November 23, 2015 Show with Christian Astronaut Col. Jeffery Williams

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio

platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron so one

man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we

converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another

wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host, Chris.

Arnzen.

Good afternoon Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity who are living

on the planet Earth listening via live streaming.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 23rd

day of November 2015 and I am very very excited about today's

program.

I know that I say that a lot, but this is multiplied a hundred times.

Today is a program that I'm doing in loving memory of my father, Harry E.

Arnzen, who all his life has been in the aviation or aerospace field.

Since his passing in 1998, I've been looking for the perfect

moment to pay tribute to him on Iron Sharpens Iron and this is certainly it, because in the late

60s and early 70s, my dad worked for Grumman and he

was a part of the team that designed the lunar module.

He had been a pilot in World War II for the Army Air Corps and then after retiring

worked for Republic Aviation and then later for Grumman and I can

still remember sitting in my living room with my brother Bob as a young boy watching

on the black -and -white television set the first men landing on the moon and feeling such a

powerful connection because of my dad's work on the lunar module.

But today's our guest is Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is an

astronaut and he's the author of the book, The Work of His Hands, A View of God's

Creation from Space.

Colonel Jeffrey Williams grew up on a farm in the rural community of winter Wisconsin.

He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1980 and then

served more than 27 years in the US Army.

Williams became an astronaut in 1996 and flew on the 10 -day space shuttle mission

STS -101 in 2000 before beginning training for the

183 -day Expedition 13 in 2006.

Williams holds a bachelor's degree from USMA, master's and aerospace engineering

degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and a master's degree from the Naval War College.

He and his wife Anna Marie reside in Texas and are members of Gloria Dei

Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas.

They have two grown sons and according to the foreword of his book by Dr. John

MacArthur, one of my most beloved heroes of the modern day,

he says that Colonel Williams took more photographs

of Earth than any astronaut in history.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you to Iron Sharpens Iron for the very first time,.

Colonel Jeffrey Williams.

And I know that there are a lot of children who are.

Anxiously waiting to hear their questions asked.

I have advertised that this program would be taking place weeks ago and a

number of Christian schools from different parts of the country of different Christian denominations and fellowships

responded enthusiastically with a whole bunch of questions from the students of varying

grades and ages and I'm just so delighted that so many of them are

excellent questions.

I've got to start actually recruiting children to write questions for me more often

because it makes my job a lot easier and I think I'm going to perhaps steal some of these

questions and pretend that they're my own today because some of them are very good.

But before we get into the the questions from the kids, Colonel Williams, tell us something

about your personal faith in Jesus Christ and if this was something that you can remember

ever since being a little boy or was it something that came about later in your.

Life?

It actually was

something that

came

about later in

life, it

rebuilt

the

way.

Well praise God

for that.

It's never too

late as

long as

you have.

Breath in your lungs to start over and come to Christ and have a

fresh new life, let alone the most important thing having eternal life.

How did you come to know John MacArthur and our mutual friend Phil Johnson who is the executive

director of Grace to You Ministries?

I've had John on my program once and Phil on many times.

He's probably been interviewed more than anyone on this program with the exception of one or two who are

neck -and -neck with him, but.

How did you get

to know

them?

Well, when

I came to

faith in

Christ

in

the 90s,

at

nine

o

'clock

every

evening, one

on the

space

show,

and

I think...

Now

that

you

have.

Become a Christian, a very strong Christian, Bible -believing Christian creationist,

how has that affected your life in a field?

I'm not sure what the typical makeup of religion or faith is amongst

astronauts, but if you watch television and watch documentaries, you're going to

very quickly come to the opinion that astronomers and those involved in all sorts

of fields of science, including space science, are predominantly

evolutionists and people who would deny creation and so on.

How does that come to play in your new life as a Christian in this very important field that

you're in?

Well, I think it's...

Oh, that's good to know.

That's a pleasant surprise, actually.

