S3 Ep 16 NASA Astronaut Dr. Woody Hoburg connects from the International Space Station

In this talk

1. 2:50

   Adjusting to life in orbit

   Hoburg describes the Crew-6 launch as a thrilling ride reaching about 4 Gs, followed by sudden weightlessness at engine cutoff. In orbit, his spine grew several inches, and the crew exercises daily to limit bone and muscle loss and prepare to return to Earth’s gravity.

2. 5:58

   The ISS as a research lab and proving ground

   Hoburg says the station supports research that depends on weightlessness and provides a place to test technologies for future missions to the Moon and Mars. Examples include studying his immune system on a modified diet and using heart tissue chips to investigate how heart muscle cells degrade in orbit and test potential treatments.

3. 10:41

   Potential uses for low Earth orbit

   Hoburg says weightlessness may enable fine-grain 3D-printed structures and different protein folding, with possible manufacturing and chemical synthesis applications. He describes a growing low Earth orbit economy and notes that SpaceX was expected to launch roughly 100 times that year, mostly to low Earth orbit.

4. 12:51

   Training, launch delays, and future missions

   Hoburg says training helped him stay calm when Crew-6’s launch was scrubbed about two minutes and 20 seconds before liftoff because of an igniter-fluid issue. He is excited about the Artemis program and sees lunar operations as a proving ground for technologies and methods needed for human missions to Mars.

5. 16:12

   Following a long-held ambition

   Hoburg says he pursued interests that challenged him while keeping the astronaut goal in mind. During his Berkeley PhD, he combined research with rock climbing and summer search-and-rescue work in Yosemite, doing research remotely and studying math that contributed to his thesis.