Astronaut Garrett Reisman: From Space Shuttle to SpaceX

So what changes have been made since you go from the old shuttle model of that technology to the SpaceX Dragon crew thing? Probably the single biggest change is all the, we've gotten a lot better at electronics and software. So the vehicle is highly automated and that's why we can fly like, like normal people that don't have like years and years of training because it's so much more smarter than the shuttle. You shouldn't say so much more smarter. So much smarter. But you're such a genius. You're not supposed to use language like that. You're a goddamn astronaut. So much more smarter. Yeah, right. That sounds like something I would say. You got to talk better than that, bro. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry though. Sorry to interrupt you. That was math was always my thing. My verbal SATs weren't that spectacular, but you know. Yeah, so it's much more smarter. And what about the, there was always an issue with the tiles, right? With the reentry tiles. Yeah. And then that's what did Challenger, no, which one was it? Columbia. Columbia. That's what did Columbia in. The new design, have they made advances in how that stuff is applied or is it a different surface they use? Yeah, so that is something that's also not really a worry anymore. The reason that Columbia took that damage was it was foam, like the big orange tank that's behind the space shuttle. It sticks up above the space shuttle and some foam fell off of it. We always had some foam shedding off the thing. And in the beginning we took that very, very seriously as a major problem. But the thing is, there's this concept of, I'm going to forget the name of it now. Well, let me just describe it. So you get away with something for so long that you begin, it's normalization of deviance. That's what it's called. So it's when you get away with something for so much, so long, something that was a deviant thing or something that was bad is treated as a normal thing. And that's what happened to us. Because we knew that that foam coming off could do damage to the space shuttle. And in the beginning we tried really hard to do something about it and we treated it very seriously, but it was hard. We couldn't really come up with an easy fix. In the meantime we were flying and nothing bad was happening. What was really happening is we were getting lucky. And then eventually a big piece came off, hit Columbia right in the wing, and it shattered, made a big hole in the side of the wing, but nobody knew for sure. And they made a bad decision to not investigate it further, assumed it was okay, brought him home and obviously know what happened. So it could be possible to fix something like that if they had known? It could have been possible. We did a lot of things. Like when I flew we had a lot of things in place to try to fix that. One, we got rid of a lot of the foam that was unnecessary. We tried to do things that stopped the foam. We also had ways of detecting it so that we would know. We had sensors in the wings. We added a maneuver we do when we fly up to the space station. We did like a pitch over where we took photographs of the heat shield to see if anything got hit. So at least we would know. And then we could shelter in place on the space station. So there's a lot of things we could do with the shuttle, but the thing about with Dragon and Starliner and the new vehicles is they sit on top. So there's no, any foam that comes off the rocket is not going to hit you. So problem solved. So that's one example of how we don't have to worry about that anymore. Now is the surface different? Do they still have the same kind of tiles? The heat shield is not- Can I see what it looks like again? The heat shield is- The material on the side of the capsule, on the walls of the capsule is made out of silica. So it's similar to the tiles. But the material that's in the heat shield itself is an ablative material. It means it kind of like as it heats up, it flakes off and it takes the heat away with it. And that's kind of more similar to like it was during Apollo. It's a much more advanced- Wow, look at that thing. Yeah, isn't that cool? Can we see that? Can we go there? Will they give us a tour? I bet we can, I bet we might be able to pull that off. Dude, I want to see a spaceship. The guy you should have asked was my boss when he was here. Yeah, we were talking about other shit. I know. Well, I, you know, I got- He's got the keys to the factory. But there she is on the launch pad. So that white stuff at the top on the capsule itself, that's kind of like the same material as the tiles. But the heat shield on the bottom is called Pika, Phonolympregnated Carbon Oblator. So it's a different, it's a different very high-tech material that is really, really good at withstanding tremendous amounts of heat. That heat shield is way oversized. You could use that thing at least 10 times. And it's really was originally designed for actually entries coming back from the moon when you're going much faster and you build up a lot more heat when you hit the atmosphere than just coming back from the space station. So ultimately that's the goal for these things, to take people to the moon, to take people to Mars, to take people- Well- And reusable, right? This is just a start. So reusability is key. And there's elements of this vehicle that are not reusable. That trunk you see, the thing, the cylinder below the capsule is not reusable. We throw that away. The second stage on the Falcon 9 we throw away. And you know, Elon hates that. The holy grail is 100% reusable, but affordable reusability where you don't have to spend like a gazillion dollars refurbishing it in between flights. And we're getting there and the next vehicle is going to be the real, that's going to be the real, hopefully we will get that holy grail with this star ship that we're working on now. So there's a top secret one that you can't talk about? Is that what it is? You seem hesitant. Well, it's just, you know, we got a lot of development going on and it's not top secret. I mean, Elon went down to the press conference in front of it in Texas not too long ago and showed what it looked like. Yeah. This is one of the tests. I think it's called star hopper. So this was a beginning. This is a test bed to test the engine to make sure that we can. Oh, that's fake. That's real. That's real. That is not CGI. Really? That's the thing? That's the thing. Whoa. Now the real thing is going to look just like that. It's, it's, it's the, this is really testing the engine and the sensors and the electronics. What is the jet coming out of the bottom? Those are, that's the, the, the bottom is a, is there as a Raptor engine. It's burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen. And then those puffs at the top are coal gas thrusters just to keep it pointing the right way. And so that's landing now. Yeah. My God, that's amazing. Isn't that awesome? That is a mate. Look how gently it lands. Yeah. Dude, that seems like science fiction. I know. That's what I'm telling you like this thing. And I know that the guys up in blue origin, the Jeff Bezos company has got all kinds of incredible stuff on their drawing board. 2020 is the start, but it's just the start. Show me that again. I need to see that again. I need to see that better pictures of it. Oh, okay. There it is. I want to see that thing land again. That video of it landing is crazy. I got lucky. Did you? Hold on. It's so crazy though. The image to see it gently come down and perfectly land. Look at that, man. That looks like some war of the worlds type shit. That's in a Tom Cruise movie, right? Yeah. Like if they were flying over earth and they were starting to land. My God, that's amazing. Yeah, I remember when Elon first talked about landing rockets on their tails, he was like, I think I remember him saying, yeah, we want to do it just like Buck Rogers. Of course he said that. So I'm working with Ron Moore on this TV show I'm working on now. Wow. Look at that thing. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. For people who want to see this, Jamie, what is the name of the video? So people listening can go. 150 meters star hopper test. 150 meters star hopper test, more than 2,800,000 views. It's a space page. 700,000 views. That's amazing, man. 2,898. Wow. It's on the space page. So you can go and check that out. So that's next stage. That's next stage after this one. So there's going to be a rocket and then that thing is going to sit on top of it or something like that thing. And then we're going to get both back. The rocket will land on its tail and then the thing after it goes off to the moon or even Mars, it'll come back and also land on its tail and then we'll get both pieces. We'll get 100% back. Wow. And then we really got reusability gone.