[ applause ] q&a, charles on bolden discusses his career at he agency, the life in the military, and the decision to attend the united states naval academy. >> nasa administrator, if you had your choice, would you astronaut in the huttle or run the nasa

administration? running the nasa right now, i'd rather do what i'm doing. >> why? the'm a person -- i live in moment. and people who know me know that i tell them i don't -- i don't matter how ing, no bad. what's done is done. nd i would not change anything because i have three beautiful grand daughters who are 6, 10, and 13. i'm fearful if i went back and changed any minor thing, i have them. >> 135 missions in the space shuttle? >> yes, sir. $200 billion? 30 years? was it worth it? dime. was worth every >> let me start with what i think shuttle did for the nation the next 30 years that most people will never think about it them. someone tells the technical world in which i live is very nondiverse.

a lot of people who like me. n fact, in the history of the space shuttle, there were only two pilots of african-american years.t in 30 a lot of different reasons for it. some we're not proud of. diversity to out an incredibly technical program. it allowsle people of all farm gs -- we have had a worker. e've had a farm worker, schoolteachers, people like me go to space who never would have for that had it not been the space shuttle era. that's a human interest side of did.the space shuttle this nation that professes to be he shining city of the hill, that's important. there are two other nations that can send humans to space right russia.hina and and then other than the fact that russia helps us get people space, there would be very little diversity in who goes to

space with the russian program there's no diversity in who goes to space with the chinese program to date. a program in its infancy. ut only chinese with the chinese program so far. >> what is your guess that space years will be like ten from now? and how many countries will be involved in it? and will there be people landing somewhere out there in space? >> ten years from now, we will operating, i hope, on the international space station universe. hold to the i would love to say ten years from now, humans will have mars.d on that's not the course on which we've embarked. to president challenged us put humans on mars or in the martian environment in the 2030s. a little far outside in the ten-year window. we should be there. now.hould have been there but there may be humans on the moon inside that ten-year when i nasa is successful n fostering the development of

commercial space and entrepreneurial space to the extent that we're trying to do right now. private some enterprises who really believe they can put humans on the moon. and so we have formal agreements with some of them to provide expertise and other assistance, you know, in a nonreimbursable basis. it's conceivable. my belief is, you know, my personal belief is that it outside is a little bit of the ten-year time frame. >> what about either russia or china? >> no. years.in ten technologically, we have the capability of doing it. e're about leading the world and exploring deeper into space than we've ever done before. on two hy we embarked big human enterprises over and above the international space now.on right come25, humans should have

asteroid.t with an some call it a translunar, they'll be in orbit around our interacting with an asteroid if we're success new asteroid strategy we've been working on for everal decades but we formally introduced in the 2014 budget. as a follow-on, if we're able to technologies from that mission, solar electric increased efficiency in our life support -- life nmental control and support such as the cabin in which humans live can stand an eight-month trip to mars and perhaps living in something like periods of time. walk ace suits, new suitses, all kinds of things. radiation protection is the for st challenge right now an extensive trip all the way out to mars. going.t's where we're

>> where did you grow up? >> columbia, south carolina. my wife and i are proudly from south carolina. as everyone -- knows her. we're the products of teachers. lifelong products of teachers they died. jackie's mom and dad both died as teachers. hey devoted -- dedicated themselves to education. we grew up in the segregated south. my being here was improbable. if anyone asked if i would be in south ng up carolina, the answer would have been a resounding no way. it was hard enough to get to the naval academy. >> how did you get to the naval academy? make it tory, i will short. i fell in love with it over television. saw a program called "men of annapolis" that talked about life in the naval academy. "west point story." lot of military stories when i up.growing

i saw the uniform. lots of women, lots of girls naval academy on the weekend. with no knowledge of the naval academy, i decide in the seventh i wanted to go to the naval academy. in the ninth grade, i started writing my congressman, state president of the united states saying -- the vice president saying i really want to go to the naval academy and say, a little ld too early. write us when you're a senior. senior in 1964 -- 1964.ated in most people who are my age and in e close will remember november of 1963, we lost president kennedy. every een writing for -- since he became vice president to lyndon johnson. he became president and i was no longer eligible for an appointment from him. to the one more letter president. i said i know i'm not eligible.

