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 cool stuff, during an exciting time to be alive!

In honor of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10’s successful flight to the ISS, this week we’re reposting our 2024 interview with NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen.

As the world watches the activities of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 what is life like, aboard the International Space Station?

NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen can certainly answer that question.

Steve has flown four separate missions aboard the International Space Station. Most recently, he served as commander aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the ISS, in 2023. Over the course of his career, he has conducted 10 spacewalks. In all, he’s logged a cumulative total of 227 days in space.

Team lessons on leadership

And the best part of it, he says, is getting to work with his fellow astronauts towards the goals of each mission.

“There is no better feeling you’ll have in life, than achieving something or succeeding as a team,” he says.

In fact, those achievements included rebuilding parts of the ISS!

Steve says that his first three flights on the International Space Station included bringing up the galley for the U.S. side, a module for the Russian side and a new stowage module for equipment.

In addition, Steve and his crew members were involved in some very exciting research projects, from around the world, that could have some exciting implications for medical science in the future.

“What we learn on orbit really informs how we understand the world,” he explains.

In this interview, recorded in early 2024, 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.