International Space Station astronauts redefine 'The Right Stuff' for the modern era

Rocketeers need "the right stuff" to be chosen for space flight, and as missions have become longer and vehicles fill with larger crews, communication and collaboration are crucial characteristics for those heading to the cosmos, two astronauts told Fox News Digital. 

"Interpersonal skills are really what defines the right stuff," NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, one of two Americans aboard the International Space Station (ISS), told Fox News Digital. "You have to be a bit of a jack of all trades nowadays here on station."

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The ISS is currently home to seven astronauts: two from the U.S., three from Russia, one from Denmark and another from Japan. The football field-sized base has living space similar to a six-bedroom house, including six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms and a gym, according to NASA. Missions aboard the ISS typically span from six months to a year. 

"Today, we see much longer duration missions onboard the space station, which means that interpersonal skills play a much bigger factor in the selection of astronauts," European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen told Fox News. "Definitely the right stuff has changed." The term is a reference to the book and movie of the same name about the development of the U.S. space program.

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The ISS is a result of the collaboration between five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada). The first mission to assemble the station launched in 1998, and it took over 10 years and more than 30 missions to complete, though upgrades and expansions remain ongoing.

The station functions primarily as a space laboratory for a wide range of scientific research that would not be possible on Earth. 

"We're performing science," Moghbeli told Fox News Digital. "That's the main objective of the International Space Station."

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Advanced water filtration system research, fundamental studies on cancer and experiments on growing food in microgravity have all been tested aboard the ISS, according to NASA. 

However, the collaborations between astronauts go beyond space-based research.

"If someone's not feeling well, we're the ones to take care of them," Moghbeli continued. "If something breaks, we're the ones to fix it."

When something aboard the ISS does break, the crew must cooperate together to accomplish the intricate tasks required to maintain the base. There have been 267 highly coordinated spacewalk missions – where ISS astronauts are deployed to work on the exterior of the vessel – since 1998. 

"We have to be able to work together successfully for six months, sometimes up to a year at a time onboard the International Space Station," Mogensen said. "There's a lot more focus on teamwork, on communication skills."

To watch the full interview with Moghbeli and Mogensen about "the right stuff" astronauts need, click here.