uh but let's start with you
uh danielle what is your
superhero backstory cory
I'm gonna ask you the same
question in a couple
seconds to just like give
context to like who you are
and then like what you get
to do with who where that
because this is a very I'm
very excited I don't know
if you could tell for this
conversation yeah no that's
awesome thanks for having
us uh today I don't know
that I would put myself in
the superhero category but
I do.
I love what I do.
I'm an Air Force physical therapist.
I've been in the Air Force
for thirteen years.
I had the opportunity to
deploy a couple of times,
supported large scale
military treatment facilities,
and then ended up here at
NASA about almost four years ago.
Now supporting the astronaut
corps and working with
awesome people in the human
performance team like Corey.
Well, thanks for your service, Corey.
What do you get to do?
Yeah, the same.
I'm thankful for the
opportunity to be here.
Thankful also to be on this podcast.
So I'm a strength and
conditioning coach by trade.
I came up through the
collegiate realm back in
the early two thousands.
And then NASA was my first job.
So I was here for about five
years doing the shuttle program.
Then I left, went back to college football,
did a military DOD,
stayed for about three years.
And then I recently came
back about four years ago.
Now, this is not on the question list.
So I'm sure the public
relations person is like, wait,
he's already going off script.
But Corey, be honest.
When you put NASA on a resume,
you're getting that job, right?
I mean, any job that you're going for,
when you go back to college football,
they're like, I guess, right?
I can't say that's the case sometimes,
though.
I think people know which
makes sense sometimes,
like the hire specifically
those that are doing what they're doing,
what they're hiring for.
So, you know, in collegiate athletics,
what I learned,
The biggest question is, oh,
are you going to be able to
handle this work volume
versus assuming that's the case?
So, yeah, it does help, though.
I'm thankful for that opportunity.
All right.
So we'll ask this question to both of you.
You pick who answers first.
But what's it really like to
be a physical therapist?
What's it really like to be
a strength and conditioning
specialist in space flight support?
I mean, this is nine-year-old Jimmy,
and this is going to date how old I am,
and maybe the audience will catch on.
I watched Space Camp as a
kid and was hoped that I'd
accidentally get launched
into space at some point.
But what's it really like
Because the audience
probably is going to make a
bunch of assumptions about
what you actually do and
what you support.
So let's bust those myths
and get to the real answer.
What is it you guys get to do there?
Yeah, I think for me,
coming from that operational background,
it's an opportunity that
you get to support a huge, robust mission,
complex mission set.
Right.
And it's not just I go to
work every day and I see patient care,
but I see patients because
those patients are
or hopefully going to the
International Space Station
or training for an Artemis mission.
So to be able to kind of see
yourself and how you fit
into that big team and not
just your healthcare team,
but your team of human
performance specialists and
engineers and all the
trainers and everybody
that's getting these
astronauts ready to go to space.
I think it's just,
it's literally living out a
childhood dream.
Like you mentioned,
like we all grow up seeing
astronauts and seeing about
space and it's truly, yeah,
it's an awesome opportunity.
Yeah, Corey, same thing.
Like what are some things
that maybe you do that
someone like me wouldn't even understand,
like wouldn't even think of?
Yeah, I would say for me,
one of the things that hit
me always is the big burden
that comes with it.
So when we have astronauts
are working with them,
they're trusting us to be a
resource for them while
they're off the planet.
They're not just over here, over there,
they're four hundred K away.
And they're trusting us to
help them stay healthy
while they're off the planet.
And that's a big responsibility, though.
As Dr. Anderson mentioned, though,
there's a big team, you know,
and even for me,
how I contribute to that team,
I'm just like the grease on
the spoke of a big wheel that spins,
you know,
but still just thinking about
that aspect.
And then there are some
aspects of being in human
performance for a while, but here,
which is unique, working in football,
working with other athletic settings,
I've never had to worry
about bone and bone
metabolism or maintaining bone health.
particularly in flight is a
very interesting task.
It's different.
It's multifactorial.
There's a lot that goes in there and,
you know,
trying to figure out how to
better combat that from a
countermeasure standpoint to, again,
you know,
to provide better resources for
the astronauts while they
do those things are very important.
So in a sense,
it's almost like feeling
like puzzled sometimes, you know,
where you get like trying to figure out,
okay, what is,
We know what to do for strength.
