Chris Hadfield - WHAT I LEARNED by GOING BLIND in SPACE — Transcript

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1. 0:00what's the scariest thing you've ever
2. 0:02done
3. 0:05or
4. 0:06another way to say it is
5. 0:07what's the most dangerous thing that
6. 0:09you've ever done
7. 0:11and
8. 0:12why did you do it
9. 0:15uh i know what the most dangerous thing
10. 0:17is that i've ever done because uh nasa
11. 0:19does the math you look back to the first
12. 0:21five shuttle launches the odds of a
13. 0:24catastrophic event during the first five
14. 0:26shuttle launches was one in
15. 0:28nine and even when i first flew on the
16. 0:31shuttle back in a 1995 74 shuttle flight
17. 0:34the odds were still now that we look
18. 0:36back about one in
19. 0:3838 or so 135 1 and 40.
20. 0:42not great odds so it's a really
21. 0:43interesting day when you wake up at the
22. 0:46kennedy space center and you're going to
23. 0:47go to space that day
24. 0:49because you realize by the end of the
25. 0:51day you're either going to be floating
26. 0:52effortlessly gloriously in space or
27. 0:55you'll be dead
28. 0:58uh you go into
29. 0:59at the kennedy space center into the uh
30. 1:02the suit-up room the same room that
31. 1:06that our childhood heroes got dressed in
32. 1:08that neil armstrong and buzz aldrin got
33. 1:11suited in to go ride the apollo rocket
34. 1:13to the moon and i got my uh pressure
35. 1:15suit built around me
36. 1:17and uh rode down outside in the van
37. 1:21heading out to the uh to the launch pad
38. 1:23in the astro van heading out in the
39. 1:24launch pad and as you come around the
40. 1:27corner at the kennedy space center
41. 1:30it's normally pre-dawn
42. 1:32and in the distance lit up by the the
43. 1:34huge xenon lights
44. 1:36is
45. 1:37your
46. 1:38spaceship the vehicle that is is going
47. 1:41to take you off the planet and the crew
48. 1:44is is sitting in the astro van sort of
49. 1:46hushed almost holding hands looking at
50. 1:48that as it gets bigger and bigger we
51. 1:50ride the elevator up
52. 1:53and we crawl in on your hands and knees
53. 1:55into the spaceship one at a time and you
54. 1:57sort of worm your way up into your chair
55. 2:00and plunk yourself down
56. 2:01on your back
57. 2:03and
58. 2:05the hatch is
59. 2:06closed and suddenly
60. 2:10what has been
61. 2:11a lifetime of both dreams and denial is
62. 2:14becoming real something that i dreamed
63. 2:17about fact that i chose to do when i was
64. 2:18nine years old is now
65. 2:21suddenly within not too many minutes of
66. 2:23actually happening
67. 2:24and
68. 2:25in the astronaut business
69. 2:27the shuttle is a very complicated
70. 2:29vehicle it's the most complicated flying
71. 2:32machine ever built
72. 2:33and in the astronaut business we have a
73. 2:35saying which is
74. 2:36uh there is no problem so bad that you
75. 2:39can't make it worse
76. 2:40and so you're very conscious in the
77. 2:42cockpit you're thinking about all of the
78. 2:44things that you might have to do all the
79. 2:45switches and all the wickets you have to
80. 2:47go through and as the time gets closer
81. 2:49and closer this excitement is building
82. 2:51and then about three and a half minutes
83. 2:53before launch the huge nozzles on the
84. 2:55back like the size of big church bells
85. 2:57swing back and forth and the mass of
86. 2:59them is such that it sways the whole
87. 3:01vehicle like like the vehicle's alive
88. 3:03underneath you like like uh an elephant
89. 3:06getting up off its knees or something
90. 3:08and then about 30 seconds before launch
91. 3:10the vehicle is completely alive it is
92. 3:12ready to go the apu's are running the
93. 3:14computers are all self-contained it's
94. 3:16ready to leave the planet and 15 seconds
95. 3:19before launch this happens it is
96. 3:22incredibly powerful to be on board one
97. 3:24of these things you are in the grip of
98. 3:27something that is vastly more powerful
99. 3:29than yourself it's shaking you uh so
100. 3:31hard you can't focus on the instruments
101. 3:33in front of you it's like you're in the
102. 3:35jaws of some enormous dog and there's a
103. 3:37foot in the small of your back uh
104. 3:39pushing you to space accelerating wildly
105. 3:42straight up shouldering your way through
106. 3:44the air and you're in a very complex
107. 3:46place paying attention watching the
108. 3:48vehicle go through each one of its
