Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 162, Connect during Social Isolation.

I'm Gary Jordan and I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know

what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and today even our own lives.

2020 has been a crazy year with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us are

affected by it and how we live and work now every day. It's very difficult to go

out or to do things or to see people.

I know for me personally I haven't seen my friends or family and well what seems like forever now.

This is a very similar story to astronauts.

They describe life away from family for long periods of time

during space station expeditions. Of course they miss their families but they seem to

always make note of keeping in regular contact with them.

Keeping remote connection with others from the International Space Station

can be a form of a countermeasure, or a preventative measure from feeling isolated

so astronauts can maximize their performance

and get all kinds of science and space walking and maintenance done in their crazy busy schedules

on orbit.

There is an approach or a method or whatever you want to call it that can serve as a useful

reminder for the different ways in which NASA helps our astronauts deal with the isolation and confinement on long space missions.

And that reminder is called Connect.

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