extremes of tower muss or minus 270 degrees. with international partnership of 15 countries, different languages and cultures, this is the hardest thing we have ever done and if we can do this, we can do anything. want to good to mars go to mars, cure cancer, put the resources behind it, we can do that. want to fix or problems with the environment the challenges we have, we can do that. challenges in this country, challenges in your lives. after spending a year in space i was absolutely inspired that if we can dream it, we can do it. thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] [inaudible conversations] day sy

with more nonfiction authorsful right now joining us is astronaut scott kell where whose book is "endurance, a year in space, lifetime of discoveriy" what intrigues me was in the young questioners in the panel session and you also announced that you are going to have a young reader version of the book and also a picturing into version of it. next year is the 5th areas of the moon walk -- the 50th 50th anniversary of the mon back and that was a general race of kids follow that and getting excited about a con country. with the diversion of mead use and social media, its possible to get young people as interested in space as the generation was? >> i find that kids are very interested in space and space flight. certainly when you're comparing what we're doing right now on a day-to-day basis with going to

the moon for the first time, might not seem as exciting but, still, space program is a universally, i think has a universal appeal, especially to kids, and it is very, very rare for me to come across a kid that does not say, i want to fly in space issue want to be an astronaut, and sometime hisry'll say i want to work for nasa, maybe not flying is their thing, but i'm happy i think the sprays program does still interest people and kids have almost a universal appeal to them. >> so, if you had to say how you were a different person, the book subtitle is "lifetime of discovery" what is the before and after scott kelly. >> having the pivot pivoter of look -- the perspective of looking back at earth from space, it's a moving experience. you see planet of ours, which

everybody person that's ever lived and died is here. everything that's important to us is there. and when you're detached from it, it think it makes you appreciate it morement you appreciate the fragility of the atmosphere, hour 0 atmosphere looks like a thin film over the surface. you recognize that despite how peaceful the earth does look, there's a lot of conflict and on the planet, and so those two things are kind of in conflict with one out. how it looks versus how it sounds. that experience makes people that have had this privilege more empathetic, more kind of in touch with humanity and that was the case for me. >> heard you say there was never a day in space you didn't feel different than you did on earth. the question would be, when you got back to earth, did you feel different and not just physically but emotionally,

spiritually. >> yeah. think you do. i think you -- makes you a appreciate things more, appreciate everything we have here. a great planet. when people ask me, what is my favorite planet? absolutely earth. not even a close second. so, yeah, i think the experience does change people for the better. hopefully some day we'll have more and more people be able to fly into someplace, maybe for vacation some day. >> you see that coming pretty soon. >> i think so. i'm optimistic. >> let's talk some calls. people have been waiting to talk to you. we begin with pam in floridaful you're on. >> caller: i just wanted to really enjoyed today, put your book on hold, i'm -- [inaudible] -- i was wondering, three times -- when you were in space -- [inaudible]

>> guest: i did not understand pam residents -- pam's question. >> pa is asking about your interest in education. so, we didn't get enough of that. we'll try fred in new jersey and see if we have better luck. fred, you're on booktv. >> caller: hi, captain kelly. recently read your book, endurance, and really so impressed. i think that with your background, your experience, your intelligence, you're the only person in this country qualified to be president of the united states. how about it in 2020? >> well, thank you for your vote of confidence, fred. >> wouldn't your twin be equally qualified? >> no i'd be more qualified than him. he is actually more involved in politics than i am.