I'm going to give our email address out, even though most of our questions today are going to be coming from

Christian students from kindergarten through 12th grade who submitted

their questions to their teachers who forwarded them to me from various parts of the United States,

but I still want to give our listeners the opportunity to chime in if we have time here and there

to address one of their questions.

Our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com, that's C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z

-E -N at gmail .com, and please include at least your first name, your city and state,

and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

It's chrizarnsen at gmail .com.

And the teachers who submitted their students' questions, most of them include the

entire child's name, but some of them only include either the

first name or the first name and last initial, and I'm just reading them as

I've received them.

I'm going to start off with a question that several different

students asked.

We have Ellis Scalise, who's an eighth grader from Coventry

Christian School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Alicia Wolfe, a fifth grader from Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Kieran Larrison, a fifth grader from Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New

York.

And Nora Williams, who is also from Our Savior New American

School in Center Reach, New York.

And Christelle E., who is an eighth grader at Smithtown Christian School,

Smithtown, Long Island, New York.

And Brian Hanna, who's a seventh grader from Coventry Christian School in Pottstown,

Pennsylvania.

They all asked the question, what inspired you to be an.

Astronaut and when did it start?

I think as a child I was always interested in science, which is

something you probably

want

to do nowadays.

And I tried to

even make a

rocket.

But anyway, I was always fascinated

with it.

At that age I never never didn't

even

know

the Army

had, I think, more

aircraft.

And I got to

know some folks that had just come back from Vietnam.

They were helicopter.

And they inspired by Tom

Wolfe

called

The Right

Stuff.

Yeah, and all

that.

Alicia

Wolfe,

a.

Fifth grader in Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know how did

you get picked to be an astronaut?

That's.

Most

astronauts.

I got

to

NASA

in 1985, or

a magnitude

in ten people,

1996.

Wow.

We have.

A eighth grader, I'm sorry, a tenth grader from Providence Christian

Academy in Scotland, Pennsylvania.

I didn't even know there was a Scotland, Pennsylvania, in that.

Hannah Garner asks, how does your worldview affect your approach

to your work?

That's a good question.

The world, everybody has a worldview.

Everybody has presuppositions and

how

they regard

all of it.

And I believe

exploration and discovery

is just

a

component

of

that

commission.

And

I try

to

point out,

and

when we

could

be

God

honoring.

And we have.

Jonah, who is a third grader at Lutheran Day School in Northport, Long Island, New York,

asking the same question as Eva Leatherman, a sixth grader at Grace

Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Were you scared of taking your space flight?

We spent a lot of the

launch, the work that we do on orbit, the spacewalks, and

the entry.

And

a lot

of that

time is

spent

now in the international

space.

Well, sometimes I wonder about that about myself, because I'm very frequently scared just using the

studio equipment here to conduct a live radio show.

It's kind of humiliating knowing that you're less frightened or not frightened at all, operating a

spacecraft.

But we do have another listener from,

let's see, we have Stephen Kim at Grace Christian Academy in

Merrick, Long Island, New York.

How long and what did your training consist of before going into space?

Oh, the

training is we train

how to

operate.

We have

to

fix it up.

Another

example

is we, you know, we can't go to the doctor if

you didn't get injured.

So we get medical training might come up when we're

at many more.

Nathan Smith and Alicia Wolf, both in the fifth

grade at.

Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, both asked, do you

control the space station?

And if not, who does?

Well, we

sent in

Japan.

When you say control,

it's changing

the

orientation.

It's not

explained,

but you have to

go.

We're

going to

be

going

to a

quick

station

break

and

we'll

be

right.

Back after these messages and more of your questions for Colonel Jeffrey Williams, the astronaut.

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Welcome back.

If you've just tuned us in, our guest today is Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is a Christian astronaut.

He is the author of The Work of His Hands, A View of God's Creation from

Space.

And we are reading to Colonel Williams the questions of Christian students in

varying Christian schools and church Sunday schools from different parts of the country,

whose teachers submitted them to us when this program was advertised.

So we're delighted to read them to you.

