Episode 58: Astronaut David Saint-Jacques on his 1st Space Station Mission The Space Economy

Today we’re going to hear from Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. At 48, Saint-Jacques will start his first and possibly only mission to the International Space Station in late December. Saint-Jacques is the rare astronaut that is qualified in four disciplines. He has an engineering physics degree and PhD in Astrophysics, is a licensed doctor and has a commercial pilot license. That last skill will come in handy when on December 19 (Eastern time), already December 20 in Kazakhstan, he’ll co-pilot the Soyuz spacecraft as it launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station. And it’s no small feat to co-pilot the Soyuz. Chris Hadfield set the precedent and translated the pilots training manual from Russian to English. For Saint-Jacques though, he also speaks Russian. Once on orbit he’ll work for six months on the ISS spending 50% of his time working with the other astronauts to keep the space station in top operating condition. The other 50% of his time will be doing a lot of research including some important medical experiments that are aimed at benefiting humans on Earth.On September 6th Saint-Jacques took time from his busy training schedule to talk to the media. This included a press conference followed by a very brief one-on-one interviews with the media. SpaceQ had the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking to Saint-Jacques. That Q&A presented here is preceded by his introductory remarks at the new conference and is followed by questions from the media.
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