get an appointment out of south carolina, can you do something. never heard something. later, a navy recruiter showed up at my front door and said i understand to re interested in going the naval academy. a couple of months after that, a retired federal judge by the of judge bennett came around, travelled around the country at the behest of for dent johnson looking young men of color who were interested in going to the academies and so between bennett and the navy recruiters, i got an appointment to the naval academy. african-american? >> african-american, army veteran. never met him. he's long gone, i never got an opportunity. > who is the congressman in south carolina? > oh lan b. johnston and strom thurman were my two state senators. two u.s. senators and albert

the congressman. case they all responded. strom thurman said, you know, he was the most honest. politically infeasible to do this. oh. of cloer? >> because of color at that time. olan johnson considered an appointment to the merchant i wasn't demy and interested in that. i never heard anything from albert watson. her dying day believes that strom thurman to ed a role in getting me the naval academy. every single milestone until he died i would get a note from strom thurman. you said the uniform attracted you, but, but -- you know what i'm going to say. academy and you switch your uniform to the united states marines. when i w two thingings graduated from high school, two, that's all i knew.

negative. both under no circumstances would i go to the marine corps. i live in columbia, south an hour, an hour and a half drive from paris island. on the weekends, marines came to because back then, you know, where else were the black marines going to go. columbia ould come to and go to drew park swimming pool where i worked. reens up closeema and personal. they were crazy. fly airplanes.to i thought that was inherently dangerous. not fly and i would not be a marine. naval st year at the academy, my first company officer was by the name of john officer.e, an infantry so much like my dad. he was tough. but incredibly fair. and although we wrl together for just one year, for my freshman naval academy, he so impressed me that my senior year, i said i want to be like him. so i did it. >> marine.

sorties over vietnam? missions over north vietnam, laos, and cambodia. combat. >> what kind of plane. >> the best airplane god allowed make.o it was awesome. sat side-by-side. tandem seating. an intact aircraft. no supersonic flying. all we did was deliver weapons on the ground. most of my flying was done over vietnam. they were night low level planes. at night m went out with more than one airplane. >> how old were you? foolish.and i was the first lieutenant. so i was probably 24, 25. missions overnorth vietnam, you remember? >> well, the one moment i remember was the time i didn't i coming home.

i didn't think i was going to get back. it was just the mission. had a -- back then we were kind of stupid things.w we did the ingress routes were almost always the same. the target times were almost same. the everything was repeatable back then. my -- we were at liberty to change our ingress however we to do it. the targets were the same no matter what. there was one area in the portion of north vietnam. and every time you went in there, they knew you were coming. they knew what time you were coming and they started shooting got there. this one, the fire was incredibly intense. inbound to the target. there was stuff all around. to do would be to turn around and go out because you're going to spend it. much more time in we pressed on to the target. we were 500 feet above the

ground. o you knew they couldn't see you. they were depending on sound. and, you know, probably not picked up on radar. i just didn't think they would make it that night. i distinctly remember that. a scratch on the airplane. >> flying out of a place we garden."the rose i remember leaving. i had taken my wife from cherry where my th carolina son was born so he had just turned 1-year-old. colonel? lieutenant >> lieutenant colonel now, a ommander which is an unmanned vehicle squadron, a drone squadron in cherry point, north carolina. point twice.cherry he was born there and went back command.take

we put them in the apartment. air force basehe for the transformation over what i thought was going to be coming into japan. sword, my dress blues. going south. going south, where? you.id, i can't tell ironically, when i called my ife, i said what is the secret air base that the -- i said what are you talking about. on the cover of "time" magazine. up in the place called the rose garden in the middle of middle ofungle in the a training base that the seabies

cleared all of the cobra and jungle out. air force started to put an airport in. get it the way they wanted to. it. abandoned runway seabyes put extra down so we could land and so we lived there for about a year. ana is a? >> 18 hundreds people? >> about the same size as the i g i commanded before retired from the marine corps. >> how many money did you spend 2014? >> 2013, in this fiscal year, spend $16.8 billion. the budget was $17.7 billion. what the president has requested for 2014. but under sequester, we took a across the board budget cut. 17.7, tead of spending at we're spending at 16.8. >> going to put that on the

