Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (2021) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
[man] Good morning, Shelley.
How are you?
- [woman] Hey, good morning.
- [Sian] Good morning.
[Hayley] Good morning.
- Hi, guys!
- [Chris] Good morning.
[Jared] Briefing objectives today:
familiarization with the
Inspiration4 mission,
uh understand training commitments
and timelines to the best
that I can communicate them.
Okay, so, mission overview here.
We're planning to launch on
a dawn launch and a dawn recovery
for three days.
[Hayley] I was a little intimidated
to be the youngest member of the crew.
You know, I know the least about space,
and I just I didn't want to be weak.
But it's really cool.
You know, all four of us are basically
in a different decade of our lives,
but we click so well that
I don't often feel like I'm the young one.
So we're probably gonna go
into Chris's neck of the woods
for our wilderness
team-building training event,
somewhere in the Cascades,
likely Mount Rainier.
We're gonna be in some intentionally
uncomfortable situations
and, to see how we do as a team.
Here's where it gets serious again.
Our mission to space is not guaranteed.
This is not Top Gun.
We are not the best of the best
being sent to space here.
We still have to take this super serious.
There are a number of ways
that any individual, or the mission,
could be shut down.
If it looks like anything is going to be,
you know, unsafe,
it could be delayed, it could be canceled.
You can fail in training.
Are we willing to accept going up
to space if, you know, three crew members
are really laser focused,
and one's in, you know, Vegas,
like, gambling and drinking
every single night,
and obviously, not coming in prepared
- I'm, like Yeah.
- [Chris] That isn't us.
I'm not looking at you, Chris,
but seriously
[Sian] Come on!
He just has that look.
[Jared] This is the honeymoon period.
Everybody's excited.
But there will be some sort of problems.
People die getting to space,
and people die coming home from space.
And we need to be really focused
on making sure that that is not us.
And that means, like, training it,
and earning it every single day
from here forward,
and acting like we do belong here.
[theme music]
[Jeffrey] Inspiration4 is going to space
in a spacecraft that is capable
of sustaining a crew
for days, or weeks, or months.
This is not buying a car
and piling into it with four people
for a road trip.
They will be equipped
and trained to intervene
in the event of an emergency.
They will be able to fly their spacecraft.
Cool.
[Jared] Sarah Gillis is our lead trainer,
so she's the one responsible
for our entire education
to be prepared for safe flight.
She's ultimately the one
that signs us off,
and the burden of, you know,
will we execute well or not
will really fall on her.
So the first action with the suit
is that you're gonna be
preparing all the openings on the suit.
So what this means is
making sure the visor's open.
There we go.
My name is Sarah Gillis, and I'm 27,
and my job title
is Lead Space Operations Engineer.
I lead our astronaut training program.
This is a great opportunity.
Let's try donning
and doffing your earpieces.
It is gonna be red in your right ear,
blue in your left.
Still not fully in.
We can keep practicing
in just a minute, okay?
[Hayley] Okay.
I want you guys to swim all the way in
and get your hands all the way
through the openings in the sleeves.
I probably knew an embarrassingly
little amount about space
by the time I actually
started to study engineering.
I am a classically trained violinist.
My mother was a professional violinist
and started me when I was two.
Um, she certainly did not raise me
to be an engineer,
she raised me to be a violinist.
So, I played for many,
many years, but it was not
it was never what I was passionate about.
I had a mentor in high school
who set me on the course
to study aerospace engineering.
He was a former astronaut,
and he encouraged me
to apply for engineering.
I had never considered it before that.
You each get one of them to play with.
[Jared] She knows how to be our friend
[Sarah] Three steps to disconnect
the fire extinguisher.
[Jared] because there are times
when that's exactly what we need.
There you go.
And she knows how to keep us in line,
like when we're veering off-course.
[Sian] She's really smart,
and knows the Dragon capsule
and systems inside and out.
I love the fact that she's a woman,
and I love the fact
that she's freaking kick-ass.
[Chris] SpaceX Dragon,
we're ready for a suit-leak check.
[Sarah] Copy, Dragon, you have a go
to initiate the suit-leak check.
[Jared] She's also our core.
The core is like
the NASA equivalent of CapCom.
So she's the voice we're gonna hear
during the actual spaceflight.
[Sarah] Awesome work, you guys.
How you feeling?
Ready to get out of there?
There's two hats that you have
to wear to be successful at that.
One is the operational hat
where you need to understand
exactly what actions you need
to take to keep them safe.
On the other aspect, I care very deeply
about every single one
of these people now.
I'm emotionally invested in it and
you have to separate that out
to be effective at what you do
when you need to wear
your operational hat.
Dragon SpaceX comm check.
For our Crew-2 mission five months ago,
I was on console.
[astronaut] SpaceX Endeavor,
and I hear you loud and clear.
- How you doing, Sarah?
- Copy that, I'm doing well.
Looking forward
to supporting you guys today.
And there was a very late notice,
possible conjunction, so
um, we got word
that there might be an object
that could come very close to Dragon.
For awareness, we have identified
a late-breaking possible conjunction
with a fairly close
miss-distance to Dragon.
We had very little time
and had to respond very quickly.
We do need you to immediately
proceed with suit donning
and securing yourselves in seats.
They were fully configured for sleep.
They need to rapidly
get into their spacesuits,
because in the event
of a depressurization,
where an object punctured
a hole in the spacecraft,
it means that all of the breathable air
inside the cabin
could potentially leave the cabin,
and leave them in a vacuum,
which means they'll get in suits,
100% oxygen will be fed to the suits,
and they'll pressurize.
Suits are little spaceships
that keep them safe
in the event
that their atmosphere disappears.
The time of closest approach
for this event is at 17:43.
And then, there's a time
of closest approach,
exactly when we think the object
would be closest to the capsule.
Please ensure visors are closed
and zippers are closed prior to TCA
in approximately 20 seconds.
[astronaut] SpaceX Endeavour,
we are visors closed and zipped up.
[Sarah] And after that time,
nothing happened.
Dragon SpaceX, we have passed TCA impact.
[Megan] Sarah, I think you said that
we passed the object. Is that correct?
Affirm, Megan.
Immediately, there's this massive weight
that's lifted off your chest.
Um, but it's
That was probably the hardest thing
stepping off console that day,
was the panic for my friends in space.
You can't process it when you're
in the moment, you can't
You can't think about it,
or else you can't do your job,
but as soon as you step off console
you care so deeply about those people
that it it is overwhelming
to think back on what just happened.
I probably still need therapy,
let's be honest.
For Inspiration4, it's a unique situation.
It's our first commercial crew.
The Dragon vehicle is largely
an autonomous vehicle.
The software takes care
of what the vehicle needs to do.
So from that perspective,
what crew get trained on
are the ways in which
they can backup the automation.
There are capabilities that are provided
to them that they need to be trained on
to backup the systems, but
it's a very smart and capable vehicle.
Not only do we need to train them
how to live in Dragon
and be successful in Dragon,
we also need to provide
background on what it's like
to live in space,
how you move in space,
what the space environment actually is.
[Chris] In the very early days
of spaceflight,
when we had much less experience
as a nation, it was quite challenging.
Simulators in those early days
were actual flying machines.
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling too good myself
Oh, no ♪
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling that good myself
Oh, no ♪
[crackling]
Fast forward to today's day and age
when we have the experience
of all those decades,
we really do know how
to prepare people for spaceflight.
[Jared] The biggest differences
in our training versus a normal astronaut
is that we're not going to Space Station,
we're also not doing a space walk,
but outside of that,
it's all going to be the same.
We have a spacecraft we need
to take through a lot of phases of flight.
It's hard, but I absolutely thought,
with my background, like,
I know what to expect, and I got it wrong.
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling too good myself ♪
[Sian] There's a lot of material.
Every week, we would just
get stacks of stuff.
Feeling all right, oh no ♪
[Jared] You're showing up at 7:00 a.m.,
leaving at 7:00 p.m.
There's no gaps in the schedule at all.
You're just taking down
as much coffee as you can,
and then you're coming back
and studying and doing it the next day.
[Sarah] A lot of the training focuses
on operating the Dragon,
knowing how to access cargo,
how to get out equipment.
They're going to have to go
through emergency response.
Ooh!
