STS-67 Special Events Resource Tape, Part 4

e CNN this is Houston please call Endeavor for a voice check Endeavor this is CNN how do you hear me you're loud and clear John how do you hear Endeavor great good to see all four of you all right we'll go ahead and start if it suits you guys we ready go ahead the Endeavor astronauts have been in orbit for 14 days now on Friday if they land then they'll have been in orbit longer than any other shuttle crew four of the team members joining us from the flight deck Commander Steve Oswald pilot Bill Gregory and UltraViolet telescope experts John grunsfeld and Ron pice gentlemen welcome to CNN International it's really good to see you we've been watching your mission very closely from the ground and we have lots of questions so let's get to it starting with Commander Oswald I'm a student pilot about to take my check ride and it seems to be the hardest job of this mission is the hardest job I have in a cockpit Landing the thing is it going to be any more ult to land Endeavor after nearly 16 days away from the earth and your practice strip well I guess we'll find out in a couple of days John but um I think that folks that have uh flown at at 15 and 14 days have said that the experience is just about the same as uh as Landing our shuttle training airplane or for those that had landed the shuttle before uh about the same at the end of as at the end of shorter flights so I'm not anticipating that there will be any terrible difficult ulty in landing in 16 days but uh we'll find ah head in a couple of days yeah now you've got this computer thing that you that you practice on called the pilot experiment does it help at all do you think well I think it does at least there a refresher procedurally getting ready for landing uh bill has been doing that as part of a uh detailed test objective on this flight why don't I let you have him say a few words about it okay yeah how was it for you how was it things we can do with the computer is dial in some different winds that uh we may encounter and also set ourselves up for different runways so it gives us a good chance to sit down get our procedures down get our cross check going just get back in the rhythm of things yeah I got a question for John now there was lots of talk on the last Astro Mission about problems getting the pointing system to find the stars and the other things you were trying to look in on is it noticeably better this time than last time all right absolutely we're uh in fact we're observing right now the Acquisitions have been going real smooth it took us uh little bit of time to get it going but by day two or so we were uh on the way and it's been uh smooth sailing ever since there was a a wish list from groundbased astronomers at the beginning of this Mission which included about 600 different targets how many of those have you been able to get so far well I don't know the exact number at this point uh the wish list was not uh intended to be a list of uh targets that we were going to get all of they were it was sort of a a menu to choose from during the planning of the flight as we went uh went through the days um I know yesterday I think it was um uh one of our ground controllers in Huntsville congratulated us on doing our 300th observation so um uh I think we're really uh taking a big big bite out of that list no Kidd another question for you Ron the astronomy Community was pitching NASA um yesterday and the day before to give you two extra days in orbit which as you know that the management team turned down what would you have been able to see that you won't be able to get because you're scheduled to come home on schedule on Friday well I don't know that there's anything that we would be able to see that we can't see now it's just um just a question of getting more targets and uh taking a bigger bite out of that list yeah do you know did you tell me a minute ago you think you've captured about 300 you've done about 300 observations and and and tell me about an observation when you when you point the telescopes they're all looking up at this thing in space whatever it is are multiple images captured or is there a stream of data that's recorded on some kind of tape well there are a variety of things that happen uh first um it's kind of a it's a finely choreographed sequence of events vents that starts out with the uh pilot maneuvering the Orbiter so that the payload Bay is pointed toward the object that we want to look at and then um the mission specialist John in this case um maneuvering the instrument pointing system so that it's pointed very very close to the object maybe not exactly right right on it but very very close and then me taking my turn and and fine-tuning the pointing a little bit to get the uh the exact target down the apertures of the telescope however there are three different telescopes mounted out there on the pointing system one of them um built at Johns Hopkins University is a spectrograph uh one the one from um The W University of Wisconsin is uh is a spectr polarimeter measures polarization as well and the ultraviolet Imaging telescope from Gard space flight center um captures ultraviolet images uh the two spectrographs have a data stream which is transmitted to the ground in real time so they get get a look at the data fairly quickly uh the ultraviolet Imaging telescope captures the images on film and uh so we've got a lot of very precious film out in the payload Bay which will be processed uh uh soon after landing yeah um how long do you think it's going to take to get that film developed and which one of the pictures do you personally want to look at first well John I uh I couldn't tell you that we've been uh cranking through observations so fast up here that uh I'm not not completely sure what all we've observed and what we haven't observed but uh it'll be um uh a few weeks um after we land before we get the film processed and then it takes a while to make duplicates of the flight film so that uh we don't lose anything and uh and start examining the images I want to tell you as a as a TV reporter and uh always wanting instant uh instant response instant gratification the the black and white uh aiming camera pictures that we see really don't show very much and to try to explain to our viewers around the world that you know there are these great pictures still in the camera that are going to be developed later you know we're going to be very excited to look at those things that's been a problem for us too John but U but I think it'll be worth the way yeah um now two of you have children that I know of um I think um maybe Ron has a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old and I want you to explain to me how you explain your work on this mission to them well um pretty much the way I've