>> ever considered politics yourself? >> i tell you what, fred. you get 100 million of your fellow citizens of the united states to go along with your opinion, i might consider it. >> next is linda in georgia. hi, linda, you're on for captain kelly. >> caller: hi, scott. my neighborhood book club read your book for february meeting, by my suggestion, and earn loved it. my question today is, what is it like lanning the space shuttle and compare that to landing a regular plane when you're a test pilot. >> so, linda, landing a space shuttle is tricky. it's big glider. engines but no more fuel of not that you would want to land with rocket engines anyway. so, the space shuttle is a

challenging vehicle to land. one of the most challenging. it's got a time delay in the flying control system that would not be allowed to exist in an airplane. it's just too long. so it's got some quirkiness about it that makes it rick to land, but the thing that makes it -- that is the worst contributor to the challenge of lanning the space shuttle is the fact you have been in space for a week or two weeks and you're, dizzy and tired and you realize a lot of people are watching you do this on television. you have one chance to do it, and it's -- kind of ratchets up the pressure. i would say, though, that the hardest piloting task that i've ever done is landing an f14 tom cat on an aircraft carrier at night, that's a scarier and definitely a more challenging piloting task than, believe it

or not, land space shuttle. >> i have watched a carrier lanking and watching the chain catch you at the right moment. norm in puyallup, washington, you're on for scoot kelly. welcome to our conversation. >> caller: ey. thank you for taking my call. i was wondering, scott mentioned the russian astronauts. i was wondering what he thought of the putin administration, they recently banned jehovah's witnesses which is no threat to the government and they're big item in the news. that's my question. >> i think i heard something about that in russia. i'm not a big expert on it, so i really don't have much of an opinion about that but i did hear a little on the news about what you're talking about. i'm not an expert so answering

that question is probably not in -- probably shouldn't do it. >> to expand it's bit and talk about where we seem to be in a tense time between he two country asks there you were working on she space shuttle and the space station. did any of those tension comes to bear. >> no, people have a hard time understanding how that could be the case, but we're partners in space. we're crewmates. we lie on each other literally, for our lives and that's the most important thing. at times you might talk about the conflict that might occur between our nations, but it was almost in this kind of abstract way. my friend and colleague and crewmate, kornienko, i spent an interyear with him said this, if our two nations ever wanted to

solve the problems we have with one another, all we need to do is put our two presidents in space together for a year. >> do you stay in touch with him? >> yeah. >> how do you two communicate? >> mostly on e-mail and fiber. >> do you have a sense your nations are watching how you communicate? >> i don't think anybody is watching. maybe their watching him. >> scott in california 'you are on the air. welcome. >> caller: hi. have a way about radiation, and like how much exposure do you get during the year in space that you spend? >> yes. so, scott, you get anywhere -- how radiation is characterized is different, but in general, what i've been told, you get from, like, 10 to 20 chest x-rays equivalent of radiation every single day. that depends on how active the

sun is. which seems like a lot. but it increases your chance of, like, fatal cancer just by a very, very small percentage from that radiation exposure. but it is definite lay concern and we are considered radiation workers by osha and we have radiation limits and people have bumped up against to the -- those limits in the pass. >> you write about the twins medical study you're part of, you and your brother. will that continue nor rest of your lives. >> yeah, mr. some respects. most astronauts are part of this thing called the longitudal study of astronaut health and the study news general anyway, but, yeah, some of those experiments will go on for a long time, and the longitudeat study goes on until the end. >> there nor other twins who are both astronauts but are there

any twins that one was earth-bown and one win to space their studying the difference from. >> i don't know -- i don't think they've ever studied the differences. charlie duke, who walked on the moon in apollo 16 has a twin brother. identical twin. joe tanner, who was a space shuttle mission specialist has a twin brother so other astronauts have had twins but this experiment with my brother and i was kind of a new thing. our government is really not a generally allowed to do genetic testing on employee unless i kind of brought it up to ask if there was interest, and because i sort of proposed the idea or at least gave them the -- put the bug in their ear, it was something they were able to get past, the rules around this. >> next call is from sandra in

indio, california, welcome. >> caller: thank you. thank you for taking my call and thank you, scott, for your service. my question is, the difference in training to be a test pilot is different than training to be a commander on a space shuttle. what type of training is different from the two different programs? >> a lot of the skills you have and you acquired as a test pilot, testing airplanes, are very similar to the skills you need to command the space shuttle because the space shuttle was still a flying test vehicle. we flew 140 times at an airplane that has flown only 140 flights. that's in kind of the infancy of it flight test program. so being a test pilot was part of being the commander of the space shuttle. but also the other big part is