Before we even go into more of the children's questions, tell us something about this gorgeous, full

-color, coffee -table -sized book that you've got, that you've written here.

When I came back from the Expedition 13 flight in 2006,

I had

to say

to that

vantage point,

when I got back, the folks that pay attention to what we call Earth observation photography

here at Johnson Space Center in

Houston, I

went back and didn't take a whole lot of it.

But then other

people started

mentioning it,

because I

was

still, after

about a

year

or so, I put it together and submitted a manuscript, and then it took them a couple of years to put it together.

In the meantime,

I was

out in

May

of

2008, and it's released.

The book,

in particular...

Well, it's a gorgeous book, and the first six schools who

submitted questions from their students to us are receiving a free copy of this gorgeous book

that will be shipped out to you, God willing, this week.

So we thank you so much for submitting these questions, which we still have many of.

We have a question from Jessica Weber in the sixth grade at St. Paul's

Lutheran Church Sunday School in Amityville, Long Island, New York.

She asks, do you feel closer to God in space?

That's a good question.

I

get that

question.

My closeness

to

God comes by His grace.

I haven't

said that.

Amen.

Madison Fryman, who is a sixth grader at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, New

York, says her mom wants to know if you'd be willing to take her

dad out into outer space forever.

No, I'm just kidding.

That was a joke.

I happen to be a friend of Pastor Josh Fryman, who is Madison's dad.

Madison actually asked if the American flag is still on the moon.

It

is,

so

they've

got

some...

But

he gave a

presentation

in

1969, and it was sort

of...

And on the right side of

the

screen,

the trajectory is

going down as clouded dust

on the right side of the

screen.

We enjoyed it, and

it was an

honor to be there to have Neil narrate.

We have two different students who asked the same question.

Kaylee Gloxian, who is a second grader at St. Paul's

Lutheran Church Sunday School in Amityville, Long Island, New York, and also

Jenna Buchhamer, who is in the sixth grade at Providence Christian Academy in Scotland, Pennsylvania.

They both want to know, what do you eat or drink in space?

We have a wide variety of food and

drinks.

We're dehydrated, although not all of it is

dehydrated.

Obviously, we don't get a lot of fresh food up there, but the food is

meats and vegetables,

everything that you

have

come up.

We have a

couple

of

students

who asked

the

same.

Question.

We have...

Let's see here.

We have Valentina Flores, who is a sixth grader at Our Savior

New American School in Center Reach, New York, and Tharon Alamuri,

who is in the ninth grade at that same school.

Do you believe in extraterrestrial life?

I do not.

I get that.

Question often as well.

In fact, I am documented in some program on one of the cable news channels

as rich from the space.

So unfortunately,

I

don't

want to believe it.

And there's a...

So I do not believe in it.

Now, this is a question of my own.

Do you think that.

Your faith compels you to be certain that extraterrestrial life does not exist?

Or is there another reason why you do not believe in it?

I don't

think that

we'll

find life anywhere else.

But practically, look at the purported evidence

that suggests it's

practical.

I think, you know, going back to the earlier worldview question, and you

know, all these

things are

throughout ever since the fall, I guess you could argue, that don't want God to be there because they don't want

to judge.

They don't recognize that they cannot stand justified before a God.

Well, in the last couple of hundred years, of course, there's been great headway made in Western civilization

to get God's humanism and naturalism and materialism and

has come out of that.

And that's the most obvious component of it, the Darwinian theories and all

that.

Well, that says that

I'm here, too, because we can look out as far

as more and more and more.

And so certainly there is in all probability.

And well, I don't know why I get a kick out of this question.

But I love this question for some reason.

Nora Williams, a fifth grader at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New

York, asks, Have you ever argued with your astronaut friends?

Have I ever argued?

Well, I never got into a heated emotional argument.

Certainly we have discussions and we have debates in conversations.

We have, that happens,

and I've been in orbit with, I think, up to 45 or 50 people now, different

people, either that have been on the cruise that I have been on or have been on other crews at

Space Shuttle when I was there.

