Built from titanium and designed for zero gravity, the 1,500-kilogram arm arrived folded inside the Endeavour space shuttle.

Chris was riding in the shuttle's robotic arm, mostly in a foot restraint, and I was the free floater.

And so I had the fun job of actually clamoring all over this, like, you know, a gym set, you know, and getting to swing around, but very carefully because I had to root my safety tether reel to make sure that my steel braid cable wouldn't get caught in between some mechanical system and make it hard for me to get back in an emergency, things like that.

And, of course, you're operating through a big system.

bulky, pressurized face suit.

And you don't have perfect visibility.

You're sometimes working in shadow.

Mission Control tried to help Scott and Chris troubleshoot, but ultimately they would need to rely on each other.

What physiologic principles apply across these different spaces, and importantly, what of mental adaptation?

Ah, interesting point.

Uh, l- definitely would love to talk about the, the mental aspect.

Uh, but I, I guess the, my, my overarching, uh, observation is that we humans are incredibly adaptable, uh, to even the most, you know, harsh environment.

You know, to be able to acclimatize to extreme altitude and, uh, and to extreme cold, uh, granted, supported with certain degrees of technology.

But the, the fact that we can, you know, get safely to the top of our planet and back safely, um, is, is really quite extraordinary.

The fact that we can, uh, build s- spacesuits that allow us to travel into the vacuum of space, um, outside of our airlock, extreme, uh, temperatures as well as the vacuum outside, um, and, uh, and s- and conduct very challenging workout out in that environment.

Can you walk us through what that moment was like, both technically and actually more importantly mentally, and how you approached the decision-making in real time?

So talk about your relationship with fear and tell any stories about it and how we can learn from it, maybe.

Well, great question.

First off, the only thing that I think I'm deeply afraid of is spelunking.

So cave exploration, in particular, cave diving.

I have some buddies who are really into this and it, you know, they're highly professional in what they do.

Um, and of course you have to be going into that kind of unforgiving environment, but I had a friend, uh, actually who might climb Mount Everest with, who, uh, was on a caving expedition with a bunch of Cub Scouts, uh, in, in Utah.

And, uh, I remember him telling me the story that there's a, uh, fluke, rainstorm, flash floods, all of a sudden they're being drowned underwater.

Any way you think the man versus or the man end and take that anywhere you take that any way that that strikes you for us to tell us.

But what was it like growing up abroad and what kind of kid were you, you know, at that point?

Yeah, it's a great observation, actually, because, you know, I think, you know, American companies working overseas don't necessarily have to actually have a physical presence as much as they did back in the 70s and early 80s.

You know, with, you know, telecommunications the way they are, you know, it's possible to run businesses all over the world and even, you know, to you know, to telework from wherever you happen to hang your hat.

But yeah, as a kid, my father, after the Apollo program, got involved in international marketing.

So I lived in Dakar, Senegal in West Africa, Beirut, Lebanon, went to high school in Athens, Greece, and even a spell in beautiful Tehran, Iran back then.

at a time when Americans were able to go there.

And I do have really fond memories of Tehran.

I mean, what was that like? The whole process must have been incredible.

What is it like when you reenter Earth's atmosphere?

Well, today for the crew, it's really Super Bowl Sunday.

This is a really exhilarating experience that they're about to commence.

Amplified, on the shuttle, we would travel at the equivalent of, say, 25 times the speed of sound Mach 25.

They're coming back at Mach 32.

So much more significant speeds involved, a larger fireball, hotter temperatures.

And of course, this is a shakedown cruise for this vehicle, the Orion.

What is it like, both the physical and the emotional readjustment?