1 00:00:01,300 --> 00:00:02,701 >> Now, why don't we go ahead and head 2 00:00:02,701 --> 00:00:05,237 out to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, 3 00:00:05,237 --> 00:00:08,140 where Lori Meggs is standing by with a live cut-in. 4 00:00:08,140 --> 00:00:11,043 Lori, we're at the start of a new expedition. 5 00:00:11,043 --> 00:00:12,144 >> Lori Meggs: That is right. 6 00:00:12,144 --> 00:00:14,046 It's Expedition 37, but folks here 7 00:00:14,046 --> 00:00:16,415 in the Payload Operations Integration Center have been 8 00:00:16,415 --> 00:00:18,551 planning and preparing for this for months. 9 00:00:18,551 --> 00:00:20,453 It comes with any new expedition. 10 00:00:20,453 --> 00:00:22,788 Joining me now is the Payload Operations Manager 11 00:00:22,788 --> 00:00:24,790 for Expedition 37, Becky Grimaldi. 12 00:00:24,790 --> 00:00:25,925 Becky, thanks for joining us today. 13 00:00:25,925 --> 00:00:26,492 >> Becky Grimaldi: Hi. 14 00:00:26,492 --> 00:00:27,193 Good morning. 15 00:00:27,193 --> 00:00:28,260 Good to have you here. 16 00:00:28,260 --> 00:00:29,095 >> Lori Meggs: Thanks for wearing pink. 17 00:00:29,095 --> 00:00:30,496 We match. We did not plan that. 18 00:00:30,496 --> 00:00:32,098 Tell us, first of all, what a Payload Operations Manager does. 19 00:00:32,098 --> 00:00:33,232 >> Becky Grimaldi: Well, we're -- 20 00:00:33,232 --> 00:00:35,734 pretty much, we work a whole six months worth, 21 00:00:35,734 --> 00:00:37,603 two increments actually, I'm assigned to. 22 00:00:37,603 --> 00:00:41,340 And we're pretty much making sure that PYC is ready for all 23 00:00:41,340 --> 00:00:43,843 of the NASA science experiments that we have coming 24 00:00:43,843 --> 00:00:45,244 up in the next six months. 25 00:00:45,244 --> 00:00:47,513 And we do that through a lot of coordination 26 00:00:47,513 --> 00:00:51,217 with our counterparts in Europe and Japan and Houston. 27 00:00:51,217 --> 00:00:54,553 So it's a lot of meetings and telecons and coordinating, 28 00:00:54,553 --> 00:00:57,223 but we make sure our readiness is ready to go 29 00:00:57,223 --> 00:00:58,457 so that we have everything ready 30 00:00:58,457 --> 00:01:00,359 in place before it gets to this room. 31 00:01:00,359 --> 00:01:01,594 >> Lori Meggs: That's right. 32 00:01:01,594 --> 00:01:02,828 It's all the behind-the-scenes, pretty stuff, right? 33 00:01:02,828 --> 00:01:03,963 >> Becky Grimaldi: Right. 34 00:01:03,963 --> 00:01:04,897 >> Lori Meggs: But it's not a one-woman show. 35 00:01:04,897 --> 00:01:05,965 >> Becky Grimaldi: No. 36 00:01:05,965 --> 00:01:07,166 >> Lori Meggs: I know that you guys work 37 00:01:07,166 --> 00:01:08,267 for a really long time. 38 00:01:08,267 --> 00:01:09,168 There's planners. 39 00:01:09,168 --> 00:01:10,069 There's preppers. 40 00:01:10,069 --> 00:01:11,203 Tell us all about that. 41 00:01:11,203 --> 00:01:12,471 >> Becky Grimaldi: Absolutely. 42 00:01:12,471 --> 00:01:13,873 There's an assistant that I have, Stephanie Dudley, 43 00:01:13,873 --> 00:01:17,743 who helps me immensely and then, yes, there are several phases 44 00:01:17,743 --> 00:01:20,112 that we go through to get things ready for ops. 45 00:01:20,112 --> 00:01:21,981 Pretty much the last phase before we're 46 00:01:21,981 --> 00:01:24,917 in this room executing is the people 47 00:01:24,917 --> 00:01:26,652 that are behind this room, there's about four 48 00:01:26,652 --> 00:01:31,524 or five rooms back there filled by about 20 different personnel 49 00:01:31,524 --> 00:01:34,393 that usually rotate in on a six-month basis. 50 00:01:34,393 --> 00:01:37,563 They work Monday through Friday, eight by five 51 00:01:37,563 --> 00:01:39,765 and they are back there getting things ready 52 00:01:39,765 --> 00:01:41,000 for this room to execute. 53 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,670 The first one of those teams is the planning team. 54 00:01:44,670 --> 00:01:47,573 They start building all the plans that the crew 55 00:01:47,573 --> 00:01:50,576 and the ground team need to execute 56 00:01:50,576 --> 00:01:53,445 and they start building those about three weeks out from 57 00:01:53,445 --> 00:01:55,414 when we're getting ready to execute. 