[Sarah] What food they're gonna eat,
they're gonna have to go
through a selection of food options.
[laughs]
I'm thinking I probably
won't eat much in space.
[Chris] They put us through the wringer
pretty quick.
It really mirrors exactly
what the NASA astronauts all go through.
Oh, no ♪
Whoa, I'm feeling all right, oh no ♪
Yeah, I'm not feeling that good myself
Oh, no ♪
Oh, whoa, I'm lonely ♪
But I'm not feeling good myself
Oh, no ♪
You can turn away ♪
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
[Chris] What makes an effective
crew member on a spacecraft?
The nuts and bolts
of keeping yourself safe,
the nuts and bolts of knowing
how to push buttons and when,
and reading a checklist
is pretty trainable.
The interesting thing about spaceflight
is you can't go to space
to train for space.
You have to train
in Earth-environment simulators,
situations that are
analogous to spaceflight.
And then in your brain,
integrate all of that into a neat package
that prepares you mentally
for what you're getting into.
[Jeffrey] You have to be well-trained
to fly a SpaceX spacecraft.
- Good luck, Commander.
- [Jared] Thank you.
[man] Don't suck!
You have to be brave
to fly a SpaceX spacecraft.
You have to be able
to tolerate a centrifuge.
You have to be able to tolerate G-forces.
Okay, Jared, confirm your location
of that door-release handle, you
- [Jared] Lower right.
- Get back there. Got it, good.
[Jeffrey] You have to be able to
overcome your fear.
[Sarah] Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one. Liftoff.
[Jeffrey] If you go through your training,
maybe you're gonna learn
that you're not qualified to go.
[Sian] Look at him smiling.
He's having a good time.
[laughs]
[Chris] The centrifuge was
where you get the experience
of what it's going to be like
when you launch in the rocket
and what it's gonna be like
when you come back through the atmosphere.
You're going to be experiencing
four-and-a-half times
your own body weight.
It's like a couple of your largest buddies
sitting on your chest, you know,
pushing you into your seat
feeling that for several minutes in a row.
[Hayley] Have you ever done anything
like this?
[Chris] Not this no, not really.
I mean there's just that little one
at space camp they had, you know?
That's not the same, they show
you're flying through these mountains,
and really, you're like,
"Why are they showing me something
that's gonna make me throw up?"
No, but this is cool.
- I think.
- [Hayley] Mm-hmm.
SpaceX Dragon, I think we have splashdown.
And the worst part of this
is that we can't ask him anything.
[Jared] When we did
our centrifuge training,
they separated us after we completed it
because they didn't want us
to tell the next crew member
going up that they had some
some things in store in the centrifuge.
- Do you want your emesis bag?
- Oh, sure, I'll stick one by my leg here.
[door slams]
Well, that's intense.
Do you have any questions?
- No questions.
- [Sarah] Copy that.
Copy.
One G.
And three G.
Now climbing to six Gs.
[alarm blares]
[Jared] Right when everything
was supposed to be normal,
you had this super loud horn going off,
which is exactly the alarm that happens
in Dragon when an emergency triggers off.
Do you want me to silence that?
[alarm blares]
And then some violent shaking.
And ultimately it became a launch escape,
where, you know, the Falcon
became unstable in launch
and Dragon had to separate and come back.
[Sarah] Splashdown.
Dragon SpaceX splashdown.
Copy that. I had nausea here,
by the way, just so you know.
- [man] All right, breathing difficulty?
- None.
- Chest pressure or discomfort?
- None.
- Cough?
- None.
- All right, how about the nausea?
- Um, moderate.
Okay, I'm on my way down to take you out.
[man 2] You okay?
Feel free to use the bag if you need it.
[man] Hey, Chris,
do you have your bag at the ready?
- [retches]
- [Sian] Oh, no
[laughs]
Oh, he's a trooper.
[Chris] At the end we simulated
splashdown in the ocean,
and the boat got a little rocky.
- How are you feeling?
- A little sick after that.
Have you ever thrown up
from being motion sick?
Yeah, I get sick on small boats.
All right.
- You ready?
- No. Yeah.
- [Hayley] Yes, you are.
- I'm ready.
- Hey there, how you doing?
- Just letting the medicine do its thing.
Hopefully, this won't happen in space.
[Sarah] Dragon SpaceX,
nominal trajectory.
Copy nominal trajectory.
Chris forged the way before me,
and so I've gotten to be like,
"Oh, Chris threw up, okay,
I need to think about this."
[man] Did you have any reactions
that surprised you?
A little bit of nausea.
I was this close to being
just right there next to him.
I'm gonna definitely take the docs up
on their offers of anti-nausea medicine
when it comes time.
[interviewer] That's an option?
It is absolutely an option
to take anti-nausea medicine.
I've heard that most astronauts do so.
[Sarah] Six Gs four seconds.
The total profile duration
is approximately a minute and a half.
[man] Hayley, I need you
to keep your eyes open, please.
[Jared] They had flight psychiatrists
there
that were evaluating us on the screens
while it was taking place,
and then afterwards during an interview.
This has implications as us,
as four, you know, human beings
going in a spacecraft, right?
This has implications to SpaceX.
What if this goes wrong?
[Sian] Hayley's doing great.
She's doing great.
- She's just rock solid in there.
- [Sian] She is.
[Sarah] Three, two, one.
[Jared] You know, they have obviously
as much interest as we do
to making sure this is safe
and that the crew that they're sending up
can competently handle, you know,
some pretty difficult circumstances.
That's great.
Coming out of it, everybody was smiling,
everybody was super excited,
everybody was like, "All right,
when do we start the rest of our training?
- Let's get going!"
- That was fun!
Good. Yeah.
And that was kind of the moment
where I was like, "Okay
I think we can get through
probably anything."
[applause]
And for somebody
who's never done this before,
pretty doggone good.
I'm gonna when you guys launch,
I'm gonna come to Florida and watch that.
- Thank you, Glenn.
- I'll be cheering you on, "Go, go!"
- Hello!
- [Colleen] Hey!
Hi.
I can't wait to tell you
all about the day.
The day I got back to St. Jude
after my big announcement
that I was going to space,
I was stopped by this mother and daughter,
and the mom came up to me,
and she had tears in her eyes.
And she said, "I just wanted
to thank you for what you're doing.
This mission is giving my daughter
so much hope."
I asked the little girl, I said,
"What's been going on?"
And she said she was feeling discouraged
because she can't run
or jump like her siblings can.
And I told her, you know,
I can't run or jump
like my little brother either.
But I said, "It's not stopping me
from going to space."
She can do this too.
If I can do it, she can do it.
And you don't need to run
or jump to accomplish dreams.
[Colleen] Are you more excited,
or more afraid?
I'm not scared at all right now.
[Colleen] Good.
After that, I was walking back
to my office with tears in my eyes
because I was like,
this is why we're going on this mission.
[Colleen] Okay. Well, text me.
You didn't text at all today.
Okay. I will.
- [Colleen] All right?
- All right.
- I love you!
- Good talking to you.
- I know, I'm glad we got to catch up.
- [Colleen] I'm so excited for you still.
I know! I'm so excited.
[Colleen] Text me everything.
- Okay?
- Okay, I will.
- All right. Bye.
- Talk to you later. Love y'all!
- Bye, Hay.
- Bye!
Okay.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
My favorite music genres are, like,
indie music, kind of hipster,
and '80s pop,
and Spanish reggaeton.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
I was a Spanish major throughout college,
and then I spent some time
in South America,
and that's when I really fell in love
with, like, the whole genre of reggaeton.
That's my pump-up music.
The music I listen to if I'm nervous,
or just, like, need some encouragement.
Somehow, it just, like,
fills me with all the good vibes.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
My life aspirations absolutely changed
in that year I was going
through treatment.
Ultimately, entering college,
I decided I wanted to be
a physician assistant.
And that's why I decided
to major in Spanish
to work with the many
Spanish-speaking patients at St. Jude,
and then also
through their global program.
They have many clinics
they're affiliated with
throughout Central and South America,
and I wanted to work
and help kids there live.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
[Colleen] We do have an arrangement
for when she does
all this international travel
that she doesn't tell me
the stories till she gets home
and I know she's safe,
and then, she tells me
about all these wild adventures.
