Spacewalks and weather from the ISS

AccuWeather

NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams shared their experience on the ISS with AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno as they await their hopeful return home later this month.

Transcript

00:00Bernie, we have you loud and clear.

00:03Great to have you with us on International Space Station today, and we are curious, how

00:07is the weather down there?

00:08Well, the weather is fantastic.

00:11You're missing a little spring fever across most of the country here, but you know what?

00:17I think the view where you are is much better than me.

00:21Yes, we do have a good view.

00:23You're probably right about that.

00:25And Butch, you've both done spacewalks.

00:28Now Butch, can you describe what it is like to leave the space station and go into space?

00:35I can share what the experience is like, but I cannot adequately describe it.

00:39That's really impossible.

00:40I mean, you think about, you put on literally a one-man space capsule, because that's what

00:45those spacesuits are, and we go out into the vacuum of space and work.

00:51And the view, again, is spectacular looking out of the window.

00:54But you think about a 180-degree bubble helmet and seeing the view from that vantage point,

00:59and knowing that you're the only two people in the entire universe that's doing something

01:03at that, doing that specific thing at that moment, it's very, very special.

01:08Very difficult to put into words, like I said, but a special, spectacular, a couple of adjectives

01:14that come to mind.

01:15Well, obviously, you both have a bird's-eye view of the Earth.

01:19Now, can you see weather patterns or meteorological effects on Earth from the ISS?

01:25Absolutely.

01:26You know, when we came up here in the summertime, of course, it was getting a little bit heated

01:31in the Atlantic, so we saw all sorts of hurricanes, you know, making their way from Africa, coming

01:37across the ocean, some of them going up in the Gulf Stream, some of them crossing into

01:42the Gulf.

01:43So, yeah, of course, we saw all sorts of activity.

01:46It's been amazing to see what weather is going on around our planet.

01:51And your return to Earth, expected to be later this month.

01:55What are you missing most, and what are you looking forward to when you get back?

02:02I think I miss the ministry aspect through my local church.

02:06That's something I miss, obviously.

02:08Of course, family.

02:09That kind of goes without saying.

02:10I mean, that's pretty much a no-brainer there.

02:12You would understand that.

02:13I think that up here, you kind of miss the smell of fresh-cut grass and those type of

02:17things that you kind of take for granted a little bit, and you don't have that up here.

02:21So looking forward to just some of those basics.

02:24Yeah, I'll add to that.

02:26I actually really do miss weather.

02:28I really miss, of course, my family, but I miss my dogs, and part of the reasons I miss

02:33my dogs is I get to take them on a walk.

02:35And when I take them on a walk, you know, sometimes it's raining.

02:38Sometimes it's windy.

02:39Sometimes it's hot.

02:40But I'm looking forward to feeling all that weather from Earth.

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