STS-64 Special Events

we're joined from space today by Discovery Commander dick Richards and Mission specialist Jerry lininger gentlemen um the first thing I want to talk to you about is what it was like during the launch of your mission dick you've been to space many times before Jerry you were a rookie on Friday night when the shuttle lifted off tell me dick you start first just how this lift off compared to previous ones and then Jerry tell me what it was like for you to do it for the first time well John uh for me uh I've been real fortunate in the fact that um three of my previous launches uh all have gone within about 30 minutes of the plan launch time so as you know we had some very iffy weather down there at Kennedy Space Center a couple days ago and I know most of our attention in the cockpit was looking around outside the windows trying to guess what the weather decision was going to be for a while it looked uh pretty bad but then all of a sudden the Blue Sky started showing up and uh all of a sudden optimism within the within the uh within Discovery got a lot higher and that was uh seconded by the comments we started receiving from the weather team on the ground so we went from a little bit of of being a little despondent to uh enthusiastic because we thought we had a chance to go and finally two hours into our launch count we got off the ground so uh it was a it was a it was from sort of the uh Agony of defeat to the thrill of victory there for us and I think everybody was excited Jerry can comment though on his first uh first space flight experiences yeah extreme excitement it felt uh I kind of thought it was like a herd of buffalos I was in the middle of and everything was shaking and rattling and and we were really moving no doubt about it uh and then about two minutes to go uh before the engine shut off it felt like about three of those Buffalo sat right on my chest as we had the 3 Gs and sustain them for a while so uh and then when we cut the engines it was like everything jumped out and we were just floating and uh just fantastic yeah dick did you lose radio communication with the ground at one point during the the launch sequence uh I uh right after uh right after managing cut off and there was a period of about 4 minutes uh where apparently the uh Houston was unable to talk to us uh however all of the calls that we were supposed to have received got on board so it was kind of invisible to us and uh we were just marching along through the checklist uh there weren't any anomalies to be worked so we didn't have any reason to call Houston it was only later which we got when we got some sort of indication that there was an un unplanned communication drop but it was basically invisible to us yeah how's the Orbiter working right now all the systems there behind you are in the right positions all the lights on green instead of red they are all on green uh we're in great shape here and uh we're uh marching right along here and in the background which you can't see we've got uh two crew members marklee and Susan Helms uh uh activating the Spy fix experiment for the second day of operations there if occasionally you see the camera wiggle it's because uh they're trying to get their job done so we'll apologize for that but everything is looking good for uh the start of day three here yeah J what been the most uh unusual thing the most unexpected thing to happen to you since you've been in orbit again the launch I just didn't expect quite the uh the Thunder and and lightning and jumping around that we did um and then I guess the stark contrast between that and when the engine's cut off where it's just kind of a floating sensation then again looking at the Earth is just an absolutely fantastic uh experience but I guess I expected that yeah can you see anything out the the windows right now or you got do you have them blocked to keep the the light out of the cockpit well we've got the windows blocked uh directly behind us uh John just to make the picture look good for you all but no i' I can look off to my left here and uh got a beautiful view of uh clouds and uh I clouds and uh I'm not sure I think we're over the Pacific at this particular time we've got our one computer occupied doing other things that usually keeps track of that for us but it's a gorgeous view uh out over the ocean here the other day Nick you were talking about the environmental aspects of this Mission and why it was so important uh uh to the to the Earth that you can see out the window there I'm told by the way you're coming up over South America probably the west coast of South America so you are in the Pacific moving that way you'll probably be over South America before we stop talking but um tell me about the environment of the planet both of you and what you think you might be able to do as astronauts and members of the Space Program uh to make the environment down here better perhaps oh there's so much potential you know we can look uh exploring both outward and Inward and uh looking out to the stars and our uh Spartan satellite we're going to launch to look at the Sun and uh learn a little bit more about the medium of space and then looking back toward Earth with all the uh environmental sorts of things that we can look at with our liar experiment to look at the atmosphere and keep tabs of it so I think there's a uh great contribution uh looking both ways and uh in both cases you'd really Advance uh our understanding of the world and and of our own Planet what happens if you got a go ahead go ahead well I was just going to comment John I have to say something about the primary payload for ss64 the light experiment uh it's a uh it's a part the potential for a real advancement in our to add to our inventory of spacecraft and low Earth urb but as as you know most of our spacecraft that we have up here are passive in nature they essentially just take the the uh the light or the electromagnetic radiation radiated by the Earth and try to infer what the atmosphere is doing particularly in the middle and upper atmosphere so at putting a active instrument one that produces its own sorts of electromagnetic radiation and penetrating the earth atmosphere trying to characterize it through that method is uh is something different here as far as adding equipment to our mission of planet Earth objectives so being part of that is pretty exciting for us and I'm I'm very hopeful in the news we've gotten so far of the light data takes that we've taken so far indicates that this is uh this has got lots of potential for uh increasing understanding of the middle and upper atmosphere I got to tell both of you the weather Department guys at CNN have been fascinated with the pictures of tropical storm Debbie from uh from the light experiment they're things that like nothing you can get from a regular weather satellite photograph let me that's good to hear John go ahead no that's good to hear we just got a little bit of news in the morning mail that was sent up that uh that they had been able to uh look at Tropical St Debbie and that was very exciting I wish we could see some of it yeah no kidding it's too B we can see the data on the ground some of it before you guys get to the question I was going to ask you a couple minutes ago what happens if you get a toothache I came into work yesterday morning with the first toothache I've had in about 20 years and I'm thinking well I can go to the dentist on Monday what do you do well we've got Jerry on board so we'll uh let him answer that one well I'm a physician and I usually don't mess with teeth very much but dick dick is my backup and uh we also had a little Dental training there so uh we would inject uh we've got a little Medical Kit down there with all the uh uh applications that we need I don't think we'd want to pull a tooth but we'd uh be able to temporize until we got back um and along those lines if uh if anyone else gets sick we all do fine I'm the one that's afraid of getting sick because Dick becomes my doctor dick you had your 48th birthday um couple weeks ago and you've been flying in space for I guess six years now maybe from your first mission to this I may have the the years a little bit off but uh is it any different as a 48y old guy than it was six years ago as far as how your body react I sure don't I sure don't uh I sure don't notice any difference uh the only thing I have noticed on my fourth flight is the fact that my body's memory of uh how it experiences space flight particularly the first few days seems to be better as the far because uh uh I'm overcoming the uh effects of being in a suddenly going from a environment 8 minutes later being in a weightless environment much faster and I guess I attribute that attribute that to the fact that my body just remembers what it's like to be in space so I recommend lots of space flights for everyone I'm with you on that Jerry let me ask you this you know I'm sure astronauts don't like to exhibit any sign of weakness physical or any other way but uh I talk to astronauts who after their first flight generally have had some space sickness dick says he was better at it this time how about you did you get sick did anybody get sick and what what did you do for them if they did well actually uh we're all doing pretty well um we have some general you know anti it's mainly nausey is what people feel we have some medications for that um and it usually does the trick so uh it's just a couple day thing for the most part if it does at all occur in my case I felt great and um it right off the bat I was rather surprised to be honest with you I had all kinds of uh game plans in mind and luckily I didn't have to utilize any of them is there a space version of an air bag there is it's very similar to any emesis bag uh it's got a little uh little fancier version I guess uh with a little uh closures on it so that the uh as you can imagine the emesis stays where where you want it to stay matter of fact Flo one here and there you can see it fascinating guys thank you for doing this this is you know the viewers who write into us um really have questions like you let's talk more about the thing that seems to be most fascinating to people here on Earth about this Mission it's the The Space Walk The untethered space walking that uh Carl Mark going to do later both of you have critical roles to play in this as I understand it J you're going to be the Monitor and U dick you're going to be there in case something goes Ary tell me about U what you have trained for what you've planned for and uh and J in particular you're going to have your nose pressed against the back windows there I guess during most of this aren't you more or less I'm uh more or less choreographing the whole thing I've been through training with Mark and call and Mark and car done just an outstanding job and I'm sure this untethered uh backpack safer Eva is just going to be absolutely uh fabulous uh if I wasn't so busy I'd be snapping pictures 100 miles an hour I'm sure because we're going to get some spectacular shots but uh we've got bla Hammond it'll uh