We know what to do for cardiovascular,
cardiorespiratory fitness in general.
That's helpful.
Not necessarily always in space flight,
but bone can sometimes be
the big question mark on
how best to combat that.
Yeah.
Cause gravity,
you're got a little bit of it,
not a whole lot of it in space.
So we've heard about muscle
and cardiovascular
deconditioning in space, but like,
feel free to,
this is where we get to be geeky, right?
This is where like, trust me,
you're not going to go too
geeky for our audience.
They're just going to want,
they'll eat this stuff up.
what like start from the
basics what does happen to
bone and the spine and the
body in space that maybe
pts I mean I I know that I
don't remember the stat but
we get shorter right
because less gravity we're
gonna get shorter like what
else what else has happens
and what maybe what else
surprised you the most when
you started to learn about
it and like cory said
treating it like a puzzle
like well now that I know
this I have to figure out
how to prevent that or solve that
Yeah.
I'll,
I'll talk a little bit more about
like the bone and spine side of things.
I think something that's
super common in astronauts
or anybody really that gets
into microgravity is a lot
of people experience
something called space
adaptation back pain.
We don't know exactly like
the pinpoint reason for it,
but we do know that the
spine elongates and people
tend to get a little bit taller in flight,
even up to like two inches taller.
And so a lot of people will
experience this for the
first several days in flight.
It's typically not duty limiting.
It doesn't require a lot of interventions,
but things like over the
counter medications and
stretching can be helpful.
But then there's also this
period of like a long term
impact to the spine specifically,
where we see that when
astronauts come home, they typically have
some alterations in their
deep spinal stabilizers
from a muscular standpoint.
Some cases will have people
come back with decreased
cross-sectional area of their multifidus.
Some may have fatty infiltration, you know,
looking kind of similar to
like whiplash style
patients or patients that have bed rest.
We see those really similar
And then that also,
not just from a muscle
morphology perspective,
but it also does increase
the risk of having
symptomatic back pain in that first year,
even that first couple of
weeks leading up to the
first year post-flight.
And even off of planet earth,
we still sort of don't
really know where back pain comes from.
We're like, it just does.
And I did say,
I did say astronauts get shorter,
but I flipped that a
hundred and eight degrees.
They get taller in space.
They get taller.
Exactly.
But when they come home and you go,
they go, yeah, back to normal.
But yeah,
I think that just brings to the
complex nature of back pain, right?
It's like, it's so complex on earth.
And then you add in that
microgravity understand of
trying to understand what's happening.
It's definitely, as Corey mentioned,
one of those,
multiple puzzles that you're
trying to put together when
people have those symptoms.
So hold on a second.
Danielle,
you're talking about difference
in measurements on really small things,
which means that you're
measuring baseline of very,
very small things.
Did you say intercostal
space or length of multifidi?
These are small things.
You're measuring all these
things before and after, obviously,
I'm assuming?
Yeah, that's a great question.
And something that we do a
lot of medical screening on
our astronauts,
both prior to them getting
selected into the astronaut corps.
And then again, prior to them launching,
what's their mission
assigned to go through a
whole nother host of medical screening.
Some of the measures that
I'm talking about are more
on the research side.
There's kind of those two
different buckets of what
makes you operationally ready.
And then
Research is also going to
look at things in a much
different capacity.
So we do have a lot of
research studies that have
looked really closely like
ultrasound testing,
even in-flight ultrasound testing,
coming home,
looking at intersegmental space,
looking at MRI muscle morphology.
So really into the weeds on
what's happening, which is really cool.
Now, Corey,
are you doing something similar?
I mean,
we're all really familiar with like
the combine for the NFL.
Is there something similar
that you get that you're
doing in terms of measuring
before and after?
I mean, because like you said,
these astronauts are also
probably it sounds like an experiment,
right?
You're measuring what's happening.
You know, we especially for ISS missions,
we do have a a.
fitness assessment that we
run them through.
And the goal for that is to
assess muscular strength.
So the IMTP is a big aspect
for us to understand lower
body muscular strength.
We also, for isometric mid-thigh pull,
we would like to get better
at understanding the
neuromuscular properties of
producing that strength so
far as rate of force development,
being able to do that efficiently too,
to understand what happens
to our ability to be able
to recruit motor patterns
and things like that.