managing the crew and the mission and leadership skills it takes to do that kind of thing. so somewhat different task bud bag test pilot prepared people very well for being a commander of the space shuttle. >> tell me about your book experience, how many stops are you going to do at become stores and festival like the and what's it's been like? >> my book came out in october, and i was on a pretty extensive book tour for the first couple of months, even internationally. still doing a little bit of that but kind of winding down. the experience was fun, talking to people.your story and your book. i found that people were very interested and i think the book has gotten some good reviews and some good appeal. so i -- it was an enjoyable and isoo. >> you you're a one-shot author? do you have more stories to

tell. >> i wrote a kid's book, too, and then i have two other books coming out next year, we're tell me about them. >> a picture book, of all the photograph i took in space, which will be pictures that are documenting what we did in space but also the more artistic ones would take of earth, all the earth art pictures. a coffee table book and hopefully will pictures that people feel like could i hang that on my wall. this young reader version of this book will come out next october, i think the paperback of this will follow, and then i have a commitment to do three more childrens books over the course of the next couple of years from now. >> next call from the c-span booktv audience from an anyones in little falls, new jersey. welcome. >> caller: hi. how are you? wondering how you go to the

bathroom when glory -- when glory space. >> guest: how you go to bathroom in space? >> yes. >> caller: diapers are. >> guest: very carefully. very carefully. >> host: thank you, anthony. >> guest: diapers just for launch and landing. be hard to wear a diaper for an entire year. >> but you do talk about this and talk about waste in the space space and how you differ suppose of it because it's a part of your existence that you had to figure out technology to deal with. >> managing garbage in space is a big problem. make sure -- you don't have a -- you think it's space, you have a lot of space. on the space station you don't have that much so how you manage the trash is important. keeping it separate between the smelly stuff and the not smelly stuff, and then eventually you put it in a resupply vehicle that's going to burn up in the

atmosphere, so i think people are under the misconception when they see a shooting star that is something that hey should wish upon. not necessarily. >> we have a call from houston. tom. go ahead, place. >> caller: i'm curious you hear of people swimming in zero gravity. i wonder if you have tried that and if you put, for example, hold other file folder to get more area on your hand, if you can sveum in air. >> host: can you sveum in the air in zero gravity. >> yeah, you can swim. like with a couple of fans or -- >> a file folder in your hand. >> that would work. wouldn't work well but you could do that. for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. >> michael in tampa, florida. scott kelly, talking about

philosophy space good ahead. >> caller: this is -- i'm excited because you said that you were not the greatest student and coming from a not great student like myself, and trying to inspire my son who is also dyslexic, tell me about how you got over to be such a great captain and -- i think it's an inspiring story for kids who be late bloomers. >> well, michael, i was this kid that couldn't pay attention or do my homework, absolutely impossible for me is how i felt. my whole first 13 years of my education. i went to college because it was kind of expected of me to do that. i wasn't doing well there. i couldn't pay attention or study and one day i just happened to go into the book

store to buy gum or something, not a book. wasn't a big lead reader but found a book on the shelf that had a red, white and blue cover and a cool title, made me pick it up and i read the back and then started paging through it, and was interested enough that i took my gum money and purchase the book and went back to my dorm room and laid there for the next few days of my unmade dorm room bed and red thesters of the fighter pilots that became the test pilots and the original mercury, gemini and apollo astronauts the book was "the right stuff" and i recognized traits those guys lad in themes and i felt like i had, too. one big exception, and that is my able to do my homework and study and i thought, if i can fix that thing about myself, maybe i could fly in space some day. so, i -- it wasn't easy at firstment took me a year and had some motivation and