And I've never gotten into.

And Maya

Martinez, who is a fifth.

Grader at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, asks, If you were on a

mission and something went wrong, would you ask God to help you with it?

And also, Nora Williams, again, of Our Savior New American School,

asks if you pray to God to help you along the way.

Absolutely. In

the

provision in the little things, I like to

say our Creator.

Ruth Hiney in the seventh grade at Coventry Christian School in Pottstown,

Pennsylvania, asks, Have you ever ministered to one of your fellow astronauts and they were later

saved?

Ah, you know, I'll

broaden the

question of things.

Many discussion in

regards to

encouraging

that,

in that we

haven't said

all

that.

It's

our

job

just to

be for

that, that people come to a saving faith.

It's by the grace of God that they come to a saving faith.

We're just called to be obedient.

Amen.

And by the way, Isabella Reisinger in the sixth grade at Grace Baptist Christian School

in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, asked the same question.

I didn't want to leave Isabella out there.

Olivia Myers in the sixth grade at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle,

Pennsylvania, asks, Who noted the speed limit sign?

Is there a speed limit in space?

Ah, what they probably saw was the speed limit sign that we have in the space station

one, and it

says 700 miles an hour.

And there might be another one that says speed limit 25.

That is

the speed, as I said earlier.

Marcus Busalio, I'm sorry, Marcus, if I'm mispronouncing your name, Marcus Busalio

in the fifth grade at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, asked, Does

time go by faster in space?

As far as I can tell, as far as I, you know, subjectively experienced time,

some days go fast, other days go

slow.

By the way, I

also

wanted

to let you

know that.

Elena Dudley in the 10th grade at Coventry Christian School in Potsdam, Pennsylvania, also

asked a question that we earlier asked about, Does God's creation in space deepen your

relationship with Christ in any way?

So I just wanted to make sure she wasn't left out on that.

Uh, we have.

Marcus Rivera, a senior at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long

Island, New York, wants to know the following.

Can you tell me what time zone you adhere to in space?

And do you wear an Omega Speedmaster watch in space?

Obviously,.

Marcus's dad works for the Omega Corporation.

Omega Speedmaster.

I've got one on my wrist right now.

Um, just because we, we use it in training.

So where it

is, if not before,

typically live on

Greenwich.

We have a

kindergartner,

Jack

Graff

at Long

Island.

Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long Island, New York, wants to know what it feels like being

so far away from Earth.

Obviously, that's a very general question, but it's a good question.

It's a great

question.

Yes, at 50

miles or

so a

day, I can

call.

We

have

to go to

a break

right.

Now.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, feel free to email us at ChrisArnson at gmail .com.

ChrisArnson at gmail .com.

We have plenty more questions from kids out there, and I'm hoping to get to as many as I can before the program is

over.

Don't go away.

We will be right back with Colonel Jeffrey Williams, the Christian astronaut, right after these words

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arms.

And if you just tuned us in for the last hour, we have been interviewing Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is a Christian astronaut,

and he's the author of The Work of His Hands, A View of God's Creation from Space.

And Colonel Williams is actually preparing right now for another space

launch in March.

He's going to be on the space station for six months.

Before we return to our questions from the kids, tell us something more in detail about that and what you'll be

doing.

Well,

the fall of 2000,

early

March, and

then I'll launch in

mid -March.

The

space

station is

the 2020s.

Right

now,

the

agreement

is

younger

than

that.

So really, what I'm preparing to do is just get back into

the mix, but different.

I'm going to take this opportunity to take one of the questions from our regular listeners.

Andy in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know, have you learned to speak Russian fluently,

and what has it been like working with the Russian cosmonauts?

Yeah, what I just said is it's necessary to speak Russian.

We use Russian and English.

Looking back, the hardest thing, people ask about what's hard about the training.

Obviously, there's a lot of different training, the scope.