If I let my mom anxiety
influence her life,
she wouldn't do nearly
the things that she's doing.
She wouldn't live in a big city,
she wouldn't travel the world,
but I wouldn't stop her
from doing any of that.
[Hayley] I honestly come from
the best family ever.
Probably, other people think that too,
but I firmly believe it.
I always knew I was so loved,
and so supported,
and my family is really strong.
We've been through a lot together.
And it's really bonded us.
My dad and I were so close.
He and I were the most alike
in the family.
He was actually the journalist
for the newspaper in our small town,
and he loved these sweet,
little heartwarming stories,
and just kind of see the beauty in things
that maybe everyone didn't see.
When I was going through treatment,
he was actually
still working in Baton Rouge,
and he and my brother
would drive up every weekend.
It was a six-hour drive.
And whenever I knew
they were coming on a Friday night,
I would sit on the couch
and just stare out the window for hours.
And when I saw his car pull up,
I was so excited.
He definitely taught me a lot
of appreciating other cultures
and going out of my comfort zone.
I thought he had cancer
before he was diagnosed.
He was having all this upper back pain,
like, in his spine,
and he was losing weight really rapidly.
I just felt sick.
I knew something was really wrong.
We found out
that he had metastatic disease
in his thoracic spine.
We knew it was really bad,
and I knew that he was going to die.
We thought he had more time than he did.
But he was so sick.
And they tried a couple different things,
but I mean
it didn't give him the time
that we were hoping.
He was such a supportive and proud father,
and I think he would be more proud of me
for going out of my comfort zone
than for actually going to space.
I wish he was here,
because he would be
absolutely loving this,
but you know
he's not.
[Colleen] My husband would be
out-of-this-world excited.
He would be thrilled,
but, you know,
I think that he's thrilled now.
I think he knows.
I think he's going to have
a very unique perspective
on her mission.
[Sian] My title is mission pilot,
and Jared is also a pilot,
but his title is the commander.
Jared's role really is
to make the decisions
about the capsule and the crew,
and my job as the pilot
is to back him up on that.
So in just a bit, Dr. Proctor,
who is the pilot on Inspiration4,
is going to show up here,
and we're gonna just
reorient her with flying.
These are Aermacchi MB-339s.
So, Italian jets.
And then, obviously,
that's a Douglas A-4 Skyhawks,
if you ever saw Top Gun.
Did you fly a Spitfire?
- [Jared] I didn't, it was just a gift.
- [Sian laughs]
[Sian] I got my pilot's license
in 2007, technically.
When I was 36,
but I'd always just loved
making model airplanes,
and wanting to fly jets
and stuff like that.
- [Jared] Well, you get to.
- I know!
I can't even think
I gotta say, that's one
of the highlights of everything.
[Jared] It's a good opportunity,
since she's been
out of the cockpit for a little bit,
to get familiar
with checklist drills and radio work
which is all, like, carries over perfectly
to Dragon and the spacecraft.
So, once you get into the Dragon systems,
and how many, you know,
flight computers and strings they have
[Sian] The Dragon capsule
is designed to be autonomous
so it can go up into space,
and then come back
through its flight computer.
However, there are contingencies,
and things that could happen,
and that's where me as the pilot
and Jared as the commander,
we really have to understand the systems.
It's going to be windy!
[Jared] When things go wrong,
Dragon is designed for the crew,
specifically myself and Dr. Proctor,
to take control and be able
to come home safely.
- Air source select.
- [Jared] We are on both.
- Cleared, ready for take-off.
- [Jared] Okay.
What could possibly go wrong?
There's B-1. Rotate.
Ever lose your Wi-Fi connection
in your house or your hotel?
If we can't have, like,
100% perfect internet,
you know, in your home, believe me,
you don't have 100% perfect comms
in communication in space.
So I had gear down. Three green, no red,
full flaps, down and indicating
engine sync is off, igniters are on.
- Yaw damper's off
- [computer] Altitude.
and we're clear for the option.
That's the final checklist.
There are actually parts
of our mission just based in the orbit
where we will have no contact,
because it's still based largely
on ground stations and satellites
that were put up in the '80s and '90s,
in which case, then, the responsibility
shifts and swings significantly
over to us as the crew
to take care of ourselves.
So, totally get the writing down
what they're telling you,
but in terms of some of your responses,
'cause you were already past 7,000
when you said you were six here.
- Okay, so my situational awareness to
- Right.
[Chris] What is unique about this mission
is that, you know,
we're taking, you know,
more or less ordinary people, right?
Now you're going to tell them
you're on the RNAV 1-7 approach.
[Chris] Jared's taken on
so much more work,
so much more labor,
so much more complexity.
Hello, tower, this is
November Nine Eight Yankee.
[man] He's not only got to
take care of himself,
but he's got, you know, three other men
and women that we need to take care of.
Uh
[Jared] You wanna be more in the moment.
When you're giving them information,
when you're, you know,
"Hey, I'm 17-5 for flight level 2-3-0"
Just use the information
that's in front of you to do that.
Go the ILS, 2-4, Yankee Papa.
Nice.
- You're doing great, Sian.
- [laughs]
This is kind of fun, I got to admit.
Every time I get to hang out with Jared,
I learn to appreciate him more and more.
He's a fast thinker, and I like that,
but he's also encouraging and supportive.
So when I think about myself
and the leader that I want to be,
he inspires me.
[Jared] Yours is gonna be yellow.
We will earn this very,
very unique opportunity in life
to go and see our world from a perspective
that only 600 other people
throughout history
have ever had a chance to do.
So I think that's kind of fulfilling
my leadership role on this.
[Sian] Cleared to land, Yankee Papa.
- [Sian] Yay!
- Nice work!
Good job.
Really early on
in our conversations with SpaceX,
we got a look at what
the training plan would entail,
and it was a lot of academics,
it was a lot of simulator training,
but also, like, we need to get together
and try and accomplish something
as a team in a challenging
physical environment.
This is a good opportunity
for getting out and hitting the mountain,
which is why we picked
a climbing endeavor on Mount Rainier.
Now, this is not dissimilar
to what NASA does.
I mean, they want
to put crews in challenging
but achievable circumstances,
like, let's set a really hard goal
and try and get it done,
and let's try and help people get,
you know, comfortable
being uncomfortable.
I think, no matter what
we're gonna see some
it's gonna look beautiful.
Whatever happens,
we get out there, just know,
anyone else who attempts this mountain,
it's not a 100% success rate.
Every trip I've been on,
people are coming back down.
They train for six months, like, so
you guys had a month's notice, really.
[Hayley] When I first heard
that we were gonna climb a mountain,
I was kind of like, "Jared is crazy,
like, why is he doing this?"
Pretty much every NASA crew has done
something like this for the last 50 years.
I definitely like replicating what
has worked for others on their missions.
All this and more is gonna fit
into that little backpack.
Already this is uncomfortable
learning how to pack a pack
and try not to show too many people
my undergarments, you know.
"What color is he wearing?"
That's not important.
You want 'em mostly unzipped.
Last thing you want to do is be fiddling
in the cold, wet snow with zippers.
[Jared] There are things
that are unexpected
that happen on every single mission.
So I think it's good to, like,
work and build on some of those skills
here on Earth before we experience it
either in orbit or coming back.
- So I'm a hiker.
- Yeah.
And so, doing 15 miles, I'm a rabbit,
where I will I can't pace myself.
[Jared] We don't need to see, you know,
who can move the fastest up the mountain,
we don't need to see
who can carry the most weight.
We're gonna set a goal
that's difficult but achievable,
which I think is gonna have
a lot of parallels
to being in a Dragon spacecraft
for a couple days.
I'm ready to go.
Let's do it. [laughs]
Yes!
So, this is a picture of Camp Muir, right?
This is our goal.
Camp Muir sits on a ridgeline
that separates the Muir snowfield
from the Cowlitz Glacier.
In the mountains, we don't measure
things in horizontal distances,
the reason being, it's pretty deceptive.
Tomorrow is gonna be
a 4,400-foot vertical day.
[Hayley] My biggest fear is that
something is going to happen,
and I'm not going
to be able to go to space.
The rod in my leg
has actually broken twice,
like, pretty out of the blue,
and I just keep thinking, like, every time
I have a little pain in my leg, like,
it can't break.
