Due to a family emergency, we will be posting our regularly-scheduled Over Coffee® episode later this week. Meanwhile, please enjoy this reposting of one of our all-time-favorite episodes!

Imagine that you’re at work. You’re performing a routine task with technology. Suddenly, everything stops working. And your co-workers all come out and ask, “What did you do?”

That’s bad enough. But now–imagine that this happens to you aboard the International Space Station. And it’s up to you to fix everything. Otherwise, your life–and those of your team–will be at risk.

That’s what happened to NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas H. Wheelock.

When this happened, during Doug’s time as a flight engineer for Expedition 24, and commander of Expedition 25, he was no stranger to troubleshooting in space.

Doug Wheelock at Space Apps Pasadena, 2016.

Serving as a flight mission specialist on STS-120, the space shuttle’s 23rd mission to the International Space Station During that mission, Doug worked with the crew on emergency repairs after one of the solar panels malfunctioned.

What would be the odds of a second, more critical incident during Doug’s next ISS flight?

Perhaps it’s best summed up in one of Doug’s comments: “Space has lots of surprises for us.”

And it certainly did.

During this 2010 expedition, the spacecraft went into “survival” mode, shutting down half the ISS’ external-cooling system.   Doug and his team were able to innovate against the clock. In the process, their repair of the Space Station’s technology won numerous innovation awards.

Here is our interview with Doug, from 2016 NASA International Space Apps Pasadena.

On this episode of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• How Doug first became interested in aviation and space travel;
  

• What Doug tells the astronauts he trains, about efficient  spacewalking;
  

• What an average day is like, aboard the ISS;
  

• How Doug spent his leisure time, aboard the International Space Station;
  

• How the crew manages “crew sleep”, with a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes;
  

• The procedures NASA astronauts are trained to observe, after an emergency alarm;
  

• Doug’s recollections of his experience in 2010, when half the ISS’ cooling system shut down;
  

• Some of the innovations Doug saw teams coming up with, at 2016 International Space Apps Pasadena;
  

• Doug’s advice for innovators.
  

The 2022 NASA Space Apps Challenge dates have been announced: October 1-2, 2022! We’ll give you more information as it becomes available. And no, we are not, in any way, shape or form, affiliated with nor endorsed by NASA. We just think this is a very cool event!