squeeze out of his duties and we'll all try to get to the window so that you all can see a little bit of it so we're all looking very forward to this I I think I need to ask the worst that can happen question though to both of you dick um let's let's say something goes wrong with these jetpacks and call me um or U or or Mark gets to a point where he can't get back uh unless you move the shuttle uh how much have you prepared for that and uh and how would it work uh well we've prepared extensively for that uh we've got some very good simulators in Houston uh which I think we've uh We've about stepped through every possible scenario here for these failure modes that you referred to uh essentially uh what would happen is first the the most important feature of it is just to recognize that a failure has occurred a lot of times Carl and Mark when they get out there they get oriented into a position where they may or may not be able to see orbit or structure so it's hard to tell then they don't have anything to to determine their rates from and sometimes we can see it in inside the vehicle more quickly than maybe what they can other times they uh if they do have orbitor structure they see it much quicker than we do it's just a question of recognition and then there's just a few simple steps that we go through to Safe the safer system and then it's a question of flying the Orbiter over to them I don't consider it very much different than uh what we would do uh what we were going to do the day before which is uh rerun with a Spartan satellite grapple it and put it back in a payload Bay it just uh whether it's a human being or a spacecraft once it's non-maneuvering uh it's a question of just flying the Orbiter up getting it in close proximity so they can reach out and grab a grab an arm it's much easier of course with the human because they've got they've got eyes and hands to deal with and so we just have to get them relatively close yeah okay Jerry one of your primary responsibilities on this mission is to look after these getaway special canisters look like garbage cans to me out in the the cargo bay what are some of the more interesting things going on in those tell I think the best way to describe is it's variety they've got everything going on back there distillation experiments some microgravity experiments uh we just looked this morning and and uh last night we opened up a door exposed some uh Isa experiments European Space Agency experiments the atmosphere uh I think one of the fun ones is the uh Utah state had an elementary school close by and they had the students uh put some popcorn seeds in there and then they have some back on Earth and uh when we return they'll be popping both Colonels and see which type they like the best yeah you got a shot at any of that popcorn are they going to share with you at all do you think well I we've got a couple crewman on board that have a reputation for eating everything so when they get close enough to that gas SC on that e safe for Eva we're going to be watching them real close tell me something this is a personal question a human being question for both of you it looks like you guys are having a heck of a good time up there how how much time do you get to have fun versus to do the the hard work that you're assigned to do on these things I'm hesitant to tell you the truth there John because Mission Control would hear it and then put more work in there for us uh but uh honestly uh we uh we've got a great work environment here and uh just doing work is fun in my opinion uh being able to get the experiments operating the only time that we don't have fun is when the experiments uh here don't necessarily go the way that they should and uh of course we've worked with these people on the ground and uh and we know that they've got put many years of work on on almost all of these things on board so we're really feel for them when things uh don't work but we're exhilarated when things do work properly uh so just working and making and seeing these experiments that we've worked on for years come to fruition is is one of the more exciting elements of space fight and then other there we have other times when uh we are waiting in between events to just be able to take in the view that we've got outside the window and Float around and have fun so it's a it's a totally 100% uh fun environment as far as I'm concerned John I have to tell you I'm a big Michigan fan I was excited to hear Michigan beating Notre Dame yesterday but the biggest cheer here was when uh we got the spyx picture uh looking back at the shuttle and I don't know if you saw that but uh we let out a yell that uh the people at at uh that Michigan game couldn't have yelled any louder than the six of us so I agree with dick there's a great sense of accomplishment and and that's fun Jerry and Dick thank you both we're out of time I have seen the Spy picture we're going to share it with our viewers a little bit later thank you for joining us as well it's John Hollman CNN reporting clear Bill well thank you very much gentlemen I appreciate you taking time to talk to me tonight uh for Commander Richards I'll just jump right in if you don't mind uh we haven't seen a lot of video on this flight from the Orbiter so it's been a bit tough for us on the ground to get a good feel for how the flight's been going what sort of early report card or grade would you give STS 64 to this point anyway well uh from the light payload I let Mark talk about that from the from the we predominantly doing light and spyx work and I would say if we get the most direct feedback from the spyx work largely because it's almost all controlled on board and we almost see the product before the uh before the ground does and from what I can see it looks looked very very good uh we encountered some really problems but uh uh Susan Helms and Mark Lee were able to overcome all those things and I think we're batting a scorecard now somewhere about 90 to 95% of all the plan data points we've successfully achieved so from that perspective I think things are going very well uh you mentioned you've had a few occasional problems with spyx and of course the high data rate recorder used by light are you satisfied or from what you hear anyway are you losing any significant data are you achieving by the end of the flight what you set out to achieve well it's hard to tell Bill uh from our standpoint we're doing all of the onboard science Gathering data that we can do we're taking a lot of pictures every day path that we're awake uh we have the camcorder running we're taking uh pictures and we're trying to characterize the atmosphere so that afterwards they can correlate the data with their ground sites and the filming we're doing on board so from our standpoint we're Gathering uh all the data we possibly can it's going very well the high data R recorder you're going to have to get a reading of from the ground on exactly what impact that's going to have Commander Richards I know that you're all hoping this flight's going to be extended at least uh for one day anyway for additional science observations but it's obviously going to be tight are you optimistic about getting the 10th day uh and are you taking any unusual steps toh conserve a wat here and there oh well uh you know again where mission control is the folks that have this all plotted out but uh our own informal plot based on the morning wh mail we get indicates we're gaining ground by about two hours every day so that's provided encouragement that uh energy conservation uh methods on board the Orbiter uh we still got a shot at this thing uh this is about the brightest the mid deck has been in three days here bill it was just for you and uh for the most part we've been running around here with flashlights uh and turning off lights and conserving every little bit of electricity that we possibly can in order to try to make this uh make this extension day and uh I hope it I hope it happens at least we're we're planning on some work during that period And if we get it that'll be great uh question for Colonel me um if you don't get the extra day uh does that impact your uh your your planned data collection I mean can you still meet all of your pre-launch objectives at least at this point as far as you can tell I'm not sure bill right now I think we plan to do some uh spyx work on the last day it would be unfortunate if we didn't get that but we've got quite a a bit of spice tax data taken right now I think about uh 85 out of a planned 90 points so if we could squeeze those last couple of points in we'd be real happy on the last day I'd like to uh shift gears for just a moment and look ahead to Friday spacewalk if I could um you know it's been 10 years since any shuttle astronauts carried out an untethered spacewalk and at your crew news conference before launch you uh you both stuck to fairly technical descriptions of the test you didn't really indicate any personal excitement over the prospect of floating free in space and I'm just curious that now you're back in orbit or either one of you uh getting at least a little bit excited about it yeah we were we were just commenting that we're all three of us floating free right now so it's getting us a little bit closer to what we had in mind uh I think I I for one uh haven't even thought much about the Eva we've still got a lot of work to do between now and then we've got a satellite to deploy and to retrieve uh one wrong burn on that could uh change all of our plans so we're we're concentrating quite a bit on what we have to do in the next several days Mark do you have anything to add to that well I'm sleeping in the airlock every every night so I sit and look at the emus hope they're all working good and so we're all ready to go on Friday it's uh you know something I've been looking forward to ever since I've been in the astronaut office and uh getting to do the untethered part is even you know an extra thrill so I'm really looking forward to it it's going to be a good time and I think we're going to get a you know results from safer uh Colonel me you mentioned before launch that the the psychological uh aspect of floating untethered in in space outside of the shuttle has got to be a little bit different than when you're attached to a safety tether um I was wondering if you know if if you can expand on that just a little bit and at the same time I was I was I was curious as to what sorts of scenarios have been developed where an astronaut could get free of a safety tether inadvertently I mean as cautious as you guys are during Evas it's hard for me to imagine how it could happen in the first place well I'll answer the uh second question first you know an Eva is often describe as a 90% tether work that's mostly what we do is play with tethers you know we tether tools we tether people we tether objects and so it is as you can imagine with a several hundred tether swaps during a typical Eva you might uh think it'd be reasonable to expect someday for one of these tethers not to work so well either by human error or by mechanical fault as