historical nasa budget. one of the things to look at is percent of the budget. 4.4.highest was coming up to 2012, .48% of the budget. w45 is the difference? what's the difference? >> why? >> a number of things. 4.4%.o was the time it was we had the enemy. the soviet union. empire. and president kennedy became determined that we were not to the be second soviets when it came to space. exploration. and it's historic now. he uttered the challenge to nasa to put man on - the moon before the end of the decade and bring him safely home. why that $4.4 million came. ramp down from the apollo area to where we are

today. today is us. we do still have an enemy. enemy is whether or not we -- the fight is whether we'll maintain our position as the the world tion in technologically. the president talks about it all time. the nation that out innovates, educates, and out builds will be in the world. we're still not innovating. e're not out building anybody right now. here is no infrastructure development for the nation the way it has been throughout times throughout our history. under a lot really of strain, you know? the president has tasked all come federal agencies to up with the viable stem program hat will be effective so that when you and go oh to deliver a commencement address, we're not kids to see all of the going through the school of engineering be from some other

it is today.ay >> i'm an electrical scientist. master's degree from -- >> the university of california in systems management. hybrid between a engineering degree and mba that usc put air her primarily for the force as they entered in europe where we were going to be doing acquisition. >> you left -- >> major general. two-star general. video -- politics. back in the 2012 campaign. and you what he has to say maybe you can reflect on this. >> we will have the first moon and base on the it will be american. >> we will have commercial near that include es

science, tourism, and manufacturing. to create a ned robust industry precisely on the on the development of the airlines in the 1930s because it is in our interest to acquire so space that wee in clearly have a capacity that the will e and the russians never come anywhere close to. by the end of 2020, we will have the first continuous compulsion system in space capable of remarkably ars in a short time because i'm sick of being told we have to be timid nd sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old. said do ch of what he you believe? >> he had read the serious -- -- i'm i'm certain he had read the resident's national space policy and he had read the president's presidential -- his

campaign space much of what he says is true. working en living and in space in the international now for 13 years, science, engineering technology goes on there every single day. we launched the latest crew last week. the american astronaut. one of two there. other is a navy seal who in iraq and afghanistan. there's an italian who's there with russians. so we are doing that part already. provide commercial transportation for cargo through space-x which is a company.neurial >> no -- >> not private company. >> not a big business. large industry provider, traditional provider. e have a second company called

orbital sciences here in dulles, virginia who launched the rocket little more than a month ago 1/2 hour drive from here. certification flight. two american introproviders carrying cargo to the international space station. we can get the congress onboard with the president's -- we will l have select one, maybe 1 1/2 of three competitors to carry the things to space. it's criminal to me that i had to authorize my budget people, financial people to write a extendor $454 million to our contract with the russians to continue to carry our crews international space station on soyuz on 2016 and have not brought about the capability that's coming with the crew program.

president's budget called for $821 million for commercial crew. halfway there. the congress is -- we are not -- my job is trying to persuade the is plan is good and we're going to be efficient users of the taxpayers' money. not been successful. on it. wovgi iworking we're up to $525 million. the 2014 budget is vital if we're to make the so that newt gingrich said is true, americans are ransported again on the american space the craft. we're talking about faster what we're that's doing with the asteroid mission that we've proposed. the technological leaps re larger solar electric propulsion engines made available through much larger solar cells. it takes the engine and sites by power that drives it.

we don't have giant solar cells yet, but we're getting there. did you command the shuttle with the russians. my last space shuttle mission. ask, what's the fondest memory from your time in the space program? meaning what was the greatest that happened to you in orbit. fondest memory of my 14 years in the space program prior to plus years i spent training with serge and ladimir titov and having their family live alongside us in houston, texas. my family getting to know theirs. all of the families working together. for me, that was priceless. we remain the best of friends to this day. that was in 1984. >> when you read the daily reports coming out of russia, doesn't look like we have much relationship compared to what we expected to by now.