58 00:01:55,414 --> 00:01:57,983 They're filling in all the information that the crew needs 59 00:01:57,983 --> 00:02:01,987 to do their job and command windows that we need if a PD is 60 00:02:01,987 --> 00:02:04,990 at a remote site and they need the command, they're putting all 61 00:02:04,990 --> 00:02:07,026 that on the plan so we have it all ready to go. 62 00:02:07,026 --> 00:02:08,561 >> Lori Meggs: So, it's kind of all on their shoulders 63 00:02:08,561 --> 00:02:10,296 of what happens, what the crew does. 64 00:02:10,296 --> 00:02:11,931 >> Becky Grimaldi: Absolutely, and it's a lot of coordination. 65 00:02:11,931 --> 00:02:14,667 They work with the international partners three times a week 66 00:02:14,667 --> 00:02:16,835 to make sure that everything is coordinated 67 00:02:16,835 --> 00:02:19,071 and that the resources that we need -- 68 00:02:19,071 --> 00:02:20,839 do we have enough video lines, all that kind 69 00:02:20,839 --> 00:02:22,741 of stuff is coordinated so everything fits. 70 00:02:22,741 --> 00:02:24,076 >> Lori Meggs: So they work on a timeline? 71 00:02:24,076 --> 00:02:24,843 >> Becky Grimaldi: Yes. 72 00:02:24,843 --> 00:02:25,678 >> Lori Meggs: All right. 73 00:02:25,678 --> 00:02:27,046 >> Becky Grimaldi: Absolutely. 74 00:02:27,046 --> 00:02:29,048 And then, after that, there's a team we call the prep team 75 00:02:29,048 --> 00:02:32,051 and they are getting all of the products ready to make sure 76 00:02:32,051 --> 00:02:34,787 that everything is onboard and ready to go for the ops. 77 00:02:34,787 --> 00:02:38,157 They start reviewing the timeline about a week out. 78 00:02:38,157 --> 00:02:40,693 They're also processing all of our change traffic, 79 00:02:40,693 --> 00:02:44,563 if we need to update it, crew procedure or any other products 80 00:02:44,563 --> 00:02:46,332 that need to be uplinked to support the ops. 81 00:02:46,332 --> 00:02:49,301 Sometimes PDs have files, data files, that need to go 82 00:02:49,301 --> 00:02:52,004 up to support a run, scripts, that kind of thing. 83 00:02:52,004 --> 00:02:53,472 They're processing the paperwork, 84 00:02:53,472 --> 00:02:56,408 making sure those products are onboard in time 85 00:02:56,408 --> 00:02:57,743 and reviewing the timeline, 86 00:02:57,743 --> 00:02:59,745 making sure everything is complete so that they can hand 87 00:02:59,745 --> 00:03:03,682 over a complete product to this room and it's ready to execute. 88 00:03:03,682 --> 00:03:05,718 >> Lori Meggs: But they really have to be on their toes, right? 89 00:03:05,718 --> 00:03:06,919 >> Becky Grimaldi: Oh, absolutely. 90 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:09,021 The prep team is staffed by all the increment leads 91 00:03:09,021 --> 00:03:11,657 of the same positions that you see in the room here. 92 00:03:11,657 --> 00:03:13,859 And they have been working the increment 93 00:03:13,859 --> 00:03:17,696 at least six months before-hand, before they get here, 94 00:03:17,696 --> 00:03:19,798 doing reviews and making sure they understand, 95 00:03:19,798 --> 00:03:21,867 especially for new things that we haven't done before, 96 00:03:21,867 --> 00:03:23,535 making sure we understand everything about it, 97 00:03:23,535 --> 00:03:26,772 any constraints, things that can't operate together. 98 00:03:26,772 --> 00:03:29,108 We need to know all that so we can lay everything out 99 00:03:29,108 --> 00:03:30,542 and have everything good to go. 100 00:03:30,542 --> 00:03:32,678 So, this room cannot operate 101 00:03:32,678 --> 00:03:34,446 without those two rooms back there. 102 00:03:34,446 --> 00:03:37,650 There's also folks that are uplinking our crew procedures 103 00:03:37,650 --> 00:03:39,018 for us, PODF Support. 