you may or may not know the our our friends in Russia have already had this occurred once and somebody got loose in in space and retrieved uh within a hands grasp so it's something that can be that can happen and I think fairly fairly easily uh as far as your first question is concerned you know all of flying is a mental game it's it's RAR or it's it's a minor physical impairment it's mostly a mental so uh mentally being prepared for something like this on the Eva is is something that I think both of us are doing uh we always think about all of this stuff and plan it through our minds try to anticipate what's going to happen and uh as long as you're mentally prepared for most of this stuff I think it's going to work out okay uh for Commander Richards and this is just curiosity on my part the the sort of scenario you're protecting against here of course is when the shuttle is docked to another vehicle and can't come to the rescue of an untethered astronut how long would it take to undock a shuttle in an emergency situation I realize there's no exact answer to that but I'm just curious is that an hourong procedure or several hours or how would that play up well uh I don't have uh much idea with that because I'm not all that familiar with the docking systems planned for for me or for uh for um shuttle maybe Mark or Carl uh can uh can feel that question I have a feeling it's not going to be uh uh uh in the time frame that we're talking about because I know in the safer EV a if someone starts floating off even at relatively slow rates of 1 foot per second uh it doesn't take uh too much mathematics to figure out particularly if it's dark that the individual is going to float out of whatever flood lights you have in View and uh once you lose sight of them it's going to be very difficult to uh to be able to find them again so but I again I can't answer it fully as because I don't I'm not that familiar with the undocking mechanisms for a station and for a mirror that's okay you just answered my question uh one on the spacewalk and I'll address this one to Colonel Lee um I think there have been something like uh there are something like 25 more shuttle missions between now and the start of Space Station construction and of those flights I think there are at present anyway about eight space walks planned or or eight missions with space walks planned is that going to be enough I mean to a Layman it would appear that NASA would want to do as many space walks as they could between now and then uh to gain experience so I guess the question is is NASA being a little bit too conservative in how they chart out their their Evas I think I don't think we're being real conservative in fact I think we're doing the right thing we've done makeing every effort that we can to add space walks to flights that can accommodate them so we're doing we understand that we have work to do but you can do most of this training I don't think there's going to be a lot of surprises uh for me on Friday uh the water tank has proved to be a very reliable place to train it gives you a good feel for what it's like uh to go on a spacewalk so I think we've got the right training tools we've used virtual reality it's another added Dimension so in addition to the Space Walk given enough people a taste of Eva uh that with our other training I think we're going to I think we're going to be ready uh we're certainly looking forward to doing it colon me I'd like to look ahead to tomorrow's launch of the Spartan satellite of course uh just in in your words anyway what can Spartan do that can't be done by sounding rockets for the UV or or by groundbased telescopes for visible light uh Spartan is carrying some ultraviolet uh instruments which the ultra the ultraviolet does not reach through the atmosphere and so most the observations that spart is doing cannot be done from the earth have to get above the atmosphere and furthermore they are engaged in some very very fine pointing accuracy requirements and so all of those uh all of those instruments have to be pointed in a in a u in a manner which is very is very demanding it's so demanding that it can't be done from the Orbiter itself so we deploy the satellite into space and the satellite then has its own attitude control system with very fine RCS Jets or reaction control jets which point it very accurately and so that's why we're actually deploying this thing out in outter space and Commander Richards I suppose Spartan's especially interesting to you since you helped uh launch the ulyses probe and there are going to be some complimentary observations made during this flight could could you perhaps touch on how the the two spacecraft are going to complement each other well uh ulses is near and dear to my heart as I worked very hard on that thing several years ago to uh make sure that it was deployed on time and accurately by the shuttle and uh it's been one of uh NASA and isa's success stories uh out to Jupiter and back and now crossing the South po of the Sun and uh almost uh 100% Inc commmission as it left the shuttles payload Bay so uh I've uh always felt uh a fondness for ulyses and it's just personally exciting for me to just be plant paying playing a small part uh in support of ulyses as it uh becomes the first uh object from Earth to cross the uh South Pole of the Sun and I'm just hopeful that ss64 is only uh only 90% is successful as what ulyses is and if that's the case it'd be a great Mission uh looking back to light for just one moment uh it appears the light instrument obviously is working well um does having an experiment like that on board the shuttle make any of you uh more conscious of verse environmental health than you might otherwise be from space or is that something you're always attuned to in orbit I think everyone that comes up in space the first time they look down at the Earth and they see how small it is and how fragile it is and they see you know the pollution the dust storms the fires uh that they can't help but that Come Away with that a little bit Changed by The Experience uh I certainly have been changed by the space flights and my appreciation for the environment and I think almost everyone else is the same way uh for any of you the the light experiment and the space radar lab flying again uh next month on Endeavor are both obviously technology demonstration payloads um there doesn't appear to be any money in the budget to build satellites based on that technology um what do you say to someone who said this is all a a moot point I mean if you don't put one of these things in orbit all the time well there's Nays all the time so what we need to do is uh prove that this thing works already light has proven that they can possibly detect storms that are developing uh there's a lot of information that we can get from light and Sh raar lab and once we get you know that data and we uh show to show people what is possible uh then I think the funding will come but we just have to get uh through these technology demonstrations and then uh see what we can do with the data and a couple of uh quick questions to to close this out looking at spyx um for for those of us on the ground who watch Rendevous with things like ldef for inat uh the shuttle comes in so slowly it's hard to imagine that the force of those maneuvering Jets could actually cause damage to a space station like Mir uh when they occasionally can run a progress module into it um I'm just curious uh it sounds like the forces that the spyx is measuring are less than what the math models had anticipated is is that jive with what what you see out the window I mean in terms of the arm ever moving or anything like that well when you're talking about the plumes you're not talking against metal against metal you're talking plumes against solar rays and other flimsier structures uh We've really watched the arm move I mean some of the shots out the front with some of the bigger Jets have made the the brake slip in one occasion and it's definitely uh you can see the arm move so uh it's it's a pretty good Force it's it's it's kind of you know scary to see those Jets Jets fire and see them hit the arm and make it move so we're definitely uh worried about the forces that they could input to a structure up in space well then let me let me just follow that for one moment um is that something that looking out the window you didn't expect to see that happen or you think this is still in line with with with something you can handle when it comes time to talk with me well uh I I'll speak for the spyx people here I guess uh when you put uh the spyx Boom in some of the pro locations that are of close proximity to these big jets and of course we've always had respect for them because when they fire they send a shutter throughout the uh particularly the primary jet in a shutter throughout the Orbiter structure particularly on the forward end which is the ones we're closest to uh and so we've we've always known that they've got pack quite quite a w up and uh our observations from the uh from uh the windows here there Market stated to show that there is a force being imparted there are from the piloting side of it I've been participating in some of the docking uh uh exercises that we've been doing uh up and leading up to this particular test and uh there are methods to work around this what we really need to do is just better understand what the forces are and uh then there's then we'll have to combine engineering design along with operational procedures much as we do anything in the space program to uh try to stay within the margins of the structure that we have to r with out of time last question for Mark and passing you launched mellin five or six years ago and it's getting ready to go back into the atmosphere of Venus I wonder if you had any thoughts about that and that's my last question well I'm much the same way about Mel and that dick is about ulyses I mean it's been a great satellite uh we worked with JPL uh they did a real good job of developing a mission it worked out successfully so and I I feel pretty much the same way I'm really proud of that satellite and my association with it thank you gentlemen have a safe flight back Houston this is space news that concludes the event WBBM news time 12:22 I am pleased to report the technical difficulties we on our end here on Earth at WBBM nothing no problems with NASA or the Space Shuttle Discovery joining me from orbit Colonel Blaine Hammond Jr pilot of this mission mission Specialists Colonel Carl jme and Lieutenant Colonel Susan J Helms welcome to WBBM news radio 78 and how's the mission going so far well thank you it's mission's going great we're having a great time up here and we're real proud of the science we're getting so far and looking forward to the rest of the work we have in front of us Colonel Hammond you are about 140 nautical miles above the Earth what part of this little blue planet are you over right now uh standby we'll have to ask upstairs that's that's where our map is okay while you're doing that let me ask for your reaction uh to putting