Space endurance king 'sick of running up here'

From left, Chang-Diaz, Whitson, Lockhart, Bursch and Perrin

(CNN) -- With the space shuttle Endeavour docked to the international space station, CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien managed to snag five astronauts for a live televised interview. Here are excerpts from the long-distance chat on Wednesday, which included questions from CNN.com readers.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's tell you where the international space station Alpha and Endeavour, which have been joined up for a few days now, are. They're just over Brazil, South America, speeding along at 17,500 miles an hour some 240 miles above us.

Let's take a trip aboard the international space station. That's a fine looking group of astronauts there. Let me just tell you quickly who we have.

MISSION GUIDE A CNN.com Endeavour mission guide  has crew bios, a mission timeline and more.

There's Franklin Chang-Diaz. Right in the middle is the pilot, Paul Lockhart. To his left is the French astronaut, Philippe Perrin. In the back row we have Peggy Whitson. And finally, the record holder among the group, Dan Bursch, who [along with his colleague Carl Walz] is now 12 hours into a U.S. space endurance record.

Dan Bursch, you get the first question. You beat Shannon Lucid's record, which was 188 days and [four] hours. Do you think when you get down on the planet, you're going to be weak as a kitten?

BURSCH: No, I don't think so. We've had pretty good success in exercising almost every day using a treadmill. I really like to run on Earth, but actually I've kind of gotten sick of running up here. It's kind of on the treadmill and the same run the entire time.

But I feel pretty good. And from what other [space station] crews have told me, if you've exercised everyday -- almost everyday -- and you use the treadmill a lot, then you should be in pretty good shape. So I think it will be pretty good, but we'll see.

O'BRIEN: Welcome to the space record books. Pass the microphone to Philippe Perrin -- Philippe, a question for you quickly about your boot. I understand that the shoe didn't fit, but you still had to wear it [during a spacewalk]. Tell me if you got that all worked out and how you deal with those problems in space.

PERRIN: Well it was a very minor issue. I think I had the wrong configuration when I went outside the station. And I had an additional piece of clothing that was not supposed to be in my boot. I just had to go through the pain.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's send it over to Franklin Chang-Diaz, on his seventh shuttle mission. That's a record tier. And let's take the second e-mail on the list. This one from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Douglas Stokes has this for us: "Is there ever any danger of a space- walking astronaut being hit by super fast-moving space junk?"

That's the debris floating in orbit around our planet. How can they avoid a collision? And I also just have to ask you, Franklin, when we look at those pictures from Sunday's spacewalk, as you were hanging on the cannon arm, over the South Pacific, you described this scene as amazing. I've been calling that an understatement. Do you have better words for it yet?

CHANG-DIAZ: Well it was for me completely overpowering; an overpowering experience. I have been in space multiple times, but I never really felt quite like I did on that spacewalk. You know hanging there at the end of the arm, the view is just crystal clear and you see the panoramic aspect of the whole planet.

And it's just something that is breathtaking. And you have to take a moment to just take it all in and just realize where you are at the moment. Luckily, I was in the good hands of Peggy Whitson and Valery Korzun, who were operating the arm, and I had nothing to fear. And, of course, there is always the possibility of a meteorite or space junk hit that you are talking about. But in the big scheme of things, we don't really think about those things when we go outside.

O'BRIEN: All right. Good answer, Franklin Chang-Diaz. Let's send it up to Peggy, if you would. Chris McGonagle in Wareham, Massachusetts has this: It's a good chance you might see a space tourist during your stint, Peggy. And his question is, "What do the current astronauts and cosmonauts think should the Russians extend this program by possibly adding, say, a tourist-only module to the international space station?"

And also, what do you think in general about tourists visiting?

WHITSON: Well I think everyone should have this experience, and I think it's an incredible thing to be in space and to live and work in space. I think that our future will definitely have humans in space. I don't know how long it will take us to get there, where everyone has the capability to come into space.

But I look forward to that point in time when it's easy access for everyone, because I think everyone should experience this.

O'BRIEN: Send it back to Philippe for one final quick question. Ivan Nevarez of Canoga Park, California has this: "Has the crew been keeping up with the World Cup or had the opportunity to see the highlights?"

It's hard to see on the television screen the tracks of Philippe Perrin's tears, the French team having suffered an ignominious defeat. Philippe, it was in the middle of your space walk when this news became apparent. I assume you weren't too concerned at that moment.

PERRIN: Yes, as it turns out, I guess I was very concerned. I was very pleased thinking that maybe it would bring more attention to my space flight.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate this five-some joining us. Franklin Chang-Diaz, Paul Lockhart, Philippe Perrin, Peggy Whitson, Dan Bursch, two of them space record holders -- great to have you with us. We appreciate you dropping by, as they zoom around the planet 17,500 miles an hour, and their hair isn't even thrown back. It's amazing.