been explaining what we do to you and uh they're certainly very excited about um about dad being in space again and uh uh they've been uh I've talked to them a couple of times while we were up here and they've asked me how things were going and course they're going to be very excited to to see us get home in a couple of days I got a question another question for John um about looking out at the stars and how that compares to looking down at the Earth from the space shuttle what's more fun for you I think uh quite honestly looking at the Earth has been more fun uh the the view of the Stars up here is is pretty fantastic and we at times will dim all the lights in the uh Flight Deck here and uh we have some intensified binoculars that we use that enhance the image but uh the Earth is really a beautiful planet and uh it's a view it's so much different than we have in our everyday life on planet Earth uh the view from space here of the stars is about the same as you get at any uh Mountaintop Observatory so uh it's really looking at the beautiful Earth I must say for those of us back here on the earth you sent down some pictures earlier maybe 12 hours ago of the Middle East and Africa the most spectacular pictures of the African continent I have ever seen I put them on television about 20 times already today and we'll continue to do so it's just what a vantage point back to the folks who operate the shuttle for a bit Bill Gregor we watched you operate the mace machine this morning it looks to me kind of like a rubbe Goldberg device with this boot kicking itself in midair pretty weird looking why are you doing this how will it help anybody well the uh mace is designed to simulate a pointing system at one end of say the uh space station and then a tracking system at the other what you're doing is you're putting in an input at one end kind of a a movement and of course we very that what we're trying to do is stabilize the other end hold it pointing precisely an object and it has a direct application on uh future space station and of course other aircraft as well any of you um scheduled to go up to the Mir space station at some point in your future I guess as as astronauts you um um the two guys who ride up top in this on this Mission um would like to go to the mirr if you could and do a docking Mission how how have you what's your reaction been to what's been going on the past couple of days with with norager getting very close to the m space station well we're all excited about um about going to miror and about eventually building uh the International Space Station Alpha and uh and you're right all Pilots uh enjoy Rendevous flights I was lucky enough to have one of those on my last flight and uh they're certainly enjoyable and very interesting and challenging and as we're moving into this new era of international cooperation I think that it just makes it that much more exciting and um regarding uh Dr stagger I was fortunate enough to fly with Norm on my first flight and uh I know that he's enjoying himself on his fifth flight and a brand new experience for him and he's looking forward to his three months on the mirror yeah all right we've got some questions from uh young students from the Atlanta area and they sound better to me than a lot of my questions have so far how does it make you feel to look down on Earth from orbit well I think that that uh it gives you a totally different perspective of the earth than you've had before and I I was fortunate enough and a lot of us have been fortunate enough to travel uh some in the world but when you uh when you get to go around the world once every 90 minutes uh you begin to realize just how small and precious a place it is and the other thing that grabs you is that when you look at a at a map of the world generally they uh their geopolitical maps and you see boundaries and borders and one country is red and another one's blue and uh you don't see any of that from orbit and you really realize it brings the point home uh that we are all one people living on this very special planet and uh that we need to be taking care of it and getting along with each other another question from a youngster Taylor Hamill what's it like to be on the shuttle this is for Bill Gregory I think Bill while they're handing you the microphone take a deep breath through your nose and tell me what it smells like um tell me what the atmosphere in there feels like is the air dry or wet is it too hot or too cold uh actually it can never be cold enough for me but uh you know we have different personal taste so we're constantly adjusting the temperature to make sure everyone's happy it's a a dry atmosphere very similar to the Phoenix area and uh actually it smells differently in different portions uh Down By The Galley of course it smells kind of like a kitchen up here it's pretty pristine it smells like an office or an airplane but it's uh what's remarkable for me as a firsttime flyer is after a couple days how absolutely natural the whole experience feels and uh you do not feel unnatural at all it just feels like you're at home after a couple of days and it is just wonderful any of you ever get bored hands of anybody who gets bored No Hands okay I don't think I'd be bored if I were sitting there with you one final question because we're just about yeah yeah um is it fun is it as fun for the four of you as it looks like it is uh to to watch you do what you're doing from the ground absolutely uh it it starts being incredibly fun right at left off in the first eight and a half minutes are just exhilarating and it uh it's going to be fantastic all the way to wheel stop and it's an experience that we wish that everybody could have uh and we're just privileged to be able to uh to take part in it yeah we got another 30 seconds anybody else want to want to comment on the is it fun question before we lose our time well it really is fun and it's uh you know especially for Ron and myself it's fun to live a lifetime dream of going to space and also having the privilege of doing our lifetime work here it's uh absolutely fantastic all right Braun John Bill and Steve thank the four of you for taking time out of your very busy day I know we cost you some experiment time because we did our interview at this time of day but you've really you provided a lot of insight into what's going on up there and those of us at the CNN family thank you very much for it now thanks for coming aboard we enjoy talking with you all right see you later that's it live from the deck of the Space Shuttle Endeavor an interview with the astronauts four of the seven who were there they are scheduled to be coming back to Earth on Friday afternoon we will of course have live coverage as we have throughout the mission John Hollman CNN reporting thank you CNN