--- description: Astronauts flying a million-pound machine 230 miles overhead don't have a lot of time to chat, but Time snagged them for a few minutes. Join us for some live air-to-ground chatter. title: Time Talks to the Space Station: A Live Conversation image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b78652b523f552/69869ac135ba6f38ffc02e97/spacestation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [space station](/tag/space-station/) ## space station Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Join Us for a Conversation Between TIME and the Space Station  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jul 8, 2014 3:29 PM CUT  The space station as photographed by the shuttle Endeavour The space station as photographed by the shuttle EndeavourNASA; Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jul 8, 2014 3:29 PM CUT Everything about the International Space Station (ISS) is built to wow. It’s almost exactly the size of a football field, has as much habitable space as a six-bedroom house, orbits 230 miles overhead, required 115 space flights to build and carries a solar panel array with a surface area of one acre. The offices of TIME magazine—located on the slightly less glamorous Avenue of the Americas and 51st St. in New York City, and with about as much habitable space as, um, an office— can hardly compete. But on July 9, the two worlds will briefly collide, as TIME chats via video downlink with the ISS. There are currently six crewmen aboard the station, and we’ll be talking to three of them: commander Steve Swanson and flight engineer Reid Wiseman, both of NASA, as well as flight engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency. Like all space station crews, this one has been tending both to matters celestial (conducting biomedical, engineering and materials science experiments, as well as maintaining the station itself) and matters terrestrial, most recently their eye-in-the-sky observations of Hurricane Arthur. Other matters down on Earth concern the crew too. It may have been fun and games when Gerst’s native Germany bested the U.S. in the first round of the World Cup, but the dust-up between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine is awfully hard to ignore when the other three members of the crew are Russian cosmonauts. TIME will be chatting with the crew about these and other matters—and would like to hear your suggestions. Consider what you’d like to ask three men in a million-pound machine flying over head at 17,500 mph if you had the chance—because now you do. ### Photos: A look back at Expedition 41  Astronaut Alexander Gerst participates in an mobility excercise at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. James Blair—NASA  Astronaut Reid Wiseman, participates in an extravehicular activity in the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Lauren Harnett—JSC/NASA  Reid Wiseman's seat liner for the Soyuz being casted to his body. Reid Wiseman—NASA  Reid Wiseman a member of the International Space Station crew, waves to his daughters from a bus before departure for a final pre-launch preparation at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 28, 2014. Shamil Zhumatov—Reuters  The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is launched with three astronauts inside on May 29, 2014 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Joel Kowsky—NASA  Astronaut Alexander Gerst enjoys the view of Earth from the windows in the Cupola of the International Space Station. A blue and white part of Earth is visible through the windows. ESA/NASA  Photographed from the Destiny laboratory, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, is in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. ESA/NASA  In the International Space Station's Harmony node, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson harvests a crop of red romaine lettuce plants that were grown from seed inside the station's Veggie facility, ESA/NASA  Astronaut Alexander Gerst floats frrely in the Columbus laboratory of the International Space Station. NASA/SIPA  Astronaut Reid Wiseman, equipped with a bungee harness, exercises on the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) in the Tranquility node of the International Space Station. ESA/NASA  Astronaut Alexander Gerst shaves the head of NASA astronaut Steve Swanson in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Gerst used hair clippers fashioned with a vacuum device. ESA/NASA  The airlock within the International Space Station. Reid Wiseman—NASA  Australia’s north shore as seen from the International Space Station. Reid Wiseman—NASA  Glacial flows near the Straits of Magellan seen from the International Space Station. Reid Wiseman—NASA  The view from the International Space Station. Reid Wiseman—NASA ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2963941/space-station-time-talk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2963941/space-station-time-talk/"},"headline":"Join Us for a Conversation Between TIME and the Space Station","datePublished":"2014-07-08T15:29:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:09.132Z","description":"Astronauts flying a million-pound machine 230 miles overhead don't have a lot of time to chat, but Time snagged them for a few minutes. Join us for some live air-to-ground chatter.","url":"https://time.com/2963941/space-station-time-talk/","keywords":["space station","russia","Space","NASA","TIME","Space Exploration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b78652b523f552/69869ac135ba6f38ffc02e97/spacestation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03b78652b523f552/69869ac135ba6f38ffc02e97/spacestation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The space station as photographed by the shuttle Endeavour","caption":"The space station as photographed by the shuttle Endeavour","creditText":"NASA; Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-station/","name":"space station"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2963941/space-station-time-talk/","name":"Join Us for a Conversation Between TIME and the Space Station"}}]}] ```