in some overtime on this Mission your uh Mission has been extended for one more day in orbit what is the reaction thank you lean on all six crew members uh we were hoping from the start we'd get the extra day and it's been touch and go uh as you know but uh we were informed this morning that we did get the extra day and we're all ecstatic to have that for Science and for an extra day in space Colonel me you and the mission specialist Mark Lee will be taking a space walk on this Mission it's called safer simplified aid for extra vehicular activity rescue the future building of a space station in orbit and the future performing other scientific and Commercial work in space will be crucial for individual astronauts to be able to freely maneuver outside a shuttle or other vehicle whether to perform the work or to rescue an object or person Colonel what are your thoughts about your upcoming experiments using this self-contained backpack propulsion device well this uh device is not actually used to maneuver a Eva crew member the device will be used only in a rescue it doesn't have the performance capability that the earlier version of this device called a man maneuvering unit had so that we this one will be simply a test run of the device to make sure that it's that it's uh adequate for the job of rescuing a an a drift Eva crew member it's a very crucial experiment your thoughts about uh going out there there's you can practice so much on Earth but when you actually get out there it's it's the real thing yeah I think that uh most of our thoughts are centered around just just performing the tasks thinking about what we have to do trying to anticipate any problems we may have uh I think I've said before that most of this U type of activity is mentally uh is a mental uh problem not a physical one so we all uh try to become mentally prepared and determine exactly anticipation what we're going to do and what's going to happen in the flight so I think uh we're although we're excited and anxious to to get out and do the job once we get out there I think you'll see that most of it it's going to be pretty cut and dry and and just a professional walk right through the numbers you're listening to WBBM news radio 78 I'm talking on the air from orbit with Lieutenant Colonel Susan J Helms Colonel Carl jme and Colonel Blaine Hammond Jr three of these six members of the Space Shuttle Discovery now in their nine-day mission it's been extended for one day Lieutenant Colonel Helms you helped deploy a satellite on a previous Mission and in a couple of hours the discovery crew will be placing into the orbit a special satellite Spartan 2011 to study the sun and the solar winds that can have a velocity of a million miles an hour what is the importance of knowing more about those solar activities well I think that as we on the planet become more more involved with Communications from space we're beginning to realize that there's a lot off of our planet out here in the void of space that does have an impact on how we live on Earth for example sometimes when you see uh problems with cable feed that in fact can be due to the solar flare activity or other activities going on in the Sun so we need to better characterize what's happening with the Sun so that we can better understand how to uh live on earth and the great thing about the Spartan is that it's going to measure exactly that it's going to measure uh the South Pole of the sun this time it had a very successful mission on STS 56 we're going to continue the overall objectives of that mission by measuring a different part of the sun's Corona and by doing that measuring the science and characteristics of the solar activity off of the sun off of the surface of the pole we're going to better understand how to build the satellites and other objects we plan to put into space so we can better our life on Earth the physics are a little bit different perhaps when you hear of a velocity of a million miles an hour with a solar wind you think that's that could be quite a headwind for the shuttle to be facing but it's a little different out there in space well in truth we don't actually see it or feel it but we know it's out there based on the fact that we do get those occasional interrupts on Earth in our satellite feeds let me address the next question if I made a colonel Hammond Colonel two days after the satellite is released into orbit you'll have to maneuver the shuttle to within a few hundred feet of the Spartan 2011 is this an especially difficult maneuver and are you operating under visual flight rules well let's see it is difficult but uh dick and I have a tremendous amount of training to to learn to do this and dick will actually be doing the flying of this I'll be in the forward portion of the cockpit doing the maneuvering and the uh competing the targets but we've had a lot of simulator time on this and it will be all visual in uh from uh 700 almost a couple thousand feet in and uh dick will just be maneuvering based on some inputs from lasers laser trackers uh a radar and visual cameras during this Mission you'll briefly be talking by amateur radio with students at 10 schools around the country including the Crystal Lake South Elementary School in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake do you find that many students are interested in the space program and do they have realistic or unrealistic perceptions perhaps uh tainted by Star Wars Star Trek or other Popular Science Fiction well we've all been par participating in sarx uh Jerry myself and Dick have our licenses but we've had tremendous uh uh reception with with s from the schools the children are are more than just uh fantasized by space they really have intelligent questions and I'm sure a lot of is prompted from their teachers and their uh parents but uh that their questions are well thought out they're uh well prepared and uh we hope we give them the right answers and the the things that they want to hear so they can learn more about it but they seem very naturally inquisitive and uh looking towards uh reality rather than just a fantasy are there any particular questions you frequently hear from the students when you do these kind of interviews either from orbit now or you're on the ground and meeting with students well uh they always they always want to know how do we go to the bathroom up here and that's one we try to avoid but they like to know how we eat and uh what's it feel like that's a big question what's it feel like to float free as you can see we're kind of floating here and it it can be both fun and a hindrance at times they want to know what it looks like and uh and what happens if we run into something I think that's been a fairly common question how do we avoid objects in space because I guess they've heard that there are a lot of uh there is a lot of debris out in in orbit so uh again like I said before the the questions are extremely intelligent and uh we've been real proud of the response we've got you're listening to WBBM news radio 78 I'm talking on the air live with Colonel Blain Hammond Jr who is piloting the Space Shuttle Discovery and Mission Specialists Colonel Carl jme and Lieutenant Colonel Susan J Helms another one of the many interesting experiments on this particular Mission uses a laser beam from the shuttle toward the Earth to help us understand more about the climate has that particular experiment already been underway and if so how is it going at this point uh yeah that experiment has been going uh has been ongoing since the very first day of the mission as a matter of fact we run the experiment about eight hours a day and uh during the downtime we uh allow the the scientists to look at the data they have been reporting very very favorable data coming off of the experiment they are ecstatic with the results they saw over one of the TR iCal storms I think it was Debbie so uh I think we've gotten some good data out of the out of the experiment and they probably going to be more good data to come in terms of space missions there are several old hands on board Commander dick Richards now is flying his fourth Mission and five of the six crew members have had at least one prior flight is there still a sense of awe excitement or inspiration for everyone on board a flight like this absolutely I've never heard so many OAS and uh wow look at this and awesome and all kinds of Expressions that you can conjure up but it's absolutely fantastic to be back up here again uh the view is just incredible it's unfortunate we can't spend all our time in the window but obviously we have a lot of work to do but every free chance we get uh there's about five or six noses pressed up against the glass someplace at some time it used to be uh for shipboard passengers that there'd be an in an initiation ceremony when you crossed the equator For the First Time are there any unofficial rights of Passage for Rie astronauts on the shuttle mission and is your one rookie astronaut been subjected to that already I think just getting in space and learning how to use the uh all the facilities on board here is is initiation enough and maybe Susan has a comment on that yeah D the only uh thing we did that was special for Jerry was as we were going through the launch sequence and we were climbing up above 300,000 ft right after that we hit 50 nautical miles above the Earth's surface and whenever there's a rookie on board we all y congratulations do that means that Jerry at that point in time is a real live astronaut how much work is involved on a typical workday on board the the shuttle people on the ground may see uh little Snippets of of the TV video coverage or they might do an interview like this for 10 or 15 minutes but it's more than just a nin to-5 job when you're in orbit that's exactly right now we're actually uh on duty from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep so it's about a 16-hour day but we have a couple wires at each end protected to help us let get ready for sleep and get cleaned up and and fix meals but for the most part there are a lot of housekeeping duties uh things are not as easy to do up here as they are in one gravity on Earth and uh takes a lot more time to get things set up and uh finding things uh locating them in the lockers and and getting everything set up for the science and everything stowed away neatly and out of the way it takes a lot of time and just a lot of it's just what we'd call A Time sync up here but uh there is a our our days are quite packed with activities and like I said earlier we we uh treasure every spare minute we have to look at out the windows because there's not doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that these days okay there's quite a bit of housekeeping involved uh you're you're following the flight log as closely as possible but things always come up during the mission well that's true you're talking right now to sink and housekeeping Ops here I do the vacuum cleaning I cleaning I do the uh trash compactor I taking care of a lot of housekeeping downstairs but everybody pitches in and