I'm Lieutenant commander . Caleb Arron ,
I'm a submariner and Nasa astronaut
Growing up . I was always looking for
challenges that would develop me as a
leader and the opportunity to serve
with the best teams . That's what took
me to the Naval academy into the
submarine force . And it was really my
experiences as a submarine officer that
helped me realize that I might be able
to serve on a team like I am now at
Nasa . I was stationed on the USs
maine , which is S . S . B . N . 741
home ported in Bangor Washington , got
to stand surface officer of the deck
once off the coast of Hawaii in the
middle of the night . We're super far
away from light pollution . So that's
the most stars I've ever seen from
earth , fundamentally a submarine and
the space station . Their vehicles
designed to send human beings to live
and work in a place where human beings
really don't belong , whether that's in
the depths of the ocean or the vacuum
of space . These are really hostile
environments , but we have good reasons
to be there in order to accomplish
important missions . All of the sailors
and marines out there who have deployed
can relate to the challenges of living
in these extreme environments because
you're away from your family and
friends . You're in a world where you
have limited resources . The space
station is stocked with everything we
need to survive . But there are a lot
of limitations . We're really
caretakers of this unique vehicle
that's been up there for 20 years and
we're constantly maintaining and
upgrading it just like you would a ship
under way . But really our main mission
up there is one of executing some
incredible science . A lot of times we
have live over the shoulder camera
views so the team on the ground can
monitor what we're doing and help
support the execution of the experiment .
So just like in the Navy watch team
back up , having a team there to look
over your shoulder and confirm that
you're doing the right thing is really
important because we definitely
wouldn't want to push the wrong button
or turn the wrong valve and mess up the
experiment . I was lucky enough that I
got to do two spacewalks , one at the
very beginning of my mission and one
right towards the end . So kind of as
bookends to my experience up there , I
got to do the ultimate astronaut e
thing which is to go outside in the
vacuum of space and work on the space
station . It's easy to get focused on
your task and almost forget that you're
not back here on the ground in the
neutral buoyancy lab doing the thing
you've practiced hundreds of hours to
do . But when you look up and take in
the incredible views of our planet
through your visor , it's a really
inspiring experience . The kind of
bonds a team forms underway or for me
aboard the space station as part of my
expedition crew . It's just special
relationships that you come to by
living in these remote environments and
just doing really incredible things
together that for me were hard to wrap
my head around before I served on a
submarine . But when I got underway and
actually did all of those things , it's
amazing what you can accomplish when
you come together as a team . And I
think I felt that throughout my time on
the space station as well , living
under the surface of the ocean or up in
low earth orbit , you need a team of
experts who really know how to work
together to bring their experience to
bear and to make strong operational
decisions because these are high risk
environments with human beings . Human
lives in the balance . I'm Nasa
astronaut , Kayla Barron , Happy
Birthday Navy .