When it was snowing,
I didn't even go outside.
I was like, I'll slip,
and I can't go to space.
If this opportunity was taken away,
I would be so devastated.
[Jared] How's it feel, Hayley?
So far, fine.
I think I'm more fearful
of her going up Mt. Rainier
than the space mission.
What if something happens to her leg
and she can't go?
And that's just the reality of being
a childhood cancer survivor
that has an internal prosthetic
that has broken in the past.
[Jared] To put you at ease,
there is zero possibility of an avalanche.
[Hayley] Great.
There's plenty of other shit
you should be worried about,
but avalanche is not one of them.
[Sian] Just making sure all my stuff
is where I want it to be.
[Chris] Absolutely. Absolutely.
[Jared] Does that feel a little better?
- It feels better, yeah.
- [Jared] Okay, it was
Thanks.
All righty, guys,
this is our jumping-off point!
Did everyone get a chance
to put a little sunscreen on?
I know that seems funny right now,
buried under the cloud,
but there's still a lot of radiation
coming through, so sunscreen,
lip balm, and let's go glasses
on the whole time.
If you don't wear the glasses,
you'll end up with pretty bloodshot eyes
and potentially even doing
some harm to yourselves.
Now, we're gonna work with you guys
on technique as we get going uphill
to try to save the most energy we can.
We have a big day in front of us.
It's manageable, but it's still
gonna be a lot of hard work.
As you guys walk along,
give that little scuff with your boots.
Nice, slow, steady rhythm.
This is definitely a tortoise
and hare kind of situation.
Hannah's gonna lead us right out of here,
and let's stay just maybe two,
three feet between each other.
[Hayley] So far feeling good.
This is doable.
I think it's gonna get harder, though.
[guide] Looking good, guys, make sure
we're taking nice, deep breaths.
[Chris] Not really sure
where we were going,
'cause we couldn't see
where we were headed the entire time.
[Sian] We were socked in.
We were in this cloud bank
that kind of like enveloped us,
so you could see the person
in front of you, and that's it.
[Hayley] I went into it really
optimistically slash slightly naively,
saying, "I got up to 70 minutes
on the treadmill, I will be fine."
And really, I didn't know how long
we were gonna be hiking the first day.
Hayley, she has a significant disadvantage
when it comes to going uphill
on icy conditions.
[Sian] But she's also tough as nails,
and she just has grit and determination,
and I think that that's
what helped get her through
that most trying part of her life
when she was ten years old.
[Jared] You all right?
[Hayley] Yeah, I just don't know
how I'm gonna get up.
[Jared] Good job.
You're almost at the top
and you're you're doing it.
It's not easy dragging uphill.
And the higher up you go,
the harder it's gonna get,
'cause you're getting tired
and, you know, you've got less air.
[Hannah] So, as we go up in altitude,
the pressure drops, so we counter that
by throwing in those pressure breaths.
[Chris] Three-fourths of the way up,
you know, my legs were dying.
And then Sian's there,
and she's struggling just as hard as I am,
if not more so.
[Jared] This shit is hard,
but you guys are doing great.
You know you're gonna get there. Might
take a little bit, but you will get there.
We are almost there.
- You've got some pack weight there.
- Yeah, this is heavy.
[Jared] I'll take it.
[Sian] I got to that point where I'm like,
"Oh my goodness, this is never gonna end."
And, you know, Jared was like,
"Let's take your backpack."
Oh, yeah!
Let's do it.
So when we talk about the leadership
seat, the pillar that he's in,
he really manifests that.
- [Jared] How you feeling, Hayley?
- [Hayley] I feel great.
I didn't feel good earlier.
[Jared] Your footwork is rock sol
it's like you're getting more comfortable
for sure.
[Hayley] Yeah.
One last push, and we're there.
Fifteen minutes!
We can do anything for 15 minutes.
Yeah, you guys ready? 15-minute push?
So like basically, the amount of time
we're gonna get to space.
[Jared] Yeah, pretty much.
All right, let's do it.
One more step, one more step,
one more step.
[Hannah] You're hitting 10,000 feet,
so altitude should be hitting you.
Okay, now when you launch,
you'll be well above
Look at that. Muir is right there.
Visualize it, guys.
Homestretch.
Let's do it!
[all cheer]
- [Hayley] We made it!
- [Jared] So proud of you guys!
I am so proud.
- Awesome!
- All right, guys. I want a group-hug.
[all exclaim]
- Awesome.
- That was so awesome!
Everybody had one giant group hug
at the top of the mountain.
I wanted and needed that
so bad at that moment,
'cause I was on the verge
of just breaking down.
[Jared] You guys crushed it.
And you guys look great.
What badasses.
[Chris] The best leaders are
the ones that are encouraging
their team to be their best selves,
and that's exactly what Jared's doing.
[Sian] Definitely the hardest hike
I've ever done in my life.
Oh, my God, by far.
If I knew that we'd be hiking
for nine-and-a-half hours,
I would've said, "I can't do this."
But I'm glad I didn't know,
because now I know how much I can do,
and I realized
I was putting a limit on myself
that didn't need to be there.
Which tent is the warmest out of the ten?
The one that you're in!
You know, the lessons that I personally
learned was not being afraid
to ask for help and show
vulnerability and weakness.
So to have, you know, my commander come
and be able to say, "Yeah, we got you,"
I think that that was
really powerful for me.
I just I don't wanna move.
I don't I just wanna lay down
and not have to do anything.
I'm so happy to be in my tent.
They did fantastic, I'm so proud.
I'm like, I can't stop smiling actually.
I want everyone to understand
what it's like to be very,
very uncomfortable
and go through challenging circumstances
and push yourself in a situation
to an outcome that
you never thought was achievable,
and do that all here on Earth, now,
before we're faced with that situation,
you know, up there in space.
[telephone ringing]
[Colleen] Hello?
Hey, it's Hayley!
[Colleen] Hey! Oh, my gosh.
How are you?
I'm good. I'm calling you on,
like, a satellite phone.
- [Colleen] You're safe, right?
- Yeah, no, it's
[Colleen] You're not in the hospital,
are you?
I'm not at the hospital, no.
I'm at the campsite.
We hiked up for nine
and a half hours yesterday.
[Colleen] Oh, my gosh, how's your leg?
Surprisingly great.
[Colleen] Oh, my gosh.
[Hayley] A couple years after my dad died,
I found one of the boards
I had broken in tae kwon do.
He wrote on there, and he said,
"I'm more proud of you
for conquering your fear
than for earning your brown belt.
Love, Dad."
I looked at that board so much
before the Mount Rainier trip,
because I was nervous
to go on Mount Rainier,
and I knew that he would be more proud
of me for conquering my fear
than for conquering the mountain.
But anyway, I just wanted to call
and let you know that I'm fine,
I'm actually doing great.
[Colleen] I'm so glad.
And surprisingly, I love mountaineering.
[Colleen] Oh, that's great!
- All right. Love you!
- Love you.
[Colleen] Okay. Bye.
A couple people have said, "You're
gonna be closer to your dad than ever
when you're in space."
It's a really nice thought,
but I don't know if I believe that's true,
because I believe
he's with me all the time.
I woke up to the morning sky first ♪
Baby blue, just like we rehearsed ♪
When I get up off this ground ♪
I shake leaves back down
to the brown, brown, brown, brown ♪
Till I'm clean ♪
[Jeffrey] Astronauts often talk about
something called "the overview effect."
Frank Borman,
the commander of Apollo 8 said,
"This must be what God sees."
Now whether you believe in God,
or don't believe in God,
or aren't sure if you believe in God,
the overview effect lets you see the world
in a way you cannot see
without going to space.
With all my favorite colors
Yes, sir ♪
All my favorite colors
Right ♪
You can't see any
of the borders we fight over.
You just see land.
You see desert.
You see mountains, and jungles,
and oceans, and seas.
You don't see the politics.
You don't see inequality.
A good day to see my favorite colors
Colors ♪
My sisters ♪
You just see our improbable planet
in its pure and naked state.
That changes you.
It's a good day to be
A good day for me ♪
These folks, the Inspiration4 crew,
those people will never
see the world the same way again.
This mission is opening that door
to the entire seven billion of us.
All my favorite colors ♪
How are you?