We also have a,
when that part is
pre-imposed just to
characterize the
consequence of space flight, you know,
but there's also an aspect
of that to go into readiness.
As we know with IMTP or
isometric mid-dipole,
there are some
relationships to dynamic
tasks as far as squat and
then other things as far as
certain aspects of sprinting,
certain segments of
sprinting and so forth,
where that type of
information in a controlled
environment can be useful.
One of the things that I say
that I think is critical
for us is that too,
when they come back from space flight,
we also have to scope out
or pick tests that they can
do at that early stage of reconditioning.
So when we get them here,
we say R plus a return plus seven days.
So five to seven days after they get back,
they need to be able to do that test.
And if it's a strength measure,
we need to make sure all
the other stuff that they
are dealing with
even potentially orthostatic
intolerance or something like that,
won't put too much noise in
our strength measures so we
can really understand if
our in-flight
countermeasures were as
efficient at preserving
their muscular strength.
You've thought about this.
For a second there, I heard the beeping.
I thought we were about to take off.
I thought you were going to
pull a space camp on me,
and I was very upset that I wasn't there.
What are some of the things
that might surprise other
things that might surprise
physical therapists or
strength and conditioning
professionals about what these –
I mean,
I learned this term when I was a PT
student, tactical athletes, right?
Like these are people who
are going to do a lot of
things that you know,
and then they're going to
have to do some stuff on
the fly because stuff happens,
especially in space,
to prepare them for all the
things that happen.
Like, I don't know,
maybe having to be in space
for dozens of extra days
when that wasn't predicted, right?
Yeah,
so they're prior to you can kind of
scope out like what the
mission set looks like prior to a launch.
The crew are usually
assigned anywhere from
eighteen to twenty four
months prior to going on a
six month or even shorter
or longer mission set.
And through that time,
they are going through a ton of training.
So from our end,
the training looks like
getting them familiar with
the exercise countermeasures.
So Corey is a strength and
conditioning coach and we
also have three athletic
trainers in our group.
They're really trying to get
them comfortable on the ARED device,
which is the Advanced
Resistive Exercise Device, the SEVISH,
which is the cycle that's in-flight,
and then the T-II,
which is the treadmill.
And so their goal is to make
sure they are fully
confident and capable to be
able to use those exercise
equipment when they get in there.
Not a surprise that we're
using a lot of acronyms with NASA, right?
All right.
I didn't think about this
until you mentioned a few things,
but are you guys just the ultimate,
once the astronauts are in space,
are you the ultimate like
telehealth providers?
Because you can't be on site
with the people that you're
taking care of.
So like, what's the big,
picture of how you're taking
and managing injuries while
they're already is off planet?
Is that what you call it?
Like,
how do you reference where they look
off planet?
I don't know.
How do you reference where they are?
And what do you do?
Like,
how do you how do you how do you work
on patients when they're
not on the same planet?
Is the first time I ever had
to think about this?
Yeah, it's a great question.
We talked a little bit about
the screening piece leading up to it.
And I think that's one of
the most important pieces, right,
is like trying to prevent
something prior to
to becoming an issue.
So there's a ton of medical
screening leading up to flight.
There's a ton of preparation.
We want to make sure people are launching,
you know, fully ready to go.
So that's number one, that's key.
And then if something does
happen in flight,
this doesn't happen incredibly often.
I'll have,
I think Corey can talk a lot
about the strength and
conditioning side and how
vital that is to preventing injuries.
But if something does happen in flight,
you're right.
It's full on telemedicine, right?
We have
team's capability.
We do have a diagnostic
ultrasound in flight where
we can guide another
astronaut to do remote
guided diagnostic ultrasound,
which is vital to helping
us understand the condition
that they have.
And then just a lot of
ingenuity of how if I
wanted to do something on
the cervical spine to
mobilize a certain region
to help somebody's pain,
how can we do that in flight?
Is that gonna be with another crew member?
Is it gonna be with
potentially like a resistance band,
something like that?
But I think Corey's piece of
the strength and
conditioning and the
programming that they do is
so vital to the injury prevention side.
Yeah, Corey,
what's exercise prescription
look like while someone is already,
you know, on a mission off the planet?
Like, are they, you know, are you just,
you know, DMing them like the WOD,
their workout of the day?
