Ad Astra: Brad Pitt asks NASA astronaut if he spotted Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram

Brad Pitt, star of the new space movie _Ad Astra_ , had a burning question for a real-life astronaut. “Who was more believable? Clooney or Pitt?” In a televised call Monday, NASA astronaut Nick Hague answered Pitt — “absolutely” — getting a big laugh. Pitt’s Hollywood pal George Clooney starred in the 2013 space film Gravity. Hague and the rest of the International Space Station crew previewed Ad Astra a few weeks ago. The movie opens Friday (20 September) in the US. Pitt portrays an astronaut who travels through the solar system to find his father. The film includes actual NASA shots of the moon and Mars. “How’d we do? How was our zero-G?” Pitt asked from NASA headquarters in Washington.

LIVE NOW: There's an incoming call … from space! 👨‍🚀 @AstroHague is talking to #AdAstra actor Brad Pitt about what it’s like to live and work aboard the @Space_Station. Watch: https://t.co/yQzjEx1tr8

— NASA (@NASA) September 16, 2019

“I got to tell you, it was really good,” said Hague, six months into his own 6 ½-month mission. “The depictions, the settings all as you can tell look very similar to the type of setting I’ve got around me. I got to imagine it was a lot easier for me to kind of enjoy the zero-G than it was you,” he added, flipping in weightlessness. Pitt noted the movie’s spaceship was “a bit cleaner” than the station. After asking about spacewalking and seeing Earth from space, Pitt said, “Most important question: Who controls the jam box?” Answer: The astronauts take turns. With three Americans, two Russians and an Italian on board, the music has an “international flair,” Hague said. Pitt even asked Hague about India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram. The ISRO was unsuccessful in its attempt to land the Vikram module on the Moon’s uncharted south pole. “I got to go to JPL last week and it was on the day when India was landing on the moon and the United States were assisting them in that effort. Could you see that from where you are?” the Academy Award nominee asked. “No, unfortunately, I along with the rest of the crew had to follow along with the news reports,” Hague replied. The US astronaut reflected on the importance of international cooperation in space missions like these. “Things that should be easy, when you try to do them in space they just get harder. The things that we try to do everyday,the team on the ground, NASA and its international partners do a great job of making really hard almost impossible things look routine. It’s one of those you can get some complacency. The things that we were able to achieve together is something special,” he said. “For me that the biggest thing that I have pulled from this mission the idea of cooperation at a global scale is what is going to propel humanity into the future,” he added. The 20-minute chat ended with Pitt sharing, “I can’t wait to brag to my kids.” (With inputs from agencies)