well the spirit of 76 the uh the kind of
the motto of this crew and and the
spirit behind the flight has been one of
teamwork
uh we've required a lot of teamwork
amongst the crew members to execute the
difficult portions of this flight be it
the rendezvous
the transfer operations the eva
all the spectacular first that took
place
but the teamwork didn't end with the
crew it certainly in fact had its
beginnings its origins with the folks
sitting in this room and all the people
here at the johnson space center took a
great team a great team effort to pull
off sts 76 and make it look easy i've
had more people come up to me and say
gosh it looks like you're having a lot
of fun up there
the mission was such a great success
those things don't happen by accident
they happen because of a lot of
dedicated hard work that's done by each
and every person in this room and other
folks on this center that were
associated
with making sts-76 a reality so on
behalf of the crew i'd like to begin
today by thanking each and every one of
you here
you're all award winners in my mind and
we really appreciate you coming over
coming over here today and doing the
great work that you do day in and day
out at the johnson space center
well now i'd kind of like to transition
into the home movie side of the uh of
the adventure
i want you to know there's a premiere of
this of this picture we've looked at
edited versions so i'm as excited as you
are to watch what happens here as we
roll it
this was the evening before launch
and you can see it we couldn't ask for
better weather once the winds calmed
down on the 21st the 22nd turned out to
be a spectacular night to go fly
with a all bid an ungodly hour to lift
off at at 3 13 in the morning
here we are walking out of the uh
crew quarters and i was surprised you
may have seen me jerk my hand to the
side with surprises i saw a member of
our training team standing there smiling
at us so we had a lot of support from
johnson down there for the launch
i don't care how many times you sit on
top of this thing these few seconds that
you're witnessing here are are something
that
you can never really be fully prepared
for
the power of the space shuttle main
engines as they throttle up on the pad
in those final six seconds
and that feeling in your heart the
bottom of your heart that you know good
and well you're going someplace in a
hurry here momentarily
is uh is one that
will be always part of my memory
i've never experienced the night launch
and as you can see from the lift off
it's incredibly bright
as we've cleared the tower i watched the
tower go by
it was like daytime looking out the left
window and uh during the later stages of
ascent i got to witness
post solid rocket motor separation here
the experience of seeing out the front
window of the orbiter pulsating lights
from the main engines in the rear so you
are really kind of in a little glow
there a little lighted glow as you
proceed uphill toward main engine cutoff
eight and a half minutes after liftoff
okay and uh you can see us opening the
payload bay doors here and this is sped
up a bit by the way so it doesn't take
so long in the film but uh that's always
a relief to get on orbit get a go to
stay on orbit and open the doors the
next morning on flight day two after
going through the internal airlock and
down the tunnel uh we got to the uh the
hatch for uh the space hab and here ron
and i are open then opening that on our
second morning first real morning on
orbit our second day to get ready to
open up the hab and activate it and
start start operations back there and
this was a very busy place during the
mission as we flowed into it here you
can see that there was a lot of stowage
back here there's some new soft storage
bags up on the wall first time they've
ever flown those were developed for a
lot of the equipment that we had to
transfer to mirror you just saw the gyro
dying on the right side and
this panning view shows uh the bio rack
and the glove box
so between the bio rack and all the
transfer operations back here that went
on while we were docked it was a busy
place
and back up on the flight deck rick is
uh taking a look at the camera mounted
up there that's our electronic camera
for kid sat we left it the window during
the undock times
it took digitized images of the earth
and made them available to the students
on the ground who were controlling the
camera
uh this is a view of florida from kidsat
and i want to emphasize that we really
began the rendezvous portion of this
mission right from launch as we launched
into a lower catch-up orbit on mir
and as we prepared on flight day two our
particular role in the rendezvous got
closer and closer to mir
but we didn't really get the good video
of course until we got
within a thousand feet or so this is
looking out the ods center line up at
the mirror as we're approaching from
underneath
this is the mirror view what they saw as
they were looking down at the space
shuttle atlantis passing over the earth
we included a couple of views of the
crew activities in the flight deck chile
at the ash station flying the vehicle
rich assisting him and i was bobbing in
and out of the field of view there
