Unlike many children born and raised at the time of the Moon landing, Daniel Tani did not dream of becoming an astronaut.
He was more interested in building objects, like clock radios and toothbrushes. Eventually, though, his life choices and career path directed him towards space.
He earned an engineering degree, started working in the space sector and decided to apply for NASA.
After some rejections, in April 1996, he received a phone call: “It’s a very traditional phone call in which they don’t ever say the word astronaut. All they say is: ‘You want to come down and work for us?’” Tani explained.
“And so I go: ‘Absolutely, yes, sir, yes ma’am’ and then you hang up, and you go: ‘I wonder what I just accepted’”.
Tani spent over 130 days in space, most of which were on the International Space Station (ISS), and he conducted six extra-vehicular activities, also known as spacewalks.
Although his days in orbit are now behind him, the memories of seeing the world from a different perspective remain deeply rooted in his mind, and he joined Euronews Tech Talks to share them.
Looking at Earth from the outside
First of all, Tani highlighted that conducting a spacewalk is very unpleasant.
“The suit you’re in is bulky, heavy and very uncomfortable,” he said, adding that.
to get used to being in the suit, astronauts need to spend a lot of time in it.
“Even if the space walk is six or seven hours, you’re in that suit for 10 or 12 hours, and that’s painful”.
Despite the discomfort, the experience of conducting an extra-vehicular activity is worth it,
“The privilege of opening the hatch and floating out and holding on to the space station, you’re going 17,500 miles an hour, you look around, and it’s the darkness of space, the beautiful vehicle of the space station,” Tani said. “And then 250 miles below your feet there’s Baja California, and then I recognise Italy”.
But the main memory Tani has about his first spacewalk is the pressure not to make any mistakes.
The future of space cooperation
Tani spent much of his time in space aboard the ISS, humanity’s home in orbit and a joint project among the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe.
Because of its ageing structure, the ISS is expected to be decommissioned and deorbited around 2030–2031, with new space stations developed by commercial actors set to take its place.
“It [the ISS] has been an incredible example of how international cooperation on a project for good can survive all the political bumps and bruises that happen,” Tani said.
The ISS stems from a US project called Space Station Freedom, developed in the 1980s.
In the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the project became more international, bringing together partners from different parts of the world.
Today, even politically unaligned countries such as Russia and the United States continue to cooperate in orbit, and the question remains whether this cooperation will continue in the future.
“I’m sad about that because of the station, but I’m also sad because now the leaders of these countries aren’t gonna be meeting as regularly about a particular thing,” he said.
The end of the ISS comes at an interesting time for space.
The growing presence of private actors in orbit, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, questions surrounding the use of space resources like rare materials, and rising competition driven by an increasing number of countries gaining access to space, are shaping the space sector.
“Some competition is good, lowers prices and makes things faster. But it also brings up hard feelings and divisions. So I think we’ll have to figure out how to balance those,” Tani said.