104 00:03:39,018 --> 00:03:40,719 We have a payload systems engineer 105 00:03:40,719 --> 00:03:43,389 that is reviewing anomalies to make sure 106 00:03:43,389 --> 00:03:46,258 that we can get things back up and running when we need to. 107 00:03:46,258 --> 00:03:48,360 So, there's a lot, a lot of work that goes 108 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,130 on behind the scenes before this room is ready to go. 109 00:03:51,130 --> 00:03:53,699 >> Lori Meggs: And here I thought it was all just you. 110 00:03:53,699 --> 00:03:54,667 >> Becky Grimaldi: [Laughing] I wish. 111 00:03:54,667 --> 00:03:55,834 >> Lori Meggs: Let's talk about some 112 00:03:55,834 --> 00:03:57,002 of the exciting new research that's coming up. 113 00:03:57,002 --> 00:03:58,704 You've got a SpaceX launch, an orbital launch. 114 00:03:58,704 --> 00:04:00,773 Tell us what we're going to see in this expedition. 115 00:04:00,773 --> 00:04:01,974 >> Becky Grimaldi: Absolutely. 116 00:04:01,974 --> 00:04:03,075 The orbital launches will be the first increment 117 00:04:03,075 --> 00:04:04,543 that has an orbital launch, a new vehicle 118 00:04:04,543 --> 00:04:05,944 that can take science to the space station. 119 00:04:05,944 --> 00:04:07,079 It's very exciting. 120 00:04:07,079 --> 00:04:10,115 We're going to have two launches in Increment 37 121 00:04:10,115 --> 00:04:12,951 and Increment 38 to watch out for. 122 00:04:12,951 --> 00:04:14,820 A couple of the new payloads. 123 00:04:14,820 --> 00:04:17,056 We have some satellite operations 124 00:04:17,056 --> 00:04:19,425 and on the second orbital launch, there's going 125 00:04:19,425 --> 00:04:21,894 to be a payload called Slosh go up that is going 126 00:04:21,894 --> 00:04:25,064 to use this sphere satellites that we've used before 127 00:04:25,064 --> 00:04:27,566 and it's going to study fluid sloshing 128 00:04:27,566 --> 00:04:31,136 in like engines, engine tanks. 129 00:04:31,136 --> 00:04:36,108 And it's going to take two satellite and hook the fluid, 130 00:04:36,108 --> 00:04:38,877 piece of hardware between them and then the satellites can fly 131 00:04:38,877 --> 00:04:42,114 around and it's going to videotape how the fluid moves 132 00:04:42,114 --> 00:04:46,018 in -- it's a clear vessel that they can watch and they're going 133 00:04:46,018 --> 00:04:47,820 to compare that to their computer models 134 00:04:47,820 --> 00:04:48,921 that they've generated on the ground 135 00:04:48,921 --> 00:04:50,656 to see how close those computer models are 136 00:04:50,656 --> 00:04:51,724 to how it really works. 137 00:04:51,724 --> 00:04:52,825 >> Lori Meggs: So it is really sloshing? 138 00:04:52,825 --> 00:04:54,360 >> Becky Grimaldi: It is really sloshing. 139 00:04:56,161 --> 00:04:55,127 [Laughing] 140 00:04:56,161 --> 00:04:57,096 That won't be fun for the crew at all. 141 00:04:57,096 --> 00:04:57,796 >> Becky Grimaldi: Oh, of course. 142 00:04:57,796 --> 00:04:59,031 That will be a fun one. 143 00:04:59,031 --> 00:05:00,065 And then, speaking of satellites, we're also going 144 00:05:00,065 --> 00:05:01,867 to do some satellites outside. 145 00:05:01,867 --> 00:05:05,904 If you didn't know, the Japanese module has an airlock 146 00:05:05,904 --> 00:05:06,939 and they have the capability 147 00:05:06,939 --> 00:05:09,241 to send some small satellites outside 148 00:05:09,241 --> 00:05:11,910 that we can actually deploy out into space. 149 00:05:11,910 --> 00:05:17,216 The orbital flight will have a couple dozen small satellites go 150 00:05:17,216 --> 00:05:20,285 up on it that are going to be deployed using a new hardware 151 00:05:20,285 --> 00:05:23,889 by the Nanorex team, and the satellites can be as small 152 00:05:23,889 --> 00:05:29,094 as a ten centimeter cube or multiples of that. 153 00:05:29,094 --> 00:05:31,897 The crew will load the satellites on a table 154 00:05:31,897 --> 00:05:35,000 in the gem airlock and then it goes outside 155 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,469 and then the gem arm picks that up, 156 00:05:37,469 --> 00:05:39,738 points it down towards the ground and then they kind 157 00:05:39,738 --> 00:05:44,143 of deploy out at the particular time that they need to go. 158 00:05:44,143 --> 00:05:46,111 So that's going to be very interesting. 