CORNWALL, Ontario – Astronaut Andrew "Drew" Feustel visited Cornwall the week of Dec. 12 and he sat down with Cornwall Seaway News along with his wife Indira for an interview about his life experience as an astronaut.
Feustel has spent over 60 hours walking in space, across nine spacewalk missions, the third most of any person in history.
When asked why he wanted to become an astronaut, Feustel said that he was inspired to explore space at a young age.
“I was inspired by science fiction programs and an interest in pushing the limits of technology,” he said.
He has travelled to space three times. The first time was in 2009 on the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
“That mission was really a dream come true,” he said. “I was blasting off on the Atlantis and I really didn’t have anything to compare to a flight on a rocket.”
Feustel has travelled on both the now retired American space shuttles and on the Russian Soyuz capsules. He said that the Soyuz capsules were smoother up, but harder when they come down.
He also commented on the accommodations in space on the International Space Station (ISS).
“It’s not as small as you might think,” he said. “It is possible to make it a whole day without seeing one another.”
His wife Indira is very proud of her husband’s skill and accomplishments.
“He is really passionate about what he does and he is very good at what he does,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be up there with anyone else.”
Indira Bhatnagar is a native of Cornwall and graduated from CCVS. Professionally, she is a Speech Pathologist and has also been teaching tennis since she was a teenager in Cornwall. She began her Speech Pathology career at the Belleville General and she eventually moved to the United States with her husband.
“The highlight of my career was working with Gabrielle Giffords,” Indira said.
Gabrielle Giffords was an American congresswoman who suffered a brain injury after a mass shooting that took place in Arizona in 2012. Indira helped her rehabilitate.
Giffords’ husband is Mark Kelly, who commanded Andrew Feustel’s second mission into space in 2011 to complete the ISS. Feustel and Indira remembered how this close-knit circle came together to support one another through the tragic shooting.
Feustel’s latest mission to the ISS began in March 2018 lasted roughly seven months and he returned to Earth in October. He is still an active astronaut and plans on working with and helping to train future NASA astronauts.
He explained that there is no one way of becoming an astronaut.
“There is no single path that defines what an astronaut is,” he said. “All of us have technical degrees, but we all come from very different backgrounds.”
