:41here with us today.
06:43As far as experience in flight test, as test pilots, we don't do anything on our own.
06:48We work with amazing teams of engineers and maintenance professionals to plan, simulate, and then execute complex and sometimes risky
06:57missions in aircraft to collect data and accomplish a mission.
07:00All while assessing risk and making smart calls as a team to do that as safely as possible.
07:06And I'm happy to try to bring some of that experience to do the same thing with the NASA team
07:09and learn from everyone at Johnson Space Center how to apply those lessons to human space flight.
07:21Hey, everybody. I'm Cameron Jones. I got the call from Joe in April about two months ago.
07:27And about two months and three days ago, I just finished a cross-country move from California to D.C.
07:32So we were sitting on the floor of our new empty house, my wife, my daughter, and I with no
07:39furniture.
07:40And the call came through. And I don't think my one-year-old knew exactly what was going on, but
07:44I must have had a pretty big smile on my face
07:46because she let out a perfectly timed gleeful scream that went through both sides of the call and got good
07:51laughs from the other end of the phone as well.
07:53So I'm also really excited to be here, but that brings up my test pilot skill that I'm going to
07:58focus on, which is adaptability and resiliency.
08:00So maybe it's a move across country. Maybe it's a dynamic situation up in an airplane.
08:05But I think that'll transport into this domain.
08:16Hello. I'm Erin Overcash, callsign loft. And when I got the call, I was about a week away from joining
08:22my next squadron on deployment.
08:24So I had my sea bags packed, ready to go meet the aircraft carrier. I had just finished flight training
08:29for the day.
08:29And my spouse and I were on the couch. We get a call from an unknown number and we both
08:34look at each other.
08:35And then we were like throwing blankets and pillows. Oh my gosh, where's the remote? Turn the TV off.
08:40And we had like one last pause of a moment, make an eye contact knowing that this phone call could
08:45change our lives.
08:46And it did. Then the way Joe phrased his part of the conversation, he effectively said, do you still want
08:52the job?
08:53And the first words that I said on the phone were, no way. I mean, I mean, yes, of course,
09:00but like, no way.
09:03And then not specific to my flight test, but just being in the Navy, I think any sailor would tell
09:07you we spend a lot of time stuck in a hot metal box or sometimes a cold metal box in
09:11the middle of the ocean.
09:13And when you share that space with 5,000 people, there's no such thing as privacy or personal space.
09:18And you really have to get to know your people that you work with very well, both good and bad.
09:23You have to learn how to set clear boundaries and respect each other, not just to survive, but really thrive
09:27as a team.
09:28And so that's some perspective I hope to bring to our astronaut candidate group.
09:41We're all very glad that no way meant yes.
09:45So thanks for that.
09:46Now let's talk to our two helicopter pilots, Ben and Kate.
09:51What are you most excited about for your upcoming training?
09:56Yeah, good morning.
09:57I'm Ben Bailey, and the next two years of ASCAN training are exciting.
10:05You know, language training, flight training, spacewalk training, robotics, all of that.
10:11Each one of those would be very exciting in its own right.
10:14I would be excited to do any one of those individually and to look and combine all of those over
10:19the next two years is extremely exciting.
10:21So I can't pick out a single one alone, but all of them together are just fantastic.
10:27And more than that, I'm really excited that the next two years will be spent with the other nine here
10:32on stage with me.
10:33I'm really excited to see everybody's strengths as we tackle those challenges together.
10:45Good morning.
10:46I'm Kathryn Spies, and Ben knows this, but when you're flying a helicopter and you're sitting in the cockpit, there
10:52is a lot going on.
10:54The rotors are vibrating your seat, and you can see the flicker of the blades over the top of your
11:01field of view, and you're reading the instruments, and you've got voices coming into the radio in your helmet.
11:06And all of these inputs are the language of your aircraft.
11:10And it's the same language that connects us across squadrons and other disciplines and even countries.
11:16And this is what makes big things happen.
11:21And I think in the next two years of astronaut candidate training, the thing that I'm super pumped about is
11:27learning the language of human space flight.
11:46Not that we're not having fun already, but how about a little more fun?
11:50So y'all have worked around the world and trained for various career or personal events.
11:56So why don't you share with us something that maybe not everyone would know about you?
12:02Okay, I'll start.
12:03I spent my first year as a naval officer in the Navy's world-class athlete program, so I was effectively
12:09a professional rugby player.
12:11I lived and trained full-time at the Olympic Training Center with the USA rugby team.
12:22I'll go next.
12:24Some of you might be familiar with a sport called Ultimate Frisbee.
12:28What some of you might not know is it became a professional sport, actually, in 2012.
12:33And I had the honor of representing Indianapolis, Indiana as a professional athlete for the inaugural year of that sport.
12:45All right, well, those who know me well, including my nine new best friends on the stage here, know that
12:50I love to do handstands everywhere that I go.
12:53I grew up doing gymnastics, and I've always loved the outdoors.
12:57So it kind of evolved from climb a mountain to a handstand at the top.
13:00But it seems to have followed me everywhere around the world on tops of mountains, on top of glaciers, the
13:05bottom of the Grand Canyon,
13:06pretty much everywhere that I've gone except on this stage today.
13:18Well, Lauren, that is great news.
13:21My New Year's resolution this year was to learn to walk on my hands.
13:25I have made zero progress.
13:29But maybe before the end of December, I can get a few pointers.
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