For me, I always have an inclination toward

through

the

2000s,

in

my

experience,

1980, the

heights

of the

Cold

War.

We have two

questions

that are the

same from Smithtown Christian School.

In Smithtown, Long Island, New York.

Megan P. and Matt C. both ask, do you think that the Big Bang

Theory actually happened?

And since you're a Christian astronaut, do you believe that it's possible for someone to go into space, see all the wonders and

beauties of it, and then say that a big explosion caused it all, instead of an omnipotent,

omniscient, and omnipresent,.

Intelligent

designer?

Well, I had a

whole

lot

of

time to

study the possibility of

God.

You exclude the possibility of the supernatural, and all things have to be explained in nature, and it can't

come up

with some that...

And by the way,

Megan P. is in the 8th grade, and Matt C. is in.

The 10th grade.

I think I failed to mention that.

Elise G. in the 10th grade at Smithtown Christian School on Long Island, New York,

asks, do you believe that people will live on Mars one day?

That's a good question.

There's a lot of focus on going to Mars.

It's always been that way.

Even,

you

can

even

go

back to

here.

By

the

way, I

just

wanted to

correct the

pronunciation of.

One of the students' names.

It's Bryn Hanna, who was in the 7th grade at

the Coventry Christian School in Potsdam,

PA.

Sorry about that, Bryn.

Aaron Rivera, who is in the 3rd grade at Long

Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, would like to know if you have ever seen any

satellites while in space, and if you've ever seen the Hubble telescope while you were up there.

Well, the Hubble.

Telescope, I

have not seen

meteorites.

Here's

an

interesting

question

from Sophie

Wise in the

10th.

Grade at Coventry Christian School in Potsdam, PA.

Did you notice anything about Earth when looking at it in space that you had never realized when you were on

the planet Earth?

Ah, good question.

I think I realized it before going there, but one of the things

most

astronauts,

when

they

go

there for

the

first

time, is

the

diameter.

So, I think that's

one of the...

This is from

one of the teachers, Mrs. Liz Graff, elementary teacher at Long Island.

Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long Island, New York.

She asks, according to NASA transcripts of the Apollo moon missions, several

astronauts reported hearing music in space.

Have you ever heard it, and can you explain it?

Thank you for your kindness in taking our questions.

Please don't tell me it's disco, though, if you hear the music.

That's an interesting comment.

I have to say, I don't remember ever hearing about that.

Oh, okay.

Folks heard music.

I could be

explained the

oxygen

through the suit.

Well, that's in the craft, though.

In outer space, there is no sound.

Am I right on that?

Sound has to travel through a medium, and we hear sound because sound

will not travel through a vacuum.

So, if something exploded in space, unlike in some of the movies where you hear it, there would be no sound.

Haley Ackle, a ninth grader at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, New York, would like to know,

what do you do in your spare time in space?

Well, there's not a lot of spare time.

The days are pretty full.

Sundays are when

we do get

those

free.

So, that's

how I would link

to

my wife, as

I said.

Well, you did actually remind me to announce that this program today is being

especially sponsored by our friends who published the New American Standard Bible, and this

year marks their 73rd anniversary.

So, we want to thank everyone at the publishing headquarters of the New American Standard

Bible for their faithful sponsorship of Iron Sharpens Iron, and we congratulate you on your 73rd

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We have Riley Minor in the ninth grade at Coventry Christian School in Pottstown,

Pennsylvania, who asks, of all the steps in preparing for a mission, during the mission, and

recovering from a mission, is there any part you would omit, if given the choice?

If so, which ones?

Oh, boy.

We have our category of those up there as well.

So, that kind of stuff.

Isaiah in the fourth grade at Lutheran Day School in Northport, Long Island, New York,

asks, has an asteroid ever hit your space shuttle while you were in space?

No, asteroids have

been.

We do

get hit.

Either are.

Isaiah in

the fourth grade also

asks, is it hard to walk around in

your space suit on earth?

You cannot walk around

in your

space.

Wow.

