good morning and welcome to the post
flight crew press conference for the STS
62 mission that was a 16th mission of
columbia and the 61st mission in the
shuttle program I'll turn it over to the
crew commander he'll reintroduced the
five-member crew to you and then they'll
talk about their mission I'll turn it
over to John Casper Thank You Kyle
welcome everyone to our press conference
post-flight press conference I'd like to
start off by introducing the crew again
on my far left Marsha Ivan's mission
specialist on my left our pilot Andy
Allen on my right mission specialist Sam
game art and on our far right appear to
it mission specialist I'd like to do now
is to run the movie and we'll all
narrate parts of the movie so if we
could start that a little logo showing
our crew patch it of course each crew
gets a chance to design their own
individual patch and some shots of
suiting up before the flight here with a
few scenes of each crew member as we Don
our pressure suits landing in entry
suits pilot Andy a little note home to
his kids Jessica and Meredith
if you're taking it easy here after he
gets suited up and Sam with its friend
Theodore this a little teddy bear that
has traveled around the country and now
around the world it's given two
different travelers with a little note
about where it's been and it took quite
a journey quite a voyage this time
Marcia and you can see all the the crew
is fairly relaxed this was an
experienced crew with nine flights among
the five of us before we flew walking
out to the launch pad and great weather
for a launch that day we've all been
here before and you can see some of the
water deluge getting us ready to go and
it is still a thrill each and every time
we do it six seconds of prior is main
engines and at T 0 we get the solid
rockets to light off from the inside
when the solids light off we definitely
know we're going somewhere we don't know
exactly where we're going but we know
we're going it's it's a nice ride to get
through there's a lot of vibration there
in the first stage and it is really a
tremendous kudo to all the people that
make this work to me the most important
part of the mission is the first eight
and a half minutes and it was flawless
all the way up and the people at the
Kennedy Space Center deserved to each
and every one of them heartfelt
appreciation for how they make this look
and and how easy they make this look and
we know the thousands and thousands of
checks that it takes to make it all work
as well as it can this is the most
versatile vehicle that we take into
space anywhere and it's got so much
capability getting it theirs is their
work and they do it flawlessly again SRB
separation at two minutes about 150,000
feet now rights moves out quite a bit
here they were about two and a half Gees
on our bodies right there get up into
space of three GS we dropped the
external tank off yes our bees are
recovered in the external tank we tried
to follow it as it started its journey
back into the Atma
fear yeah this is going over some of
Africa now you get a shot of our payload
Bay it looked pretty full to us and we
open the eye look out the window and
open the doors but us MP in the front
most in the back the eto cryo palette
and the very aft end of the orbiter all
the various experience that are going to
be conducted the limited duration
candidate materials exposure experiment
on the left and then the dexters end
effector behind it on the left you can
see us MP again and right there and then
the SSB UV the shuttle solar backscatter
ultraviolet experiment on the right
there now this us MP was that one of the
primary payloads and you consent p was
what we've talked about it was tellus
Science and this is a shot of the
Marshall payload operation control
center and they set almost 10,000
commands to their payloads throughout
the mission this is some folks sitting
at the console getting ready to look at
some of the dendrites that were
developed during the isothermal
dianetics and detik growth experiment
and this is what they were looking at
this is what helped them to modify the
experiment during the mission the eis g
globe portion of oast you can see that
little nozzle there right in the middle
that plate which is where the nitrogen
was released of course we didn't homes
burn to lower altitude to 105 miles this
is what you see what happens inside
during enormous burn and the purpose of
that was to try to maximize the globe
during all the gas releases Marsha and I
were busy photographing from inside the
cabin to complement the sensors that
were in the payload bay that were
observing the glow phenomena and this is
a two of us with a little red lenses on
our flashlights taking pictures of the
glow this was a 35 shot the tank Marsha
took 35 millimeter shot of the glow one
of the new technology demonstrations
that we had on this flight was a
dextrose and effector now here you can
see Marsha coming in in to grapple the
magnetic attachment tool of course this
is a little bit different than what
we've used in the past in pasture the
RMS has always used the mechanical
apparatus to to grapple payloads and
this we use the magnetic or you can see
the tracking mirror or the tracking
target in the mirror
and one of our office views on orbit
here we're passing over the Bahamas
during the operations the task was a
multiple task looking at how you would
assemble possibly structures in space
like a space station we had a couple
feedbacks into the Kevin the bottom
there was a forced torque sensor in the
top was the N effector or the cameras
the little flashing lights in the center
of this mirror big mirror is a camera in
the payload bay and it looks at a mirror
now on the end effector and data was
gathered on this to understand how
accurately we could move a target if you
couldn't see it this could be important
later in assembling a space structure
when you can't actually see what you're
doing but you have to mate two fairly
large pieces of hardware together and it
worked just fine you can see the arm
here has this board at the bottom of it
with some pegs at the end we basically
inserted pegs in the holes and found
that we could do this to a tolerance of
about a 60 60 thousandths which is
pretty small the force torque sensor
