Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150914

Auction task force. Mr. Epstein, what does that mean . Guest thank you, peter. Im happy to be here. I am the head of the task force at the fcc which is responsible for implementing the incentive auction which is a firsttimeever auction at the fcc for spectrum. Host and the incentive auction is the auction, the spectrum auctions involving the broadcasters, correct . Guest indeed, it is. It is whats called a twosided auction which for the very first time will acquire spectrum from broadcasters in a socalled reverse auction and then turn around, repackage it and make it available to the wirelessc carriers9jz a forward auction. So it is a backtoback auction, a reverse auction and a forwardq auction. Host well, two followups to that. The fcc has set march of 2016 as the date for the incentive auctions to happen. A, will that date hold and, b, how long have you been working on this . Guest the auction commences on march 29th, 2016, and we do intend to hold to that date. All the commissioners are supportive of that, and i think all of the stakeholders are too, are too. I can answer your question about how long ive been working on it in two ways. When ive been back at the commission since april of 2012, and in some sense i think ive been working on it for 44 years which is how long ive been working in the area. Host but this has been in the works since 2012. Guest correct. And Congress Passed a statute in february of 2012, and the commission turned right to implementing it. And weve been working ever, ever since 2012 to put it into effect. Host one final question before we bring in our guest reporter, and that is in august the fcc voted rules for the incentive auction. Broadly speaking, what are some of those rules . Guest they really have to do with the actual detailed rule ares for implementing the auction rules for implementing the auction. There really were two stages. In about a year ago, the Commission Adopted the broad principles and rules in something called the incentive auction report and order. This is called the procedures public notice, and it goes to really the next level about how to set opening bid prices, where, what spectrum levels we will, we will seek to acquire, whos eligible to bid for the rules and a whole series of detailed rules to make the auction actually happen. Host Gautham Nagesh with the wall street journal is joining us. Thanks for having me back, peter. Gary, so this incentive auction, as you mentioned, is about taking spectrum from broad tv broadcasters and reallocating it to the wireless companies. Why do you guys feel that the broadcasters are the right place to go for spectrum, and how much spectrum are you hoping to get from this auction . Guest nagesh, gautham, it is a congressional determination that was made in the spectrum act. And one thing i do want to emphasize, that were not taking spectrum from broadcasters. It is a voluntary auction on behalf of the spectrum on behalf of the broadcasters. Broadcasters consider, continue to be an extremely valuable service, but Congress Passed this act where broadcasters on a onetimeonly basis will be able to relinquish their spectrum rights in return for a share of the proceeds of the forward auction. And so what it is, is congress determination and the fccs implementation to use Market Forces to make available more lowband spectrum to meet wireless broadband needs. In other words, the need for broadband spectrum is burgeoning by multiples and exponentially. There isnt a lot of good lowband spectrum left, and this is a new, novel method congress has put in place and the fcc is to implement. You explain why lowband spectrum in particular is desirable or well suited for wireless . Guest lowband spectrum is defined as spectrum below one gigahertz, and it has actual propagation characteristics, the physics of it, which allow it to go long distances and through buildings better than midband or highband spectrum. Its called covered spectrum as opposed to capacity spectrum which is the higher bands. This is the last lowband spectrum which will be available from the fcc for the foreseeable future. So as you mentioned, these airwaves or spectrum will allow wireless carriers to cover much larger areas in terms of guest much larger areas and penetration through buildings. You know, all types of spectrum are valuable. We just recently had a spectrum auction for midband spectrum, the socalled aws3 spectrum. That was more capacity spectrum. This is the coverage spectrum which has different characteristics. Host mr. End steam, to go back to the aws3, the price of that spectrum was more than double what you expected, wasnt it . Guest well, expectations of the analysts, okay, were probably in the 20 billion range at the high end. Actually, 44 billion was received, bid and received by the fcc with respect to the spectrum. So, yes. Turns out it was really pretty valuable. And it looks like a good sign for the lowband auction coming up. Host what if a broadcaster does not want to sell his or her spectrum . Guest broadcaster is completely free to take a thurm of options. A number of options. Number one is not to participate at all. And if a broadcaster decides not to participate, we have a statutory obligation to protect the areas and populations of that broadcaster and the broadcaster will keep broadcasting in its home band. Second thing is the broadcaster can relinquish all of its spectrum and participate in the spectrum, but there are two other options. The broadcaster can decide to channel share with another auction another operator, another broadcaster and participate in the auction. And then finally, a broadcaster can go from uhf to vhf, put its uhf channel in the auction and receive a vhf channel in return. The key thing is the first thing, a broadcaster does not have to participate at all and will be protected as a broadcaster in its home band. Host is there fear from local communities that they will be losing some of their local broadcast coverage . Guest its a good question. Some issues have been raised, and i think that the commission has taken good steps in certain areas with respect to, for example, public broadcasting and other really important services. But, you know, overall i think probably with the channel sharing and the u to v options and the migration of some Video Services to the internet, that the public will not lose service overall. The fcc has released some preliminary projections or estimates of both the high and the low end for what they think stations could potentially get for their spectrum. We see especially in major markets that these and markets in the vicinity of major markets, these projections are very high, this the hundreds of millions of dollars in the hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases. Do you think thats going to hold true at the auction itself, and what are the implications then for the broadcast industry . Because many of these stations do seem to be more valuable for their airwaves than as going businesses. Guest let me explain what those numbers are, okay . Those numbers were in a report we called the green hill report where we commissioned an Investment Banking firm to treat what we were doing as a business opportunity. Because were not all that great at that, so we needed some outside help to do that. But the fcc generated the numbers. And, gautham, what they are are opening bid numbers. Theyre not predictions of what a broadcaster will actually receive in the auction. But they are the numbers that we will put on the table for opening bids for broadcasters. In the order that the fcc just adopted in august, we set the final formula for opening bid prices. Its very close to what the estimates were a couple of months ago. And so i think those are the prices that the broadcasters will see for opening bids. Let me make one other point which i think is really crucial for broadcasters. The opening bid prices will be made public. More than 60 days, 60 days or more before the close of the window for broadcasters and wireless carriers to file their applications. If a broadcaster wants to participate, all it has to do is file an application and say i commit to that opening bid. And that application, by law, is anonymous. We will then start the auction, which is called the reverse auction. It starts high and moves down through competition. If the number drops 1 or 10 or a million dollars, the broadcaster has the absolute right to say im out, and i want to go back to my home band, and i want to continue broadcasting in my home band and be protected as if i were never in the auction at all. And thats why the chairman has said this is a nolose proposition. A broadcaster, we will publish the opening bids. A broadcaster will then decide whether to participate in the auction. At the opening bid price. If it may it may get the opening bid price, but we suspect there will be Competition Among the broadcasters. Anytime during that process the broadcaster can say im out, and i want to go to my home band. And thats the end of it. And the participation will be kept nonhouse. Host mr. Anonymous. Host mr. Epstein, the fcc is setting the opening businesses, is that correct . Guest its a reserve price like any auction, yeah. The fcc adopted a formula in august. The commission itself, not the staff, adopted a formula which has two components to it. One component is the amount of interteerns that the station causes. Ultimately, were seeking to get spectrum back. And so its relevant to the value of the station in the auction how much interference it causes. The second component of the formula is whats called interferencefree population. How many people does that cover . None of this has to do with the fair market value or the growing concern value of the station. Were seeking spectrum. So the opening bid prices are based upon spectrum. Host and you also said that its anonymous bid . Guest correct. Host anonymous to whom . Guest anonymous to the outside world. You know, if you as a broadcaster choose to say im participating, thats fine. But when you feel your application file your application with the fcc, we will not disclose to anyone the fact that youre participating in the auction. Host Gautham Nagesh. Thank you. As you mentioned, the value of the spectrum has been perhaps underestimated by analysts and people in the markets, and the recent aws3 auction, the midband spectrum, drew 45 billion which was larger than many of us expected. One of the factors that drove bidding higher in many markets was the fact that two companies affiliated with dish network were bidding multiple times on some of the spectrum. Now, i know this isnt part of the incentive auction, but the fcc in august moved to, essentially, remove discounts those Smaller Companies got. Can you explain perhaps some of the thinking behind that, and will that affect the dynamic in the incentive auction at all . Guest there are a couple related questions i think you have there. The fcc adopted new rules on participation and bidding credits in august in the decision, and what it did was it was concerned about, you know, how the rules were being used, whether they truly benefited small business. So it basically put caps on and tightened up the rules in a number of respects. That will apply to the incentive auction. And so there are special rules for bidding credits, theres something called the marketbased reserve which are part of the incentive auction, and i think the commissions new rules will affect bidding to that extent. Now, the other thing that happened and i think as i know youre aware of this is just, you know, recently the commission determined that certain participants in the aws3 auction were not eligible for bidding credits. And so that will be, you know, part of the analysis for participation in the incentive auction. Now, of course, the broader question is the purpose of the auction, it seems, is to real locate spectrum to the reallocate spectrum to the Wireless Industry, but who exactly constitutes the Wireless Industry . For example, dish network holds quite a bit of spectrum, but they are as of now not in the wireless business. Theyre a Satellite Tv Company for the most part. And we also see that there are really four Major National wireless carriers and some smaller wireless players. There was a lot of debate over whether spectrum should be set aside in the incentive auction for some of the smaller players. Can you explain why the commission landed where it did on that decision and where it landed . Guest indeed. Remember what i said, note what i said before that this is lowband spectrum. Certain