Due to a tech issue, we’ll be running a backup show this week. Please enjoy this reposting of one of our top Over Coffee® episodes of 2024.

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!)

“Life is so much more interesting and exciting when you’re challenging yourself and you’re trying to learn,” says NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen.

And he most enjoys learning and challenging himself as a member of a team–in space.

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

“There (are) just so many exciting things that you have the opportunity to work on,” he says, of the research projects conducted aboard the ISS.

That research has included projects which may well impact future medical advancements, on Earth–such as 3D printing body parts!

But revolutionary research, miles above Earth, doesn’t preclude having fun.

“Every day, there are enjoyable moments,” Steve says. “There is no better feeling you’ll have in life, than achieving something or succeeding as a team.”

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 marked his longest stay aboard the ISS: a total of six months.

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.