- [woman] Hey, good morning.
- [Sian] Good morning.
[Hayley] Good morning.
- Hi, guys!
- [Chris] Good morning.
[Jared] Briefing objectives today:
familiarization with the
Inspiration4 mission,
uh understand training commitments
and timelines to the best
that I can communicate them.
Okay, so, mission overview here.
We're planning to launch on
a dawn launch and a dawn recovery
for three days.
[Hayley] I was a little intimidated
to be the youngest member of the crew.
You know, I know the least about space,
and I just I didn't want to be weak.
But it's really cool.
You know, all four of us are basically
in a different decade of our lives,
but we click so well that
I don't often feel like I'm the young one.
So we're probably gonna go
into Chris's neck of the woods
for our wilderness
team-building training event,
somewhere in the Cascades,
likely Mount Rainier.
We're gonna be in some intentionally
uncomfortable situations
and, to see how we do as a team.
Here's where it gets serious again.
Our mission to space is not guaranteed.
This is not Top Gun.
We are not the best of the best
being sent to space here.
We still have to take this super serious.
There are a number of ways
that any individual, or the mission,
could be shut down.
If it looks like anything is going to be,
you know, unsafe,
it could be delayed, it could be canceled.
You can fail in training.
Are we willing to accept going up
to space if, you know, three crew members
are really laser focused,
and one's in, you know, Vegas,
like, gambling and drinking
every single night,
and obviously, not coming in prepared
- I'm, like Yeah.
- [Chris] That isn't us.
I'm not looking at you, Chris,
but seriously
[Sian] Come on!
He just has that look.
[Jared] This is the honeymoon period.
Everybody's excited.
But there will be some sort of problems.
People die getting to space,
and people die coming home from space.
And we need to be really focused
on making sure that that is not us.
And that means, like, training it,
and earning it every single day
from here forward,
and acting like we do belong here.
[theme music]
[Jeffrey] Inspiration4 is going to space
in a spacecraft that is capable
of sustaining a crew
for days, or weeks, or months.
This is not buying a car
and piling into it with four people
for a road trip.
They will be equipped
and trained to intervene
in the event of an emergency.
They will be able to fly their spacecraft.
Cool.
[Jared] Sarah Gillis is our lead trainer,
so she's the one responsible
for our entire education
to be prepared for safe flight.
She's ultimately the one
that signs us off,
and the burden of, you know,
will we execute well or not
will really fall on her.
So the first action with the suit
is that you're gonna be
preparing all the openings on the suit.
So what this means is
making sure the visor's open.
There we go.
My name is Sarah Gillis, and I'm 27,
and my job title
is Lead Space Operations Engineer.
I lead our astronaut training program.
This is a great opportunity.
Let's try donning
and doffing your earpieces.
It is gonna be red in your right ear,
blue in your left.
Still not fully in.
We can keep practicing
in just a minute, okay?
[Hayley] Okay.
I want you guys to swim all the way in
and get your hands all the way
through the openings in the sleeves.
I probably knew an embarrassingly
little amount about space
by the time I actually
started to study engineering.
I am a classically trained violinist.
My mother was a professional violinist
and started me when I was two.
Um, she certainly did not raise me
to be an engineer,
she raised me to be a violinist.
So, I played for many,
many years, but it was not
it was never what I was passionate about.
I had a mentor in high school
who set me on the course
to study aerospace engineering.
He was a former astronaut,
and he encouraged me
to apply for engineering.
I had never considered it before that.
You each get one of them to play with.
[Jared] She knows how to be our friend
[Sarah] Three steps to disconnect
the fire extinguisher.
[Jared] because there are times
when that's exactly what we need.
There you go.
And she knows how to keep us in line,
like when we're veering off-course.
[Sian] She's really smart,
and knows the Dragon capsule
and systems inside and out.
I love the fact that she's a woman,
and I love the fact
that she's freaking kick-ass.
[Chris] SpaceX Dragon,
we're ready for a suit-leak check.
[Sarah] Copy, Dragon, you have a go
to initiate the suit-leak check.
[Jared] She's also our core.
The core is like
the NASA equivalent of CapCom.
So she's the voice we're gonna hear
during the actual spaceflight.
[Sarah] Awesome work, you guys.
How you feeling?
Ready to get out of there?
There's two hats that you have
to wear to be successful at that.
One is the operational hat
where you need to understand
exactly what actions you need
to take to keep them safe.
On the other aspect, I care very deeply
about every single one
of these people now.
I'm emotionally invested in it and
you have to separate that out
to be effective at what you do
when you need to wear
your operational hat.
Dragon SpaceX comm check.
For our Crew-2 mission five months ago,
I was on console.
[astronaut] SpaceX Endeavor,
and I hear you loud and clear.
- How you doing, Sarah?
- Copy that, I'm doing well.
Looking forward
to supporting you guys today.
And there was a very late notice,
possible conjunction, so
um, we got word
that there might be an object
that could come very close to Dragon.
For awareness, we have identified
a late-breaking possible conjunction
with a fairly close
miss-distance to Dragon.
We had very little time
and had to respond very quickly.
We do need you to immediately
proceed with suit donning
and securing yourselves in seats.
They were fully configured for sleep.
They need to rapidly
get into their spacesuits,
because in the event
of a depressurization,
where an object punctured
a hole in the spacecraft,
it means that all of the breathable air
inside the cabin
could potentially leave the cabin,
and leave them in a vacuum,
which means they'll get in suits,
100% oxygen will be fed to the suits,
and they'll pressurize.
Suits are little spaceships
that keep them safe
in the event
that their atmosphere disappears.
The time of closest approach
for this event is at 17:43.
And then, there's a time
of closest approach,
exactly when we think the object
would be closest to the capsule.
Please ensure visors are closed
and zippers are closed prior to TCA
in approximately 20 seconds.
[astronaut] SpaceX Endeavour,
we are visors closed and zipped up.
[Sarah] And after that time,
nothing happened.
Dragon SpaceX, we have passed TCA impact.
[Megan] Sarah, I think you said that
we passed the object. Is that correct?
Affirm, Megan.
Immediately, there's this massive weight
that's lifted off your chest.
Um, but it's
That was probably the hardest thing
stepping off console that day,
was the panic for my friends in space.
You can't process it when you're
in the moment, you can't
You can't think about it,
or else you can't do your job,
but as soon as you step off console
you care so deeply about those people
that it it is overwhelming
to think back on what just happened.
I probably still need therapy,
let's be honest.
For Inspiration4, it's a unique situation.
It's our first commercial crew.
The Dragon vehicle is largely
an autonomous vehicle.
The software takes care
of what the vehicle needs to do.
So from that perspective,
what crew get trained on
are the ways in which
they can backup the automation.
There are capabilities that are provided
to them that they need to be trained on
to backup the systems, but
it's a very smart and capable vehicle.
Not only do we need to train them
how to live in Dragon
and be successful in Dragon,
we also need to provide
background on what it's like
to live in space,
how you move in space,
what the space environment actually is.
[Chris] In the very early days
of spaceflight,
when we had much less experience
as a nation, it was quite challenging.
Simulators in those early days
were actual flying machines.
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling too good myself
Oh, no ♪
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling that good myself
Oh, no ♪
[crackling]
Fast forward to today's day and age
when we have the experience
of all those decades,
we really do know how
to prepare people for spaceflight.
[Jared] The biggest differences
in our training versus a normal astronaut
is that we're not going to Space Station,
we're also not doing a space walk,
but outside of that,
it's all going to be the same.
We have a spacecraft we need
to take through a lot of phases of flight.
It's hard, but I absolutely thought,
with my background, like,
I know what to expect, and I got it wrong.
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
I'm not feeling too good myself ♪
[Sian] There's a lot of material.
Every week, we would just
get stacks of stuff.
Feeling all right, oh no ♪
[Jared] You're showing up at 7:00 a.m.,
leaving at 7:00 p.m.
There's no gaps in the schedule at all.
You're just taking down
as much coffee as you can,
and then you're coming back
and studying and doing it the next day.
[Sarah] A lot of the training focuses
on operating the Dragon,
knowing how to access cargo,
how to get out equipment.
They're going to have to go
through emergency response.
Ooh!
[Sarah] What food they're gonna eat,
they're gonna have to go
through a selection of food options.