Leah in

the fourth

grade

at

Lutheran

Day School.

In Northport, New York, asks, if you had children, would you bring them into space with you?

I

beam down

for the

weekend sometimes.

And I

want to apologize for Diana Barbara.

Sina, because she also asked, what would you do for leisure time in space?

She's with Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York, in the eighth grade.

We have a question from Alexa

Aurelio in Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York, also in the eighth grade.

What is the most fun thing to do in zero gravity?

Oh, well, we

throw a food run at

each other and

some

video,

take some

water

bubbles.

Everybody turns into a kid again.

And that question was also asked by Isabella Norton in the third grade of Our Savior New American School in

Center Ridge, New York.

We have a question from Christian Rogers of

Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York.

He's in the eighth grade.

What was your job on the

shuttlecraft?

On the

space

shuttle

STS -101,

that

was

two modules.

And I

don't

know if

you've

answered that question, but Brianna Rivera in the ninth.

Grade at Our Savior New American School in Center Ridge, New York,.

Wants to know, what.

Are your most recent projects in space?

Most recent projects,

genetic

plant research

going on.

We've got multiple studies of the human body.

I mentioned earlier that that's one of our primary categories to

try countermeasures for future exploration.

It's like a lot of research

hospitals.

We have

a, again, for

design

of future systems on board.

And there are many, many other things that are going on.

Your listeners could certainly go on the NASA web.

Luke Van Grouw in the fifth grade at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle,

Pennsylvania, wants to know, what differences do you face in space other than zero

gravity?

Well, you are in

supply ships

only.

All right,

we're going

to go

to our

final

commercial

break.

Right now.

So we're going to be right back after these messages with more of your questions for Colonel Jeffrey Williams,

the Christian astronaut, right after these messages.

So don't.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron.

For the last 90 minutes, we have been interviewing Colonel Jeffrey Williams, a Christian astronaut who is

preparing for another space launch in March of 2016.

He's going to be spending six months at the space station.

Obviously, we would ask all of you to pray for his safety and for him to be a

powerful witness for Christ and his gospel in all that he does as an astronaut.

I also want to thank again the publishers of the New American Standard Bible for

making this program with Colonel Williams possible, and we want to congratulate them

again on their 73rd anniversary of publishing God's Word.

If you have any more details you'd like to find out about the New American Standard Bible, go to nasbible

.com.

That's N -A -S, which stands for New American Standard Bible dot com.

N -A -S Bible dot com.

Going back to our student questions, Ethan Eisenberg, in the fifth grade at Grace Baptist Church

Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know, if you could go to any planet, where would you

go?

Oh, good question.

If I could live in any climate, was that the question?

No, go to any planet.

Planet.

Planet.

If I could go to any planet.

I don't know.

I kind of like the Earth.

I guess he means visit.

Yeah.

Well, I did have a hope early in my career of getting the opportunity, maybe, of going

back to the moon.

The moon would be a fascinating trip.

Going to Mars, I'm not sure I've personally ever warmed up to that idea.

It's never been realistic within my career, but that's a long ways away, and that's the closest

point for us to get.

To.

Well, if you want to answer the other question that you thought it was, what kind of climate do.

You

want to live in?

Well, we live in

Houston, but

we've lived in

many

places

in spite

of the climate, but because of the community,

because of relationships that we have, ultimately, that's what it boils down to.

We can go into ideal climates, and the paradise part of

the climate.

Will soon be over.

We have two students that have related questions.

Bayane Destin, I'm sorry, Bayane, if I'm mispronouncing your name,

who is in the eighth grade at Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York, asks, what medications do you bring with

you out in space, and what are your primary health concerns?

And Brianna Rivera, in the ninth grade at Our Savior New American School in

Center Reach, New York, asks, how do you deal with space sickness?

Good questions.

As I mentioned earlier, we can't go to the doctor.

We have to supply our own medical

health.

To do that,

we have a

small

emergency

room.

And I

assume that

they are the

ones

that.

Give you specific medications.