carriers, certain of the major carriers have the great majority of lowband spectrum thats been allocated over the years, the 800 megahertz spectrum thats out there and the like. So the Commission Set up something which was fairly unique here. It set up something called a marketbased reserve which will set aside in each Geographic Market up to 30 megahertz of spectrum for carriers who are eligible to bid in that market. And the standard for eligibility is in that Market Holding onethird or less of the one gigahertz spectrum in that market. Its about 45, 45 megahertz worth of spectrum. So there is a market base reserved done for the very first time. And a marketbased reserve springs into existence at the time that the bidders who are eligible to bid for it make a, you know, meet a reserve price which has been set by the commission and pay their share of the costs of the broadcasters. So its innovative, its new, its something which is designed for those wireless providers who do not have any of the lowband spectrum. Doesnt mean that the established carriers wont have a lot of spectrum to bid on. We would expect and welcome their participation in the auction too. Should spectrum be available to companies that arent in the Wireless Industry . Because theres a lot of concern that the high prices and the appreciation are causing speculators to get in the market especially given the fact that theyre not, were not creating any new airwaves and that the value is likely only to increase . Guest well, there are two sides to this. There where there may or may not be speculators involved. One side is the reverse side, okay . Are there people who have bought up broadcast stations with the intelligent of selling them this the intent of selling them in the auction . I think the answer is, yes, and i dont think theres anything wrong about that. Broadcasters have to make the choice about whether or not they want to participate in the auction, and some entrepreneurs have bought some stations from the broadcasters and may well participate. On the forward auction side, i think weve tried to make the opportunities for more competition, okay, by having this marketbased reserve, but there are buildout requirements on the forward auction side. So its less likely, and we dont see, you know, entrepreneurs or more speculators that are involved. Anybodys eligible to bid. Theres not a requirement on the forward auction side that you previously have been in the Wireless Industry. And we encourage new entry and new participants. The only limitation is this marketbased reserve i mentioned. Host gary epstein, you talked about bidding credits. What does that mean . Guest bidding credits means its an established process that the fcc has. Its been used for decades now. Entities that are eligible for bidding credits get to bid at the normal rate but then get a discount when they actually have to pay. So, for example, a bidding credit of 15 would be if i bid 100 and somebody else bid 90 and i won because i bid 100, i actually only pay 85. Host and how do you qualify for those bidding credits . Are you a Smaller Company . Are you a smaller user of spectrum . Guest thats right. In the decision gautham was just talking about just recently, and this was a broader decision which alies to the incentive applies to the incentive auction and other auctions, the commission established a rule for whos eligible for bidding credits, tightened up the rules, and its primarily Small Businesses who meet certain characteristics. But theres a new 15 bidding credit for Rural Telephone providers. So its those entities which as a Public Policy matter the commission determined should be eligible for bidding credits. Host now, when it came to setting the rules for the spectrum auction or the incentive auction, it was a partisan vote, 32, by the commission. What were some of the concerns expressed by the republican commissioners . Guest well, i dont weve had a whole series of decisions. Some of them have been 32, some of them have been 50. I much prefer 50 votes, but there are policy differences among our commissioners. And one of them really has to do with this marketbased reserve that we talked about. I think thats one of the key ones thats there. Two of the dissenting commissioners arent this agreement with the policy set by the heart for the reserve and how it the majority for the reserve and how it operates and how large it is. There are other policy issues about, you know, pricing for the broadcasters, but if i had to pick one where theres the biggest division, it has to do with the reserve. We hear at the wall street journal that some broadcasters are exploring the possibility of forming a coalition of their own and selling spectrum directly to the wireless carriers. Now, i know the fcc has the authority to approve license transfers, but how would the fcc in genre act to Something Like that, and would it be allowed under the rules . Guest yeah. I think there are practical and legal issues. Theres no fundamental objection to it. This has been tried over the years a number of times. I think the biggest problem is when i describe what the auction was, i said really it had three parts. One of them is the reverse auction where we buy spectrum from the broadcasters, but then what we do is reorganize and repack it into a smaller, more efficient tv band. And then we turn around and take the Broad Spectrum that weve been able to get as a result of this repacking and sell it to auction it to the wireless providers. Oneoff bases or groups of broadcasters dont have the fundamental power to reorganize the spectrum. We got that from the act, from the 2012 congressional act. And theres a 1. 75 billion fund which has been set aside for us to reimburse broadcasters. So i think its the difficulty of putting all of those pieces together which would make the individual station by station or groups of stations much more difficult to do. This is a onetime authority that we have from congress. Host are the Cable Companies worried about the cable providers worried about this auction . Guest i dont know. [laughter] i think that they would be welcome and eligible to participate to buy spectrum. Theyve bought spectrum in the past to do so. And competition is good. Competition on the video side by the wireless providers, by the Cable Companies and by the broadcasters are all positive things. Host gary epstein, if this auction goes through, it begins march 29th, 2016, is there an end date . And then how soon would this spectrum actually be online . Guest the end date really is a function of the bidding thats involved and, again, this will be longer than most traditional auctions because we have to run two back to back. We have to run, first, a reverse auction and then a forward auction. And i wont, i wont get down into the real details of it, but if we can close in this first round was we dont get enough money from the forward auction to pay the broadcasters, we have to run a second round. We have to lower the clearing target. But well get there, okay . Im talking about a matter of months. Not one month or two months, but several months to do that. Then there is a transition period which has been set by the commission, and thats 39 months, for the broadcasters to actually be relocated and moved. So there will be an established transition period after the close of the auction for the broadcasters to relocate to their new channels. Host why 3w9 months . Guest well, part of the reason is Congress Gave us, we said you need three months to actually file your applications, and and congress authority for us to give out money stopped after 36 more. [laughter] so thats one of the reasons, and a big reason that we picked the 39month period. Our reimbursement authority. And the reimbursement funds come out of the forward auction. Ends in 39 ends in 36 months after we begin paying it out. The markets have been a bit spooked especially concerning the largest wireless carriers like verizon and at t at the numbers that came out of the aw3 auction because spectrum is so expensive and it also costs so much to build out the wireless networks. Theres concern that the amount of debt the carriers are going to have to carry following the incentive auction is going to really saddle them Going Forward. Weve seen an example of this, i think, in europe when the 3g networks were built out. Is this a concern for the fcc that the costs in all these auctions are becoming prohibitive and may prevent carriers from upgrading their networks this the future . Guest i think that the companies that are involved, both the large and midsized companies, are financially solvent, financially able, able to borrow money. Weve heard them headache commitments to Going Forward them make commitments to Going Forward in this auction. You know, it is more their issue than our issue. Of course we would love their participation but, you know, verizon has announced its selling certain assets. At t has just within the last couple days reaffirmed its commitment. Tmobile has talked about participating in the auction. And so i think were comfortable that they have the Financial Capacity to go forward. And is there enough spectrum for four National Wireless carriers or more . Are we reaching the point where thats no possible given the demands of data use . Guest i think there are two phenomenon that happened out there. One of them is more spectrum, and were doing our best to make it available. This is an example of that. But then there are all also other technologies, more efficient use of the spectrum, small cells which are coming at the same side. Its about confidence and innovation of the carriers out there. Yeah, i mean, it would be great to get more spectrum out there. Thats been an imperative of the obama administration, the commission and all the commissioners, democrat and republican alike, are anxious for this auction to go forward and is be a success. Host gary epstein, if and when all this additional spectrum gets online, are consumer costs going to remain the same . Are they going to go down because theres more spectrum . Are they going to go up because of the expense of the spectrum . Guest i think the key is the competition, okay . So things like our marketbased reserve and competition itself between the large carriers and the small carriers, you can see it working in the marketplace now. And you can see prices dropping. And thats the phenomenon we would really like to see on looking forward. Its one of our goals in this auction. It is to get the spectrum out. Its to get this lowband spectrum out, but to do it in a procompetitive manner. Do you have any estimates that you can share with us in terms of a range or a number for both how much spectrum you expect to get and, if possible, what sort of revenue you expect to have available to compensate the broadcasters . Guest so far for three years ive ducked that question, but ill try. And that is, you know, we from a spectrum availability standpoint, the thing i said at the very beginning is that we dont know which broadcasters will show up and in which markets. Thats the ultimate determination. Thats what makes this auction unique versus, you know, almost any other auction anywhere in the spectrum area. But weve seen, you know, people coming in with estimates of our band plans range from, like, 40 megahertz up to 180 or more megahertz. I think those are both too low and too high, so i think somewhere in the middle. People have talked about 126 megahertz, people have talked about 84 megahertz. So that kind of bounds what were talking about. And as for proceeds, again, thats really just a function of demand and whats on the wireless side is. I do note that a couple months ago cbo came out with an estimate which said there could be up to 40 billion net which is coming out of this auction. Thats after you pay broadcasters. But thats an estimate. And the fcc has never given or made any estimates. Host and when you talk about broadcasters, you dont mean just the national channels, but youre talking about the local broadcasters guest yep. Im talking about the approximately 2,000 broadcasters in this country ranging from the Largest Group owner to the smallest. And in a lot of markets like, for example, take new york there are 25 or 30, i dont know the exact number, stations that are in the market. Some of them may feel this is a great opportunity to monetize their investment. Maybe theyre not making money, maybe theyre the fourth or fifth or sixth station in the market. So as the chairman says, this is a onetimeonly opportunity, you know, under the spectrum act to participate in this Ground Breaking reverse