butdo we get along in space not get along in politics? have a mission. and we are doing something that recognize has a tremendous impact on humanity and the world. we're both dedicated when it technological management. they want to do deep space with us. they want to do robotic missions to the moon. get toamed up with us to mars. russia has been trying since they were the soviet union to of something on the surface mars and have it work. the first time that happened is radiation lew a instrument as a part of the scientific package on "curiosity." is today the source of much of the radiation data we talked bout last week in a press conference that tells us about the radiation environment between earth and mars and now the radiation environment on the surface of mars. and it's going to be critical for us. because it's going to help us as

further the design of the vehiclings to carry crews and of places in which we live to get to the martian surface. mission, a common goal. i did not want to fly with the russians, by the way. headquarters when i was the assistant deputy administrator. was working for dan golden, the number three guy in the agency thinking i would never in space again. in sayingmentors came we want to go back to houston. that's great. i hate d.c. fly and e want you to command a mission. when you know of my anden desires is to go back fly on the first hubble servicing mission. i flew on the mission that it.loyed it was great but not in the best shape when we left it. i to complete the circle, anted to command the first

station -- hst servicing mission. the first russian-american got named ission, i to command there. i said i'm a marine, i've trained all my life to hate them, kill them. they did the same thing to me. how about calming down. are going to be in town tonight. ill you go and have dinner and talk. we spoke with serge and vladimir. serge, young engineer, fluent english speaker. from moscow. the mir was a colonel in russian air force, mig-21 pilot, english. a word of we sat and had dinner. all we talked about was our what we and kids and wanted to do. i said, i can do this. >> so why wouldn't we just think russians were going to get involved and looking at the and take them back to russia? >> we worried. we did worry. we had -- we had practices

allow icies in place to us to limit. there were places they couldn't jsc. sc or >> ksc? >> the kennedy space center or center.son space they did not have an opportunity to sit in on any briefs of classified missions or anything. jealously guarded what it was that we felt they did not need to know. the trust grew among -- between us and among training teams and everything. by the time we flew, minimum -- small things, drawing blood for experiments. -- we in america, we do do human research all the time. astronauts are the primary that's all because you have. t the time we flew, russian cosmonauts were not paid so they sold blood. f you wanted to do an

experiment. it was interesting because one of the major experiments that i worked on was a blood experiment. it called for franklin j.d., my twin on my crew but franklin and i were two onboard former chief of the office but the first woman to command the international space she became an astronaut. but in order to get the russians to participate, we had to go great long process to make arrangements to pay them, we weren't going to do that. conferences go to like he russians, something called the space settlement conference, they talk about the exchange of data. they want to bring russians out the russian segment of the international space station into the u.s. space station. to make it truly one space station the way it should be. we're really working hard to do

that. the chinese? >> you know, i don't -- i'm working d by law from on a bilateral respect with the chinese. that?t why is >> because the congress -- the president and the president when he made an agreement between the u.s. and what's called the many -- joint committee in areas, and i went to china as a agreement to see the human space flight program. but some mens of the congress that.ot appreciate they put it in the law, they forbade in the act that nasa from doing bilateral negotiations with china. that's okay. busy, embarked on working with all of our other international partners on a is exploration, going to mars, going to an asteroid. >> explain this. we let the chinese buy a $1 trillion of our debt, but we

in space? with them >> this will come in time. nasa administrator for four years. the president has given me a agenda of nging things to do. i happen to love the president, work.erson for whom i and i am dedicated to make sure that nasa fulfills what the congress and the president asks to do. and for right now, that's trying it's man space flight trying to develop a mission that put humans in o the asteroid on 2025. we continue to lead the world in exploration and development. the ubble space telescope, james webb telescope, missions on the way to jupiter and pluto. on the way to s every planet in the solar system or operating in every planet in and planning em for those who may not have been visited so far.

thehat's been the source of fact that you deliver with the obama administration. there's been a lot written about that. >> i don't know. i read all the time. twitter, tweet, i don't pay attention to whatever the disagreements are. blogs every once in a while if someone refers me to it. i have the best job in the world right now. run the space agency. i run the world's greatest space world's greatest set of scientists, engineers, administrators, support you name it. we're the best place to work in government. i don't have time to deal with which i have no control. i can't control critics. there are far too many people in country who do not like the president. never accept him. that's their problem, not mine. like him. i work for him. his ideas are big ideas. know, he is looking to make this country to continue to have

