{"id":129720,"date":"2020-10-21T13:24:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T18:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=129720"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:13:43","slug":"podcast-654-how-to-astronaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #654: How to Astronaut"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>If you grew up in the \u201880s like me, there&#8217;s a good chance you really wanted&nbsp;to go to space camp and you really wanted to be an astronaut. You probably had a lot of questions about what it was like to live in space, and if those questions were never answered (or you&#8217;ve forgotten the answers), my guest&nbsp;today can tell you everything&nbsp;you ever wanted to know.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/terryvirts.com\/\">Colonel Terry Virts<\/a> and he&#8217;s been to space twice, the second time serving as commander of the International Space Station for 200 days. Terry also helped film the IMAX movie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B07J35T8H2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B07J35T8H2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>A Beautiful&nbsp;Planet<\/i><\/a>, and is the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1523509619\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1523509619&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>How to Astronaut: An Insider&#8217;s Guide to Leaving Planet Earth<\/i><\/a>. Terry and I begin our conversation with the plan he set in childhood to become an astronaut via going to the Air Force Academy and becoming a pilot. We talk about how long it took him to make it to space once he joined NASA, the training he underwent for years which required&nbsp;being a skill-acquiring polymath, and how aspects of that training, which included flying jets and wilderness survival&nbsp;courses, didn&#8217;t always directly correlate to his job as an astronaut, but were still essential in being adept at it. We also discuss the physical training Terry did both before his missions and after leaving the earth, and whether he suffered any long-term health issues from being in space. From there we get into what a typical day is like when you&#8217;re floating through sixteen sunsets, including what space food looks like these days and whether they\u2019re really eating &#8220;astronaut&nbsp;ice cream&#8221; up there, what it&#8217;s like to sleep while weightless, and of course, that most burning of questions, &#8220;How do you go the bathroom in space?&#8221; We then discuss the importance of emotional and mental skills when you&#8217;re living for months at a time in a space station, and what it was like to leave that station to take a spacewalk and see the earth from above.&nbsp;We end our conversation with how Terry&nbsp;physically and psychologically&nbsp;adjusted to returning to earth, whether he yearns to go back up again, and what he thinks the future of space exploration holds.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>Consider this show the stint at space camp your&nbsp;parents never signed off&nbsp;on.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you grew up in the \u201880s like me, there&#8217;s a good chance you really wanted&nbsp;to go to space camp and you really wanted to be an astronaut. You probably had a lot of questions about what it was like to live in space, and if those questions were never answered (or you&#8217;ve forgotten the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":195024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,42377,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-finance","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What It&#039;s Really Like to Be an Astronaut | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Col. Terry Virts shares his experience as an astronaut and what it&#039;s really like to be in space, including training, fitness, hygeine, and more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #654: How to Astronaut | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Col. Terry Virts shares his experience as an astronaut and what it&#039;s really like to be in space, including training, fitness, hygeine, and more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-21T18:24:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-13T00:13:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/654.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AoM Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #654: How to Astronaut\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-21T18:24:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T00:13:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":411,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/654.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"Finance\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/\",\"name\":\"What It's Really Like to Be an Astronaut | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/podcast-654-how-to-astronaut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/654.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-21T18:24:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T00:13:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"description\":\"Col. 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