What does it look like?
Sometimes, quick joke,
I think one of the
astronauts called my cell
phone one time and it said U.S.
government.
And it kind of scared me.
I didn't want to pick up,
so I had to pick it up.
And then it was one of the astronauts.
And it was cool because we
were able to have a
conversation about the exercise.
I will say one of the things
that took me back from
coming here and actually
training ISS crew members
I hear a lot of them now,
it's almost like a joke.
They say, well,
I want to do what I'm going
to do on International Space Station.
And my response is, no, you don't.
And then they say, yes, I do.
Because just the sheer
volume is crazy of what
they can do and withstand.
They actually do resistance
training every day.
Probably most of them about
six days a week,
but some of them will burn
seven days a week,
about two hours of resistance training.
And that's a volume or a
magnitude that is not
sustainable in one G or back here.
So that's,
but it still carries with it a
mechanical stress that we
have to account for.
So we still need that
systematic variation in the
volume and intensity that
they're doing over time so
they don't get any issues.
And because even though
they're recovering for
twenty two hours in space or floating,
they're still having to
deal with that array that's
being squished under that
load and the array in that
sandwich aspect.
And the biggest asset that
we have for remote human
performance that I will
call is education.
So our goal is to have
astronauts to understand
what our goals are for them
and how we can help and
assist them while they go
do their mission.
In addition, I would say this,
which is very important,
is proper integration.
when we're working with astronauts,
when they are off the planet,
there are certain aspects
or things that come up that
are in line with my skill set.
And, you know, that's pretty limited.
You know, I'm just with the meatheads,
just come on, let's just lift weights.
But then there are times
when things start to fall
out of my skill sets.
And then we rotate who's
running point on those
situations to make sure
that we do not dig any
holes from a
musculoskeletal health
standpoint or for certain
things like that.
And when we do a good job of that,
we don't really have any bad issues.
We kind of stop stuff before
they become real bad issues.
And when,
what happens is if there are
issues that that's important,
because if you get an
astronaut who can't load,
it's a bigger consequence
than in one G that if they can't load,
because now we're talking
about a bigger consequence,
potentially with bone and
muscle deconditioning when
they're not able to
exercise versus just with one G.
What are you able to monitor?
You know, I wear the Apple Watch, right?
It tells me when I need to
sleep more and yada, yada.
What sort of data?
I mean, I've seen Apollo thirteen, too,
right?
When the guy rips off his
biometrics and everybody's freaking out.
What are you looking at?
What are you able to measure
and like what's important
or what are you looking at a lot?
Yeah,
so right now what we're looking at to
give us the understanding
of internal load,
what we're reliable is just heart rate.
We have that.
We are heavy on RPE, one to ten scale,
because the brain is an
amazing piece that can give a
Big evaluation of the entire
body and understanding of
everything that's going on
and give that back into a
good composite score of RPE.
So we love both of those.
We also monitor the external
load as far as when they're
doing exercise,
as far as the load they're using,
in addition to the wattage
if they're doing a cycle or
the speed and the load that
they're being pulled down
when they're running on the treadmill.
what we do is we put all of
that into a bucket and we
make relationships with all
those things and then we
look at them over time and
see how those relationships
are changing or staying the
same to give an indication
on their performance um and
that's important but there
are some spin-ups a lot of
amazing scientists that we
have here now that are
looking at other ways to
monitor less invasive ways
to monitor different things
um in the future as far as hrv
and uh even cortisol or
things like that have been
discussed what most people
don't realize is that
though trying to monitor
something like that in
space is a very difficult
task it's not as easy as
just me wearing a garment
watch and then going
driving down the car
because we actually have to
get it up there and it has
to be a type of hardware
that doesn't create
vulnerability for the crew
while they're wearing it
while they're in space also
Understood.
Danielle,
I think I cut you off there for a
second because I got real
excited to ask about what you can measure,
but what were you going to say?
No, no.
All I was going to say is I
think what Corey said was
vital about injuries, right?
Like in one G we can tell
somebody that go ahead and
take two weeks off, right?
Maybe do some light exercise,
do some simple isometric stuff.
Rest is usually a great tool and rehab.
We don't have that tool in flight.
It's really,
actually vital that we keep
pressing because of those
deconditioning impacts,
bone impacts that Corey mentioned.