country sustain its position as the foremost in the world in terms of technology and everything. have been he shuttle shut down? >> oh, yes. it should have been gone before it.were able to do we just -- we were just not able to do it. and the reason he had nothing to do with safety -- people say it was unsafe. not true. the last few flights we flew were flawless. fact, we because -- in spent as much time on development of things and for theat safety issues very last flight as we had done for the first flight, probably more. but we could not explore. the president said if we wanted couldbeyond the orbit, we not continue to pour $2 billion a year into just maintaining the shuttle. shuttle out.phase it was really important for this nation to utilize the have in our that we industry and allow industry to

do -- it's not routine, but it's the best word i can use -- outine access to the orbit is the business of industry commercial enterprises and entrepreneurship. have quipped the nation's industry to do that. we work with them. it very well to do demonstrated by space-x, soon to demonstrated by orbital. three-countries vying to become commercial first provider for transportation for crew. so that's where we're replacing the shuttle. shuttle could do is access the orbit. explore from it. we had to get to the lower vehicle. embarked on the development of the crew vehicle an asteroid, to mars, to more distant places in the universe. ought to be e about. >> how many are on the space station right now? there are six. before two of the six are american. and that's a typical complement.

there will be two to three americans, two to three two at maxhen one or partner nations of nation astronauts. >> italian -- now. have italian right >> we have video from nasa tv. >> yes. > this gentleman's name is perdozy. >> the no hawk guy. > combine that with another mohawk story in a moment. let's watch this for a second. i'm the flight director on the mars science lab i'm bah mission and with another rover report. we did a week on mars sample like taking a deep breath on mars and smelling for kem callings. drive, the beginning of our road trip. along the drive, you'll see the tracks on mars. hello, this is charlie bolden, nasa administrator

speaking to you via the capabilities of the curiosity rover. mars.o firsts on we played back an audio file congratulating the team. audio the first time an file has been played back from earth. >> roll the song. here we go. ♪ >> second on tuesday, we played "will.i.am song, "reach for the stars." the first time a song has been played back from mars. >> so we have fun. saw the government having fun like the irs. how far can you go? and have can you go fun and stay out of trouble? >> stay out of trouble, yeah. >> you have to be reasonable and in what you uh do. you have to make sure that the un you're having is clearly related to the job you're trying to do. our job is to inspire young

people. and to inspire today's generation. arts, not hrough the through science. science is increditably exciting and important. but there are probably half of the kids out there who will one day be rocket scientists who like know that they science today. they love music. will.i.am, a fanatic for is there forl.i.am the curiosity mars center launch at the kennedy space center in more than a year ago. he was at jpl, in pasadena, california for the landing. was to -- he said, you aren't cool.s and i want to help. i said, okay, what do you want do? he said i want to write a song. he composed a song. over the ds from all world to sing this song in an orchestra. directed it.

beamed it up. nd we played "reach for the stars" and it went viral over youtube. that's how we communicate. anyone who wants to argue whether or not it's wise taxpayers' of the money, i'll take that argument. that comes at no cost. can upload stuff to youtube. nasa has been recognized to awards like the sammys. we're recognized as one of the agencies of the government. we're proud of that. you you innovate, when allow your workers to do things out of the ordinary, mohawk guy. in the apollo -- era, would you have seen a think? guy, you not likely. >> you mentioned -- nasa has had years ision network for that the taxpayers have paid for. unlike every other agency of

government. has one, called the pentagon channel. asa had an unfair advantage in selling what they do by having a television -- >> quite the contrary. at nasa's you look at , if ur budget, i defy anyone to find the line ip tells. david weaver, the director of ommunications, one of the thingings i promised him when he agreed to come to work with us is he would not have to go tin cup.wn with a i haven't been able to do that. david goes from director to director begging for money to tell their story. so they put on the video that you just saw. the is for funds for science mission director, for designated the amount of money for education and public outreach. what i callample of a very wise expenditure of the

taxpayers' funds. say that's a clever way of hiding the communication. >> yeah, there are people who that.ve if you wanted nasa not to communicate the story. us not to talk about the great discoveries that we do, theoretically, someone away all of the funds prohibit us from broadcasting what we do and say you must rely on commercial that.ision to do >> you were involve in kuwait? >> i was, i live in kuwait for a year. wars.ween what were you doing back then? >> i left the space program and operating o the forces of the marine corps. of s the commander general the first expeditionary command forward. we were the war fighting method of the marine corps. it's the largest war fighting entity. it has three components, a a und component, usually division, an air wing component, usually a wing. logistics component, which