make sure the house uh the ship is neat and tidy and everything's ship shaped you just can't let things get out of hand up here you can see cables get out of hand uh things float around you find uh you lose things and then sure enough a few days later you'll finally find them but maybe not where you expected to so yeah everybody has to pitch in we have about a minute left this could be called a Midwest Mission half the crew comes from the Heartland there are two crew members from Missouri you've got a Wisconsin native on board has this geographical Heritage played any role in onboard conversations such as perhaps Sports rivalries over the weekend oh sure we keep getting uh Sports reports and uh we get we try to make special time to look out the windows we come across the Heartland United States but we're all Americans and we all look forward to anytime we come across the US and and uh anytime we get a pass where it's clear weather we're out taking shots and uh looking down at the Earth and admiring our country uh Colonels Hammon Helms and me any last thoughts in our interview now leave with the people of the Chicago area about this particular particular space mission or the the future of the Space Program in the United States well I guess uh up here we've been very very excited to have so many different kinds of activities on this space shuttle mission because we know that we're participating in a lot of different areas and a lot of different ways with our particular Mission and uh in light of that we would like to thank all of you for giving us your support we have really enjoyed what we've been hearing from Earth uh and all the help we've from Mission Control in particular uh and we're getting as many great shots in the United States as we can and every time we go of it we think of all of you down there and uh hope everything's going well with you because it certainly is going well up here okay Discovery this is WJR Joel and Dana certainly sending our congratulations to you at this point in the mission and big Hells from the Motor City especially to Commander Jerry linger Commander you've certainly made us proud and happy at all the folks in East Point and everyone across Michigan because of your participation in this mission is space everything you expected it to be definitely is everything I expected it's uh that and more the uh the lift off was just spectacular and I think to the people that came to the launch it was more than they expected and people were uh from what I understand just full of tears and joy and jumping up and down and we had about 5 people from the Detroit area coming down to the launch yeah Commander uh we know that you participate in endurance events like triathlons and marathons but um what's this endurance event called STS 64 like it's uh quite a bit simpler moving around up here than it is down on Earth but I got to tell you the other night we have a new extended duration Orbiter treadmill that we're testing out and I decided I wanted to run around the world so I uh stayed down the treadmill for 90 minutes which took us one orbit around the Earth so that was my new endurance record in Space Commander your mission has been extended by a day you now will return on Monday why well all along we planned on trying to get a uh 10-day Mission out of it but our uh our power uh allocation was low and so we've been conserving power quite a bit and we've done well at that and so we're able to get an extra day out of the mission and that means we can uh accomplish more up here during that time okay Jerry well good luck to you Colonel Lee we'd like to ask you a question about one of those activities this is your second trip aboard a space shuttle and this time you're going to get to go outside but wait a minute there are no strings attached tell us about the jetpack Eva would you well today was a big day for us uh it's emu check out today so we checked out the space suits we powered up safer uh it's working just fine so it's starting to look like we're actually going to do this on Friday we're starting to get pumped up about it colonel how did these packs differ from the jet packs that the shuttle crew used back in 1984 well they're quite a bit different in design and also purpose uh the mmu was designed to uh you know go go D greater distances go work on satellites bring them back to the payload Bay was also much bigger it weighed almost 500 lb uh this unit is uh only weighs about 80 lb has a much smaller uh Delta V capability or you know uh consumable that it has on board so it's more of a of a life preserver than anything else when we have shuttle do toir or when we have a space station it'll be uh our safety our safety pack in the event that the somebody becomes detached allows them to get back to structure when the shuttle can't come and get them now there certainly is going to be an element of risk when you try them out on Friday but you have practiced Maneuvers uh in order to eliminate most of that risk but my palms are sweaty just thinking about you guys out there how do you feel about it well I'm not really nervous you know we train for lots of different things up here and we get up and we find you know a few things that are different but basically uh what we expect is is there so uh we're hoping everything goes fine I'm sure I'll be a little bit more nervous that day than I am am today uh but we're ready to do it well you guys look wonderful on television and you sound good to our listeners here in Detroit I only wish that we could hear a little bit of Max Q it's a rock and roll band and their keyboardists happen happens to be sitting next to you Colonel she's Lieutenant Colonel Susan Helms Colonel Helms do you miss the uh the rock group have you spoken to them since you've uh took off last weekend well the say that none of the members of of the band are serving in mission control for this particular Mission I have written a note to our lead singer asking when our next gig is I understand that uh about four days after we land we're going to be uh having a gig in the local area and we I'll be playing for my own post Landing party in Houston uh in any case I do miss the band I know that as soon as I get back I'm going to have to get right back in practice again because it looks like uh the band's really going places and uh we're pleased about that what a Renaissance woman well women in space are certainly routine now but U you're still very much a Pioneer and there are a lot of little girls who might not think too much about math and science because they don't know where it might lead them you're a perfect example what advice would you give to young girls who aspire to do what you do well the first thing I would say is uh to let those young girls right now learn that nobody should stop them from doing what they want to do I think one of the things that made me get where I am today is the fact that everywhere I went I had support from everyone that was around me including my science teachers and my parents and other adults that told me that I if I wanted to go after something I should go for it and uh the young women today who are in that position should have the same attitude and that will make all the difference in the world all right well that's uh very well stated and uh we certainly we heartily agree with you too thanks Colonel another Colonel on board is the pilot or at least one of the the pilots of this particular space shuttle mission and he is Blaine Hammond a colonel with the US Air Force and a NASA astronaut as well this is your second time in space isn't that right Colonel that's right I was uh my last was ss39 and how does the uh Mission 64 compare with that one way back in in in 39 well they're both uh long missions uh 39 was 8 days this will be a 10 days so I'm looking forward to the extra two days on 39 we work shifts so we had uh two shifts going around the clock here it's a little bit more uh routine and that we all uh pretty much eat at the same time and and go to bed at the same time but uh it's a little more crowded in that respect because uh whereas you have seven people split in half now we've got all six people at the same time and as you can see putting four of us in a small space is is uh pretty crowded here enough but you put six of us on the flight deck when they' come across a Good Earth viewing paast it gets really crowded and there's uh back quite enough window space to accommodate everybody Colonel we have uh we call that a photo frenzy when he gets up there like that Colonel we have a lot of Pilots that that are listeners Joel's a fixed wing and a helicopter pilot and and uh we have a lot of Pilots that are listeners give them a vicarious thrill tell them what it's like to take that shuttle into orbit well Jerry expressed it as riding a herd of buffal uh I I think I could probibly agree with that I I look at liken it to uh probably a high-speed back truck going off the PAAD there it's really exhilarating the engines come up everything rattles and rumbles and next thing you know it counts down to zero and it's just like the world drops away from you and uh there's nothing more exciting than that i' I've flown uh all kinds of Fighters and airplanes and helicopters too and and they're all thrilling in their own way but there's nothing like that that lift off in the pad that next eight minutes is a ride like uh you can take every best ride at any amusement park I think we'll all agree and uh there's just nothing like it and current on the other end of the mission of course is your return to Earth through the atmosphere so much for acceleration when you leave the Launchpad what's it like coming back down to the atmosphere can you actually feel it pulling against you as you slow down at tremendous rates actually the the deceleration is so gradual but on the other hand you've been used to zero gravity for so long just a little bit of gravity really feels like a lot and by the time you get back to just the single gravity you really feel heavy and and cumbersome it's it's was quite amazing to me on 39 I'm sure I'll feel it again on 64 the uh just just the fact of getting back in into Earth's gravity will be uh real weighty and you it'll take a you know takes about a day a day and a half to really get accommodated uh back to normal gravity but there's not really all that much deceleration that you can feel we pull only maybe a uh G and a half G one 1.8 or so the Max uh maybe just before we land but uh it's very very benign it's I was really kind of surprised on 39 that that it was as benign as that although like I said even just a little G seems to feel like a lot well this is a question for any of you or all of you uh the guys and and women down in Houston seem to get real pleasure out of waking you up every morning with different kinds of music do they really wake you up or do you have little travel alarms up there well well we we pretty much sleep up until we hear the the the songs go off most of us have our watches set or something so I think we wake up pretty much at the same time but it's uh we're ready to go to