Love To Space and Back — Inside Houston’s Longest Distance Relationship Ever, the Out of This World Marriage of Michelle & Michael Barratt

For the past seven months, when Dr. Michelle Barratt wanted to say hello to her husband, astronaut Dr. Michael Barratt, she couldn’t just call him up. Instead, Michelle Barratt needs to use NASA’s International Space Station location tracker to determine when her husband will be orbiting above her home in Houston, before going outside and waving up at the sky.

Since his liftoff in early March, Michael and Michelle Barratt have been one of Houston’s longest-distance couples ever. He is serving as the pilot for SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission. This expedition is Michael Barratt’s third journey into space, during which he has run a range of scientific experiments at the ISS, many of which focus on the impact of zero gravity on the human body. Though the mission was initially set for six months, Michael Barratt’s time in space was extended as NASA arranged contingencies for the rescue of the Boeing Starliner stuck-in-space astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, following malfunctions with their spacecraft.

“Somebody will say, ‘Oh when do you next get to see your husband? You said he’s out of town.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know, NASA is in charge of him,’ ” Michelle Barratt tells PaperCity.  

Science Couple

The Barratts met as undergraduates at the University of Washington in 1978, bonding over study sessions in the school’s law library and hot cocoa breaks. They married three years later and set off on their first adventure, attending the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine together and entering Northwestern’s medical residency program.

Michelle Barratt pursued pediatric medicine, while Michael Barratt discovered a passion for aerospace medicine, completing his residency and masters at Wright State University in 1991. The Barratts came to Houston that same year. Michael started working as a physician for NASA and Michelle became a physician for UTHealth Houston, specializing in adolescent care.

Michelle and Michael Barratt now have five children and have been married for 43 years, celebrating two of their anniversaries with him in space. After becoming an astronaut candidate in 2000, Michael Barratt went to space for the first time in 2009 as a flight engineer, a whirlwind experience. Luckily, he remembered to get Michelle an anniversary present ahead of time – a necklace with a half-heart shaped pendant. He took the other half of the pendant to space with him. 

“Before we did any of this nonsense we knew each other very well. We finished university, went through med school and residency together and built a family,” Michael Barratt tells PaperCity. “By the time the distance factor came in, we were very cemented and basically had no secrets from one another.”

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Michelle Barratt has sent several care packages to Michael Barratt during his current mission, each of which are provided to NASA’s behavioral health team months ahead of their actual shipment in a special spacecraft to ensure they actually reach the astronauts. Michael and Michelle Barratt are also able to communicate with each other through an Internet telephone, enabling Michael to call Michelle when the ISS has satellite service and email her.

Michelle says Michael calls her daily right before his bed time, which follows the Greenwich Mean Time zone, putting his day about five hours ahead of hers. Michael is also always cognizant that they might lose signal, which happens every 60 to 90 minutes, warning Michelle 10 minutes before he will lose contact from his side of the phone. Though their phone calls can’t always be long, Michelle says after 43 years together they know exactly what the other needs to hear. Whether it be a discussion about home repairs or updates about their kids.

“He’ll usually try and alert me, like ‘We’re going to lose signal in 10 minutes,’ ” Michelle Barratt tells PaperCity. “And so then I say, ‘I love you. I love you. I love you’ really fast so that he knows I love him.”

While Michael is conducting science experiments in space, Michelle is exceptionally busy on earth, treating patients and teaching medical residents as the associate program director for the pediatric residency at UT McGovern. In the hustle and bustle of her packed schedule, working with similarly busy colleagues, she says people often forget Michael Barratt is currently in space.

“I still have people that say, ‘I didn’t know he was still in space,’ ” Michelle says. “It’s six months. It’s always been six months and now it’s a little bit longer, but they think somehow it’s stopped.”

Astronaut Truths

Michael and Michelle Barratt agree that a major misconception about astronauts is that some people believe they spend their entire day looking out the window at the cosmos. In reality, much of what Michael does up in space mirrors daily tasks he’d do on earth, but with the intensity turned up. From exercising for an hour and a half to ensure muscle retention to boiling all of his dehydrated food before eating it, and even doing pinch-hit repairs on a broken toilet, there is rarely a dull moment.

“I would say that every day up here is different in this magical place of weightlessness and astounding Earth views,” Michael Barratt tells PaperCity. “With this backdrop your day can be very quiet and full of routine maintenance activities. Or you could be pedal to the metal on science experiments or spacewalk activities that keep your adrenaline levels near the red zone.”

Michael Barratt is scheduled to return to earth along with the rest of Crew-8 on October 7. Afterwards, he will take part in a series of science experiments examining the impact of outer space on his own body. Following the studies, which will take approximately 45 days, Michael and Michelle finally will be reunited. They plan to visit their kids and grandkids in Houston, Austin and Dallas after the experiments end.

“Often people ask what I am going to do after returning,” Michael Barratt says. “My goal is to come home and cook for her and make her laugh. And of course, hug our kids and grandkids.”