[laughs]
I'm thinking I probably
won't eat much in space.
[Chris] They put us through the wringer
pretty quick.
It really mirrors exactly
what the NASA astronauts all go through.
Oh, no ♪
Whoa, I'm feeling all right, oh no ♪
Yeah, I'm not feeling that good myself
Oh, no ♪
Oh, whoa, I'm lonely ♪
But I'm not feeling good myself
Oh, no ♪
You can turn away ♪
Feeling all right, oh, no ♪
[Chris] What makes an effective
crew member on a spacecraft?
The nuts and bolts
of keeping yourself safe,
the nuts and bolts of knowing
how to push buttons and when,
and reading a checklist
is pretty trainable.
The interesting thing about spaceflight
is you can't go to space
to train for space.
You have to train
in Earth-environment simulators,
situations that are
analogous to spaceflight.
And then in your brain,
integrate all of that into a neat package
that prepares you mentally
for what you're getting into.
[Jeffrey] You have to be well-trained
to fly a SpaceX spacecraft.
- Good luck, Commander.
- [Jared] Thank you.
[man] Don't suck!
You have to be brave
to fly a SpaceX spacecraft.
You have to be able
to tolerate a centrifuge.
You have to be able to tolerate G-forces.
Okay, Jared, confirm your location
of that door-release handle, you
- [Jared] Lower right.
- Get back there. Got it, good.
[Jeffrey] You have to be able to
overcome your fear.
[Sarah] Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one. Liftoff.
[Jeffrey] If you go through your training,
maybe you're gonna learn
that you're not qualified to go.
[Sian] Look at him smiling.
He's having a good time.
[laughs]
[Chris] The centrifuge was
where you get the experience
of what it's going to be like
when you launch in the rocket
and what it's gonna be like
when you come back through the atmosphere.
You're going to be experiencing
four-and-a-half times
your own body weight.
It's like a couple of your largest buddies
sitting on your chest, you know,
pushing you into your seat
feeling that for several minutes in a row.
[Hayley] Have you ever done anything
like this?
[Chris] Not this no, not really.
I mean there's just that little one
at space camp they had, you know?
That's not the same, they show
you're flying through these mountains,
and really, you're like,
"Why are they showing me something
that's gonna make me throw up?"
No, but this is cool.
- I think.
- [Hayley] Mm-hmm.
SpaceX Dragon, I think we have splashdown.
And the worst part of this
is that we can't ask him anything.
[Jared] When we did
our centrifuge training,
they separated us after we completed it
because they didn't want us
to tell the next crew member
going up that they had some
some things in store in the centrifuge.
- Do you want your emesis bag?
- Oh, sure, I'll stick one by my leg here.
[door slams]
Well, that's intense.
Do you have any questions?
- No questions.
- [Sarah] Copy that.
Copy.
One G.
And three G.
Now climbing to six Gs.
[alarm blares]
[Jared] Right when everything
was supposed to be normal,
you had this super loud horn going off,
which is exactly the alarm that happens
in Dragon when an emergency triggers off.
Do you want me to silence that?
[alarm blares]
And then some violent shaking.
And ultimately it became a launch escape,
where, you know, the Falcon
became unstable in launch
and Dragon had to separate and come back.
[Sarah] Splashdown.
Dragon SpaceX splashdown.
Copy that. I had nausea here,
by the way, just so you know.
- [man] All right, breathing difficulty?
- None.
- Chest pressure or discomfort?
- None.
- Cough?
- None.
- All right, how about the nausea?
- Um, moderate.
Okay, I'm on my way down to take you out.
[man 2] You okay?
Feel free to use the bag if you need it.
[man] Hey, Chris,
do you have your bag at the ready?
- [retches]
- [Sian] Oh, no
[laughs]
Oh, he's a trooper.
[Chris] At the end we simulated
splashdown in the ocean,
and the boat got a little rocky.
- How are you feeling?
- A little sick after that.
Have you ever thrown up
from being motion sick?
Yeah, I get sick on small boats.
All right.
- You ready?
- No. Yeah.
- [Hayley] Yes, you are.
- I'm ready.
- Hey there, how you doing?
- Just letting the medicine do its thing.
Hopefully, this won't happen in space.
[Sarah] Dragon SpaceX,
nominal trajectory.
Copy nominal trajectory.
Chris forged the way before me,
and so I've gotten to be like,
"Oh, Chris threw up, okay,
I need to think about this."
[man] Did you have any reactions
that surprised you?
A little bit of nausea.
I was this close to being
just right there next to him.
I'm gonna definitely take the docs up
on their offers of anti-nausea medicine
when it comes time.
[interviewer] That's an option?
It is absolutely an option
to take anti-nausea medicine.
I've heard that most astronauts do so.
[Sarah] Six Gs four seconds.
The total profile duration
is approximately a minute and a half.
[man] Hayley, I need you
to keep your eyes open, please.
[Jared] They had flight psychiatrists
there
that were evaluating us on the screens
while it was taking place,
and then afterwards during an interview.
This has implications as us,
as four, you know, human beings
going in a spacecraft, right?
This has implications to SpaceX.
What if this goes wrong?
[Sian] Hayley's doing great.
She's doing great.
- She's just rock solid in there.
- [Sian] She is.
[Sarah] Three, two, one.
[Jared] You know, they have obviously
as much interest as we do
to making sure this is safe
and that the crew that they're sending up
can competently handle, you know,
some pretty difficult circumstances.
That's great.
Coming out of it, everybody was smiling,
everybody was super excited,
everybody was like, "All right,
when do we start the rest of our training?
- Let's get going!"
- That was fun!
Good. Yeah.
And that was kind of the moment
where I was like, "Okay
I think we can get through
probably anything."
[applause]
And for somebody
who's never done this before,
pretty doggone good.
I'm gonna when you guys launch,
I'm gonna come to Florida and watch that.
- Thank you, Glenn.
- I'll be cheering you on, "Go, go!"
- Hello!
- [Colleen] Hey!
Hi.
I can't wait to tell you
all about the day.
The day I got back to St. Jude
after my big announcement
that I was going to space,
I was stopped by this mother and daughter,
and the mom came up to me,
and she had tears in her eyes.
And she said, "I just wanted
to thank you for what you're doing.
This mission is giving my daughter
so much hope."
I asked the little girl, I said,
"What's been going on?"
And she said she was feeling discouraged
because she can't run
or jump like her siblings can.
And I told her, you know,
I can't run or jump
like my little brother either.
But I said, "It's not stopping me
from going to space."
She can do this too.
If I can do it, she can do it.
And you don't need to run
or jump to accomplish dreams.
[Colleen] Are you more excited,
or more afraid?
I'm not scared at all right now.
[Colleen] Good.
After that, I was walking back
to my office with tears in my eyes
because I was like,
this is why we're going on this mission.
[Colleen] Okay. Well, text me.
You didn't text at all today.
Okay. I will.
- [Colleen] All right?
- All right.
- I love you!
- Good talking to you.
- I know, I'm glad we got to catch up.
- [Colleen] I'm so excited for you still.
I know! I'm so excited.
[Colleen] Text me everything.
- Okay?
- Okay, I will.
- All right. Bye.
- Talk to you later. Love y'all!
- Bye, Hay.
- Bye!
Okay.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
My favorite music genres are, like,
indie music, kind of hipster,
and '80s pop,
and Spanish reggaeton.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
I was a Spanish major throughout college,
and then I spent some time
in South America,
and that's when I really fell in love
with, like, the whole genre of reggaeton.
That's my pump-up music.
The music I listen to if I'm nervous,
or just, like, need some encouragement.
Somehow, it just, like,
fills me with all the good vibes.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
My life aspirations absolutely changed
in that year I was going
through treatment.
Ultimately, entering college,
I decided I wanted to be
a physician assistant.
And that's why I decided
to major in Spanish
to work with the many
Spanish-speaking patients at St. Jude,
and then also
through their global program.
They have many clinics
they're affiliated with
throughout Central and South America,
and I wanted to work
and help kids there live.
[Spanish reggaeton music]
[Colleen] We do have an arrangement
for when she does
all this international travel
that she doesn't tell me
the stories till she gets home
and I know she's safe,
and then, she tells me
about all these wild adventures.