109. 3:50wickets with a steadily increasing smile
110. 3:52on your face after two minutes those
111. 3:54solid rockets explode off and then you
112. 3:57just have the liquid engines the
113. 3:59hydrogen and oxygen and it's as if
114. 4:00you're in a dragster with your foot to
115. 4:02the floor
116. 4:03and accelerating like you've never
117. 4:05accelerated you get lighter and lighter
118. 4:07the force gets on us heavier and heavier
119. 4:09and it feels like
120. 4:11like someone's pouring cement on you or
121. 4:12something until finally after about
122. 4:15eight minutes and 40 seconds or so we
123. 4:17are finally at exactly the right
124. 4:18altitude exactly the right speed the
125. 4:21right direction the engine shut off
126. 4:24and we're weightless
127. 4:26and we're alive
128. 4:29it's an amazing experience but
129. 4:31why would we take that risk
130. 4:34why would you do something that
131. 4:36dangerous
132. 4:38in my case the answer is fairly
133. 4:39straightforward i was inspired as a as a
134. 4:42youngster that this is what i wanted to
135. 4:44do i watched the first people walk on
136. 4:46the moon and to me it was just an
137. 4:48obvious thing i want to somehow turn
138. 4:50myself into that
139. 4:52but the real question is how do you deal
140. 4:55with the danger of it and the fear that
141. 4:57comes from it how do you deal with fear
142. 4:59versus danger
143. 5:01and having the goal in mind thinking
144. 5:03about where it might lead directed me to
145. 5:06a life of of looking at all of the the
146. 5:08small details to allow this to become
147. 5:11possible to be able to launch and go
148. 5:13help build a space station where you are
149. 5:15on board a million pound creation that's
150. 5:17going around the world at five miles a
151. 5:19second eight kilometers a second around
152. 5:21the world 16 times a day with
153. 5:24experiments on board that are teaching
154. 5:26us uh
155. 5:27what the substance of the universe is
156. 5:29made of and running 200 experiments
157. 5:31inside but maybe even more importantly
158. 5:34allowing us
159. 5:36to see the world in a way that is
160. 5:38impossible uh through any other means to
161. 5:40be able to look down
162. 5:42and have
163. 5:43if your jaw could drop it would the
164. 5:46jaw-dropping gorgeousness of the the
165. 5:48turning orb like a like a self-propelled
166. 5:52art gallery of fantastic constantly
167. 5:54changing beauty that is the world itself
168. 5:58and you see because of the speed a
169. 5:59sunrise or a sunset every 45 minutes
170. 6:03for half a year
171. 6:06and the most magnificent part of all
172. 6:08that is to go outside on a spacewalk
173. 6:12you are
174. 6:13in a one person
175. 6:15spaceship
176. 6:17that is your spacesuit
177. 6:18and you're going through space with the
178. 6:21world
179. 6:22it's an entirely different perspective
180. 6:24you're not looking up at the universe
181. 6:25you and the earth are going through the
182. 6:27universe together
183. 6:29and you're holding on with one hand
184. 6:30looking at the world turned beside you
185. 6:33it's it's it's like
186. 6:35roaring
187. 6:36silently with with color and texture as
188. 6:38it pours by just mesmerizingly next to
189. 6:41you and if if you can tear your eyes
190. 6:43away from that and you look under your
191. 6:45arm
192. 6:45down at the rest of everything it's it's
193. 6:48a
194. 6:50unfathomable blackness like a with a
195. 6:53touch texture you feel like you could
196. 6:55stick your hand into and you
197. 6:57are holding on with one hand one link to
198. 6:59the other seven billion people and i was
199. 7:01outside of my first spacewalk when
200. 7:04my left eye went blind
201. 7:08and i didn't know why suddenly my left
202. 7:09eye slammed shut and great pain and i
203. 7:11couldn't figure out what why my eye
204. 7:14wasn't working
205. 7:15i was thinking what do i do next i
206. 7:17thought well maybe that's why we have
207. 7:18two eyes so i kept working but
208. 7:21unfortunately without gravity
209. 7:24tears don't fall and so you just get a
210. 7:27bigger and bigger ball of whatever that
211. 7:28is mixed with your tears on your eye
212. 7:30until eventually the ball becomes so big
213. 7:33that the surface tension takes it across
214. 7:35the bridge of your nose like a tiny
215. 7:36little waterfall and goes goose into
216. 7:38your other eye and now i was completely
217. 7:41blind
218. 7:43outside
219. 7:44the spaceship