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Spoilers forLucy in the Skybelow.
by turning it into a melodramatic, hallucinatory soap opera that is, rather accidentally, laugh-out-loud funny.
(In fact, retired astronaut Marsha Ivinscriticized the trope andLucy in the Sky back in 2018).
Is it as common as Hollywood would have us believe, or is it merely a lazy plot machine?
Yes, we did talk about diapers.
First, tell me a bit about your career as an astronaut.
My first was an eight-day mission, and I lost ten pounds.
I probably averaged three hours of sleep.
When I got back, I fell asleep in the shower.
And my last mission was the second servicing of the Hubble telescope.
In total, Ive done three space walks, four shuttle missions, and 34 days in space.
And then I retired from NASA to go into the development business.
Is it unusual to go that many times?
The record was seven times.
I loved going up and being up and coming back down.
I did not love all the training.
So do you watch and like space movies?Oh, sure.
I really enjoy the good ones and Im pretty hard on the bad ones.
So an example of a good one, phenomenally good, was Christopher NolansInterstellar.Deeply researched, beautifully executed.
Matthew McConaughey wanting to get back home was very real.
Every time I took off, my first thought was, How is my family doing?
How are my girls doing?
The physics was pretty legit all the way through, as out there as it was.
On the other end of the spectrum, the very bottom of the barrel, isAd Astra.
Its all close-ups of Brad Pitt.
But the technical aspects, the plot twists, the physics of it it just made no sense.
It was technically so far off and so stupidly done.
I love to suspend disbelief with the best of them; I loveStar Trek.
I know theres no such thing as the warp drive and all that.
It was just awful.
Theres some of the going crazy trope in there, too.
His dad goes totally crazy and kills the whole crew.
To my knowledge theres not been an instance of anybody going nuts.
People like me, short-duration people, I do well for six or eight or 10 days.
I would not want to be up there for six months or a year.
I always thought a year was 365 days.
In bothAd AstraandLucy in the Sky,there are psychological resources available to the astronauts.
They took good care of us.
In theShuttle Era, though, psych evaluations were sort of a non-thing.
[Psychology] has become more prominent with longer durations.
Its become a pretty big deal now.
We dont want it to be bastardized.
But I dont want to imply we have sticks up our butts.
We like to laugh and have fun.
I had a lot of fun withSpace Cowboys.
Do you relate to that?I had the exact opposite reaction.
In the span of my arms, I could encompass America coast to coast.
It was such a profound sense of deep crystal clarity, combined with a profound sense of validation.
Ive heard people say theyd go to Mars even if it was a one-way trip.
I think thats insane.
Im so much more appreciative of how amazing our home planet and my life here is.
I dont know how to say this without sounding hokey, but music sounds better.
I appreciate art more.
I dont feel small at all.
Their tongues feel weird.Their tongues?
I have no idea where they got that from.
At one point, Lucy jealously tells her romantic rival that shes not allowed to fraternize with other astronauts.
Is that true?No!
Lucy gets grounded because her boss tells her shes too emotional.
I dont know if theyd be even told to their face, Heres why youre not flying.
More likely they just wouldnt get the next assignment theyre expecting.
I will say: One of the things thats extremely important on orbit is predictability.
Did you ever notice anything like that?I would say 100 percent no.
Ive never seen any behavior that would indicate sexist activity at all.
I loved working and flying with the women I had the chance to fly with.
The people brought into this program are so spectacular.
Now, youre asking a white male what do I know?
Did you wear diapers in space?Not on orbit, no.
Just for launch and entry.
They found withAlan Shepherd he wasnt wearing a diaper and he had to go.
On orbit, you have a potty; if you have to go, you use the potty.
Itd be dumb to walk around in a diaper.
That might be a reason to ground a guy.[Laughs.]
InArmageddon, Steve Buscemi goes crazy and gets space dementia.
You cant think as quickly and as clearly; its part of the adaptation process.
Your brain needs to wire itself a little differently.
Another trope you see a lot of is people hallucinating their dead family members while in space.
Any experiences with that?Uh, Im not aware of anybody doing that.
My problem with it, frankly, is the laws of physics.
What Einstein said about not being able to travel faster than the speed of light.
It would take hundreds of thousands of years how are these aliens getting here so expeditiously?
I cant figure out how that would even be possible.
Im not saying it isnt.
But it could very well be the case!
Maybe we are totally alone.
I tend to be skeptical, but Im optimistic.
If theyve mastered interplanetary travel, chances are good that they could wipe us out in short order.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
