The last few years have seen a rekindling of imagination and interest in space exploration and the loopy fundamentals of our understanding of the universe, from the mind-bending Interstellar to Neil deGrasse Tyson's Seth MacFarlane-assisted reboot of Cosmos.

According to rough estimates, 108 billion people in total have walked the Earth since we emerged from the murk of unconsciousness 200,000 years ago. Of those 108 billion, only 547 have been blasted off of our comfortable rock to explore, gingerly, the cold vastness that we float amidst and to conduct experiments (and be living experiments themselves...) that will help us explore ever further.

Billboard had the honor of speaking to Colonel Terry Virts and Commander Butch Wilmore, two astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station, orbiting the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. These are people confronted every moment with the majesty of the heavens and the ego-destroying scale of the Earth, in relief against the cosmos.

With such a holistic worldview, what better time to ask whether or not Beyonce got robbed at the Grammys, and what music they prefer while changing the world? Watch the highlights right here, and read our full transcript below.

You guys actually had to deal with the "desert island disc" question -- so what were your "vastness of space" discs?

Terry Virts: The question is what music did we bring, is that the question? I brought a lot of different kinds of music. I have a lot of contemporary country music like Brandon Heath, Casting Crowns, I've got some pop and some dance music that I use when I work out. I brought some country music, I got come classical stuff that I just chill out to. I really like a lot of different kinds of music and it depends on what mood I'm in and what I'm doing. Barry "Butch" Wilmore: Yeah I'm about the same, I've got some contemporary Christian some mercy me and that type of stuff. I also really like the big band kind of movie score music with Audiomachine and Thomas Bergersen and that type of genre as well. I listen to a lot of that. Do you guys ever fight over who gets to pick the music? Virts: No, we haven't. [Laughs] I actually like his music, and he seems to like mine too.

Courtesy of Nasa

Who would you say has the best taste in music? For some reason my guess was Elena [Serova, a Russian astronaut on the same mission]. Yeah that's a good guess. Her and Samantha [Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut also on the mission], they've both got very good taste in music. If you could pick on artist live or dead to send into space -- either to learn from the experience or just to entertain you -- who would it be? Virts: I would send Brandon Heath. He's a good friend of mine; he's a contemporary Christian artist. He was actually at my space shuttle launch -- he came to Russia to Kazakhstan for my launch a few months ago. He wrote a song after my shuttle launch which was kind of inspired by that. It would be really cool to have him up there, somebody who's an artist, not just a fighter pilot like me and butch are, someone who could communicate the wonder of space flight, I think that would be really cool. Wilmore: I honestly could not choose one. There's so many that I enjoy, and it would be narrowing it too narrow to pick one. I can't do it. Piggybacking off what you just said, how are you relieved that Chris Hatfield and his guitar aren't there anymore? Virts: Oh we've heard Chris play many times -- he's quite good. And he's made up some songs that are quite humorous as well. We kind of enjoy that. It's not bad.

Read the rest here:

From the International Space Station, Astronauts Talk Beyonce's Grammy Snub, Alien Life