auction. Host Gautham Nagesh, we have time for one more question. So you mentioned the incentive auction, the range of spectrum. One thing ive seen a lot of people agree on is no matter how much you guys get, its probably not going to be enough in the long term. Where do you go next for spectrum once the broadcasters have sold it . Guest again, an excellent question. There are other things that were doing in other spectrum bands. One of the key things is spectrum sharing, okay . Particularly with the government. Weve had a large initiative to take some of that spectrum and find ways to make that available, the commercial section, in a way which doesnt jeopardize the National Defense or National Security use. Host and you say youve had that initiative. Has it been implemented . Guest it has been implemented. And the aws3 auction is a great example of that where theres a transition period from government use to commercial use. And people were willing to pay for that. Host gary epstein, you said that youve been working on this issue for 44 years. Whatd you mean by that . Guest oh, ive been in this business either as a lawyer or in business or in government since 1971. Host why . Howd you get into that . Guest i have an engineering undergraduate, i have is a degree from harvard are law school, i wanted to put those two things together, and i thought Communications Law would be a great opportunity to do so. Host well, were happy that gary epstein who is chair of the fccs spectrum Auction Task Force has been on the program. Gautham nagesh of the wall street journal, as always, we appreciate your appreciation too. And, mr. Epstein, i hope youll come back before march 29, 2016, to give us an update. Guest certainly would like to. Thanks. Host thank you. Cspan, created by americas Cable Companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Today nasa astronauts mark and scott kelly discuss their work, cooperation with other countries and whether a 2030 mission to mars is possible. Astronaut scott kelly will speak from the International Space station where hes on a yearlong mission. Live coverage begins at 9 a. M. Eastern here on cspan2. The Bush Foundation recently hosted a Graduation Ceremony for the inaugural class of president ial scholars, a program created by the bill clinton, lbj, george w. Bush and george h. W. Bush president ial centers. The ceremony began with a conversation on entrepreneurship and the American Dream featuring shark tank investor mark cuban. This is about 30 minutes. [applause] thank you very much. Now since were in dallas, we thought it was only appropriate to start the ram with two mavericks the program with two maverick ares. [laughter] one of them dance with the the stars. And one of them went to the big dance with president bush. Kevin sullivan got his start in communications in the sports world with the dallas mavericks. The lessons he learned in the nbas western conference ultimately landed him in the west wing where he served as president bushs Communications Director from 20062009. Today he draws on his experiences to advise leaders all across sectors on effective communication. And last month he released an ebook called breaking through Communications Lessons from the locker room, the boardroom and the oval office. Our other panelist has no problem breaking through. [laughter] especially when it comes to making his voice heard by the referees from his courtside seats. [laughter] mark cuban, the owner of the mavericks, is one of americas most successful entrepreneurs. Beginning at the age of 12 by selling garbage bags door to door, along the way he learned a lot about the kind of perseverance it takes to survive the ups and downs that any leader must navigate. And finally, i think this is an appropriate setting to share that in just two weeks mark will be adding another job title to his long resume, president of the United States. With his acting role in sharknado3. [laughter] so, mark [laughter] so, mark, if you need some tips, there are a couple of very distinguished gentlemen here [laughter] who would be willing to share some advice. Please welcome Kevin Sullivan and mark cuban. [applause] treasure. Oh, thats funny. Well, everybody, that was a great, a great introduction, but just to show you how far mark really has come, take a look at this photo from his early days in dallas [laughter] what was that, about 1982 or 83 . 83, yeah. At that moment hark, you know, getting involved with personal computers for the first time. You see the American Dream taking hold right there about ready to you see the thing in the back, it says poverty sucks. [laughter] so youre a guy who ive seen you quoted as saying its in the doing, not the dreaming. Exactly. What is the state of the American Dream today . American dream is alive and well. Does anybody here watch shark tank . [applause] its a great show. The fascinating thing about the show on friday nights is that its the number one show watched by Families Together across all of television. Literally used to be people wanted to come up and talk to me about basketball. Now i have are 8, 10, 20, 80yearolds telling me about their ideas and telling me about their companies, you know . Its a new age lemonade stand, and i dont think theres any question with american ingenuity, the education, the type of people we have here that this is just the best is yet to come. I think some of us get the sense that, oh, were down. Thats so far from the truth. Im just seeing more and more amazingok businesses, more and more amazing ideas every single day. You know, i couldnt be more excited about the American Dream. You have to go to Silicon Valley or new york city . No, heck no. I mean, yeah, ill tell you this. Hopefully, theres no media or anybody from Silicon Valley, im sure, here. [laughter] Silicon Valley is a lot like hollywood used to be. Theyre looking over your shoulder for the next big star, the next big deal to come to austin. You get people who come to work. The University System here is amazing, whether its ut austin, the school smu, there are so many amazing schools where we are locally we hire locally. Its less expensive, but theyre just as smart, and theyre just as driven, and theres just as many businesses being created here. While im not here to say its the next Silicon Valley, im here to say texas is the most amazing state when it comes to not just developing talent, but to creating new companies. [applause] now, the sports fans among us, and i know theres a bunch here, know that you had kind of a tough night last night. [laughter] so this week on shark tank [laughter] without going, without rehashing all the details of the jordan commitment. Oh, you had to say his name, okay. From a leadership standpoint, when you have a setback, when you have a tough day, what do you say to your people . The conversations weve had today that its over. You know . Theres nothing you can do about it. You think for a second is there anything i can change. You think for another second what have i learned so i can do it differently next time. And then you move forward and say what are our options. You know, im a big believer you have to reearn your business every single day. You have to look to see whether or not you need to reinvent your business every day. Theres some 12yearold or 8yearold going to ut, smu, all these great things i just talked about, this great talent, and theyre out there trying to kick your butt, right . And if im going to stay ahead, i have to keep on moving forward. Thats the way it is with the mavericks. You know, we have this big, tall german whos pretty good [laughter] hes still around. And we signed wes matthews. I think we have been fortunate to this point in my 15 years there, and weve got great leadership, a great team, and were going to keep on moving forward. President s make a lot of decisions, obviously, a lot of tough decisions and, of course, our scholars have had the privilege of going to the clip torn library, for example Clinton Library and studying landmark well tear reform legislation that he led, and there were people among your own advisers, president clinton, that didnt think you should go the way you were going. I got to witness this up close and personal, often without regard to his popularity, based upon his principles. How do you handle those really, really tough decisions especially if youre getting conflicting kinds of advice . I try to be very selfaware. I try to know what im good at and what im bad at. I try to know i try to have smart people around me all the time, and i cross my fingers. [laughter] you know . Theres just some decisions that, you know, you just have to trust yourself. And relate me also let me also add preparation is everything, you know . People have always said youre such a huge risk taker. I never take risks. Any business ive felt like ive done my homework, ive done hi preparation. This isnt a risk. Fortunately, ive never been in the same circumstances as our two president s, and i couldnt even imagine the stress. But in my little world, i just try to be prepared, have great people around me and, you know, be prepared, make the best decision i and hope for the best. And in that preparation theres a way to manage the risk. What kind of things do you do to be prepared . I read. I Read Everything i can get my hands on. I talk to as many smart people as i can. I like to, you know, someone once said you have to test your whole card. A lot of times we think we know something, and sometimes success can be your worst enemy because you think youre smarter than you are. And so, you know, even though i feel confident ability something, i feel good about something, im always like, okay, am i sure thats an ace, or does that change to a jack . I want to talk to smart people also and check my whole card. In terms of your teams of adviser, i know youre not a big hierarchy guy. Would that be a recommendation to headache to our scholars . Everybodys different. But in todays day and age theres so many different communication mediums youve got to figure out, a, what your vision is, b, how to put those people around you in a way to succeed, and, c, really understand how each of them these to be communicated with because its not one size fits all. Were so used to seeing everybody, you know, not just millennials, but everybody with their head down in their phone. And i tend to try to do everything via email as much as i can. Send me weekly updates, bad news first. When i get that bad news, thats when i have to reach out and go face to face, you know, and be there to help people. Youve always got to be in a position where youre its not about you, its about putting people in a position to achieve your goals. Because if you help them and have a vision for them of how to be successful, then thats going to dovetail with the organization. And when that point comes, if it doesnt, where you go your separate ways, theres mutual respect, and that ends up being a contact or somebody for you to network with. We have a question from one of our scholars, terry. Shes the vp of convoy of hope. Which is all about empowering women. Shes got a great project to empower women with basic business skills. But terry asks for your advice, im better partnering with the private sector as somebody who is in the nonprofit world. I mean, its a numbers game, you know . Theres no business, small or large, that hasnt heard from a social enterprise or doesnt have its own social conscience. And so youre not going to be in the situation where youre the only person knocking on that door or picking up the phone and talking to them or sending an email. You have to recognize it truly is a numbers game, and every no gets you closer to a yes. Just when you think, oh, my goodness, theyre going to say no, bam, thats when they say yes. Whether its womens issues, no matter what it is, look, if it were easy, itd already be done. Its not supposed to be easy. Its supposed to be hard. There isnt a template that everybody follows for success. You have to put in the energy to be prepared, and if you really care about what youre trying to accomplish, its not work. You know, i always have a test, if you dream about it, its right for you. You know . If you wake up and youre taking notes about your business because thats what you were thinking about, its right for you. And if you have that much commitment and conviction, who cares if its one more door you have to call on . Who cares if theres one more company you have to speak to . Thats what it takes. So as a entrepreneur and as an investor, what are the biggest impediments and obstacles you can run into for either starting or growing a