encouragement. took me a year to turn the page on that so to speak, and become a better student, but shows you the power of a book. >> can you tell the story out your twin brother got interested. >> in the space program? >> uh-huh. >> not, i can't. i don't know. >> no competition between the two of you. >> i need to ask him. >> you're not going tell me. >> i don't know. >> you really don't know. okay. that surprises me. >> i never asked. never came up. >> my leg feels like it's -- >> he was a test pilot in the navy, too at the same time back then. just about everyone would apply to be a space shuttle pilot. >> where your family members surprised in this turn-around in you? >> yeah issue would imagine they were. pretty shocked. >> you write and you talk to the panel about communicating with

tom wolfe from space. do you still stay in touch with him. >> yes week what are the conversations about like now? >> you know, the last time it was about my book and how is it going. >> the experience of being an author. >> yeah. he recognizes how challenging this could be, too. >> jack is up next in new mexico. hi, jack. >> caller: hi. i'm just finishing someone gave me -- [inaudible] -- curious but your relationship the other astronauts of other countries. i got the impression that being very close during training, once you got up on the space station, they were doing their thing and you were up here doing your thing and there wasn't that much close contact. is that true? >> well, you know, with the cosmo nat speak do -- the space

station is in two halfs so their work time mission the russian half. time for their u.s. astronauts in the u.s. half but that's not -- we're not separated because we don't like each other or don't get along. it's just a nature of how the space station is operated, and we get together as much as we want or can to spend time together. if i wanted to go and plant myself in the russian segment and hang out there all day, they would give me a tea and crackers all day long if i chose to do that. so it's not because we don't get along or like each other. just the nature of the place. >> we're getting a call from a town in west virginia called somebody good time to mention it's raining here which is really unusual in tucson. umbrellas behind us as we speak, which is quite a sight them time of year the desert. michelle, hurricane west, what's your question for scott kelly. >> caller: hi. yes, i was just interested to

know what captain kelly's theory is regarding whether or not we have actuallyland on the moon. some people think we have, some people think we have. no. >> i know we have. >> what do you think about conspiracy theories about space in general, how do they get started and get currency. >> let mow go further and answer her question about the moon emt were in your race with the soviet union. i mean, if we really didn't land on the moon they would have been the first ones to say, wait a minute, that wasn't true. plus i know or knew a lot of the guys that walked on the moon. they could never keep a secret like that. no way. have a lot of respect for them. keeping secrets like that? not possible. >> maria in few sob, -- tucson, you're up next. go ahead. >> caller: thank you. my question is -- i'm sorry there's some feedback -- in

addition to the physical challenges when you came back to earth, what was the emotional or psychological challenge that you faced? >> wants to more about emotional and psychological -- >> the emotional and psychological challenge, it's confined, even though it's pretty big for a space station. you still can't leave. you're with the same people. all the time. they come and go but you're with the same people for a long time, even though you like those people, it's not great variety. no nature no weather no rain, like in tucson today. this is unusual. but the biggest thing, i think, is this detachment from your family and this idea that if something happens to them on earth you can't be there to be with them. think that's the most challenging part. >> you write about making phone calls to family members. were those phone calls heard by everybody in nasa. >> no, they're private.

>> did you schedule them or just make them impromptu. >> you can call almost like making a skype call without the video and call whenever you want, assuming you after the the satellite connection which exists 80% of the time. >> we have a couple minutes left. heat get a cull from june in tampa, florida. >> caller: yes. my question is for scott kelly. it's more of a thank you. i would like to thank you for the book and for speaking to a group veterans group in austin, couple of weeks ago.

you want to be in one of those. but then you know pick the thing you about like. because to like it you'll do better at it and nasa like what is they do at their job. because don't become a test pilot because i was a test pilot but rather be a chemist be a chemist or something else and then be a well rounded person have some other skills. show you can work as a team and i think in the future there are a lot more opportunities to find space not just nasa and you kno.