This post and podcast are not, in any way, shape or form, affiliated with, nor endorsed by, NASA. We are NOT employed by NASA. (We just think this is very exciting stuff!)

“There is no better feeling you’ll have in life, than achieving something or succeeding as a team,,” says NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen.

He would certainly know.

Steve’s career, so far, has included four flights to the International Space Station and ten spacewalks.

On his most recent spaceflight, Steve served as Commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. On March 2, 2023, he and his crew launched for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. This particular mission would mark his longest stay aboard the ISS: a total of six months.

On this most recent stay aboard the ISS, Steve had the opportunity to see how well his previous projects had gone. During his previous three, shorter trips to the International Space Station, he and his fellow astronauts had rebuilt parts of it!

A view from the ISS

While aboard the International Space Station, he and the crew conducted scientific research–with experiments from all around the world.

“We’re doing hundreds of experiments at a time,” Steve says. The space station, he explains, is a national laboratory, and he found a couple of the medical-science experiments, especially, “incredibly exciting”.

But intense workdays didn’t preclude having fun.

“Every mission had its incredibly enjoyable parts,” Steve says.

“…Just the people I’ve been able to spend time with on orbit…incredible human beings to have the opportunity to spend time with, and that just makes it so much fun.”

Steve talked about his background, offered a look at life aboard the International Space Station and explained some of the ways astronauts’ work in space can improve life on Earth.

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• Steve’s recollections of his growing-up years, which led to his becoming a submarine officer, and ultimately an astronaut;

• What it’s like to launch to the ISS;

• What the realities are, of serving as commander of a NASA spaceflight (as opposed to the way this role is portrayed in movies and television);

• One of the best leadership lessons Steve has learned, both from working aboard the ISS and from his fourteen years in the Submarine Force;

• What living aboard the ISS was like for Steve, in quarters he had helped to rebuild previously;

• One fun, playful experience the crew had aboard the International Space Station!;

• A closer look at the research experiments in which Steve and the crew were engaged aboard the ISS;

• What some of this work could mean to the medical profession, in the future;

• What’s involved, when guest vehicles arrive at, and depart from, the International Space Station;

• One of his favorite ways in which he was able to use his creativity as a problem solver in space;

• One “not-according-to-script” moment he and his fellow astronauts had to troubleshoot during a spacewalk;

• How astronauts deal with the motion sickness that can come with space travel (and with returning to gravity!);

• Resources Steve would recommend, and his advice to aspiring astronauts.