Letters to Earth: Astronaut Don Pettit
- December 2011
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Here is the list of entries for Letters to Earth: Astronaut Don Pettit based on the selected criteria.
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Please Don’t Squeeze the Astronaut
Dec 22, 2011 02:22:54 PM | Don Pettit
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- Taking human anatomy into account, the toilet facilities on space station have an architecture that expertly aligns the purpose to the environment (such trifles as a toilet seat are not needed when you are weightless). The Soyuz spacecraft is a different matter.
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Godspeed to Earth
Dec 22, 2011 12:36:26 PM | Don Pettit
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- As you get closer to launch you shed earthly possessions, and your worldly stuff becomes meaningless. In my dorm room I give away my things, the tangible items needed on Earth that are of no use to me anymore.
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The Pieces Come Together
Dec 22, 2011 12:18:27 PM | Don Pettit
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- Four days ago our rocket was in pieces, scattered across the floor of the assembly building. Like anxious parents checking on their sleeping children, we took one last peek inside our Soyuz spacecraft. Everything was tucked in where it should be.
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Baikonur Graffiti
Dec 22, 2011 12:14:11 PM | Don Pettit
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- At the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, we scribble on our dormitory room doors shortly before leaving for the launch complex—with an indelible marker, no less. Doing this as a kid would have resulted in a fierce scolding. I know I have had such a talking to, and in turn have talked to my sons.
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Me and My Spacesuit
Dec 22, 2011 12:09:49 PM | Don Pettit
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- Our Soyuz spacesuit is named after the Russian word for falcon: сокол (sokol). It serves only one purpose, to keep us alive in the event of a cockpit depressurization. We venture into a place that is devoid of nearly all matter–a vacuum. This vacuum is as vast as space itself, and in a flash will remove our life-sustaining vapors with no more perturbation than an 18-wheeler smashing a jackrabbit on Route 66. And the effect on your body would be about the same.
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Six Months Turns to Ten
Dec 22, 2011 03:59:30 PM | Don Pettit
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- Space Station expeditions are planned for six months. Some may be a few weeks shorter, some longer. Malfunctions in your spacecraft can impact the mission duration either way by two months or more.
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A One-Way Ticket
Dec 22, 2011 11:48:32 AM | Don Pettit
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- Unlike my previous trips, this time I arrived in Russia on a one-way ticket. My bridge has been burned. And now I’m in Kazakhstan, awaiting our December 21 launch.
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What Makes an Explorer?
Feb 09, 2012 02:28:26 PM | Don Pettit
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- There is a type of social deviate who doesn’t fit in, and who naturally seeks the freedom of the wilderness. The American frontier was settled by that kind of spirit. Ironically, the wilderness of space requires a high degree of social conformity before you are allowed to enter, so today’s pre-selection of candidate explorers effectively requires a different personality type from those who historically ventured into the frontier.
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The Road to Space
Dec 22, 2011 12:00:32 PM | Don Pettit
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- The road to space is a long and arduous path, a meandering trip that in many ways is more demanding than the Space Station mission itself. Training to fly into space is also the next best thing to actually flying into space. And flying into space is what my job is all about.
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