You can't just take anything that you want on there, right?

No, there's

specific

requirements that have

been reviewed by the, but generally,

we

don't have a lot

of it in my

health.

Brittany Ward at

Grace Christian Academy.

In Merrick, New York, wants to know, how does exiting the Earth's atmosphere affect you?

Well, let's see.

I can interpret that question several ways.

I'll interpret it this way.

I remember on my first day on the flight deck as a flight

engineer, about three times the

force of gravity, and getting that sensation of speed.

And we were going up the East Coast

at daytime, and

it was partly cloudy that day.

But even away from Florida, all the weather was below us, so we were above the weather.

And the bright blue sky started fading to black.

And we have Jordan Syracuse in Grace Christian Academy in the eighth grade

in Merrick, New York,.

Asking, is it colder or warmer in space?

Yes.

In fact, it's much colder and much warmer.

It depends upon whether the sun is shining on an object or not.

A lot of attention to this, particularly when we're in a

space station.

It depends

upon the material, what kind of metal it is.

If the sun is shining on some materials, it can be several hundred degrees above.

In the shade or on the night side of the Earth, when the sun is not

shining, some materials can get down to on the order of 150 or 170

degrees.

Lynn, who's

in kindergarten at Lutheran Day School in Northport, Long Island, New York, wants to know, why is it dark in

space?

Well, the reason that it's not dark here is because of the atmosphere.

When we go

outside in

daytime and

we look...

And by the

way,.

The question about hot or cold was also asked by Lara

Zeger in the second grade at Providence Christian Academy in Scotland, Pennsylvania,

who was in the second grade.

And we have Molly Fitzpatrick in the fourth grade at Providence Christian Academy in Scotland,

Pennsylvania.

How many people are going with you to space?

What size is your ship?

I will be going on a

Russian

Soyuz,

is his name.

After going through that and

screep discussion from

Kazakhstan, we

have Evan Thole, or

Thole, or

Tole, or Tole,.

From St. Paul's Lutheran Church Sunday School in Amityville, Long Island, New York.

He's in the fifth grade, and he asks, did you go to space camp as a kid?

I did not.

I did not have the opportunity.

I did other kinds of camps, like scout camp.

And even though I didn't come to faith in Christ until later as an adult, I do remember as a

young child being sent to a Christian camp one summer for a space camp.

I don't even know if they existed then.

So they actually exist now?

Space camps?

Oh, yeah.

It's a great educational tool for young people to go to

space.

There are great

space activities here.

And then there are

many of them throughout the...

Cheyenne S.,

in the

eighth

grade

in Smithtown Christian School.

On Long Island, New York.

Do you share the gospel with others in space who are with you?

I will share the gospel as

our lives...

That's right.

Sam

S., who is

in

the

eighth

grade,

and.

Kiara V., as in Victory, who is in the tenth grade, both at Smithtown Christian School on.

Long Island, asks, do you read the Bible in space?

I do read the Bible in space.

As I mentioned earlier, on every one of my flights, I've taken a physical Bible

with

me, as

well

as others.

Let's see.

Ingrid G., well, actually, we already

asked that question about how does being in space affect your relationship with God?

Thank you, Ingrid G., who's in eighth grade at Smithtown Christian School.

Lorraine A., in Smithtown Christian School in the eighth grade, how bad would it be

if you or someone else got stuck outside for a while?

I guess it'd be pretty bad.

That would be pretty bad, and we take great precautions so that that...

Go outside in a spin

board to run a fan to keep circulating the

oxygen inside, and it has other systems to maintain an environment that we can

survive in.

But it only has...

We typically plan a spacewalk for six and a half hours.

We have extended them out to a little

after that.

So I will add

space

station itself.

This is an interesting

question, and I

guess it depends on

what side of the

theological.

Aisle you sit on when it comes to this.

Sam C., who is also in the Smithtown

Christian School in Smithtown, Long Island, New York, he asked, and I

don't see what grade he is in, but he asked, do you believe it's God's plan that he is sending you

back to space, or is it your own decision?

