Time & Perspective Quote by John L. Phillips

The romance of spaceflight often gets sold as pure discovery; Phillips quietly re-centers it as labor. “Even with only two people on board” is a reminder that early station life (and much of orbital work even now) isn’t a sleek laboratory fantasy but a small, overtasked crew running a fragile outpost. The key phrase is “maintenance is a large piece of our working day” - not because it’s surprising, but because it’s usually edited out of the public story. He’s describing a world where the science happens only if the plumbing, power, software, and air-scrubbing all keep behaving, and where “research” is something you claw back from the tyranny of routine.

The line also functions as institutional reassurance. “We still have time to do scientific research” reads like an answer to skeptics on Earth: yes, the station is productive; yes, your investment yields experiments, not just expensive housekeeping. That “still” carries the subtext of political pressure, budget scrutiny, and the need to justify orbital presence in measurable outputs.

Then he pivots to logistics: “We have to be ready to support those Shuttle visits.” Science isn’t the only mission; the station is also a port. Readiness becomes a discipline in itself - training for contingencies, reconfiguring systems, managing cargo, acting as hosts, mechanics, and safety officers. Phillips is sketching the unglamorous truth of human spaceflight: exploration is a schedule, a checklist, and a constant negotiation between ambition and upkeep.