bed and we're we sleep a full eight hours up here for the most part and space flight uh though looks like a lot of fun it's very fatiguing and and there's a lot of mental uh stress learning how to cope with new environment and simple tasks like just filling a bag full of water seem to take twice as long as you expected to and maybe Jerry can fill you in more on that since he's the rookie here okay Mr rookie another orbit another Sunrise that's kind of the way it works up there every 90 minutes we uh we know that you're going to be looking at another sunrise here too momentarily as you come over the Indian Ocean and uh pass over Australia momentarily we wish uh godp speed and good luck to all of you and one final question here from Dana Before We Say Goodbye from Detroit I assume you've heard that there's there's no more baseball for the rest of the season any disappointed Baseball fans up there got a comment being a tiger fan now the way the Tigers were sitting uh I wasn't too disappointed to see that one come to the end I'm glad to see uh University of Michigan starting to kick in already that's cold Jerry that's real cold Hail to the victors and thanks very much to you Commander lininger it was a pleasure speaking with you Colonel Lee Lieutenant Colonel Helms and also to you too um Colonel Hammond say good luck to the rest of the crew for us and uh we'll be pulling for you from down here good luck thank you very much and that concludes our interview thank very much it's a real pleasure to talk with you all thanks a lot this is a CBS News special report a conversation with the Shuttle Discovery crew I'm Frank setap pany in New York let's begin with some introductions now the three crew members we know we'll be hearing from our Navy captain and Mission Commander dick Richards Mission specialist Jerry leninger and Navy commander and Mission specialist and Air Force Colonel Carl me we may be joined later on by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Susan Helms and Air Force Colonel Mark Lee what we would like to do is go around the crew now and have each crew member who is available introduce himself or if uh Lieutenant Colonel Helms is there herself so that our listeners can get some sense of their voices so if you would begin uh please Captain Richards well this is Captain dick rich as you said I'm the mission Commander for SPS 50 and unfortunately we only have three crew members today myself uh Jerry ler and Carl me I'll let Jerry introduce himself hi I'm Jerry ler Navy commander and a physician and this is my first flight so I'm I guess the rookie on the flight okay Discovery one more please I'm Carl M and Air Force Colonel this is my third flight I'm a former test pilot all right that out of the way let's begin with Captain Richards this was scheduled today to be a bonus day when your flight was extended uh what have you been doing to keep that crew of yours busy up there well uh today was supposed to be uh spyx uh day we were supposed to complete the test points uh on that particular experiment that we started out in that direction but we've sort of been in a hold here for the last uh hour or so well we sort out uh a few things on the ground so we've had an a respit here and uh later on however regardless of the outcome of the spyx uh uh troubleshooting we're going to proceed with our primary payload which is the light payload and uh complete its mission objectives now uh uh Captain for some of our listeners who may not be familiar with the terminology could you explain what it was that you were hoping to do today well the primary objective the real reason for the extension day is to uh get some more uh test points for the light experiment which is light in space technology experiment and it is a laser it is the one of the first lasers we've had in space uh it's been operating here on low earth orbit in a in a in a research experiment and also an operational experiment to see whether or not the Laser Technology uh will add to the complement of uh spacecraft we have in low earth orbit towards viewing the planet characterizing the atmosphere of the planet and it has a lot of the data is on the ground we uh we merely control and manipulate the Orbiter and point it in the right direction here but from what we've heard from uh our our friends in Houston and at Langley Research Center this experiment seems to be going very well and uh looks like it may have uh significant applications for the future toward better understanding uh our environment you've also been doing some work on shuttle exhaust uh emissions have you not uh could could you update that for us Carl has been doing a lot of that and that'd be appropriate for him to explain that Carl yes we have we've been running an experiment which we call spyx which it characterizes the plumes to which are emitted from the jet reactions that we fire to control our attitude on orbit as you know the spacecraft would drift aimlessly without these little jet firings that uh that control its attitude and so as these things fire it ex it emits an exhaust plume the characteristics of which we don't exactly know now it's important that we find out what these characteristics are because when we come in close proximity to other spacecraft be it satellites or possibly uh an orbiting space station which we'll build in the near future or the Mir space station which we will definitely that's the Russian space station which we'll be docking to next year we need to know exactly what these plumes will do to that object um so far we've been able to compensate for that the lack of knowledge by operational workarounds however as these uh as the space station error evolves the space station is so large that we're sure that the plumes will affect it therefore we have to characterize the amount of pressure that is put out by the gas particles Colonel me I'd like to return to you in a minute or two and uh get into that space walk yesterday but first uh I have a question for Navy Commander leninger uh as you mentioned uh you're a space rookie and as you mentioned you have a medical degree please tell me your first impressions of being in space both as a first timer and as someone with a medical background as a first timer it's just you know an incredible uh opportunity up here uh it's an incredible thrill the liftoff and adapting to space is uh an experience that I didn't think would come quite as easily as it did come uh as a medical position I guess the thing that uh that I'm amazed at and I I never I keep being amazed that this is the adaptability of the human body and after about 3 days up here uh it feels like this is where you belong and I think by the time I get back to earth when I try to walk uh it's not going to feel natural anymore so the human body is a tremendously adaptable organism in a minute or two and uh get into that space walk yesterday but first uh I have a question for Navy Commander leninger uh as you mentioned you're a space rookie and as you mentioned you have a medical degree please tell me your first impressions of being in space both as a first timer and as someone with a medical background as a first timer it's just you know an incredible uh opportunity up here uh it's an incredible thrill the liftoff and adapting to space is uh an experience that I didn't think would come quite as easily as it did come uh as a medical physician I guess the thing that uh that I'm amazed at and I I never I keep being amazed at this is the adaptability of the human body and after about 3 days up here uh it feels like this is where you belong and I think by the time I get back to earth when I try to walk U it's not going to feel natural anymore so the human body is a tremendously adaptable organism and that's uh you know just an amazing thing I've uh noticed up there uh based on what you've heard and and what you know from past experience do you expect any problems when you get back to Earth uh you know uh just uh routine little things like oh headaches or coals or anything like that I don't expect that there are a few things uh of course up here in weightlessness uh we're just kind of floating around so muscular skeletal system doesn't get the type of stresses that it gets down on Earth uh to counteract that for example this morning I ran on the treadmill for an hour we've got a new extended duration orbit or treadmill uh that you almost feel like you're back on Earth taking a jog and so if we do some of these counter measures I think uh when we get back we'll have less and less problems and that's especially applicable with long duration missions that'll come up in the future I know you were following yesterday's Eva the untethered spacewalk using those clipon jetpacks with great interest and some people who were listening in uh seem to detect a healthy Touch of Envy in your voice when you spoke to Mark Lee who was out there describe your impressions about seeing that well was Mark and Carl both out there and I'll tell you it was absolutely phenomenal and I don't have the words to describe it uh they're out there by themselves a human satellite basically with the Earth rising behind them and uh Sunrise behind them and it was just absolutely incredible and I was inside trying to concentrate on on the job I had uh and that is kind of choreography uh for that event but uh it was absolutely fantastic and there's no doubt when a human being is out there we can all relate to that and and when you look out and and see col and Mark it was just fabulous absolutely tremendous Colonel me you along with Mark Lee took part in the space walk without the umbilical cord something only six others have done and no one in 10 years and you spent seven hours out there in a moment I'd like to get into the mechanics but first tell me what was it like what did you feel and experience well that's a a bit of a difficult question I suppose that uh it was what I expected to to begin with the uh view outside is a little bit better than the view inside since uh the the structure here is quite extensive um other than that uh the darkness of space is something that really jumps out at you when you're outside the cabin when the sun sets it set very very abruptly and uh all of the Shadows the only lights given are are those with an Orbiter there's no other references and so in that respect it's a little bit strange a little bit disoriented I might say but uh other than that is I think uh we've been practicing the CVA for about six months and uh Mark and I both had a had a pretty well pretty good understanding of what was going to happen and and anticipation what was going to happen so actually it felt quite normal outside give me a run through of of what you did step by step uh briefly please just explain what it was that you did and and the steps that you ran through okay the entire um activity yesterday centered around the unit we call Safer which is a little simplified Aid that stands for a simplified aid for Eva rescue and as a name implies it's a rescue device to be used by an astronaut in case he becomes detached from either the space station or