business . Yourself. You know, companies dont fail for lack of money 99 of the time, they fail for lack of brains and effort. You know what the one thing in business that you can control . And i say this to athletes as well. The one thing in business that you can control, your effort. Thats the one thing no one can ever take away from you and that you can control. And so that is always, you know, thats the key. And if you learn and youre always learning and always looking to improve and always looking to reearn your business and youre put anything the effort, youve got a shot, and you can be successful. You had another kind of famous mark cuban shark tank contestant, scotty vest was the name of the company. Right. He had a pat tent, he was basically trying to license a patent. Why dont you tell that story, because that pushed your buttons pretty good. Another one to yeah. So there was a gentleman who came on the show, and he had a coat, an outdoors coat. And his secret sauce was he had a lot of pockets. But in his pockets he had a patent so that if you ran a wire up your sleeve using headphones and connected them to something to listen, thats what he had patented. And i was, like, how do you patent that . And no lie, when i was a kid growing up this pittsburgh, i would listen to the pittsburgh pirates, and id have a transistor radio that id hide from my teacher, and id listen to the pirates when they were in playoffs, and id run one of those old school headphone things, and id run it up my shirt and put it in my ear, and id kind of lean this way so the teacher wouldnt see me. And im like, how in the heck do you patent that . So i went off on him. It led to he funding a chair at the Electronic Freedom Foundation called the mark cuban chair to eliminate stupid patents. [laughter] and so i gave them money. Theyre, like, we cant name it that. People are going to think its crazy. Im like, thats exactly the point, right . Because theres so many patents. To me, thats an inhibitor to progress. Im a clean room fan. If you go back to the 80s of computers when there was ibm and compact, and if you did it in the clean room and independently created it, you could run with it and create your company. And that led to the start of the internet and the computer boom. But now its a race to the Patent Office to try to get i literally, tell another quick story. Back in 2006 i have a Movie Distribution Company Called magnolia and a theater Company Called landmark. Its the magnolia here in town. And so we decided we needed to change things up, so we wanted to put movies on tv, on dvd and online before theyre this theaters. Just natural course of business. We got sued because somebody patented that after reading what i had done, they created a patent and literally referenced what i was doing in the patent and then turned around and sued me for it. So i gave a little bit more money to that foundation. [laughter] but i think theres things that we need to do because it does inhibit progress. Another scholar question. Charlie asks and shes another slacker, like most of the scholars. [laughter] projects manager at charity lodging corporation, software for nonprofits. Can uhhuh. But shes also, her project is teaching teenage girls how to start photography businesses so they can earn money to stay in school. Oh, wow. Very cool. Amazing. She asks, on shark tank you measure roi when making a decision, but how to do you measure the social good or the way an idea would help a community when deciding on roh, return on your heart. You know . What else is there, you know . Youre going to its not easy the get people to believe, you know . But youre not there to, theres no i. Its really about heart. And so, thank you. You know . Its something special, and, you know, i dont know what else i can say about it. Theres an element of story time. We saw that lani head her product made her product personal, how it could specifically help you. Thats the roh, is making it personal. Another question from a scholar, ceo of uplift education, a Charter School network here in Dallas Fort Worth whose project is developing fellowships for north texas urban principals. Cool. Very cool. She asks how do you find the time as business as busy as you are, just the mental space to think . Youre a big idea cuz theres not a lot of mental space there, so it rolls over very quickly. [laughter] i dont know. I just try i find things, you know, everythings a progression, you know . I forget the exact steve jobs goes where, you know, everything is a remix. Thats what it was, right . Right. And so the more you consume, the more you learn, the more youre open to learning, the more ideas you have. And to me, ill put it a different way. The most and i said this to dirk and other mavs players, the most competitive sport there is is business, and ill add nonprofits as well. Its incredibly competitive because your competing 24 by 7 by 365 by forever. And theres always someone trying to kick your butt. And i am so competitive. I love the competition of it. You know, my basketball game isnt so good anymore. Unless you ask me, then ill tell you otherwise. [laughter] but, yeah, just the business is a sport. Running a nonprofit in a lot of respects is a sport, and its nonstop. Thats what gets me excited. Thats what keeps me going. Thats why i love to continue to learn. I heard you say this a radio interview not that long ago that your biggest fear was that your kids would grow up to be jerks. Yeah. My wife is right here, and thats like [laughter] theres no chance that thats going to happen with tiffany. Tiffany, yeah. But theres this other guy at the house, you know . What did you mean by that, and talk about how you manage i mean, we try to be as normal as possible, you know . Yes, we have help, but we dont have butlers, we drive our kids to school, we put our kids to bed except when theres a game. At night we try to be by ourselves as much as possible, and we try to just make our kids appreciate. Its hard to explain, but i want them, i want them to to have a little bit of struggle but not too much. I want them to learn, i want them to appreciate. I dont want them to feel entitled. So tiff and i try to do as best we can to always make them feel appreciative of everything around them. Some of you got to meet jake, and, you know, hopefully he came across as somebody who is going to grow up to be that way. So, yeah. You read three hours a day. Is this give or take. Every day, give or take . Yeah, you can ask tiff, get off of there, what are you doing . You read on your tablet . Everything, from my phone, tablet, newspapers so i get the financial times, new york times, wall street journal, Dallas Morning News delivered. I could read them online but, a, i feel sorry for newspapers [laughter] and, b, you just want something different. You dont want to always be staring at a screen. But, yeah, i dont get to read books as much as id like to, so its more content driven online relative to all the different topics im interested in. Well, will simpson whos with the mississippi d. Of Human Services department of human service, his project is teaching criticalling life skills to agingout foster kids. Another great, very impressive and ambitious subject. What should the scholars be reading . Oh, my goodness. I mean, thats not a fair question. [laughter] read what you love. I mean, read what gets you excited. You know, there are no Business Books that just, thats it, thats all you need to know. Theres no one class, theres no one thing you can do thats just a shortcut. You know, i was talking to them earlier, i mean, experience is literally the best teacher. But as you dip your toes or as you move forward with your endeavors and your challenges, you recognize the things that are going to be a little wit more difficult. And when i run into those difficulty factors, thats when the antennas go up, excuse me, and thats where i go out and say, okay, what can i read . Some people are more about what will my mentor tell me. Im more, okay, i need to be able to consume it, i need to be able to really internalize it and move forward. And so in terms of what to read, whenever you run into a roadblock or whatever you see related to your vision, you know, i love to read biographies, people who have done things before like our president s here. Theres just so much that you can learn. Ill put it another way. I still walk through even though theres not a lot of magazines left, ill walk through a bookstore and look for a magazine. If i find one book with one idea, its worth the 20. So you never know when that next idea that just, the lightbulb goes on. Youve got to keep that mind open and look to find it. And one idea that youve had in the last year or two, couping years, is cyber dust. Uhhuh. For those of you who dont know, and i recommend it, its an app, and you can text, and your text disappears on a 24second shot clock. Now, i know we all know some people especially in washington who could benefit from that. Benefit from that. [laughter] disappearing social media content. But talk about the way, you know, we live our lives so publicly now. Right. Two points there. One, with social media now when we get on social media, we think, okay, our friends, our family. But then it kind of has spread, right . It gets bigger, and our networks extend. And you get to a point then all of a sudden where your network, your social Media Network says more about you than you realize, and it may say things about you that you dont realize. You know . If you go back and look at your facebook friends, in this day and age, unfortunately, people hold you accountable for that. So i always make sure i go back, and theres an app called expire, xpire that allows me to delete all my tweets because theres no good reason. Its like fashion, right . People dont need to see that, what you wrote two years ago. Theres just no point. On the app cyber dust, when you think about messaging in this day and age, the minute you hit send on a text, on an email, imessage, whatever it may be with, the minute you hit send, you dont own it anymore. And if youre a visible person, someone who has a lot of responsibility, theres a good chance that the person youre sending it to is keeping it. Now, think about the consequences. You dont own it, they own it, but you still have responsibility for it. Its scary. You know . And over or the course of time, like fashion, theres we all have, many of us have thousands of texts that weve sent that might have seemed like the coolest, you had no problem at all [laughter] its not like the old seinfeld episode where schhmopy, you know . Just old acquaintances, old business things. While sony owns the show shark tank, so while the sony hack was going on, i made sure my negotiations for my contract were done on cyber dust not knowing that this hack was going on. Everything else came out, people lost their jobs, every single employee of sony was frantic and scared, but we were safe. And so its an app called cyber dust. Its in the app store, and if you want to reach me, my user name is mcuban. [laughter] im not pitching anything. Always selling. Always selling. Always selling, right . Always be selling. Now, weve got a room full of media here as well. Uhoh. And youre, you talked about social media. You like to conduct interviews when you can via email. Yes, sir. Why is that . Um, you know, reporters, theres reporters and theres opinion, right . They are who they are. But in reporting i learned early on that what you say in an email may not be the full transcript may not be used. And thats their job, to try to create a story. And so having a full email transcript of any interview ive done has given me the chance to post on my blog the real story. Now, i try to do more of this via cyber dust. Cyber dust is like a face to face conversation, so its a digital version of that. Historically, if its going to be a long or interview, ill use the email knowing on my blog ill have a way to post it to protect myself because you just dont know how a medias going to take so its your way of controlling. Yeah. Particularly in social endeavors, right . All it takes is one misstep or one misstatement of an interview, and youre toast. You know . And if you dont if all you do is sit down and, yeah, they have a tape of it, well, this is what i thought you meant, its not that email cant have nuance, but at least you have the ability to have all that context. What advice do you have for our scholars when they are asked by younger people in their organizations to mentor them . Whats the best thing you can tell a young person . Be honest about your time. You know . It just sounds