More information about Larry Connor can be found here.
Connor, 72, is the pilot of a 4-person Axiom-1 crew that blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Friday and arrived at the space station on Saturday morning.
It is the first all-civilian flight to visit the space station.
Connor on Tuesday provided an update about his experience so far and answered questions during a 10-minute live broadcast played at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery’s Planetarium.
Boonshoft staff asked Connor questions from children and other visitors, and some of his family members and loved ones were in attendance, including his wife, son and granddaughter.
Connor again reiterated that this trip is not about space tourism.
More information about the Connor Group can be found here.
He said the crew has been working 14-hour days and are conducting what they hope will be groundbreaking research.
Connor partnered with the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic and brought along heart cells to study. Experiments focus on heart function and aging disorders.
Connor said on Monday he spent five hours with his arms in a life sciences glovebox, transferring cells.
It is “tedious work, but very important,” he said.
Connor answered questions from young museum members about zero gravity and whether he had any trouble sleeping.
He said zero gravity takes some getting used to, but it is one of the highlights of the trip, and he did flips and hung upside-down to demonstrate the effects of weightlessness. Connor has been sleeping in the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
Connor also said the views from the Cupola give a fresh perspective of the earth. The Cupola is a dome-shaped module with windows.
However, Connor said, “I probably have not spent more than ... 45 minutes total in the Cupola.”
Connor’s crew are among the 11 people currently on the space station. Others aboard include NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts. Just slightly more than 250 people have visited the space station since it went into operation in 2000, according to NASA.
More than 2,800 experiments have been conducted aboard the space station in its microgravity laboratory.
The space station zips through space at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour, and it orbits earth every 90 minutes.
Connor’s 29-year-old son, Colin, watched Tuesday’s broadcast and said it made him proud. He said it feels like his father is in “Star Wars,” and he can’t wait for him to return so family life can get back to normal.
Larry Connor has spent more than a year training for this space mission, and it has included some high-intensity activities, said Christine Connor, his wife.
Connor at one point was tossed into the ocean, thrown a rope and a helicopter pulled him out, she said.
The trip to the space station took about 21 hours, and the crew is expected to return Monday or Tuesday of next week. On return, the crew will splash down in the ocean.
Megan Chomic took her 7-year-old daughter, Margaret, to the planetarium to watch Connor’s interview.
“She wants to be an astronaut when she grows up,” Chomic said.
Margaret said space travel looks interesting and exciting.
“I think I decided I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 3,” she said.
About the Author
