Working with the Russians on Earth and in Space

I recall a situation in which one of the cosmonauts contacted someone in Houston, Texas. The person in Houston called our payloads specialist in Walnut Creek, Calif., where he lives, and he called me in Mountain View, Calif. where I live.

The questions were about how many types of certain tools were inside a kit that we had sent into space. They needed to use one of the tools to get a screw that had fallen out of a fan and had become trapped in an air conditioning duct. They had remembered that NASA had a long tool that could reach the screw.

So, the cosmonauts wanted to know if there were enough of the tools on the space station so that if they broke one, they could use another one. The information was probably written on paper somewhere, but finding the paper may have taken more time than calling me at home. Since I knew the most about the tools, I called them back and told them.

Other Examples

I remember when I was out of school and I first started working. I was working at Martin Marietta and I was on a nuclear military program. I realized that my Russian counterpart was sitting at his desk doing the same work I was, and his work plus my work equaled zero. We were just canceling each other. We would both be worrying about the defense of our countries and not producing anything positive for the planet. I actually began to wonder what it would be like to work with him and produce something positive. I now know and work with many people in Russia. Many of them worked in the defense industry like I did. Now we are working together to do something positive for the planet instead of wasting time and money to defend our territories.