So that's just key.
Now, when you mentioned countermeasures,
this is not like an Air Force,
Space Force term, right?
Countermeasures is like a
term you guys use.
Like, what is it?
What are you referring to?
And how's NASA evolving countermeasures?
What are they?
Yeah, so countermeasures is a NASA term.
So NASA has a lot of
different risks that are
associated with spaceflight.
We've talked a lot about the muscular risk,
the bone risks,
the MSK risks that are associated.
And so with every identified risk,
there is a goal to
establish an effective countermeasure.
We've talked about the
muscular deconditioning,
cardiovascular deconditioning.
So their countermeasures are
the advanced resisted
exercise device inside,
which is kind of like a
jackknife of all trades for bench press,
squat, stud lifts.
It has a ton of capabilities
and can load up to six hundred pounds.
And then we have the cycle
for cardiovascular
deconditioning and the treadmill as well.
I think Corey can speak to a
lot about what they're
looking at for future exploration.
Yeah,
one thing that's interesting with
what we currently have,
we have a lot of space and
also the A-RED amazing
device is still mass and volume.
So we hear that issue a lot.
So mass and volume is
expensive to fly and to
develop hardware that has, you know,
that mass and volume.
So the future hardware,
it's helpful if it's smaller,
but still have those same
capabilities because we've learned
from going from our iRED,
another smaller resistive
exercise device that did
not have the capabilities of the A-RED,
the current advanced resistance device,
is that it is easier to
maintain crew health with the A-RED.
But again, we need that load.
So there are a lot of things
that are being looked at
now as far as digital load
type systems or things like
that to where our motorized load,
excuse me, where we can have the,
the same load or intensity
with the smaller footprint
to be able to put on the ship,
but which is also very,
I would say difficult is that,
Usually everything that goes on the ship,
the force that is created
when you're exercising,
that has to be absorbed or
else that force goes into the ship.
Now I'm not a loads and
dynamics structural engineer.
I do know that that's not bad for the,
that's not advantageous for
the ship and the trajectory that is on.
And, you know, it could be,
As far as the solar arrays,
like if you're working out
of their loads or they're
flapping and things like that,
it could create a lot of problems.
So it could be very interesting.
So we have all those
constraints that we're
are also trying to fit
exercise in that envelope
of understanding.
And it's not an easy task.
It's actually a very difficult task,
but we have a lot of
amazing engineers here
being able to help us figure that out.
And once, and you know,
some of the things we deal
with from exercise
specialists is the
constraints are the
perimeter that the
engineers paint on far as exercise.
Okay.
Well, when you're doing this modality,
okay, these are your restrictions,
this cadence,
this beat or whatever or
something like this or this
load and now we're back and
we have that in our pocket
and we're saying okay now
how do I keep this
particular individual fit
with these restrictions
don't deadlift so hard you
take this the the the ifs
off course is what you're
doing I want you to set a
pr but don't knock us off course
So looking ahead to Artemis,
first give some context to
what Artemis is,
but looking ahead to Artemis and beyond,
what are some of the
biggest human performance
challenges that NASA is
already thinking towards?
Yeah, great question.
So Artemis is the mission
that will put people back
to the moon for the first time.
So we have Artemis II where
we already have a crew
And they're going to go
around and circle the moon and come home.
And then the next step will
be to get foots back on the moon,
ultimately to create an
ecosystem that we can
launch and go further into
exploration onto Mars.
From my perspective,
I think Corey and I kind of
bring both the ends of the
human performance spectrum
where I'm really focused on
MSK injury prevention,
primarily around the new spacesuit.
So we're headed into a time
where there's a ton unknown
with the type of spacesuit,
the mission set and duration,
the tempo of the
missions that we're going to be doing,
it is completely different
than what we do with the
ISS training right now.
So we're headed into just a
lot of unknowns,
which is also incredibly exciting.
So our team is really
focused on trying to get
ahead of some of the
injuries that we're
anticipating with the
spacesuit because the
spacesuit is a very unique
environment that poses
unique challenges to the MSK system.
So that's where I'm kind of
coming at it from the human
performance perspective is
really trying to understand
and characterize injuries
in the space suit.
What's communication like
when someone is on a mission?
Are you sitting in the room?