so good to be a mentor and have a mentor. You know . I was never a big mentor person. I was more, like, get my hands dirty. But, you know, you cant its hard to mentor 20 people or 30 people. Be honest. And as a young person looking for a mentor, realize they dont live their lives to mentor you. Its a resource that is very, very valuable, and headache sure that its a make sure that its a resource of last resort. Look, theres also friendships and relationships that go with it that are amazing, but i think you have to really, really understand as a mentor what the expectations are of the mentee and vice versa. Secretary spellings and i attended an event at microsoft years ago. Im still working for her. If if youve worked for her once, you work for her permanently. Bill gates was asked how do you control your schedule. He said he has Steve Ballmer check it and crosscheck it. What advice do you have about the way you commit your time and build your schedule . I have somebody who runs my life who does my schedule, but im the same way. I dont commit so far this advance simply because i still think the best is yet to come, you know . Im still excited about all the opportunities that are in front of me. And so i dont want to preclude myself from something. And like a lot of people here, you know, we get asked to speak every minute of every day. I just, you know, like i said is, im such a strong believer in the American Dream, im such a strong believer that today is the youngest youll ever be, you have to live like it, and im such a strong believer that the best is yet to come for me. And if thats the case and my children. If thats the case, then im not going to lock anything in. My schedules tbd and hopefully will be for a long time. [laughter] we have 30 seconds. If you thought the last question was tough, many of our scholars asked what is the next big thing . The next big thing is a big center for the mavs. No [laughter] i would say personalized medicine. Our bodies, basically, are equations, and as computers get faster and faster and faster, we begin to understand more about them, and we understand more variablings. Lets put this my son, jake, whos 5 maybe not when hes 25, maybe itll be when he has kids, but the concept of walking into a drugstore and buying overthecounter medicine that has a warning that says you might be the one unlucky shmuck that dies from this will seem barbaric. Everything that we take and for our grandkids, their kids, will be personalized. Theres a company, you take one little tweak of blood, and theyll do a complete analysis in seconds. And so as we learn more and more about this wondrous body that we have and all the variables that are in it, the proteins, everything, well be able to more certainly determine what it takes to cure us. Now, thats going to create a whole new set of questions, you know, that are bigger than me. But, yeah, personalized medicine is definitely something thats going to change the world. And all these discussions we have about the cost of medicine, every, you know, and everybody trying to predict ten years out . Theyre wrong. And theres going to be people like you out there that are going to invent even better ways, so theres exciting things to come. Thank you again to the Moody Foundation and thanks to mark cuban. [applause] thank you. [applause] and live this morning to the National Press club here in washington where nasa astronaut twins mark and scott kelly will discuss life in space. Next to me welcome astronauts mark kelly and terry virts. But first want to introduce our distinguished head table. This table includes club members and guests of our speakers. From the audience is right, david, Washington Bureau chief for the detroit news. Robert, that we news editor for physical sciences at the journal of science. Colonel cady coleman, a nasa astronaut. Frank moring, senior editor. Gary, Washington Bureau chief for the buffalo news, past president of the National Press club and current chairman of the speakers committee. Danny sullivan, Senior Vice President for business wires Public Policy wire and the press club member who organized this mornings breakfast. Thank you. Captain samantha, the European Space agency astronaut. Andre, bureau chief for the news agency of russia. [inaudible] reporter for the gray sheet. Tom mcmahon, Vice President of advocacy and Public Affairs for the association of unmanned Vehicle Systems international, and the National Press club or remember. Welcome to you all. [applause] i also want to welcome our cspan and public radio audiences and our live audiences watching around the world on the internet. You can follow the action on twitter, use hashtag npc life. Hashtagging pc live on twitter. So 100 years ago come one of the first transcontinental telephone calls was made by the National Press club. Photo on the wall upstairs documents that historic motor can also marks the first time a high ranking u. S. Official was photographed at the National Press club because it was been secretary of state William Jennings bryan to me that historic call to san francisco. Earlier this year conspicuous feature and has been doing some work for nasa asked the question what would be the 2015 equivalent of that 1915 phone call . Well, some conversations that resulted from that question and some cooperation from nasa led us here today for another first for the National Press club. And live press conference, like messaging going up to space, and its a historic day. It raises the question for the National Press Club President of 2115. That is, who are you going to call and how far away are you going to reach . Its very fascinating that we are here today, and i want to remind you all that our astronaut in space is scott kelly. Kelly went to the space station in may to begin at 340 today stand there, and that will be im sorry, march, not me. This is his brother who just corrected me. This would be the longest ever stand a u. S. Astronaut. And as of today he is just under the Halfway Point in making history. And your underground we have scotts twin brother, retired nasa astronaut, captain mark kelly, and he is undergoing a study with his brother to determine the effects of Long Duration space flight on the human body. We also have here on Earth Air Force colonel terry virts who in turn is region was the most recent out pass after return from the International Space station. So we welcome our astronauts your underground come and expected in about a minute we will be hearing from the International Space station. What are you going to say to your brother if you are able to send a message to him this morning . So you want me to say it twice . [laughter] spent weight into we have been on the screen. I talked to him yesterday so it kind of caught up a little bit on whats been going on. I get the opportunity. Theres a phone on the space station for folks who dont know that. Its kind of like an internet call, and there he is. Theres scott. Scott, can you hear us speak with cspan, are you ready for the event . I am ready for the event. National press club, this is Mission Control houston. Please call station for voice check. Station, this is National Press club. How do you hear me . I had you loud and clear welcome aboard the space station. Welcome. Thanks for joining us, scott. We have a full room here. I know its around lunch time up there. We just had wrecked that. Could you tell us what you were doing today . First of all, its great to be here with you guys today. I know youre having breakfast because both my brother and terry virts there send me pictures of their food. I guess they are trying to make me [laughter] feel bad about what we have to eat at the. But today is a day off for us because we had some crew members departing late last week. So today is actually a free day. And what do you do on your day off on the International Space station . You know, we have a lot of work out there with over 400 different signs expense going on throughout the year. We do all the work on the different systems that keep us alive. So mostly on the day off its a time to rest and recover from it very hectic schedule. I generally take a lot of pictures of the earth, do email, maybe watch something on tv. Yesterday we were watching the texans game and the broncos game later, so that was nice. So you are about halfway to your yearlong goal. How do you feel . What effects as microgravity had on you so far in this almost sixmonth period . Yes. You know, i feel pretty good overall. I definitely recognize that i didnt appear a long time and have, you know, just as long ahead of me. But i feel positive about it. I think if i manage my work, pace of work and energy right, ill have enough in the tank to get to the end. Im pretty sure i will. As far as a sickly, you know, i feel good. With some pretty good exercise equipment. No, but theres a lot of effects of this environment that we cant see or feel, like bone loss, affects on our vision, effects on our genetics, our dna, rna and protein from things like that and thats why we are studying this, myself and misha on this one your flickr i think right now the jury is out on that. Were going to have to get all the data and had the scientists analyze it and then submit the results for peer review, the stuff that scientists do. Hopefully well find out some great things about me and my colleagues spending a year in space. Theres a lot of attention, a lot of interest in getting to mars. How will your effort up there help us get to mars . So a lot of the studies we are doing focuses on, you know, particularly me and my russian colleague am mikhail, longer duration space flight and weve done before. This is an incredible facility we have, the International Space station has a lot of capability collect data on us. We have an ultrasound. We have these devices that measure our vision. Next week with going to do a lot of this imaging and Data Collection in a russian device that actually pulls the blood down towards our feet, lower body negative pressure device. And from these experiments we will hopefully find out if there any clues out there. Our vision gets synthetically worse, maybe after nine months or a year, even though the russians have flown on board the mere space station for a year or longer on a couple of cases, they didnt have the technology we have today to figure this out. The space station is also a great experiment in Sustainable Energy and life support equipment. And understanding how that works and how we can maintain ourselves with the system for longer periods of time. Both of those things will help us go to mars someday i hope in the nottoodistant future. As part of whats happening from your undergoing a twin study along with your brother you on the ground. Explain how that is working. Do you have any results on the twin studies so far, anything you can share or want any of this beano cooke after your experience is done and you analyze all the data afterwards . Or wont any of this. Ive had some interaction with some of the investigators. One thing that was i found somewhat interesting maybe not too unexpected is our microbionic on the stuff thats inside of us thats not us. We have more cells of bacteria that we carry around with us that are not come is a part of our body but they just live in sight of us. One of the principal investigators told me that while i was up here that she found it interesting that my brothers and i microvolume are completely different i guess its not that unexpected since we do live separate lives. It was kind of an interesting factoid i guess its been a goal, however, is that the individual be able to document our nasa will be able to document as never before the effects of microgravity on a human using a twin human to really get into the detail lev level. Yeah. You know, its kind of a serendipitous thing i think that my brother and i both identical twins and astronauts. The fact that hes an astronaut and has a lot of experience with nasa means, not only is he comfortable doing these types of experiments as a control person but also nasa has a lot of data on him going back to when we interviewed in 1995. So they can look at the data and look at the data they collect with him over this year and see what kind of deviations we have on a genetic level, which could be a result of this environment, the weightlessness of the environment, the radiation that we see. And you know, from that figure out other areas we need to investigate so we can eventually complete our journey to mars and elsewhere. Nasa estimates that the recently discovered earthlike planet in the kepler 452 star system has doubled the earths gravity. Those