If I let my mom anxiety
influence her life,
she wouldn't do nearly
the things that she's doing.
She wouldn't live in a big city,
she wouldn't travel the world,
but I wouldn't stop her
from doing any of that.
[Hayley] I honestly come from
the best family ever.
Probably, other people think that too,
but I firmly believe it.
I always knew I was so loved,
and so supported,
and my family is really strong.
We've been through a lot together.
And it's really bonded us.
My dad and I were so close.
He and I were the most alike
in the family.
He was actually the journalist
for the newspaper in our small town,
and he loved these sweet,
little heartwarming stories,
and just kind of see the beauty in things
that maybe everyone didn't see.
When I was going through treatment,
he was actually
still working in Baton Rouge,
and he and my brother
would drive up every weekend.
It was a six-hour drive.
And whenever I knew
they were coming on a Friday night,
I would sit on the couch
and just stare out the window for hours.
And when I saw his car pull up,
I was so excited.
He definitely taught me a lot
of appreciating other cultures
and going out of my comfort zone.
I thought he had cancer
before he was diagnosed.
He was having all this upper back pain,
like, in his spine,
and he was losing weight really rapidly.
I just felt sick.
I knew something was really wrong.
We found out
that he had metastatic disease
in his thoracic spine.
We knew it was really bad,
and I knew that he was going to die.
We thought he had more time than he did.
But he was so sick.
And they tried a couple different things,
but I mean
it didn't give him the time
that we were hoping.
He was such a supportive and proud father,
and I think he would be more proud of me
for going out of my comfort zone
than for actually going to space.
I wish he was here,
because he would be
absolutely loving this,
but you know
he's not.
[Colleen] My husband would be
out-of-this-world excited.
He would be thrilled,
but, you know,
I think that he's thrilled now.
I think he knows.
I think he's going to have
a very unique perspective
on her mission.
[Sian] My title is mission pilot,
and Jared is also a pilot,
but his title is the commander.
Jared's role really is
to make the decisions
about the capsule and the crew,
and my job as the pilot
is to back him up on that.
So in just a bit, Dr. Proctor,
who is the pilot on Inspiration4,
is going to show up here,
and we're gonna just
reorient her with flying.
These are Aermacchi MB-339s.
So, Italian jets.
And then, obviously,
that's a Douglas A-4 Skyhawks,
if you ever saw Top Gun.
Did you fly a Spitfire?
- [Jared] I didn't, it was just a gift.
- [Sian laughs]
[Sian] I got my pilot's license
in 2007, technically.
When I was 36,
but I'd always just loved
making model airplanes,
and wanting to fly jets
and stuff like that.
- [Jared] Well, you get to.
- I know!
I can't even think
I gotta say, that's one
of the highlights of everything.
[Jared] It's a good opportunity,
since she's been
out of the cockpit for a little bit,
to get familiar
with checklist drills and radio work
which is all, like, carries over perfectly
to Dragon and the spacecraft.
So, once you get into the Dragon systems,
and how many, you know,
flight computers and strings they have
[Sian] The Dragon capsule
is designed to be autonomous
so it can go up into space,
and then come back
through its flight computer.
However, there are contingencies,
and things that could happen,
and that's where me as the pilot
and Jared as the commander,
we really have to understand the systems.
It's going to be windy!
[Jared] When things go wrong,
Dragon is designed for the crew,
specifically myself and Dr. Proctor,
to take control and be able
to come home safely.
- Air source select.
- [Jared] We are on both.
- Cleared, ready for take-off.
- [Jared] Okay.
What could possibly go wrong?
There's B-1. Rotate.
Ever lose your Wi-Fi connection
in your house or your hotel?
If we can't have, like,
100% perfect internet,
you know, in your home, believe me,
you don't have 100% perfect comms
in communication in space.
So I had gear down. Three green, no red,
full flaps, down and indicating
engine sync is off, igniters are on.
- Yaw damper's off
- [computer] Altitude.
and we're clear for the option.
That's the final checklist.
There are actually parts
of our mission just based in the orbit
where we will have no contact,
because it's still based largely
on ground stations and satellites
that were put up in the '80s and '90s,
in which case, then, the responsibility
shifts and swings significantly
over to us as the crew
to take care of ourselves.
So, totally get the writing down
what they're telling you,
but in terms of some of your responses,
'cause you were already past 7,000
when you said you were six here.
- Okay, so my situational awareness to
- Right.
[Chris] What is unique about this mission
is that, you know,
we're taking, you know,
more or less ordinary people, right?
Now you're going to tell them
you're on the RNAV 1-7 approach.
[Chris] Jared's taken on
so much more work,
so much more labor,
so much more complexity.
Hello, tower, this is
November Nine Eight Yankee.
[man] He's not only got to
take care of himself,
but he's got, you know, three other men
and women that we need to take care of.
Uh
[Jared] You wanna be more in the moment.
When you're giving them information,
when you're, you know,
"Hey, I'm 17-5 for flight level 2-3-0"
Just use the information
that's in front of you to do that.
Go the ILS, 2-4, Yankee Papa.
Nice.
- You're doing great, Sian.
- [laughs]
This is kind of fun, I got to admit.
Every time I get to hang out with Jared,
I learn to appreciate him more and more.
He's a fast thinker, and I like that,
but he's also encouraging and supportive.
So when I think about myself
and the leader that I want to be,
he inspires me.
[Jared] Yours is gonna be yellow.
We will earn this very,
very unique opportunity in life
to go and see our world from a perspective
that only 600 other people
throughout history
have ever had a chance to do.
So I think that's kind of fulfilling
my leadership role on this.
[Sian] Cleared to land, Yankee Papa.
- [Sian] Yay!
- Nice work!
Good job.
Really early on
in our conversations with SpaceX,
we got a look at what
the training plan would entail,
and it was a lot of academics,
it was a lot of simulator training,
but also, like, we need to get together
and try and accomplish something
as a team in a challenging
physical environment.
This is a good opportunity
for getting out and hitting the mountain,
which is why we picked
a climbing endeavor on Mount Rainier.
Now, this is not dissimilar
to what NASA does.
I mean, they want
to put crews in challenging
but achievable circumstances,
like, let's set a really hard goal
and try and get it done,
and let's try and help people get,
you know, comfortable
being uncomfortable.
I think, no matter what
we're gonna see some
it's gonna look beautiful.
Whatever happens,
we get out there, just know,
anyone else who attempts this mountain,
it's not a 100% success rate.
Every trip I've been on,
people are coming back down.
They train for six months, like, so
you guys had a month's notice, really.
[Hayley] When I first heard
that we were gonna climb a mountain,
I was kind of like, "Jared is crazy,
like, why is he doing this?"
Pretty much every NASA crew has done
something like this for the last 50 years.
I definitely like replicating what
has worked for others on their missions.
All this and more is gonna fit
into that little backpack.
Already this is uncomfortable
learning how to pack a pack
and try not to show too many people
my undergarments, you know.
"What color is he wearing?"
That's not important.
You want 'em mostly unzipped.
Last thing you want to do is be fiddling
in the cold, wet snow with zippers.
[Jared] There are things
that are unexpected
that happen on every single mission.
So I think it's good to, like,
work and build on some of those skills
here on Earth before we experience it
either in orbit or coming back.
- So I'm a hiker.
- Yeah.
And so, doing 15 miles, I'm a rabbit,
where I will I can't pace myself.
[Jared] We don't need to see, you know,
who can move the fastest up the mountain,
we don't need to see
who can carry the most weight.
We're gonna set a goal
that's difficult but achievable,
which I think is gonna have
a lot of parallels
to being in a Dragon spacecraft
for a couple days.
I'm ready to go.
Let's do it. [laughs]
Yes!
So, this is a picture of Camp Muir, right?
This is our goal.
Camp Muir sits on a ridgeline
that separates the Muir snowfield
from the Cowlitz Glacier.
In the mountains, we don't measure
things in horizontal distances,
the reason being, it's pretty deceptive.
Tomorrow is gonna be
a 4,400-foot vertical day.
[Hayley] My biggest fear is that
something is going to happen,
and I'm not going
to be able to go to space.
The rod in my leg
has actually broken twice,
like, pretty out of the blue,
and I just keep thinking, like, every time
I have a little pain in my leg, like,
it can't break.
