Finding Mastery Goes to Space, Part 2: Live from OUTER SPACE | NASA Astronaut, Woody Hoburg

Woody Hoburg (0:01)

Finding Mastery Podcast. This is Mission Control Houston. Please call Station for a voice check.

Michael Gervais (0:07)

Station, this is Michael Gervais with the Finding Mastery Podcast. How do you hear me?

Welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade in training, a high-performance psychologist. Now, today's conversation, it's a special one. We're going to outer space, and joining us for this historic episode is the remarkable NASA astronaut, Dr. Woody Hoburg, tuning in directly from the International Space Station. How incredible is that? This is part two of our three-part series documenting Woody's epic journey from Earth to the cosmos and then back again. And as a reminder, part three will release early next year. So last week in part one, we explored Woody's preparations for his mission. And if you haven't had the chance to check that out yet, I highly recommend you go back and give that a listen. And today in part two, he's providing a firsthand look into life aboard the ISS, the International Space Station. And he's just a few weeks into his expedition. What an experience to speak with Woody while he is literally floating around his cabin and spinning his microphone in zero gravity.

If you can, I highly recommend checking this one out on YouTube. The visuals are epic. And we'll put that link in the show notes for you so that you can check that out. Within the close quarters of the ISS, Woody and his team model an oppressive level of excellence and resilience. Their dedication to maintaining solid relationships and open and direct communication is rich with lessons for all of us, especially right now.

It is truly an honor to bring this conversation to you. So with that, let's jump right into this week's out of this world conversation with the one and only Dr. Woody Hoburg.

Woody Hoburg (2:07)

Finding Mastery podcast. This is Mission Control Houston.

Please call station for a voice check.

Michael Gervais (2:12)

Station, this is Michael Gervais with the Finding Mastery podcast. How do you hear me?

Woody Hoburg (2:17)

Dr. Michael Gervais, it's great to hear your voice on behalf of the Expedition 69 crew. It is a real pleasure to welcome you aboard the International Space Station.

Michael Gervais (2:26)

Oh, what a treat to hear that. And Woody, Dr. Hoburg, I am honored to have this conversation with you. And first it's just like, I want to say congratulations to what you've done and what NASA collectively has been able to do.

And I just have to just pause for a moment. Like, look where you are. Look at these surroundings that you're in right now.

Let me just soak that up. What is that like for you?

Woody Hoburg (2:55)

Yeah, we're aboard. What you're seeing right now, this is the US lab. This is one of many modules on the US segment of the space station. And it is a little cluttered in here. We've got a fair amount of equipment, computers, cabling.

We try to keep the place neat and tidy, but certainly a lot of scientific equipment and supplies up here to do our work.

Michael Gervais (3:19)

I bet in a confined space, that is neat and tidy. But from my vantage point, this looks like it is like orchestrated chaos.

Woody Hoburg (3:26)

Yeah, it is to some extent, but it's amazing how quickly you start learning where everything is and finding your way around. And I will say we have the most amazing team on the ground that keeps track of everything for us.

There's of course an inventory management system. So down to the smallest nut and bolt at any time, if you wanted to know where something is on the space station, we can just call down or even look it up ourselves up here. And we've got it all tracked. We've even got some RFID codes. So it's actually really well organized to the point where I sometimes wish that my life on earth were as organized as this.

Michael Gervais (4:01)

Amazing. So Woody, how has your experience thus far matched up against your expectations of being in space?

Woody Hoburg (4:10)

Well, you know, the expectations that I had to draw on before I flew was my training. And we have so many amazing training facilities at NASA and at SpaceX, since I flew up on a SpaceX vehicle and actually all around the world at our international partners. And so through my two years training for this mission, you know, each little training environment we have is one kind of simulation or component of preparing for the actual experience that's up here.