scientists mentioned your heroic experiment at the effects on gravity when talking about this. So as you anticipate the physical recovery needed to return to earths gravity from the weightlessness of the space station, how do you think humans could one day at that the gravity stronger than earths . Adapt to gravity. I guess Charles Darwin proved that the species, different species in general are accountable to their environment, and so i think over the long term it wouldnt be an issue. Just like we learned to live and work in microgravity environment, im sure people would be able to live and work in an apartment that is quite twice the but of gravity, a although i think to become to with that come into a situation of poverty public longer to get comfortable up here weighing twice as much. But when they come back from the space station we do feel like you weigh 500 pounds, you know, more than double your real weight. But its something you adjust to very quickly and i think we as a species throughout evolution have shown that we are very adaptable. How long has it taken you to get used to this environment of microgravity . And is it a constant process of adjustment, or is it something that you figure out and then it is just better . It is just better . Thats a really good question . You know, once ive never been asked for, what is the process of adjusting. So far ive found it is a continuous thing. It gets less significant overtime but i do notice you know, i can do things now that i couldnt do right when i first got a. And even though i have flown 180 days in space before. My ability to move around has really improved over time, and continues to improve. You just get more comfortable. Your clarity of thought is greater. Your ability to focus, things like that. I found that the adaptation has not stopped. It will be interesting to see where im at six months from now. I know that on earth when they did experiments there you go. [laughter] space thats good, thats a good. On earth, when they did experiments they often put people down in a closed environment and leave them there for months at a time to see how they interact with one another. You are out there for a long time with your colleague. How about the human component of this, the human interactions . On their subjects that you need to avoid in talking about, or how do you learn to live with one person for such a long time, or people so long upon the space station . You know, i think people find it hard to believe, but so far in my over 300 days, actually approaching a year in space, i have noticed very few conflicts. Not only does nasa but our International Partners to a very good job at selecting people that are easy to get along with in this type of harsh environment. So, you know, special on this flight, i havent had any issues nor to expect that any, or people that have issues with me, hopefully not. We get along great and we are all one big team up to pick we recognize how we relied on each other on a psychological level but also for our own personal safety. That goes, its just as important with my fellow astronaut up here as it is with other international colleagues, including the russian cosmonauts on board. All right. Im going to bring in your brother in a minute, but do you think that you are mark got the better end of the deal on the twin study . Well, i think it depends, you know. Its a privilege to fly on this flight, but sometimes when he sends me pictures of his breakfast im a little envious. [laughter] and, mark, what would you say to your brother . What, about breakfast . Sure. I talked to him yesterday ever caught up on a few things. Theres a phone on the space station so we can communicate, other than this kind of setting. I was interested in what you thought about the use of texans first the Houstons Texans first performance yesterday speak with well, fortunately its a long season so im very optimistic they will improve. I think theres areas where they need to. But regardless of how they do, im a huge fan and feel fortunate to have football season here and have something to look forward to on the weekends. I have another question for scott. So in space you get the he has his legs down but hes not standing. So as they are actually under and what i dont think its interesting what happens to your feet in space. Maybe you can share as youre comfortable, sharing that with folks. Yeah. You know, so we dont really use the bottom of our feet much, and so overtime any calluses you have on your feet kind of fall off. After about five months up here you have baby feet. But then you have a big callous on the top of your toe, big tow because you use that to move around the when i got back from my last flight, a few days after the flight i was getting a massage at one of those massage chain places because i was pretty sore in certain areas and the missus says, she says, you have the softest feet ive ever felt in my whole life. And my response was, thank you, im very proud of them. [laughter] scott, this is obviously probably the start of what will be a long experience of long human spaceflight missions as we contemplate mars and beyond in our future. You have been up there about halfway down to your full year stint, but give any advice that you get to future astronauts who are going to be spending a Long Duration in space can anything have learned so far that you pass on to them . You know, i was fortunate that i have flown almost six months my previous flight so i sort of knew what is getting into. But you know, despite that, i did have, you know, certain apprehensions having to go into something that is going to be more than twice as long. So i intentionally thought about ways for me to get to the end of this with as much energy as i had in the beginning. And part of that is having a good balance between work and rest. I intentionally dont work at the same pace i did last time i was up here where i felt like i could go at 100 speed for the full six months. I cant do that. So i consciously tried to throttle myself back a little bit at certain times and have a really good balance between work and rest. And thats what i would encourage anyone who attempts to spend this amount of time in this type of the target as you just have to pace yourself. So in the remaining time you have up there, as i said youre about halfway, what are you most looking forward to in the next six months or so up there . You know, we have a couple of spacewalks coming up, and i look forward to that. Ive never done a spacewalk. Ill be doing one with the guy who just got something out of the refrigerator. So we both look forward to that and i will be a challenge for the two of us. But what im looking most forward to is just getting to the end of this with as much energy and enthusiasm as i had in the beginning, and doing it safely and completing all of our Mission Objectives and getting all of the science done. Last question. What is the thing, of all the things that you miss in your time away from earth, and now after such a long time, whats the top of your list of things you miss from being down on the planet . So after being with other people, you know, people you care about, your family, your friends, just going outside. I mean, this is a very close environment. We can never leave. The light, the lighting is always pretty much the same, the smells, the sounds, everything is the same. You know, even though i think most prisoners can get outside occasionally, you know, in a week, but we cant. Thats what i miss after people. Scott kelly, i want you that i want to thank you for joining us on this historic day of the National Press club. The audience wants to show its appreciation by giving you some applause. Thank you. [applause] in my pleasure. All right. See you later. Somebody passed up a question. Maybe it was thank you. That concludes our event. There was a large cameras in the picture, telephoto lens and the camera. Are those pictures of earth, or what are those used for . Those are for earth labs. Where scott was has a very large window, very high quality. Sometimes the experiments in the that take pictures of farm fields, how those urges, or different experiments. But will we dont have, the experiment blocking the window, we can grab a camera and take pictures. I had a tendency to take like big picture views where you could see the earth, and scott was attempting they titanic telescope and zooming in on stuff on the earth. Its one of the favorite things we do in space is a take pictures. What was the room he was coming to us from . What was the purpose of that . We were in the lab and looking backwards towards the russian segment. And where he came from was exercise equipment are running on a treadmill or different exercise machine that allows you to do bench press, squats, that sort of thing spent how would you avoid come he mentioned missing going outside. What would you do to avoid being stir crazy up there . It was funny, i think right after scott got there when samantha and i were there. I missed earth and the russians action were sending audio clips of rain and wind and birds and stopping it was when we can for every laptop, the station is one of the laptops and we put this rain sent it goes like rein in the station for the whole weekend. It was pretty cool. Whatever you went it sounded like rein. That was good. Thats one way to cope with it. Marc coma i talked with her brother about the twin study. What is your role in the twin study an underground, and how mh time does it take how often are you being tested and the like . So far my role has been to provide samples, light, saliva, other things im not going to go into, and be there for mris and ultrasounds and even some experiments. Sometimes ill be laying in some kind of contraption, i dont eveeven know what theyre kind f figured id just like do whatever you need to do. So it is providing data over extended period of time. Sometimes i will visit houston and meet with the researchers and spend a whole day getting data. Sometimes they will send somebody to tucson or even wants to new york city to collect data from either and we will do this while my brother is in space but i think also after he gets back for a period of time. From what we understand from some of these researchers, one of the resort said they will have more information on scott and i on a molecular and Genetic Information in any other human ever. That was not an official position but this is one of the researchers, their comment on this study. Theres probably 10 to 12 different experiments or least different universities doing experiments from all the way from the university of frankford to stanford, harvard medical school, johns hopkins, i think the university of pennsylvania, perdue. So really pretty substantial Research Universities it will be interesting to see what the data shows ontogenetic and molecular mostly affects from this Long Duration space flight. My brother mentioned that there might be a cliff and i dont think that needs a will further explanation. We have the data on a lot of people at six was rubbing his face. With a pretty good idea what happened in that sixmonth period. We have no data beyond six months. So maybe there becomes a band and occur. And what any by that is window peoples vision gets worse over the sixmonth period, but maybe at nine months or maybe 10 months maybe it gets really, really bad. Imagine youre trying to send a crew to go work and live on mars for an extended period of time by the time to they get there we find out they will be nearly blind from the environment. Thats a big problem, so thats part of the idea of doing this research over a one year period is to forget that there are any of these bins in the curve. What are the thoughts of both of you on how soon we can get to mars . You know, i think our ability to go to mars is not so much based on the technology to do that i think that part we can figure out. We can take out the engineering and the propulsion system to ultimately i think we can figure out what its going to take mitigate some of these physiological effects from the in space. I think the limiting factor and the thing that really controls when we actually do this is the public desire to do it. We will need a lot of public support if we are going to take on that kind of endeavor, to put a person on mars. And that public support means event that we get congressional support and administration, support of the administration in the white house. Thats the most important thing. Because a challenge like sending somebody, sending people to mars is going to be expensive and its going to take a long time. So without that