today is a logistics group, marine logistics group. i had representatives of the three components with me living kuwait in case saddam hussein went berserk or something. forward force that would prepare for everybody else to flow in. marine corps? the >> the last official day was the first of january, 2003. retirement.ay of my >> what did you do? >> i'm still a marine. >> weren't you uh slated to go nasa is the number two guy in the bush administration? nominated. >> what happened to that? >> i don't talk about it. water under the bridge. withdrew the nomination under pressure, i think. >> what kind of pressure? idea.ave no i don't ask questions. i heard so many stories that it who from secretary rumsfeld did not because we were about to mbark in -- if you remember, this was post-9/11 and i was told that secretary rumsfeld

justify sending a, you know, an active duty eneral officer back to a civilian agency. >> does it workf -- work?s what >> putting a military man in a civilian agency? made nasa nonmilitary. >> two administrators, only two. active duty. but truly was -- i think he was came duty when he first in as the nasa administrator. >> sean o'keefe was -- >> he was the acting secretary of the navy. who is qualified, makes no difference what the background is. think i'm qualified for this job. whether i am or not, historians will have to tell. i love my work. working y people enjoy for me. make them -- my job is to facilitate success. i make them the best place to work. allowed them to make us the best place to work in government. > you mentioned chris casady

earlier having been in iraq and afghanistan? and he's now -- he's an now. aut >> where is he now? >> on the international space station. a navy seal. happen?oes that >> well, he was -- he wanted to be an astronaut. to chris about whether this was a lifelong dream of his. one time,number -- at half of our astronauts were active duty military. walks of life all from all over the military. when a military test pilot i applied for the space program and i was picked up. my 14-year career n loan to nasa from the marine corps. nasa reimbursed for the salary. but the marine corps, they -- me go for 14 years. and then i went back. space he -- you say the international space station up there for 13 years. what does it do? >> lots of stuff. -- of it is science

scientific investigations in everything from life science, science, solar science. we now have a number of earth science experiments that are earth, looking t at the atmosphere. we now are doing technology development. called the ething alpha magnetic spectrometer many, is the product of many nations. manier than 20 nations that have -- it's a science experiment. it is a basic physics experiment looking at the beginning of time. trying to -- >> who's in charge? >> of ams or -- >> of the -- of the international space station. >> you could say i am, but i'm not really. united states is the senior partner. there's a five-organization partnership, the u.s., by nasa.ed russia, represented by ruscosmos. japan, represented by their space agency. canada, represented by their space agency.

european agencies represented by the european space agency. obvious thing from time to time that you disagree about among those nation s? >> flight opportunities -- who's -- who's going to get their astronaut to fly in space. a the agreement -- it's treaty that brought us together is one entity -- this reason i think on a side note, i think the international space for on should be nominated the nobel peace prize, because question ou ask this earlier about the u.s. and russia, our relationship. international space station is a working relationship. 20onglomeration in excess of nations around the world. everyone wanting to do what they wanting paneveryone opportunity to fly their astronaut in space. agreements in the treaty. one of them is if flight opportunities come with donations to the station. so as nations -- there is no russia. of funds except ee

every other nation it is in kind. they either put a module up. they take components and go into the station. nd the more they contribute, the more opportunities they have to fly an astronaut. o because the u.s. is the dominant provider of supplies nd funds and everything else, we pay for the transportation for all of our international partners. we paying russia $450 million. >> in the beginning at the time thinking about this, it was still the soviet union when we started to think about things. we flew apollo sophia: use when the original signed. t was >> what's soyuz? > it's the equivalent of the shuttle carrying three people at a time. it's the human rated spacecraft. they don't change. soyuz has been around since the beginning of time. >> been in one? in one. flown i have not. they're small. a three-person capsule.

