Space, for the most part, is silent. The airless voids between galaxies are scattered with star dust — tiny molecules incapable of carrying sound waves through the dark. There is, however, one small sonic corner within the vacuum. While waiting to be patched through to Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Chris Cassidy, the three NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station, the child inside of me — who had attended Challenger space camp in Northwest Indiana and watched nearly every U.S. space launch — was filled with questions. I wanted to know what it was like to circle the earth at 17,000 miles per hour, to sleep in zero gravity and to be throttled by G-forces while being rocketed into the outer layers of the atmosphere.

Source: International New York Times July 10, 2020 21:30 UTC