the Orbiter if the or shap them down um it is so we usually are tethered uh again if you become detached by accident then you would engage the device turn it on and fly back to the structure it's a similar uh concept to using a parachute in a in an airplane so if the airplane is disabled you just jump out and use the parachute to get back uh it's theoretically a one-time use device um very similar to a parachute yesterday was the first flight of it so we did a a a basic flight test evaluation what's uh what most of the death Community would recognize as a performance evaluation and a flying quality evaluation that's how how well it handles in relation to the human being and then a systems evaluation um how well can you do the job it was intended it was designed to do um we did that in three phases and Mark flew the first set of three hours and then I FW that second set and just duplicated the test points which was which were done so we have two data points basically so when we first went out the door um I spent all of my time setting up the payload Bay for for those tests while Mark was setting up some things and eventually he simply started flying the test points and his first thing that he flew was a handling evaluation and a familiarization and then he flew in engineering performance how fast can it go how much thrust does it have how what are the moments of inertia uh engineering parameters which he had which we had to determine when that was complete then we evaluated its flying qualities how well could we control its attitude and get close to an object or far away or speed up or perceive any changes and then when that was over we judged how well we thought it could do its intended job which is to save somebody very quickly reacting to a tumble situation stopping a tumble and flying back towards the Orbiter so that was the basic rundown of the entire Eva that took about six and a half seven hours and we did a couple other things besides safer but they were thrown in as time permitted tell me about that tumble uh did you give him uh perhaps a little bit extra push there well I didn't mean to give him an extra push uh he's a pretty big boy though and I've been practicing on the ground and uh in the water uh we we practice in a water tank and it takes a lot of force in the water tank so I gave them what I thought was maybe a tenth of that force and it was uh it was too much tell tell me what the sensation is like when you fire one of those things what what does it do to you you know after you've been in space for uh seven or eight days like we have been and we're very used to uh floating around and reacting our forces off of the panels and the Orbiter Etc it is uh unusual to have a machine on that will actually stop you in space and so it is a different sensation it's very similar to being on Earth you know nothing moves on Earth unless you push on it but uh it is it it is amazing how the human body adapts to space so so readily and then when you have a machine on that you can actually control movements it is a different sensation so uh physically it's not much of a force but of course up here you don't need much of a force to get going um the surprising part about it was we could hear the Jets firing the little uh nitrogen powered Jets which are there are 24 of them all over this device and pointed in different directions and when they fired you could actually hear them through the space suit and tell me about the weight of that uh it's my understanding that uh the weight of these is much less than the old units to say Bruce mandas used when he went out in 84 that's right this is a much simpler unit it weighs about 80 pounds uh the first unit that Bruce used was called a man maneuvering unit an mmu it weighed about 500 pound however again the man maneuvering unit was an was a different item and it was used for a different a different purpose this is a rescue device it it has no redundancy it has limited amount of fuel and limited amount of of battery power electrical power whereas the one that we used earlier 10 years ago had dual redundancy in almost all of its systems it had two hand controllers a rotational hand controller and a translational hand controller we only had one of those controllers and we had a flip of switch to tell the controller what mode it was supposed to be in at any given time so it's a much simpler system as compared to the earlier man maneuvering unit Captain Richards perhaps one final question question we have less than a minute you were standing by in case something went really wrong with that Eva yesterday what were your thoughts well uh we were uh of course very aware of the fact that the reason that this safer unit was possible and to be built was the fact that like Carl pointed out is the fact that there was uh very little redundancy in it so therefore it couldn't suffer very many failures and so myself and Susan Helms and uh Jerry linger and uh and blae Hammond were were all at the ready inside the uh cockpit in the event that they got into trouble our our first uh bit of relief came on Mark's First Flight of it which showed us that there wasn't anything inherently wrong with the closed loop control system and that Mark had an easy time controlling it uh with that we sort of started and as the spacewalk went along we started Crossing off things that could go wrong until we were left with uh just these little single point figures which could always occur so we were always maintaining I think a heighten degree of Readiness in the event that they got in trouble uh but uh we managed to enjoy the Eva at the same time given as the more time it went along just because we got more and more confidence in the unit itself Captain thank you very much and uh good luck to you and your crew on the flight back home Houston this is CBS Radio this concludes the event Discovery this is JCP Pao how do you hear me JC Pao discover you're loud and clear how us uh you're loud and clear also do you have an opening statement oh uh we're just very very I I said many uh many uh months ago when I uh first got assigned to ss64 and our crew assembled in an office in the corner of building Force sou there at the Johnson Space Center we had a calendar that uh was 6 months uh into the future uh showing the last Almost the last date of September 9th and we wrote down all of our integrated simulations all of the Milestones the ksse tests and I said then and I said uh when we flew in for dry count and practic launch count dry count tctd and for launch counts we' never taken aaser to it and uh we so far that that eraser is still clean it's the cleanest thing in our office and uh and this flight has gone much like our pre-launch schedule uh everything has been on time we've achieved all of our objectives and even more than 100% of our objectives so I think all of us you're going to see six smiling faces here uh you couldn't have asked for a better flight to be on just from the payload compliment the team we worked with and the and the uh the success that we've achieved so we're feeling very proud of ourselves right now and proud of the team that put this whole flight together and we've still got two days left to go and we want to make sure those two days are just as successful as the previous nine but we're ready to do that okay we'll we'll take questions uh Mark uh good morning this is Mark kov the Houston Chronicle and uh I'd like to ask uh one of you who's seen the light laser operate to paint kind of a wood I'm sorry kind of a word picture of of what it looks like to see this thing uh can you see the light come out does it go down through the atmosphere can you see it Splash against the clouds well you can't see it against the clouds we've been looking uh real hard for it what you can see earlier in the mission when the moon wasn't out as the laser comes out it comes out uh 90° perpendicular to where exits of payo bay and there's a shimmering a green shimmering around the pallet and around the arm that we saw and other than that the only time we've seen is when we've been doing some Maneuvers we've been doing these cross attack Maneuvers where we fire a number of jets and particles that come out from the jet about you I'm guessing 100 to 500 feet out from the Orbiter you can see the Pencil Thin green beam going through uh that those particles so that's the only time we see it at all other than that uh it's uh it's been uh you know the instrument has worked real well uh this is Mark car again with a second question for uh Carl me could you uh give us an idea of what you might be telling your colleagues about the about the safer mechanism uh did you feel that your experience would justify a recommendation for for producing something like this for use by uh space station colleagues well without uh sitting down and giving it some serious thought and and reviewing the tapes and all the data I hesitate right now to give a recommendation however my first impression of the device is that it was very satisfactory and it was uh adequate to fly and had good handling quality so I think the recommendation is going to be very favorable however I'm going to headed my p a little bit before I do all the data Discovery please stand by for KSC Pao Discovery this is KSC Pao how do you hear me loud and clear KSC this is marshia D with the Associated Press for marklee could you describe please how it felt to be a human [Music] satellite well basically it felt real good uh there was really two aspects of it one is when you're at night uh where the total Blackness of space just overwhelms you when you don't see the shuttle that part was probably you know the the scariest of the whole part is when you know you you're rotate it you're tumbled and all of a sudden you see black you just hope you keep rotating and you hope that the shuttle shows up again when you come around uh and then flying during the day was really spectacular on this Precision flight of Val where we're in an attitude that you look off to the Horizon is like flying uh you know out all by yourself you I kept glancing over at the arm to make sure it was still there uh so there's h a mix between having to concentrate you know very hard on maneuvers to make sure you do them right because you only have one you know one opportunity and the exhilaration of seeing some sights that I'm probably never going to see again or never experience so was it was really a special treat this is Beth Dicky with Reuters for Carl me I sensed a little bit of reservation in your voice about recommending the safer is is that true um do you think that there needs to be more test flights before that unit is is turned into an operational system uh no um I hope you don't misinterpret my uh comments there's no hesitation in my voice at at whatsoever it's just I usually don't make recommendations like while I'm still in Flight I'm used to actually sitting down and analyzing the data and going through it uh very very thoroughly so that's just that's just my technique but there's no hesitation in my voice uh this is Todd halers of Florida today for either