working the computers and assisting in
my particular role
this is a view of the mir space station
as we passed from across the terminator
from sun
sunlit portion of the planet to the back
side and it was very interesting to see
that
with the running lights mir was very
visible and it was quite bright even on
the dark side of the planet
well as we as this process continued of
the rendezvous and approach up the r bar
got closer and closer to mirror and
again this was sped up too and
part of that intent was to make it flow
quicker in the movie but an added side
benefit is it makes the commander look
even better because it looks like it's
really going fast
but chilidish did a phenomenal job
flying the space shuttle up to the
mirror and you can see this is the end
game here this is where it all comes
together
and hitting those critical docking
parameters
the target of course is shown on the
right on this split screen image
we really did get that
jostle as we made contact and had the
post contact thrusting firing
and then
i must confess to a little bit of relief
in the cockpit once we
reach that milestone their chili's being
congratulated by rich and it's on to
docked activities rich we're given a
panorama of the the mirror complex
starting with the docking module here
and now you're looking through the aft
cockpit i'll refer back to the target
you just saw we confirmed after we
docked that no fly-out was required uh
thank you melis but
it's a beautiful this thing is the smear
complex is really large and i have
memories of standing back in the ods
looking up through the tunnel and
thinking that it was at least 300 feet
up to the mirror complex here's a view
of the initial hatch opening
from the russian side of course
and you're going to see a couple of
happy faces here between yuri anafranko
and kevin chilton
tremendous tremendous relief once you
get there and you
join up and realize that uh that's a
excellent place to be there's some good
work going on up there and felt like
home for shannon already
neither one of those guys were happy
and of course shannon she felt at home
the minute she got there and they put
her right to work she uh she was one of
the experts in the transfer activities
and that's
no small part due to the preparation we
had here
and here we're getting ready for the
welcoming ceremony one of the official
pao acts uh due to a small
miscoordination we had the flags in the
wrong location so you're going to see uh
yuri ushev bringing the american flag
into the docking module base or not the
docking module but the base block for
the
welcome ceremony and then we're going to
pass some gifts that we took up to them
what you'll see is some of the personal
items that we gave to our russian
crewmates they both have a love for
children and the future of space
exploration so some of the gifts that we
gave them were
space books for their children and
it brought tears to their eyes
and here you see the gift exchange
some of the books bought right here in
space center houston
well i think i need to pick up here
right with the transfers that you run i
think honestly
there's a rich and rick taking off a
docking ring from a gyrodyne we
brought up a new one and brought
back a used one we also transferred
nearly 1500 pounds of water this is a
byproduct of the shuttle's power system
so
we removed iodine and
iodine from our system and supplied
minerals and biocide and then
transferred these water bags to the mir
space station
this is going through the shuttle side
there's some empty food containers which
we returned
to earth from the mir station
and finally working our way to the
docking module
there's temporary stowage in the white
mesh bags of food containers
containing many of the supplies that
will help shannon in urine yuri in the
in the coming months
we transferred nearly two tons of
science hardware over and nearly one ton
back this is a cooler system used for
navigation on the approach and docking
for the russian system that will be
brought back and refurbished
we also needed to keep track of the
items that went over
to mir and those that were returning
back to earth so chile and i are making
sure that we have
all of the items in our inventory
management system in order the blue box
on the left hand side is a refrigerator
freezer in which we brought back urine
blood and saliva samples the glove box
in which linda is working is where we
carried on
some of the technology development as
well as fundamental biology
for a joint effort between the u.s and
several european countries
here are lentil seeds and the
investigation here is for statosite
polarity we had several
experiments in in biology the middeck is
where we had lunch with the amir 21 crew
on dock day we went over for dinner in
the base block of mir
to enjoy russian food
each night if we had a chance we sent
mail messages
by way of a laptop computer you see
shannon doing just that
back to her family on three separate
days we saw the comet many of you may
have seen it here
hokitaki in which it was very bright and
rich was the first to notice that and on
subsequent days we kept track of the
comet now the eva activities think linda
