What it's like to live on the International Space Station

In this quick, fun talk, astronaut Cady Coleman welcomes us aboard the International Space Station, where she spent nearly six months doing experiments that expanded the frontiers of science. Hear what it's like to fly to work, sleep without gravity and live life hurtling at 17,500 miles per hour around the Earth. "The space station is the place where mission and magic come together," Coleman says.

I'm an astronaut.

I flew on the space shuttle twice,

and I lived on the International
Space Station for almost six months.

People often ask me the same question,
which is, "What's it like in space?"

as if it was a secret.

Space belongs to all of us,

and I'd like to help you understand why
it's a place that is magic for all of us.

The day after my 50th birthday,

I climbed aboard a Russian capsule,

in Russia,

and launched into space.

Launching is the most
dangerous thing that we do,

and it's also the most thrilling.

Three, two, one ... liftoff!

I felt every single bit of the controlled
fury of those rocket engines

as they blasted us off the Earth.

We went faster and faster and faster,

until, after eight and a half minutes,
on purpose, those engines stop --

kabunk! --

and we are weightless.

And the mission and the magic begin.

Dmitry and Paolo and I
are circling the Earth

in our tiny spacecraft,

approaching the space station carefully.

It's an intricate dance
at 17,500 miles an hour

between our capsule,
the size of a Smart Car,

and the space station,
the size of a football field.

We arrive when those two craft dock
with a gentle thunk.

We open the hatches,

have sloppy zero-G hugs with each other,

and now we're six.

We're a space family, an instant family.

My favorite part about living up there

was the flying.

I loved it.

It was like being Peter Pan.

It's not about floating.

Just the touch of a finger

can actually push you across
the entire space station,

and then you sort of
tuck in with your toes.

One of my favorite things
was drifting silently

through the space station,

which was humming along at night.

I wondered sometimes
if it knew I was there,

just silent.

But sharing the wonder
of that with the crew

was also part of what was important to me.

A typical day in space
starts with the perfect commute.

I wake up, cruise down the lab

and say hello to the best
morning view ever.

It's a really fast commute,
only 30 seconds,

and we never get tired
of looking out that window.

I think it reminds us that we're
actually still very close to Earth.

Our crew was the second ever
to use the Canadian robotic arm

to capture a supply ship
the size of a school bus

containing about a dozen
different experiments

and the only chocolate that we would see
for the next four months.

Now, chocolate aside,
every single one of those experiments

enables yet one more
scientific question answered

that we can't do down here on Earth.

And so, it's like a different lens,

allowing us to see the answers
to questions like,

"What about combustion?"

"What about fluid dynamics?"

Now, sleeping is delightful.

My favorite -- I mean, you could be
upside down, right side up --

my favorite: curled up
in a little ball and floating freely.

Laundry? Nope.

We load our dirty clothes
into an empty supply ship

and send it off into space.

The bathroom.

Everyone wants to know.

It's hard to understand,
so I made a little video,

because I wanted kids to understand

that the principle of vacuum saves the day

and that just a gentle breeze
helps everything go

where it is supposed to.

Well, in real life it does.

(Laughter)

Recycling? Of course.

So we take our urine, we store it,
we filter it and then we drink it.

And it's actually delicious.

(Laughter)

Sitting around the table,

eating food that looks bad
but actually tastes pretty good.

But it's the gathering around
the table that's important,

I think both in space and on Earth,

because that's what cements
a crew together.

For me, music was a way to stay connected
to the rest of the world.

I played a duet between Earth and space

with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

on the 50th anniversary
of human spaceflight.

Connecting to family was so important.

I talked with my family almost every day
the whole time I was up there,

and I would actually read books to my son
as a way for us just to be together.

So important.

Now, when the space station
would go over Massachusetts,

my family would run outside,

and they would watch the brightest star
sailing across the sky.

And when I looked down,
I couldn't see my house,

but it meant a lot to me to know
that the people I loved the most

were looking up while I was looking down.

So the space station, for me, is the place
where mission and magic come together.

The mission, the work are vital steps

in our quest to go further than our planet

and imperative for understanding
sustainability here on Earth.

I loved being a part of that,

and if I could have taken
my family with me,

I never would have come home.

And so my view from the station showed me

that we are all from the same place.

We all have our roles to play.

Because, the Earth is our ship.

Space is our home.

And we are the crew of Spaceship Earth.

Thank you.

(Applause)