smaller than apollo capsule, really, that's the way we get back and forth to space. what is going to be critically american of having commercial capabilities is it takes us two soyuz flights to the complete crew to international space station. all of our commercial partners seven-person -- seven -- crew capabilities. so it's their two pilots plus passengers that they can carry up. we can get a complete complement to the station plus investigator ce with the american capability that it will have. >> i want to show some video we're talking about chris casady. >> yeah. >> this is not serious as you probably seen ve this. but you talked about the guy with the mohawk. let's watch chris casady. >> i'm going to go out on a limb here and see if the full on luka

look for the ceremony. please, join me in chris' barbershop. this is how we cut hair in space. we have standard hair trimmer. but the hair would go all over the place. need to connect it to a vacuum cleaner. which goes right here. and now we're ready to cut hair. ♪ you think so far? well, that's pretty close to on.t luka has going but it's not quite the full look. on the ompletely smooth top. so i still have one more step to do. ♪

if he does this every day. kind of hurtles. >> luka is the italian -- he's right now?e station >> yeah. >> does that kind of thing come from -- is that his idea to do that? >> totally chris' idea. people have, i am told, people accused chris of looking -- he and luka looking a little bit alike. sort of to make luka feel at home, this is the story i was told. home, chrisa feel at decided we look alike anyway, we may as well become twins so he he would do that. >> how long do they stay up there. >> they're there for six months at a time. overlap.'ll so luka coming up now is about chris' tenure. chris came up halfway through chris hatfield's tenure. hatfield was the canadian who became an international of his guitar se playing and the outreach of students to the downlinks to classrooms and everything else. chris will go home halfway on the luka's tenure

international space station. >> you said earlier you don't look back and you think the job is the best. talk about -- we have video of that youthe four trips took on the space shuttle. which shuttles were you on? i was on three -- "columbia" my first flight. >> you can comment. that's probably on "columbia" now senate bill nelson. space.my first flight to we lost the "challenger" ten days after this landing. flightings ourth were on discovery. second was when we deployed the hubble space telescope. last time was the joint russian-american mission. the third flight, the first time a as on a commander on mission, that's the hubble crew right there with dr. kathy ullivan, now the acting new administrator and america's first woman to walk in space. treadmill.on the everybody says it's absurd i'm

band as if i'm keeping sweat from running into my eyes. it looked good. this is me, my third flight when commander.ally a this is on "atlantis" what we mission to 's first planet earth. we're deploying the hubble space the second flight. absolutely incredible. hubble was huge -- is huge, pounds, weighs nothing in space. fueled all the payload bay. complicated, the mission turned out to be. and that's prelaunch on hubble. this -- tice that on you didn't see us prelaunch on on my t flight, but back first flight, all we wore was a a helmetlight suit and and post-"challenger" we went to wearing the launch and entry suit feeling it would allow the crew sometime. suit becomes a cocoon if you lose pressure in the cabin.

it's like a small space suit. that's what we did. >> so after "challenger" and we lost almost all of the astronauts, what did that do? >> for me? nation?the >> just for you. was devastating in and of itself. i had been on the vehicle. >> was that '87? 2003. i had just -- >> "challenger" was '87. "challenger" was '86. had trained with christa mcauliffe and greg jarvis. we made a switch in crews a few out.s the first crew was the teacher in space flight. then we switched to take a turned f congress that out to be then congressman bill and rob sinker from rca because we flew a classified of infrared imagining camera that bob was the expert

on. "challenger" ten we had come back and the most spectacular time of my life at that time just go to the bottom. you couldn't go much further. but i decide in a few what i nds this is wanted to do and should be doing it and dedicated myself to standing around. you feel different the next time you went out? >> by the time i flew on the we had had a , number of flights. and i had gotten myself back to the frame of mind that you don't worry about, you know, your own personal safety. you just really are focused on and what you're supposed to do. hubble was the perfect second me to follow on the challenger. because we did not know -- we significant ow hubble was going to be. we had no idea that it was going change humanity's total understanding of our universe. >> how did it do that? >> it revolutionized the understanding of the universe.