well
ron is helping rich and i get suited up
here in the airlock we're getting pretty
close to getting into our pre-breathe
timeline and following that we uh
we get ready to go out the hatch we had
a lot of room inside because we had an
airlock and a docking adapter and uh
came out of the hatch on the docking
adapter our first job was to install
some clamps on the handrails to deploy
the experiment packages later and then
our task was to move to a camera to
remove it on the docking module and this
was used on sts-74
when they docked with mirror and then
when they left the docking module there
the camera was left there also so one of
our tasks was to remove it and bring it
back to earth
and i took some of the smaller items
back and here you see rich he's
translating with the camera itself which
is is rather large and he was being very
careful of that as he shepherded it back
to the the tunnel adapter where he
stowed it temporarily back inside we
were finished with the eva
here you see uh linda and myself
removing one of the four meat containers
for installation into the onto some
clamps on the docking module
we tested out some new tools and
equipment for use on the ultimate
international space station the ridgid
tether and the multiple use tether which
we use to transport the the meeps to
their work site and install them into
the clamps here you're going to see one
of those activities and then
one of the funnest things that linda and
i had to do were the deployment of the
meeps and you're going to see that here
it's so much easier to do up there you
just give it a little flick and it uh
flies around and i'm sure that this is
real time instead of sped up but
but
tremendously
finely defined the designed hardware
that worked well in flight and we can
learn a lot from the folks at langley
and our own engineering director here
that helped design the hardware for this
particular eva it all worked well and we
deployed this one here is meep number
four i believe
the meep experiments are orbital debris
sensors and passive samplers
well this is my cue for my second come
in uh after
really a whirlwind and flurry of
activity over several days we were all
very uh very sad to get ready to to
depart the mere space station this is
the farewell ceremony and i think i can
speak for the rest of the crew
certainly for me it was the most
emotion-filled moment that i'd had in
orbit in two missions
of course saying goodbye to shannon
there's chile giving her a hug and
wishing her well for her
long stay up there until
79 goes back to pick her up
on ndoc day we again were very busy on
that day similarly to the docking day
we prepared
configuration wise this orbiter and
mirror complex to separate and
very shortly here we'll see that
separation sequence and leading into the
fly around
this is chilly waving goodbye to his uh
buddies over there the mir-21 crew
including shannon
the russians were very kind to ship down
this video which then came from soup to
mcc and uh enabled us to put it in our
crew movie in a very timely fashion
separation here
again sped up
we were
as i mentioned before very sad to leave
and wish we could have stayed longer and
been up there with our friends
the separate the initial separation burn
a couple of uh low z
uh pulses out to get going and
establish the initial opening rate
and as we continue to fly out we assumed
a range of
450 to 550 feet targeted to conduct this
fly around of the mirror which i was
privileged to fly and it's been for me
one of the most professionally rewarding
things i've ever done but at the same
time
in the background of my mind also a very
emotionally charged event
this video will
share some of what we saw from on orbit
which was just absolutely outstanding
and
flabbergasting really to see this
orbiting complex out our windows and
here in this particular case to see
video shot from the mirror
of america's greatest technology
achievement ever a space shuttle in
orbit doing what it does best
this is a view of the mir space station
over the great barrier reef
right after we
gave the ku antenna to calm to send tv
down this is the first picture that came
down to the ground and this particular
view is as we the mirror passes through
the horizon approaching the terminator
and no it is not a model we saw it with
our own eyes and
that's what it was and it was
outstandingly beautiful with the backlit
view and something that i will always
treasure in my mind
well it's coming home time now and uh
ron did a bang-up job shooting these
scenes uh that that little uh camcorder
that he holds there's a self shot on the
way down starts weighing zero at the
start of re-entry then it starts feeling
like it weighs a ton on the way down so
he did a great job shooting this this is
out the overhead window as we're coming
in through the re-entry and you can see
the plasma
trail behind the orbiter there pulsates
like that and literally lights the
cockpit up and with flashes as you come
down
out the front window you just get a nice
steady pink and orangish glow as you go
through the maximum heating and here we
are in a roll reversal
one of three that we did as we lined up
