Houston, this is Station We Are Ready for the Event.

Station, this is Houston. Are you picking me up on two?

I got you loud and clear.

Women of the hour, this is Mission Control Houston. Please call Station for a voice check.

That's astronaut Kate Rubens calling into Women of the Hour from the International Space Station.

When we caught up with her, she was flying off the Coast of Japan, prepping her space suit to go on a spacewalk.

That's insane.

I did set an email out of office message that said I'm currently off the planet, unable to get back to your email.

Loneliness is a surprising thing.

You'd think that floating hundreds of miles away from Earth and a metal tube without any of your loved ones would be isolating,

but Kate doesn't feel that way at all.

So there actually are times where we pass directly over, for example, our hometown or where we live or where relatives are,

and they'll oftentimes use an app on the ground that they can use to spot the space station.

And so I get a lot of notes from people that say, hey, I just saw you fly overhead.

So you actually, in some ways, can feel closer to some of your far-flung friends and relatives.

So any sense of isolation can immediately be cured by going and looking out the window and seeing everybody on the planet.

I want to say hi to all your listeners, and thanks very much for joining us on the International Space Station today.

Station, this is Houston, ACR. That concludes the event. Thank you.

Thank you, women of the hour. And station, we are now resuming operational audio communication.

I'm Lena Dunham, and this week on Women of the Hour, we're talking solitude, loneliness, and isolation.

Fun!

During this episode, we'll be exploring solitude in its many forms.

...