We all know from Apollo
thirteen because that person,
the health person,
was not treated well in Apollo thirteen.
They kept bothering.
He kept trying to bother the astronauts,
try to sleep.
And they're like, we're not sleeping,
right?
Like so what is actually going on?
What what is your I mean,
besides Corey getting
straight up phone calls from space,
what is that like when a
mission is going on?
What's your what's your
what's your day like?
Yeah, great question.
So we mission control is a
twenty four seven operations,
three hundred and sixty
five days out of the year.
Within that team,
all your mission critical
personnel are going to be
in mission control.
And of that team from seven
to four or five in the
afternoon or evening is a flight surgeon.
So a flight surgeon is
typically on console during
the normal operations of
when crew are awake.
If there's any critical
events like launches, landings,
any spacewalks that are happening,
there's always medical
support in the form of a
flight surgeon on mission control.
Our team gets the
opportunity to meet with
our crew via Teams through
private exercise
conferences once a month.
They can also call, as Corey mentioned,
anytime that they want.
And then we do a lot of
email communications as well.
That's great.
All right.
So this is going to be like
an off topic question.
See if we can put two things together.
What lessons from space
flight physical therapy,
from space flight strength
and conditioning,
do you think that every
healthcare provider, leader,
business owner, anybody could steal?
I mean,
NASA was also famous with like
checklists and making sure
things were in order
because we want to minimize risk.
So what are some lessons
from the things that you do
that you think are
applicable to anybody in healthcare?
take that?
Yeah.
The lessons,
I would say the biggest
lessons is that it's a human business,
whether any situation that I was in.
And where I'm going with
that is that it's not just
sets and reps necessarily.
So people respond to exercise differently.
There's variability in how they respond.
There's a variability on how
they tolerate the stress of
that exercise.
So if we can get tunnel
vision or fixed on our
specific approach or our
desire to do it a certain
way and not respond to the
human and end up in a place
we don't want to be.
So I think that's the biggest thing.
And for us,
it's more of a risk for that to
happen again when they're off the planet.
That's probably one of one
of the biggest things,
like even coming up from
one mission to the other
and training a different astronaut.
And I feel like, OK, I got this template.
Here we go.
And this is what we're doing.
And next thing you know,
that template's on his head.
But we figure out these
principles that are important.
And, you know,
we put the same ingredients there.
We just change it up a little bit,
cook it a little longer,
do whatever to make it more
suitable for the individual
we're working with.
It's a little bit different
when a physical therapist asks,
so are you going on any
trips anytime soon for a patient?
Maybe a little bit different
when you're asking your astronauts.
Are you guys ready to play a
game I like to call Ground
Control Quickfire?
Are you guys ready for that?
Yeah, I think so.
Let's hear it.
All right,
here comes ground control quick fire.
You can each answer for these.
I'm going to ask you five.
So just rapid fire,
whatever comes to mind first.
First thing you think of
when someone says rehab in microgravity.
What is it, Danielle?
What's the first thing that comes to mind?
Say ingenuity or creativity.
You got to be creative.
Corey, rehab in microgravity.
What do you got?
Did I give you two high lows
on back squat?
What's one human performance
myth you'd love to just
launch into space and get
rid of and just completely abolish?
What's the myth, Danielle?
Ooh,
I'd say that when astronauts come home,
that they can't walk,
they can't function.
Some of that is a little bit
true from the sensory motor perspective.
There are challenges, but man,
they come back in
incredible shape and they
are ready to hit the ground
running when we see them,
which is exciting.
Good.
Corey,
what's a myth you want to get rid of?
I think a myth is that
exercise programming is easy.
It is initially, but over time,
that's where skill comes in.
Yeah,
and creativity is what I'm getting a
theme here.
Coolest technology you've
seen or used in your career
working with astronauts?
Mine would be ultrasound in flight,
getting to be on the ground,
telling an astronaut how to
do diagnostic ultrasounds.
Incredible.
That's wild.
Corey, cool tech.
What do you got?
Couldn't be any cooler than
getting in a space suit a
couple of times.
Oh, yeah.
That is awesome.
We got two more.
What would surprise most PTs
and strength and
conditioning specialists
about astronauts' physical preparation?
I would say that they are
generally committed,
but how busy their
schedules get as they
approach launch day.