rewritten textbooks. lot of things -- einstein -- several of einstein's theories. substantiated. others said, well, wasn't exactly right. issue of the universe expanding or contracting, hubble has put the definition on that. allowed us to see almost to the beginning of time. o i'm not sure many people comprehended what hubble was going to do in terms of opening horizons of understanding of our universe. we still don't know anything, by the way. a lot more a heck of than we would have known had we not had hubble. are w many astronauts currently active? >> in america, we have -- i want we have about 60 some-odd. we're about to announcer we'll y early next week announce the selection of eight astronauts who i am hoping that people will be very happy to see because it's a new breed of cat. you know, they're -- i never would have made it with this

group. in incredibly sharp individuals, every one of them. people will be -- anybody who knows anything about space and stuff will -- will be happy. >> with only the space station having astronauts on it, what do those 60 do? they're overworked. we have people in training for space station continually. difficult thing about training for a station today is hat going up on the soyuz spacecraft, they have to be qualified to be crew members on soyuz. americans are almost always the flight engineers. three thingings they have to do today that i didn't have to they have to be fluent in russian because they have to be in to read the instruments soyuz. and they have to be able to communicate with the russian mission control in moscow doing and coming back down. they have to be proficient in it'stic operations, whether the international space station mechanical arm or the japanese arm. able to body has to be do a space walk. when i was in the program,

pilots -- not only did you get do it, you ity to were prohibited from doing a space walk. pilots onboard. and we didn't want to run the pilot having a incapacitated because of the ends or some of the other risks. today, every astronaut has to be able to do a space walk on the international space station. real different. >> you meet the little kids out you do fromi'm sure time to time, will there be more opportunities or less in the future? >> far more. more, then there's far shuttle was one giant leap space it went from the program at least the astronaut males, being all white 5'10" test pilots. them.n't look like any of may didn't look like any of them. kathy sullivan didn't like any of them. sally ride didn't look like any of them. it went to allowing people like in to fly in space and groups of seven -- one time we had an eight-person crew.

of t increased the number people flying per time. now that we're about to usher in he era of commercial space provided the companies can generate the interest that they can, normal -- and normal is a bad word because people.ts are normal but more people outside of nasa will have an opportunity to go space, whether it's what we onl sub orbital flight, like virgin galactic. sheppard, you go in to space and come right back down. those opportunities are on the taking place for a normal human being. >> where do you come down on about nstant discussion neil armstrong's last -- first words on the moon? >> i don't argue about it. dear friend and a true american hero and i don't -- it doesn't matter to me what he said. it was like a small step for man -- > one small step for man and a giant leap for man kind or one a giantep for a man and

leap for man kind. i'm not a purist. i know what the message was. why do people fuss over it? >> we fuss over everything. we fuss over if it's fixed lunar space or translunar space we'll operating on when we do the asteroid retrieval -- asteroid retrieval mission. its's important to some people. wrong.'t get me we spend too much time over trivial things. but the importance of the fact is that the u.s. demonstrated otherould do something no nation in the world had never done and has not done since. were 12 people to walk on the surface of the moon. every single one of them was an american. that's important. that's what's important. not what neil armstrong said. >> so the chinese will be on the moon, what year? decide.s up to them to they may never get there. >> do the russians care? russians care?

>> about the -- >> i think every nation cares. us.y nation wants to be it is hard -- sometimes i sound -- every hen i say nation -- every other space agency head wants to be in my place. they want to lead the most dominant space agency in the world. be a part of the only government organization rom the only country that landed humans from another heavenly body or the only one in the world that successfully a vehicle on another planet as we have done six, seven times, at least, putting mars. on no one else has ever -- the russians landed a vehicle on never heard from them. we think it landed successfully, but i don't count it a success it talks to you and it's doing some stuff. >> charles bolden, nasa administrator, we're out of time. we thank you so much.

this was enjoyable. thank you. >> for a dvd copy of this 1-877-662-7726. for free transcripts or to give you your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available on c-span podcasts. >> next, british prime minister david cameron takes questions from the members of the house of commons. then remarks by former florida governor jeb bush.

>> tomorrow, irs national taxpayer advocate nina olson discusses a proposal on the taxpayer bill of rights and apology payments of up to $1000 to taxpayers whose cases are .ishandled herei looking at preparations for the launch of the insurance exchanges or marketplaces good and ross johnson talks about the purpose of the broadcast, how the government determines its effectiveness and concerns with leadership and oversight. live at 7n journal" a.m. eastern on c-span. .> they had a tremendous role without going to camp every