display here indicated how much forces
we had in six directions and it allowed
us to basically feel what we were doing
with the end effector in a work great
here we are again simulating a space
station task this is one of the
biotechnology experiments from bio serve
in Colorado these are rosy periwinkle
sprouts which we grow by just inserting
water into them when we get on board as
it turns out the root of the rosy
periwinkle is one of the major cancer
fighting drugs that we have and they
find that it grows more pure or the cell
remembers to make more of its drug
basically in orbit and than it does on
the ground we took these little tubes
out and photographed them to see how
things were progressing and how things
were growing if you look in there
closely you see a little guy swimming
around in circles that's a brine shrimp
we grow these because they spend their
entire lifetime in the duration of our
plane this is the commercial protein
crystal growth experiment that Marcia
and I worked on
every day or actually three times a day
for the entire mission we took video of
the top tray that experiment you can see
inside the solutions there you can see
what's forming the crystals that are
forming this was the first time I've had
an opportunity to work with on these
experience and it's pretty exciting to
see the actual growth of the crystals
and knowing what what that will do for
the scientists on the ground to help
produce better drugs to fight disease we
had another a pc g on board as well and
then the pecans and were another crystal
growth experiment this particular shot
is of the modem index zero gravity
dynamics experiment this is a
characteristic and representative trust
structure of a large space types trust
this a second time this is blown
previously on 48 now on 62 we find that
you know over the course of the over the
flight those protocols that we repeated
from from the previous flight us he has
48 overlay almost perfectly again we
spent about nine days working on this
particular experiment and collected some
nine gigabytes of data that are now
being analyzed by students at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and in staff there this particular shot
is during one of the educational dsos
that we participated in this is a
downlink video of course has been
recorded on on board by by our equipment
and John and I participated in a number
of blood chemistry analysis type
experiments testing some new prototype
hardware actually this stuff is
commercial hardware that's off the shelf
but we're looking at applications for
long-duration spaceflights blood
chemistry is something obviously that
that you have to watch very carefully on
a long-duration mission to constantly
check the health of the crew members on
board
what we're trying to show here is a
couple different things the first thing
I am in our lower body negative pressure
suit which is a device that's trying to
help us readapt a gravity when we get
home by creating a negative pressure in
the lower half of our body which will
help our fluids go back down into the
lower half of our bodies and that will
help us readapt a little bit better when
we get home one of the other things you
can get out of these scenes this scene
in the next one that is coming along as
is this area of our mid deck was
everything to us it was every room in
our house all put into one we've got
Martian and peered working on the
protein crystals Sam and I are working
in the OMP as well as motives in the
background there this is our our
laboratory our gymnasium or a kitchen or
bathroom or sleeping area bedroom and
this is this is our home and our shower
taking a sponge bath for 14 days you
know it's the parts you miss here and
getting your hair clean is easier for
some of them than it was for others of
us however it we carry some stuff on
board that works pretty well they all
had to get out of my way when I was
doing my hair but you can see that doing
this without gravity is is not as easy
and we always have the obligatory eating
scene in the movie and the one thing
most people don't think about when
you're when you're eating up there is
what if you need some seasoning so we
carry a salt and pepper on board but
it's not the kind that you shake it's
the kind you squirt it's a salt pepper
that's put into a solution with water
and you just squirt the salt and pepper
into your food and then stir it up a
little bit and you can season your food
that way and that's what I'm doing here
as big dips in mushrooms my way
now our laboratory or what was our
daytime laboratory and dining area
kitchen has now been confirmed and
transformed into sleeping quarters and
here you could see any up of flight deck
Marsha in the in the airlock and as you
pan around John and I were on the
starboard bulkhead sleeping there and
Pierre will ultimately see up suspended
from the ceiling sleep is very
comfortable you feel fully supported you
can see the natural position that the
body kinds of assumes with the hands and
the arms out extended out in front of
you and that's real the sleep restraints
just keep us from kind of banging into
each other although it would not be
necessary another one of our duties on
board is is taking pictures we took
almost 10,000 pictures why we're on
board every time any of us would have a
minute we would get upstairs and work
one of our cameras we had 90 millimeter
camera with 70 millimeter cameras as
well as our 35-millimeter on board plus
our movies this first shot is just a
shot looking down the Gulf of Aqaba down
into the Red Sea sign eyes on on the
right there in Saudi Arabia there's on
the left and from our altitude and 39
degree inclination we just got a real
beautiful glimpse of most of the
habitable earth some of the Himalayas
chain with Tibet and China on each
respective side we looked real hard to
see if we could find the Great Wall of
China and unfortunately some of it some
of the best views of it were during our
sleep periods this is a tropical cyclone
with tane that was in the indian ocean
during our flight we got some stills of
this as well as some actual video of it
and we went on two consecutive passes we
basically went right over the thing was
so huge that we saw it twice
cold water clouds or closed cell clouds
with their call these are off the coast