Mark Lee Andor Carl me um you've both flown in space three times now and now you've both done untethered space walks I'm I'm wondering how you're going to top that what what you want to go after next in terms of Mission well we're going to arm wrestle later today for the landing now what I'd like to do my goal has always been since I got there was to help build the space station and I hope that we stay on schedule now and I'm able to take part in that I think the uh you know it's quite a thrill to fly on tether to look at the Earth but to come up to a space station and work on that is uh is one of my goals and I hope that I hope that works out this is Phil Chen Earth News um we realized the efforts you've been going to to save power and that apparently the Pao events are the only times you have all the lights on in the cabin what's it like floating around in um a dark crew cabin with just a little flashlight groping your way around that being my first flight it seems very normal to me uh it's really hasn't been too much of a problem we usually have a light on indirect and and uh on the flight deck when it is night time it's just so spectacularly uh beautiful outside that uh the darken ship is kind of nice cuz your eyes adjust so uh it hasn't been uh a terrible sort of thing and and we've been getting along just fine this is Joel Powell of uh space information Canada and Countdown Magazine this uh for Susan Helms could you just comment on uh the RMS Ops with the Spartan satellite was there any problems with it uh uh how how the satellite function during the mission okay well I can answer the second part first uh we don't know yet how the satellite functions because all of the data is still on board the Spartan and we have to wait till we return back to Earth uh so we can open it up and see what's inside the recorders as far as the first part uh everything went pretty much just as we had trained uh the Run VI the run view was just beautiful the deploy went exactly as we had hoped it would go uh the only little glitch we had was when we tried to birth it uh Mark and I both practiced long hours to get the birthing completed when at a certain period of time and we basically do it two ways we use visual cues with our cameras and then we also use instrument cues by looking at uh numerical values of the arm position inside the Orbiter and uh when we got there we had a perfect arm position and we had perfect visual cues but we still didn't have indications that we were ready to latch the Spartan in its birthing mechanism and so we spent just a little bit extra time uh tweaking the arm so we could get those ready to latch indications that we were hoping for and that took oh I guess about an extra 15 or 20 minutes or so and we finally got them and latched it down and that is to my recollection the only glitch that we had and it certainly was a very minor one this is Bill har with CBS News a question for Mark Lee please um it really seemed like you got spun up pretty good good there your first time which I found intriguing anyway I was wondering what your first reaction to that was and if you had any jokes with Carl after the spacewalk was over now just a little bit you know we we're shooting for 30 degrees a second and until you do the first one you don't know so Carl had the toughest one because you know you don't know until you do that and I was pged out at 30° I was guessed I was maybe 40 or 45 degrees and up here that's the only difference between like four pounds and five pounds of force so you know it's a very very you know minor minor difference but uh once I fir at the attitude hold to see if that works the Justice really started firing and I was concerned that if we you know if we kept doing High rate Maneuvers we wouldn't have enough fuel to finish out uh the Maneuvers and I ended up right at our Bingo which was 25% and a little bit later on Carl was a little bit higher than that so I think the first maneuver took a little bit more gas but other than that it worked out great Amy lanus WEA HTV for Commander dick Richards the shuttle Runway will have a new Surface when you come back in for a landing here at KSC since you've never practiced a landing on this new Surface does that cause you any concern uh not really uh I've tried to review the uh messages that came up in fact they came up with a drawing of the new Surface about uh five minutes before this uh this press conference and objective was to try to read that in anticipation of a question about this but I was unable ble to do that as I understand that a significant portion of the runway uh has been now smooth uh which at least in my mind is certainly in the direction of goodness and uh this the CH the brief glance I got of it indicated that uh the runway markings are such that there's going to be no problems with respect to discriminating where the runway Center Line is in the event of sung glare or uh or a little bit less Optimum visibility than what we normally have so I'm not concerned with it and in fact it auto enhance uh uh our Landing performance just largely from the fact that increases the margin on our tires so uh just having glanced at it briefly it looks like we're going in the right direction and uh certainly positive for uh for tomorrow as far as I'm concerned this is Maria done with the Associated Press um for anyone on the crew with Landing just a day away I'm wondering if you're ready to come home or do you wish you could spend more time up there and maybe even take safeer a again if you could well Mara that's a kind of a mixed uh question here because uh we're real proud of the work we've done we've done all our tasks and objectives so from that aspect I'm sure we're you know happy with what's happening ready to come home and it's it's pretty fatiguing up here I think a lot of us are are uh looking forward to getting home getting a good shower and some uh good old Earthbound uh things we we enjoy however of course uh I think given another day or so we to be up here if we had the chance we we'd all jump at it just because it's an opportunity so rare and once you're here and adjust it to it it's a fantastic environment to work in this is Beth Dicky with Reuters I'm going to make this a tossup and let you elect which one uh of your group is maybe the most eloquent um if you had to choose the single most important expected outcome of this Mission what would it be that that's not really a fair question um I think the single most important outcome that that we can come up with at this moment is that our mission has continued to prove that uh there's a lot of different things we can do in the space program and we can use the shuttle efficiently and effectively to accomplish a whole host of objectives we've been doing Earth Ops we've beening doing uh contacts with ham radio operators on the ground talking to them about uh space flight General getting them motivated we've also of course had the the very uh well publicized RAR and space experiment we've got the spyx which measured the plum impins of the shuttle's own control jets and that's uh extremely important uh experiment for moving on to our next stage in space flight which is which is docking missions with Mir and our own space station in addition to that we also had the Spartan which was astronomical experiment studying the Sun and its effect with solar winds on our own Earth's atmosphere so when you line up all the things we've done on this slide it's it's not really fair to try to pick out one that's most important I think the most important thing that we've done with our slide is emphasized that the shuttle's there for a number of people and a number of reasons and and we can pretty much do it all uh this is Todd Halverson of Florida today for Susan Helms I guess uh can you give me an idea you've been up there for nine days what's the first thing you're going to want to do when you get back well let's see uh I think the first thing I'm going to do is wash my hair I I can't help but think that a hot shower and getting my hair clean is a going to be a neat thing to do when I get back this is fil CH keep the mic Susan uh before the mission we had talked about what the Earth looked like especially at night uh so I'll follow off my question to Jerry what does it look like at night anything particular you've seen especially the superstorm Melissa at night as I say the uh really a lot of city lights and it seemed like most of our passes that I looked out was over Europe and you could uh pretty much spot the coastlines because the concentration of population along the coastlines and of course also the major uh Inland cities uh storm at night I think Susan had a look at that and she was up on the flight deck and and uh I don't know how she sleeps through uh day night cycles out there but uh I was found asleep during some of that so I'll pass it to Susan to follow up on the Storm Okay I uh on rev 84 to 85 uh I did happen to be awake it was about an hour after the start of sleep time and I was not expecting this I did not see this on my last flight but I looked out the window and saw coming toward the Orbiter right over the U nater of the Orbiter this this humongous eye of super typhoon Melissa and uh my major regret was that it was sleep time and everybody was asleep and I couldn't run around the orbit or yelling at people to come take a look uh we went right over the eye I think the the light folks actually got an excellent data take on it and I looked down the center of the eye as we went over and saw close to just clear blue water with just a a scattered layer scattered a book and layer layer way down at the bottom of the eye and it was uh a inspiring I just I just can't describe the feeling I felt of the power of that storm it was just beautiful and uh tremendous to think that that that kind of stuff exists on Earth uh Bill Harwood with a final question from KSC and again it's to Mark Lee and it's the same question I asked him before I was I appreciated the engineering answer but I was really curious as to uh a more human gut level reaction and what that felt like and if you and Carl joked about that a little bit after the uh Eva well from the rotation standpoint I wasn't worried because I knew the safer unit could could do the job and training we we had spun it up to much much faster than that and it came out of it but it did surprise me the number of deaths and I was just you know sitting there for a little while going I hope I stop you know uh that was the only time at all that I was you know you know concerned at all during flying and that was only you know a little bit that uh and the Jets did their job but you always have those little you know when you're doing something for the first time you always have those questions is the software going to work right or is the flight control system going to work right or uh and so we sat there I sat there for a little while wondering whether or not the system was going to function as planned but it did so uh we were very happy I was particularly happy Houston This Is kscp AO and that concludes the event