You could forgive patrons in a Kinsale pub for wondering if they’d had ‘one too many’ when they overheard a phone call that came through to the watering hole one afternoon. Brian O’Neill, son of publican Mary O’Neill, who owns the Tap Tavern in the Co Cork town, answered the call with a customary, “Who’s calling?”
“It’s space,” came the reply.
Although most of us might hang up at this point, the caller was no joker – and neither was he a little green man. It was American engineer and astronaut Daniel Tani, who is married to Kinsale woman Jane Egan and who is somewhat of a regular at the pub – when NASA permits.
“If you know Mary O’Neill at the Tap Tavern, you’ve got to say hello on a regular basis. So when I couldn’t drop by, I gave a call,” said Tani in an interview with Ryan Tubridy on The Ryan Tubridy Show (RTÉ Radio One) last week.
Tani was in Ireland as the keynote speaker at the International Space University's 30th Space Studies Programme in Cork Institute of Technology. On 27 June – in front of ‘Museum of Moon’, a seven-metre replica of the moon by UK artist Luke Jerram – he discussed human spaceflight, his experiences in space and the future of space exploration.
It was Tani’s passion for golf that led him to meet his future wife, he told Tubridy. “When I was single, I’d go golfing and go to Ireland for a week or two and I heard about this brand new course that sounded fantastic, so I went down to the Old Head,” he said. “The weather was incredibly bad, so they closed the course and got to talk to the business manager at the Old Head who was this charming young lady. We ended up getting married a year and a half after I met her. She is a Cork woman and her family live in Kinsale.”
NASA career
Tani had a 16-year career at NASA, where he flew on two space missions for an accumulated 132 days in space, featuring six space walks, including the 100th spacewalk on the International Space Station. Born in Pennsylvania, he now lives in Tokyo with Jane and his three children. He was Grand Marshall for the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade in 2009, and has spoken of his pride that the biggest space event in the world was taking place in Cork.
“I can say I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, but I didn’t think it was a realistic goal,” Tani told Tubridy. “But when I became an engineer and got to know some astronauts, I found out it’s a career you just apply for, so I applied. Frankly, it’s like buying a lottery ticket. You send in the application. You never think you’re going to hit it big and I just got very, very lucky and got a call for the interview and got selected.”
On his first spaceflight in 2001, Tani served as a mission specialist on the 12-day STS-108 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. On his second spaceflight (2007-2008), he served as a flight engineer for four months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a member of the Expedition 16 crew. He was delivered to the ISS as a member of the STS-120 crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, and was returned to Earth as a member of the STS-122 crew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.
He recounted his first flight to Tubridy. “We had simulated launches over and over again... [but] when launch day comes along, I’m getting suited up where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put on their space suits. We get into the space shuttle and we’re sitting in the space shuttle on our backs and it feels just like the simulator. We’re in there for hours before the launch and then the clock is counting down. Then the realisation, ‘Holy cow, this is not just a simulation!’ It’s a bit of an out-of-body experience.
“When you get kicked off the launchpad, you’re pressed back into your seat, like in a sports car, going faster and faster. It’s fantastic. You go from zero to 17,500 miles an hour in eight minutes and it’s just awesome," he concluded.
You can follow Dan Tani on Twitter: @Astro_Tani.
Click here to listen to the full interview.