of Chile and they made such an
interesting pattern that we photographed
them almost every time we went over them
they are caused as a result of a high
pressure over cold water this is one of
our us passes here we're coming in over
the San Francisco Bay Oakland Bay Area
San Joaquin Valley to the further south
there the tail and eventually we covered
all the Sierra Nevadas and pushing out
across towards the towards the East
Coast we had for daylight passes every
day typically in our afternoon now you
can see the Sierra Nevadas the
snow-capped Sierra Nevadas come into
view there's a small like that it's just
let's see I can't see it now in Mono
Lake I think just disappeared off to the
right side of the of the screen the us
passes over we're pretty spectacular and
again over the course of 14 days we had
different attitudes and that we were
able to see parts of the country that
had not been photographed before sin or
Las Vegas now it's coming right onto the
tip of the tail there passing off the
center and now we're going to come in
with Houston is just off to the right
side here and we'll come in over the
coast in Galveston Bay
now you can see the Gulf Coast coming
into view and in Galveston Island
this is a pass over the Great Lakes Lake
Michigan on the left like here on in the
middle Lake Erie to the right and from
our this was a sort of the apex or 39
degree inclination we could look well up
into Canada as you can see here Hudson
Bay right up on the horizon there that's
like area that's coming into view now a
lot of that part of the country snow
covered this time of year and this is
Cape Hatteras the Outer Banks North
Carolina
looking on up the coast to Norfolk
Chesapeake Bay Area
there's a little more Nader shot of
Virginia Beach's that point of land kind
in the middle left center Norfolk a
little bit more towards the top of the
screen the Eastern Shore of Virginia
beginning of the Chesapeake Bay tux and
potomac rivers up there and looking not
quite all the way to DC but you can
almost see Washington DC be around the
very right of the screen and this is a
coming over the northwest tip of Cuba
kind of heading southeast and get to see
a little bit of the Bahamas and the
water around there the beautiful colors
that we've got some still shot of that
you'll see that the very deep blue
colors of the dip very deep ocean and
the light colors very shallow water
here's some of our exercise on board we
had a bicycle ergometer little stretch
band there to workout and our doctors
our medical folks said that we came back
in great shape for the period of time
that we're up there considering we're
out there for 14 days we attribute part
of this at least to the fact that we
exercise all the crew exercised during
the flight again right below me was John
working on the odometer but we try to
squeeze in where we can squeeze in and
and use this laptop computer for just a
myriad of different purposes on board as
well as we can send home a LAN that
since it was close to Spring Break but
we travel bungee jumping and I don't
think that have been done before in
space we want to claim a first you
probably didn't get the whole duration
record but we did some bungee jumping
esas during our day off or have to
floating is like for most of us a dream
come true I mean you always dream as a
child if you can fly and float and here
you get the opportunity to do it and so
when we did have the opportunity we did
here they're playing volleyball with me
here catch I guess it's the day before
entry we're going over reviewing some of
our procedures for re-entry going
through some of the checklist that we're
going to use to make the entry and andys
over in the right seat working our pilot
computer this is another laptop computer
that we had to help us refresh ourselves
and review the process we're going to do
it and we go through as we come around
intercept the heading alignment circle
passing over the Kennedy Space Center
and make our turn to to file into a
landing so we had it set up over on the
pilot seat and John and I worked quite a
bit on it for the for the couple days
before entry and this is just a shot of
what the simulation looks like as we're
passing over the threshold of a KSC 15
getting into suits is quite an affair in
space when you don't think about the
fact that you can't just put your pieces
of clothes on the floor pick them up one
of the time and get into them it takes
two people to get in these suits and it
really is quite arrangement it takes a
good bit of time to get everybody all
suited up looking at the pilots window
here we had a camcorder this is as we're
going to our thermal phase which is our
glow phase or the area that we go
through our thermal heating the
reflections you see off our backs that's
a picture of John there and I'm on his
right side that's what we call sometimes
incorrectly the plasma or the fire
spikes that you see coming over top up
through the payload bay windows or
through the overhead windows the glow is
some beautiful colors and you can see
we're just about threw it on my right
window you can look down and see the
earth again this is our trajectory as
we're coming across the country the
white line is our orbit if we had stayed
in orbit but now we're doing a cross
range across the country to get back
home here's a shot of the actual runway
KSC runway 33 taken out of the pilots
right-hand window and the Vehicle
Assembly Building down to the right
there it really wasn't that bumpy on the
approach it's just hard to hold that
camera steady beautiful day at the
Kennedy Space Center we come down the
outer glide slope and aunty lowers the
gear at 300 feet it's always amazing to
me that this vehicle which has been our
home our spaceship for 14 days now comes
back and lands like an airplane and
we're touching down about two hundred
seven knots here
we had one last test to perform that was
to deploy the landing drag chute which
we've made some modifications to
deployed that just at the start of our D
rotation at 175 knots and worked very
well
and very bright light breaking to bring
us to a complete stop in all we flew 224
orbits around the earth some 5.8 million
miles and it was a great flight we're
glad to be back in happy to be able to
tell you about it
you