159 00:05:46,111 --> 00:05:49,681 And that Nanorex hardware is new for us and that's, certainly, 160 00:05:49,681 --> 00:05:51,150 a new, exciting thing that we get to do. 161 00:05:51,150 --> 00:05:54,386 And it's always neat to watch the external stuff go on. 162 00:05:54,386 --> 00:05:56,355 >> Lori Meggs: And I understand that the crew is going 163 00:05:56,355 --> 00:05:58,657 to become sub-farmers, right? 164 00:05:58,657 --> 00:05:59,725 >> Becky Grimaldi: Yes. 165 00:05:59,725 --> 00:06:01,693 And on the SpaceX flight, there's going 166 00:06:01,693 --> 00:06:06,899 to be a payload called Veggie and it is an expandable habitat 167 00:06:06,899 --> 00:06:08,500 that goes inside an express rack. 168 00:06:08,500 --> 00:06:12,104 It takes up two lockers and it has media and lights 169 00:06:12,104 --> 00:06:14,807 and it will let them grow vegetables. 170 00:06:14,807 --> 00:06:17,676 And I think the lettuce may be one of the first ones 171 00:06:17,676 --> 00:06:19,111 that they grow this time. 172 00:06:19,111 --> 00:06:20,846 >> Lori Meggs: Now, will they eat that or is it just, 173 00:06:20,846 --> 00:06:22,614 they grow it, they bring it back and have it studied first. 174 00:06:22,614 --> 00:06:23,782 >> Becky Grimaldi: I think that's the end result, 175 00:06:23,782 --> 00:06:25,083 is for them to eat it. 176 00:06:25,083 --> 00:06:26,018 >> Lori Meggs: Okay. 177 00:06:26,018 --> 00:06:27,252 >> Becky Grimaldi: The seeds go up. 178 00:06:27,252 --> 00:06:29,955 They actually will plant and water them up there 179 00:06:29,955 --> 00:06:32,825 and then the veggie hardware is kind of expandable 180 00:06:32,825 --> 00:06:35,060 so it has a bellows and they can make it bigger 181 00:06:35,060 --> 00:06:36,128 as the plants grow. 182 00:06:36,128 --> 00:06:38,297 It will give them light and circulate air 183 00:06:38,297 --> 00:06:40,732 and then the crew will have to water them periodically. 184 00:06:40,732 --> 00:06:42,868 So, that's certainly something for the future. 185 00:06:42,868 --> 00:06:45,437 We need to have vegetables for the crew to eat, 186 00:06:45,437 --> 00:06:47,639 so it's something interesting to do. 187 00:06:47,639 --> 00:06:48,907 >> Lori Meggs: A much -- much different than growing them 188 00:06:48,907 --> 00:06:50,108 down here on earth, I'm sure. 189 00:06:50,108 --> 00:06:50,642 >> Becky Grimaldi: Oh, yeah. 190 00:06:50,642 --> 00:06:51,977 Absolutely. 191 00:06:51,977 --> 00:06:53,812 >> Lori Meggs: But maybe they'll be good gardeners by then. 192 00:06:53,812 --> 00:06:57,249 Also, let's lastly talk about -- you're also on Expedition 38, 193 00:06:57,249 --> 00:06:59,451 so as you just talked about, 194 00:06:59,451 --> 00:07:01,086 all that planning is going on right now. 195 00:07:01,086 --> 00:07:02,354 >> Becky Grimaldi: Oh, yes. 196 00:07:02,354 --> 00:07:05,991 And we're looking for things, all the launch manifests 197 00:07:05,991 --> 00:07:08,894 and changes for what's going to fly to get ready. 198 00:07:08,894 --> 00:07:11,964 We have to do reviews months in advance for products and things, 199 00:07:11,964 --> 00:07:13,632 so yeah, we're all ready preparing 200 00:07:13,632 --> 00:07:16,735 for that orbital flight and the SpaceX flight that's in January. 201 00:07:16,735 --> 00:07:18,704 We're all ready preparing for those now. 202 00:07:18,704 --> 00:07:20,439 >> Lori Meggs: So Day 1 of Expedition 37 203 00:07:20,439 --> 00:07:22,808 and you guys are really busy back here. 204 00:07:22,808 --> 00:07:24,409 Cliff, Cliff Jones back there 205 00:07:24,409 --> 00:07:25,244 >> Becky Grimaldi: Yes. 206 00:07:25,244 --> 00:07:26,245 >> Lori Meggs: at the helm today 207 00:07:26,245 --> 00:07:27,012 as the Payload Operations Director. 208 00:07:27,012 --> 00:07:28,380 >> Becky Grimaldi: He is. 209 00:07:28,380 --> 00:07:29,214 >> Lori Meggs: Thank you so much, Becky, for filling us in. 210 00:07:29,214 --> 00:07:29,915 >> Becky Gramaldi: Absolutely. 211 00:07:29,915 --> 00:07:30,949 Thank you for coming.