public support i would say it will not happen. Both i just spent time in the station and had that experience of adjusting back to earths gravity. And scott love anymore significant way one in matches because of the length of time he will be up there. But what are the three or so most unique things that your body experiences that you go through when you transition back to earth from a period of time upping the space station . After my shuttle flight which was relatively short duration, only two weeks, i really felt heavy want anything. I felt a sense of gravity was pretty significant. At after my station flight of 200 days, i felt heavy but the main sensation i had was one of being dizzy. Where i could still walk and stuff but it took a few days before the dizziness unabated. But they never surprised me about the station flight, 200 days, is how quickly i adapted back to earth. I was prepared for much worse and had months of lingering effects, but i adapted a lot quicker than i thought. Was that also your experience in the transition speak was well, i flew for flights but they were all for around two weeks or love it more or a little bit less so i dont have the experience of being in space for a long period of time. My observation ha has been that when you are flying a Space Shuttle mission, it is like a twoweek train wreck of trying to operate and get everything you need to complete in this very short period of time. Of a lot of crewmembers working very fast. You dont have a lot of time to exercise. Its important exercise in space. On a Space Shuttle mission i will exercise like two or three times. Youve space station crewmembers, even though theyre in space for six months, they are doing a significant amount of exercise almost every single day. I think thats really helps. Thats probably why you acclimated pretty well after 200 days in space, and it probably didnt feel a lot different than being in space for just a couple of weeks probably because of the amount of exercise and the amount of work you are doing during that time in space. I think both of you would agree that technology is an imaginable and getting to mars. What happens with our astronauts once they get there . How do we handle making it so astronauts can live there . How difficult will it be . In the we have any idea how long to be able to stay before coming back, or would they just not come back . Are they going to see that in a movie in about a week or so . Weight and see the movie. You can read the book also. Theres two ways to go to mars and the specific question that needs to be answered. You can go the slow boat way which is a chemical rocket, to cover it up if he did it takes six to nine months to get there and to get the weight for earth to mars to catch up again before you can come home. You spend about a year and half on the Service Company the six months to come home. Its a threeyear mission which is a long time for your Water Systems to work and for your Carbon Dioxide to work. Thats a lot of food to pack. The fast boat to mars is to do what we Call Electric propulsion. Its using electricity. You pump up the propeller with passed out the back in and the spaceship goes a lot faster and you can get to mars in a couple months, spend a few weeks or a month on the surface and come back. The problem is you need a Nuclear Reactor in space to put enough electricity and. If you get a fast with the problems of the human body in space are mitigated, problems of packing a lot less water and food is mitigated and assistance to have to last for as long. Thats a decision we will have to make how to get there, it is a fast way or the slow way spirit if we made the decision and if congress got behind it, how far away are we from realistically achieving this, do you think . Well, the first human in space happened in 1961 and we were on the moon in 1969. So theres a historical context. Actually getting to mars takes longer than getting to the moon, but it could be done in a decade or two maybe, i think mark set it, his answer was very well that is the question of Political Science band of Rocket Science. Science. Ask you about nasa in general. As someone who grew up with apollo come after me apollo 15 was the intel because i was seven. I didnt remember apollo 11. But i had the astronaut dolls or whatever you want to call them, the little guys i would play with. Nasa was a huge deal, right . Ending in more recent years there was some thought that nasa had come on harder times. We were relying on the russians more and nasas glory days are over. Then we had the pluto flyby. It was so much excitement created a nasa seemed to be hip again. What is your view of where we are with our space agency here in the United States quacks and what do we need to do, if anything, to put it on the right future course speak with i can talk about what we are doing it and i will mark finish but theres a lot going on at nasa. The Pluto Mission obviously. Mars rovers, we have three rovers active on mars right now in one in work, the mars rover mr. Robust. The human spaceflight is very robust. We disconnect from a very long flight and scott is out there now. For nasas are involved with Space Exploration to all aspects of the, robotically and human. It has not gone away at all. We are flying with the russians right now, and i was one of the highlights of my missions actually getting a chance to go work with russian colleagues. Does a great experience but soon we will be flying out american vehicles again. As is a very busy. It hasnt ended in any way, shape, or form that i think is a very bright future. I think in the United States with the best scientists and engineers in the world. I think we can do anything we set our minds to. Really anything. We want, especially, you know, and spaceflight, its challenging but we have the resources to do these things. I think what we need to do is take Exciting Missions that the public will be interested in, like the Pluto Mission. Being someone who worked at nasa and fly in space than even i thought that was pretty neat to see pluto up close for the first time, to see those images come back and start to learn more about something that is or isnt a planet, i dont know what it is today. So it got to pick these Exciting Missions and weve got to about nasa to do this. What often happens is you will see, you know, we will be asked to do something and then either sometimes nasa will cancel a program for congress will cancel it or the white house will cancel it. Weve got to understand that these things, despite the ability of our scientists and engineers to do these things, they do take a long period of time, often from one administration in the white house to the next. Something people just need to be patient. We need to give nasa the resources to do these hard things, but we have the people and the ability to accomplish exciting things in space. Terry, we are discussing earlier he was really looking forward to his spacewalkers you completed three spacewalks during your mission and thus help prepare the space station for the new boeing and spacex commercial crew vehicles. And he also gave us some amazing go pro imagery and it made us feel like we were there, too. But can you tell us what it was like to be out on these spacewalks and doing this sort of work . Yeah. It was definitely a unique, ive had a chance to do a lot of things in life. I was deathly unique. Going outside for the first time. In the pool we practice doing spacewalks in this weightless pool. You go out and as a module and you can come its about from there today. I reached over and grabbed and then move on to where im doing my work. On my very first spacewalk i want to do that, i went to, not going to do that. Sigh of the space station, didnt take a shortcut. It is an amazing experience to look back and see the earth. I thought maybe maybe a minute or two to do that during all my three spacewalks because it was so busy. There are so many tasks that had my. I never really felt like i had any free time i was out there but it was more work. More like a shuttle flight. More, its almost like were so used to it. Were almost taking it for granted. What can be done to improve the scientific output of the space station and impact it has . My brother mentioned that theyve got over the pentagon is going to be there, theres 400 different experiments going on in a bunch of different laboratories, the u. S. Laboratory, a japanese laboratory, a European Laboratory onboard. The russians do science in the russian segment. So its an incredible facility. Theres a lot going on. To expand the output of the space station you just need more people. Space station was first launched in 1998, so 17 years now, starting to get old, things break. People have to fix things when they break. That takes time away from doing the science. You dont have an electrician or a plumber. You dont have somebody to clean the place up. So the crew members, they are the mechanic of the scientist, the secretary, the guy who is fixing the toilet when that breaks. You are then made to your cleaning up on the weekend, so it really comes down to time. Budget and crewmembers complicated you have more crew members on board. Now you need another return vehicle onboard that acts as a lifeboat if something happens. And also, effexor people you need to be able to support them not only with food and water but oxygen. Air to breathe and Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere. So it gets really complicated. Its hard to do. To answer your question we would need more people. Of course the International Space station living up to its name has been such an international effort. Do you foresee when you look at mars and long spaceflight missions in the future, do you envision that these of the international collaborations, or will they be more of the u. S. Effort speak with my own personal view is a bit of definitely be international. The recent that the International Space station survived, if you look at the history of it back in the 90s, i think the International Program aspect allowed it. Going back to Political Science versus Rocket Science aspect of the, International Program makes it something that can survive over a longer period of time. Plus its great to have the ingenuity and you can gain some deficiencies by having Different Countries build different modules to one country doesnt have to build the entire Program Speed and somebody passed up a question about elon musk who recently talked about mars and using a thermonuclear device as an option to make mars more habitable. Any thoughts, comments because i saw that in the newspaper. I dont know the Science Behind new king a planet new king of. But i will take, transport is a very smart guy and he does think outside the box. When you look at what is been able to accomplish not only was spacex launching cargo to the International Space station, hopefully people are pretty soon come an incredible car company, a big solar company. He tends to know what he is talking about but i dont know the Science Behind turn 11 the planet. U. S. Russia relations are tense on earth but seem very productive in space. What can leaders on earth learn from your cooperation aboard the International Space station . I can definitely second that motion, relationships in space and on earth, training, get preparing to launch in space are great. Our colleagues there are very capable, very friendly but i had a great time in space with anton and sasha and misha whos up there right now with scott. We had a great experience with them. And, frankly, i think the station has accomplished a lot of things. And the most important thing is the International Relations aspect of it. Of all the ups and downs of relationships on earth, the space station has been a very positive beacon of light. So terry, you on the space station during experiments with 3d printing. Please describe the benefits of this technology for deep Space Missions in the future and for the space station now if there are any. Were there any parts produced during the test run that were actually used any Lessons Learned that can improve on the technology in the nearterm . I should let samantha answer to this was her baby in space against the 3d printing is a great concept into you can imagine going to mars combo clause is going to be full and you are limited to one bag only. So you can bring all the tools that you need. If you could potentially put out parts or tools, for example, i could really save on the amount of mass you have to launch. We did make a little ranch, and he was made out of plastic and was like a hard metal rich, and is the first of its ever