When it was snowing,
I didn't even go outside.
I was like, I'll slip,
and I can't go to space.
If this opportunity was taken away,
I would be so devastated.
[Jared] How's it feel, Hayley?
So far, fine.
I think I'm more fearful
of her going up Mt. Rainier
than the space mission.
What if something happens to her leg
and she can't go?
And that's just the reality of being
a childhood cancer survivor
that has an internal prosthetic
that has broken in the past.
[Jared] To put you at ease,
there is zero possibility of an avalanche.
[Hayley] Great.
There's plenty of other shit
you should be worried about,
but avalanche is not one of them.
[Sian] Just making sure all my stuff
is where I want it to be.
[Chris] Absolutely. Absolutely.
[Jared] Does that feel a little better?
- It feels better, yeah.
- [Jared] Okay, it was
Thanks.
All righty, guys,
this is our jumping-off point!
Did everyone get a chance
to put a little sunscreen on?
I know that seems funny right now,
buried under the cloud,
but there's still a lot of radiation
coming through, so sunscreen,
lip balm, and let's go glasses
on the whole time.
If you don't wear the glasses,
you'll end up with pretty bloodshot eyes
and potentially even doing
some harm to yourselves.
Now, we're gonna work with you guys
on technique as we get going uphill
to try to save the most energy we can.
We have a big day in front of us.
It's manageable, but it's still
gonna be a lot of hard work.
As you guys walk along,
give that little scuff with your boots.
Nice, slow, steady rhythm.
This is definitely a tortoise
and hare kind of situation.
Hannah's gonna lead us right out of here,
and let's stay just maybe two,
three feet between each other.
[Hayley] So far feeling good.
This is doable.
I think it's gonna get harder, though.
[guide] Looking good, guys, make sure
we're taking nice, deep breaths.
[Chris] Not really sure
where we were going,
'cause we couldn't see
where we were headed the entire time.
[Sian] We were socked in.
We were in this cloud bank
that kind of like enveloped us,
so you could see the person
in front of you, and that's it.
[Hayley] I went into it really
optimistically slash slightly naively,
saying, "I got up to 70 minutes
on the treadmill, I will be fine."
And really, I didn't know how long
we were gonna be hiking the first day.
Hayley, she has a significant disadvantage
when it comes to going uphill
on icy conditions.
[Sian] But she's also tough as nails,
and she just has grit and determination,
and I think that that's
what helped get her through
that most trying part of her life
when she was ten years old.
[Jared] You all right?
[Hayley] Yeah, I just don't know
how I'm gonna get up.
[Jared] Good job.
You're almost at the top
and you're you're doing it.
It's not easy dragging uphill.
And the higher up you go,
the harder it's gonna get,
'cause you're getting tired
and, you know, you've got less air.
[Hannah] So, as we go up in altitude,
the pressure drops, so we counter that
by throwing in those pressure breaths.
[Chris] Three-fourths of the way up,
you know, my legs were dying.
And then Sian's there,
and she's struggling just as hard as I am,
if not more so.
[Jared] This shit is hard,
but you guys are doing great.
You know you're gonna get there. Might
take a little bit, but you will get there.
We are almost there.
- You've got some pack weight there.
- Yeah, this is heavy.
[Jared] I'll take it.
[Sian] I got to that point where I'm like,
"Oh my goodness, this is never gonna end."
And, you know, Jared was like,
"Let's take your backpack."
Oh, yeah!
Let's do it.
So when we talk about the leadership
seat, the pillar that he's in,
he really manifests that.
- [Jared] How you feeling, Hayley?
- [Hayley] I feel great.
I didn't feel good earlier.
[Jared] Your footwork is rock sol
it's like you're getting more comfortable
for sure.
[Hayley] Yeah.
One last push, and we're there.
Fifteen minutes!
We can do anything for 15 minutes.
Yeah, you guys ready? 15-minute push?
So like basically, the amount of time
we're gonna get to space.
[Jared] Yeah, pretty much.
All right, let's do it.
One more step, one more step,
one more step.
[Hannah] You're hitting 10,000 feet,
so altitude should be hitting you.
Okay, now when you launch,
you'll be well above
Look at that. Muir is right there.
Visualize it, guys.
Homestretch.
Let's do it!
[all cheer]
- [Hayley] We made it!
- [Jared] So proud of you guys!
I am so proud.
- Awesome!
- All right, guys. I want a group-hug.
[all exclaim]
- Awesome.
- That was so awesome!
Everybody had one giant group hug
at the top of the mountain.
I wanted and needed that
so bad at that moment,
'cause I was on the verge
of just breaking down.
[Jared] You guys crushed it.
And you guys look great.
What badasses.
[Chris] The best leaders are
the ones that are encouraging
their team to be their best selves,
and that's exactly what Jared's doing.
[Sian] Definitely the hardest hike
I've ever done in my life.
Oh, my God, by far.
If I knew that we'd be hiking
for nine-and-a-half hours,
I would've said, "I can't do this."
But I'm glad I didn't know,
because now I know how much I can do,
and I realized
I was putting a limit on myself
that didn't need to be there.
Which tent is the warmest out of the ten?
The one that you're in!
You know, the lessons that I personally
learned was not being afraid
to ask for help and show
vulnerability and weakness.
So to have, you know, my commander come
and be able to say, "Yeah, we got you,"
I think that that was
really powerful for me.
I just I don't wanna move.
I don't I just wanna lay down
and not have to do anything.
I'm so happy to be in my tent.
They did fantastic, I'm so proud.
I'm like, I can't stop smiling actually.
I want everyone to understand
what it's like to be very,
very uncomfortable
and go through challenging circumstances
and push yourself in a situation
to an outcome that
you never thought was achievable,
and do that all here on Earth, now,
before we're faced with that situation,
you know, up there in space.
[telephone ringing]
[Colleen] Hello?
Hey, it's Hayley!
[Colleen] Hey! Oh, my gosh.
How are you?
I'm good. I'm calling you on,
like, a satellite phone.
- [Colleen] You're safe, right?
- Yeah, no, it's
[Colleen] You're not in the hospital,
are you?
I'm not at the hospital, no.
I'm at the campsite.
We hiked up for nine
and a half hours yesterday.
[Colleen] Oh, my gosh, how's your leg?
Surprisingly great.
[Colleen] Oh, my gosh.
[Hayley] A couple years after my dad died,
I found one of the boards
I had broken in tae kwon do.
He wrote on there, and he said,
"I'm more proud of you
for conquering your fear
than for earning your brown belt.
Love, Dad."
I looked at that board so much
before the Mount Rainier trip,
because I was nervous
to go on Mount Rainier,
and I knew that he would be more proud
of me for conquering my fear
than for conquering the mountain.
But anyway, I just wanted to call
and let you know that I'm fine,
I'm actually doing great.
[Colleen] I'm so glad.
And surprisingly, I love mountaineering.
[Colleen] Oh, that's great!
- All right. Love you!
- Love you.
[Colleen] Okay. Bye.
A couple people have said, "You're
gonna be closer to your dad than ever
when you're in space."
It's a really nice thought,
but I don't know if I believe that's true,
because I believe
he's with me all the time.
I woke up to the morning sky first ♪
Baby blue, just like we rehearsed ♪
When I get up off this ground ♪
I shake leaves back down
to the brown, brown, brown, brown ♪
Till I'm clean ♪
[Jeffrey] Astronauts often talk about
something called "the overview effect."
Frank Borman,
the commander of Apollo 8 said,
"This must be what God sees."
Now whether you believe in God,
or don't believe in God,
or aren't sure if you believe in God,
the overview effect lets you see the world
in a way you cannot see
without going to space.
With all my favorite colors
Yes, sir ♪
All my favorite colors
Right ♪
You can't see any
of the borders we fight over.
You just see land.
You see desert.
You see mountains, and jungles,
and oceans, and seas.
You don't see the politics.
You don't see inequality.
A good day to see my favorite colors
Colors ♪
My sisters ♪
You just see our improbable planet
in its pure and naked state.
That changes you.
It's a good day to be
A good day for me ♪
These folks, the Inspiration4 crew,
those people will never
see the world the same way again.
This mission is opening that door
to the entire seven billion of us.
All my favorite colors ♪