We're never

out of

God's concept of...

It goes

back to

vocation, answering the call of God,

and in answering the call, and that

includes in each of our days that come to

be.

And I want to take a couple of our adult listener questions real quick.

We have John in Phoenix, Arizona, who asked, my question to Colonel

Williams is, what was the most exciting thing you have experienced going into

space, and how has going into space impacted.

Your faith, positively speaking?

Well, the exciting things are many, but I would include in the top

of the list, it takes less than nine minutes to get to space, so that's a lot of energy

riding on top of that rocket.

And then when you get there, of course, you're in a weightless environment.

The rocket is gone, and you're just there in a spacecraft going around the Earth

at that orbital velocity.

I haven't

talked yet about an entry,

but an entry back through the atmosphere is pretty dynamic in itself, and

that's definitely a highlight of the experience.

I think

I've touched on that a little bit.

It just enriches God's wisdom.

Pastor David Anglin

of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Amityville, Long Island, New York, wants to know, what in blazes

did the head of NASA mean when he said that the agency's primary mission was outreach to

the Muslim world to make them feel good about their historical contributions to science?

I don't remember Jack Kennedy saying anything about that.

Well, that question will.

Have to be directed to the administrator, but this is in

our heads as well.

Ann Mankin, who doesn't say what grade she is in,

but she is in the St. Paul's Lutheran Church Sunday School.

When you look down at Earth, did you feel like God must feel?

Well, sometimes say, oh, you were closer to God when you're there, but God does

not restrict, comprehend

that.

You may

have

answered this before, but Kieran.

Larrison in the fifth grade at Our Savior New American School in Center Ridge, New York,.

How long does it take to train to be an astronaut?

For my first flight, I trained for about a year and a half.

That was on that 10 -day space shuttle flight.

For my first long -duration expedition to the space station, I trained for about four years.

I really want to make sure that you have.

Enough time to really unburden your heart and have what you want most etched

on the hearts and minds of our listeners, especially the kids who are listening before you leave this

program.

Today, Colonel Williams.

From now, that was the last of the questions?

No, I was going to throw.

In some questions after you finish, but I just wanted to make sure you had some time to summarize.

Since we only have about five minutes left.

Okay.

Well, I love talking to young people, and I really appreciate the questions that have come in

today, and I'm sure there are many others that you haven't had a chance to get to.

Yeah, there's a ton of questions here.

Yeah, I'm always just very encouraged by the curiosity of

young folks and the great questions that they come up with.

I just want to encourage them to continue to,

in all things in life, to fostering the

curiosity, why things work the way they do,

grow an understanding of those things, really transcending all

of that, even those that are

searching, to continue to grow in their knowledge of the truth of God's Word,

to continue to inform their minds and

their

hearts.

I

think

it's

starting to diminish, but for many years,

I was hearing that, in

fact, in

some cases, it's really a tragic

lie.

You

know,

some

things that

are more,

everybody, if

they faithfully answer their call in life,

their calling in life, their vocation, and they serve God in

those,

God's implications that

are out

there.

And Luciano P.

also was one of those who asked if it was your point or God's to be an.

Astronaut.

Luciano P. from Smithtown Christian School on Long Island.

But Aidan O. from Smithtown Christian School wants to know, while in space, do you see

anything that secular scientists.

Might say contradicts with creation?

There's

not

a

contradiction.

And we're out of

time,.

Colonel Williams.

Any website or any other information you care to give very quickly?

Well, there are many websites out there, but I would just encourage people to continue digging along

these.

Thank you so much for being a guest.

Thank you so much for the teachers and students.

Who sent in questions to us.

I look forward to your return after your March launch, after your return after six months, to

be a guest again on Iron Trump and Zion.

I would be honored to be so.

Great.

And I want everybody to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.

God bless, and we look forward to hearing from you and your questions again tomorrow on Iron Trump and Zion Radio.