I mean, it's pretty intense, you know,
the last, say,
sixty days or thirty days
outside of a launch, how busy they are.
But they're still committed
and what they do to try to
maintain their fitness during that time.
Love it.
All right.
You want to be pushing exercise, right?
Like that's that's what we want.
But we also respect
everything that they have
to do leading up to flight.
Yeah, understood.
And last one we'll do.
What's one leadership or
mindset tool that helps
each of you think long term
that you get to apply in your work?
I think for me, like the vision is the key,
right?
Being able to effectively
communicate the vision,
keep people motivated on
the vision and having a
common goal to execute that.
It is so vital to make sure
that the vision is well
understood within the team.
Yeah.
Corey, what do you got?
Yeah, I would say vision too.
And the vision is that the
responsibility and the
burden we have to serve
this community in a way of
human performance,
I think is like the
cornerstone that I have.
Perfect.
All right.
So let's talk about an event
you have coming up pretty soon.
Let's talk about that.
Like who who's coming and
what are they going to
learn while they're there?
Yeah,
so we have a lot of this stuff that
we discussed today.
We have an event coming up
that's going to happen at
Space Center Houston down here in Texas,
right adjacent from Johnson Space Center.
And the name of the event is
the Spaceflight Human
Optimization and Performance Summit.
So shop twenty five by the
year for for short.
And what it is,
is a technical interchange
between some of the
greatest minds in human performance.
So we have over thirty SME
subject matter experts across the DOD,
across elite athletics and
here at Johnson Space
Center all around coming
together to understand how
best we can care for human
systems while they leave the planet.
But it's not just that lens
on space flight,
because we believe some of
these conversations can be
leveraged to help other
communities as far as where
they meet athletes, even general health.
And as we come together and
probably look at these
issues and look at these things, again,
we can push the needle
forward to all human
performance all the way
down to general health.
So who can come to this?
Anybody who just wants to come to this?
There you go.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, we got you now.
Who can come to this?
Who's the audience?
Who do you want to see in
the audience learning?
So we would want to see
anyone in the audience,
one who's learning.
So we had a lot of interest
in spaceflight just
recently with the return of the crew,
Barry Wilmore and Sonny Williams.
Anybody who is even
interested in what really
happens to astronauts
bodies when they leave the planet.
That community,
in addition to across to
people who are just interested in space,
all the way down to people
who are practitioners
working in human
performance from a
multidisciplinary standpoint too.
So we're not just physiologists,
we're also cognitive specialists,
sports psych, and then even engineers.
That's one thing that's unique about this.
event but then in space
flight in general as far as
the engineering also have
to be in the human
performance team because
we're talking about
hardware hardware
restrictions and all of
that stuff and then we as
human performance
specialists have to also
tell the engineers the
capabilities we need to
protect people so it's a
going back collaboration
and relationship so it it
is a again a community for
all um who's interested in
I guess space flight,
but then moving into the
human performance,
human factors and so forth.
Yeah.
And some of the biggest
innovations usually come
out of the military or NASA.
I mean,
you guys have found all these
latent problems and then solve them.
And lots of us have
benefited from those things.
Yeah.
Yep.
We do have CEUs for physical therapists,
NSCA,
and then also BOC for athletic
trainers as well.
Perfect.
All right.
We'll drop the link in the
show notes if anybody wants
to tag along and check out shop.
Last thing we do, Danielle and Corey,
on the show is called the parting shot.
What is the last thing you'd
want to leave with the
audience as we wrap up?
Parting.
Final quote, mic drop moment,
soapbox statement,
whatever you want to wrap up with.
What do you got, Danielle?
I think we've threaded it a lot here,
but I absolutely love that
everybody says spaceflight
is a team sport.
and how we fit into that
team matrix on the human performance side,
I think is super exciting.
But I think that can match
into any organization of just,
it takes a team to make
really complex things happen.
That's great.
Corey, no pressure to follow that one,
but what's your parting story?
Yeah, she stole my, I'll piggyback that.
I'll say team is key.
Teamwork is absolute key.
That's perfect.
Thanks for doing what you do.
Thanks for sharing it,
not just in this podcast,
but for things like shop
and just letting us see that team support,
you know, live on and off the planet.
We appreciate it.
Awesome.
Thank you.
That's it.