for our approach at edwards air force
base rather unique long range shot here
where you can actually see the rcs jets
firing in the tail of the shuttle as we
decelerated through around mach 2
approaching edwards to keep help keep
the nose pointed forward
and
i logged a night landing on this one
because officially the sun hadn't come
up but
but it sure was a pretty time of day to
land it was just uh the xenons were on
but you really didn't need them you
could see the ground just fine and uh
that there wasn't hardly a breath of
wind in the air it was real calm smooth
skies
and uh it and it just you know you you
knew what you were flying the space
shuttle was responding just so
beautifully uh it really uh really flew
uh marvelously and was a joy to bring in
for a landing
rick go ahead and punched out the
landing gear for us on time and then
the drag chute and the timing was just
right on that and cushioned the nose
slapped down as as we came
rolling down the runway first stop
and i think i'll quote andy allen from
sts75 there's there's no better feeling
than that call wheel stop particularly
when you know you know you've done your
job
you've done the best you can and now
it's it's over and it's time to turn
turn the vehicle over to the folks at
kennedy to get it ready to start
back through the same process all over
again to go up and retrieve shane on
sts-79
if i look a little uh confused here at
the end i was doing a nose count and i
came up one short during the walk around
but but i was assured that that was the
right answer
so
everybody felt terrific after the flight
and it was certainly good to get back
home to family and friends and to you
all back here in houston
uh we'll ask rick to go ahead and
narrate them as they come up so please
uh enjoy them
thanks joey
of course our crew patched there and i
might add rich's uh son brandon who's a
seventh grader was largely responsible
for the artwork and the concept for this
patch and we really appreciate his
artistic talents and what he contributed
to
to make the mission go and to me it's
significant or symbolic in the sense
that we not only receive great support
from johnson space center and
every and kennedy space center and
everyone that supports the shuttle
program but from our families as well
and i know speaking for myself i could
not have
done my part in this mission without
this loving support from my home my wife
and children so i thank them as well
this is a view as we're
approaching the mir space station again
atlantis and all her orbital glory with
the payload bay doors open there just
uh
this was one of the few times that i
wished i could have stayed on board
mirror for a long duration to see what
the orbiter looked like in its entirety
we were fortunate enough to get some
views this is a view that we could see
out of one of the living quarter
portholes on board the mirror of our
spaceship and it's kind of a strange
feeling to make that translation across
that interface and know that you're in
another orbiting vehicle even though
you're all tied together and look out
the window and see this
incredible
flying machine out there
and this is a view of
the soyuz is up in the upper left hand
corner attached to the covant one and
the base block and some i think there's
some solar arrays down there in the
lower left hand corner but we include
this particular view because of that
beautiful effect you get with that rosy
changing to gold and then finally
changing to darkness as you pass from
the day side of the planet into the
night
another view
for those of you who are geography buffs
you probably realized right away that
in the field of view kind of in the
center right is the sinai peninsula
and one of the things that i found
particularly interesting from a
photographic point of view is
taking pictures of the earth while
framing them up and trying to get a good
composition with the lines and angles of
the solar arrays and the space station
itself it really is
just uh as a space shuttle is a
beautiful beautiful sight on orbit the
mirror is really quite striking and
beautiful on orbit as well the colors
are just incredible once you get up
there in the vacuum and clarity of space
a view on the fly around that's the
northern tip of the south island of new
zealand just to the right of the mir and
of course the deep blue waters of the
pacific as well
again a view of mir at the horizon as we
approach the terminator
we wanted to wrap up our last few slides
just to show the two crews the people
that were
very fortunate and blessed to be the
flight crew members of this particular
mission
here's the mere 21 crew and of course
shannon is going to be in both of these
pictures but
we can't say enough good about the
opportunities we've had as
american astronauts to work with our
cosmonaut colleagues in this case
yuriana franco and yuri usachev they're
professionals in every sense of the word
and wonderful guys and uh
just shannon's gonna have a great time
flying with them and working with them
in this cooperative venture
finally this is the sts-76 crew up until
the point we made the official handover
of shannon to the to the mir 21 crew
and we'll close with our patch