been to in space. It was more of a Technology Demonstrator but it was pretty cool to see a tool printed out in space. We sent it back down to earth for analysis. Thats a technology that has a lot of promise i think. Once a lasting impression that space has given you when you think of your time up there . What is the thing that strikes you the most later on . Well, i think what became very obvious to me in 2001 during my First Space Mission was that we live on an island in a really unforgiving and private you look back at the earth from a distance engine of very few people aboard the space station and with seven and a half billion people on this round ball just floating there in the blackness of space. We really have no place else to go. That becomes a very, that was pretty striking and pretty quick observation by my part. I imagine the other astronauts to fly in space. A teacher i think a little bit more of an appreciation of our planet and what it does for all of us and the need for us to consider that and take care of it. Terry, as we talked about the space station crew has conducted hundreds of experiments, including many that have been developed by science students and transmitted up there. Do you consult with these same students when questions arise . And if so, how . Which science student experiment with most interesting or challenging . We do have come to depend on the experimenter sometimes we just talk to houston or huntsville as a nasa control center we were doing experiments, and sometimes they will ties in drug with the scientist who made it depends on the experiment. And im trying to think of what the student on the experiment went. Went. Posted experience we give you kind of dont come you just do the experiment and you dont really know who came up with it. But as for student experiment, the student thinks i do remembr is that build something do remember is that build something on the likes of bags or storage locations and stuff. Actually, i was not involved in this but theres a thing called steers, little satellites, little cartridges of air jets that fly them around and that was a big student led experiment with mit that my crewmates were talking to the ground and that was very interactive the student could make some provide them around kind of like this robotic competition a lot of kids do these days only this is a satellite space competition they were flying around. Mark, i mentioned earlier relying on others for transport up to the space station. Do you think ending the Space Shuttle program before there was a replacement slowed the u. S. Space program . In other words, was it a good transition or could we have done better . So we had the columbia accident happened in 2003, and after columbia there was a joint Decision Making retire the Space Shuttle because we realized that if we continued to fly it over another decade republicans another spacecraft. And a crew and we did want to do that. This was a decision made by the white house, by congress and by nasa, including the astronaut office. This was the right thing to do, to retire the shuttle. It allowed us to speedu speed Ue Development of what the next spacecraft was going to be. When you get into testing and developing and building the hardware for a new system, a new launch system from a new rocket, a new spacecraft and it gets really expensive really quickly, like upwards of two to 3 billion a year to do this but it just happens to be the Space Shuttle offered in budget was about two to 3 billion a year. So theres two things we couldve done. We could have retired the Space Shuttle and used that money to develop a new spacecraft, or we could have gotten two to 3 billion more out of congress and the white house to develop a new spacecraft at the same time. Nasas budget is only about 19 billion. So you are talking about 15 increase in nasas budget to build a new spacecraft. In this fiscal environment over the last decade, i mean, how hard do you think would be for an agency to get an increase of about 15 in its yearly budget . It would be really, really hard to do. I absolutely we made the right decision. Now, i would have personally would have flunked the Space Shuttle every year for the rest of my life. It is the best Space Shuttle ever get i love it. Part of me still wishes it was still around, but at the same time we did make the right decision. Because they shuttle was designed, and each designed to block about 100 flights. And endeavor come which i flew on its last flight, that was flight number 25. So they were designed to fly about 100 flights but they were not designed to fly for 30 or 40 years and thats the issue we were dealing with. So i put us in a position where we have to rely on our russian partners to get crew members to and from the space station. Right now and over the next couple years still, but we will be back flying u. S. Crew members on u. S. Rockets from u. S. Soil here in no time. I think its puts us on a goodh Going Forward. Be the one of you come if you were congress of the president where would you focus our resources for nasa . Would it be mars mission . Would it be missions like the pluto flyby, going back to them in the space station . Where do we need to put our focus . We would do everything. If it was up to me. Spin but what if you didnt have unlimited resources . Thats harder. I will let terry answer. That the active duty astronaut know. I think nasa doesnt have just one. I would have focus on just one thing. Nasa has a Broad Mission to do both Aircraft Research and also robotic Space Exploration and human Space Exploration so ill wouldnt divide it up. Terry come you stay connected to earth for your favorite pastime of baseball when you are up there. As i understand you set out a photograph of every Major League Ballpark from orbit and you posted many of these images on social media. Did you get them all . Where did that end up . I got almost all, and the coast state is a pretty easy to get, like baltimore is easy to get, d. C. , new york stadiums. Boston is very easy, san diego. Its when you get to the middle of the country it gets tough because theres nothing obvious around kansas city, hundreds of miles of flat, st. Louis or cincinnati. The ones on the corners were very easy to get had once been in the were tougher to get. But i think i did get them all. I still need to go through some files and doublecheck some of the ones because adapt to the pittsburgh was tempted to put all those hills in western pennsylvania. I think my brother is working and getting all the football stadiums new. Maybe because of what you did. Thats where he got that idea. Before i ask the final question i have some housekeeping. I want to remind people in the room for astronauts, will be available down the hall for stand up interviews immediately after this program concludes. I also want to remind you that the National Press club is the worlds leading professional organization for journalists. We fight for a free press worldwide, and for more information about the club visit our website press. Org. I did donate to nonprofit journalism institute, visit press. Org institute. I would also like to remind you about some upcoming programs. This wednesday september 16 at 1 30 p. M. Archbishop thomas wednesday of miami, a ship ask her of las cruces, new mexico, and dr. Caroline wu, ceo of Catholic Relief Services will discuss pope francis upcoming visit to washington, d. C. On monday september 21, big 12 commissioner oglesby will discuss college athletics. And jane chu, chair of the National Endowment for the arts will discuss new initiatives after breakfast on september 28. I would now like to present out england guests with a National Press club mug, much cherished. You can easily find it on the space station either. Its a very valuable and will have to figure out a way to get it to your brother, right . I could take care of that. Thats not very useful in space and though. [laughter] so we mentioned the mars movie that will be coming out, right . So much fascination in literature, movies, television with space. I myself of course star trek junkie, grew up that way. How about you guys . Each of you tell me what kind of sciencefiction you enjoy, if any, and what you think about the movies and the sciencefiction that you see out there either in books or on tv or in the movies, starting with you, terry spin ive always enjoyed. When i was a kid of course star wars was the big thing about that. I remember reading Arthur Clarke as a teenager and he wrote some great stuff, really cool. Watching 2001, theres a space station, i watch that when i was in space and a lot of the stuff came true 50 years later. Just watched interstellar while i was in space, and a lot of that stuff is that whats going on board the space station. Theres no wormholes of anything like that. Thats what youve got to watch a couple times to figure out whats going on. So does hollywood get it wrong most of the time . Of course they have to make it exciting. Scott brought up this big project with him so we watched crappy when i. We put a projector up one night and watched the disaster movie gravity. It was fun. [laughter] the mechanics over everything was and what it looked like was very real. I got that done. Of course would have giant explosions and fireballs and the soyuz exploding. They have to make up to make the movie interesting but it was just after not doing science experience it probably would not gross very much at the box office. Mark, how about you . I started reading this book called seven ease about using the space station like safe humanity as a something really bad happens on earth. Its pretty interesting to see how either and author or hollywood uses existing Space Technology in their movies. When i was younger like these guys aged down here, the brothers and sisters down here, nice to read a lot of like robert, isaac, those kinds of books that made me think about what it would be like to be in space one day, and i think thats important. Gives people ambition and take a picture themselves in a different place at a different time spirit the good thing, mark, with all the genetic data to have a younger brother, if the apocalypse comes we can clone you guys. There will be millions of kelly brothers. [laughter] what about the young people, i mentioned youngster and you as a youngster we were so pass it with the space program, and im sure that continues. Young people to want to go to space someday, get on the career track. What would you suggest they do . People, i know mark and we get asked discretion of the time for what we need to do and the real interest do what you are passionate about the everybody is blessed with different gifts and skills. What you were created to do, go do that and go do it well. Theres that one path to being an astronaut. Theres lots of different engineers and scientists. More and i are both Previous Post in our former lives and as medical doctors in space now talking with scott. We need people with lots of different skills. I think the key is to do what you are passionate about, like where your gifts are. We are also on the cusp of this big sea change. I think theres a very high probability that the young people in here today sometime in their life, even if theyre not a professional astronaut will have the opportunity to go into space. You see Companies Like Virgin Galactic and others that are started on this road to space tourism. Its exciting, and we are going to see a lot more. Right that theres probably about 550 people that have ever been in space, and i think that number is going to grow substantially over the next decade. Do you think theres more excitement now about prospects in space and the were at any time . I think one of the reasons is people are starting to think that hey, this could directly affect them. Like maybe they will be the earth and space and i think thats true. Maybe in some of our lifetime, instead of taking a flight from new york to london, thats going, particularly takes about six in f. , seven hours, maybe some of us will someday be taking that flight, how fast we could do it in the Space Shuttle, which is about 40 minutes. There is no reason why that is not possible in the next come in the coming decades. I think people started to think about this differently. How about a round of applause for our guests . [applause]. [inaudible conversations] as this Program Comes to a close, a quick reminder that you can watch it anytime if you missed any of it. Watch it in our video library, go to cspan. Org. And be sure to join us this afternoon at three eastern as we wring you a discussion wring you a discussion between the pkk and