A MISSION specialist who was on the last mission in the space shuttle Discovery has been speaking about his experiences.
NASA astronaut Steve Bowen visited the Isle of Man earlier this week alongside four other astronauts who were part of the STS-133 mission in February.
They were invited to the Island as guests of Tynwald as Steve's colleague Nicole Stott is married to the Manxman who runs the space company ManSat.
Speaking about his career as an astronaut Steve explained that it was always surreal coming back to Earth after a mission and said: "A couple of weeks after you land you look back and think 'did I really do that?'"
Steve was the first submarine officer to be selected by NASA in July 2000 as a mission specialist after a career working with submarines. He has been into space three times on the STS-126 Endeavour mission in November 2008, the STS-132 Atlantis mission in May 2010 and the STS-133 Discovery mission this year.
However Steve was not originally supposed to take part in the Discovery mission. It was only when astronaut Tim Kopra had an accident that Steve was chosen to join the crew as his replacement.
isleofman.com reporter Tessa Hawley spoke to Steve about life as an astronaut:
You've visited the Isle of Man as guests of Tynwald this week – what do you make of it?
"It's interesting because I had my expectations sort of established and seeing it from orbit made me want to come here even more. It really has met expectations, it is a beautiful spot and the people are fantastic and lived up to my high expectations. It's really been great."
What is the best thing about going to space?
"I'm very fortunate - the opportunity to contribute to the space programme and to be a part of it and to advance mankind's knowledge, whether you fly in space or not, is just a tremendous thing to be part of. The bonus is being able to fly in space. I never thought I'd be able to fly once let alone three times."
What is the hardest thing about being in space?
"My missions have all been short shuttle missions. I've never spent a lot of time on the International Space Station like Nicole Stott (99 days) and Mike Barratt (199 days) so in that short period of time there isn't really too much you miss apart from your family.
"As far as creature comforts I think ultimately it all comes down to fresh fruit and salad - from my previous experience on submarines that's what you end up missing the most. And a shower!"
You had the opportunity to do a space walk on this mission. How was that?
"When I was doing the space walk I was told to 'stand by' and when the ground tell you to stand by you know you're going to be sitting there for a long time. I made sure I was comfortable and then I had the opportunity to look at the Earth and I was watching the Earth go by and it struck me how amazing it is, as a species, that we are able to come together and organise and function and build something like the International Space Centre.
"It's a pretty significant thing we've accomplished and it makes you realise that if we really are to work together and set our minds to it we can accomplish almost any goal."
What do your family think of what you do?
"I gave from the submarine force and spent 14 years driving submarines so I think they appreciate the fact that I've been around more over the last 10/11 years!
"The stresses are different. The stresses of the job I think are heavier on the family. We're trained and we understand the risks and we know what we are doing. It's such a public event when we launch and when we land and I think that adds to the stress. It's a shorter term stress than my submarine deployments but it is significant.
"Because I was added late, and I really thought Tim was going to make it back and I'd be able to hand the seat back to him, I think my wife packed about two years of stress into the two weeks before we launched. It's just hard. It is hard on the family."
Can you sum up your experience of being in space in three words?
"Unexpected is one of those words because I was not expecting to be on this flight.
"Successful because despite the fact that the mission lost a crew member late we were able to recover and get through all the mission required and even more.
"And then just enjoyable because the other five people on the mission are just great people. I've known them all for 11 years now. Other than Steve Lindsay we were all in the same astronaut class in 2000 – so we've known each other from the beginning when we all showed up."
Click to read our interviews with NASA astronauts Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt and Eric Boe.
