from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
this is Space Shuttle Endeavor launch
control the countdown for the launch of
Endeavour on space shuttle mission STS
68 is continuing on schedule this
morning again the final inspection team
is continuing to conduct their final
portions of the work at the pad and they
will be departing the pad shortly to
make their final report to the launch
director no issues have come up in the
wake of their assessments and everything
continues to look good as the crew
completes their breakfast they will soon
be donning their flight suits and entry
suits and the commander and pilot will
be given a final briefing on today's
weather outlook
starting with our commander Mike Baker
all are being assisted with their suits
by Kennedy Space Center and Johnson
Space Center technicians these personnel
were experts in the understanding of the
details on how these suits work pilot
today is Terry Wolcott he'll be making
his first trip in his space shuttle
Endeavour mission specialist mission
specialist Steve Smith is making his
first trip into space today also appears
ready to fly ready to go up the bright
orange colored suits are basically an
altitude protection system and of course
they're checked out prior to launch
payload commander Tom Jones making his
second trip into space his first trip
was just this past April
mission specialist Jeff Weiss off making
his second trip into space today a
mission specialist dan birch making his
second trip into space today making
preparations on his suit to make sure
that it pressurizes as it should
checking all the straps and loops
following launch and while on orbit the
crew members change out of these suits
into more conventional and comfortable
clothing
however they are required to return to
these suits prior to prior to landing
this is shuttle launch control we are
now at t-minus three hours and Counting
everything continues to look good for
our launch this morning at 7:16 a.m.
from pad 39a with the space shuttle
Endeavour on mission STS 68
this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus two hours 15 minutes and
Counting and we have our sixth member of
crew on the third floor of the
operations and check-out building they
have been suited and they're ready to
take that 20-minute trip out to the pad
getting on the elevator they'll be going
down to the first floor at which time
they'll be entering the crew Astro van
and our crew are walking out of the
upper checkout building on their way to
my paper
this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus 2 hours 34 minutes and Counting
and the Astro van with the astronaut
crew members inside has arrived at the
base of pad 39a and they are at this
time disembarking from the astronaut van
and once they're all gathered in the
elevator they'll make the trip up to the
195-foot level of the fixed service
structure and begin their ingress into
the orbiter pad 39a is the southernmost
pad of nasa's 2 shuttle launch
facilities and it is nearly identical to
pad 39b which is located just about a
mile to the north it looks like our crew
members have deviated a little bit from
their desire to go straight up to the
orbiter and they're going to stand
beneath the mobile launcher platform and
have a quick picture taken of them
and we are at t-minus nine minutes and
holding and all of our sights are
observed go and forecast go as far as
weather is concerned
we're just a few seconds away from
resuming the countdown for the launch of
space shuttle Endeavour this morning and
we're at t-minus nine minutes and
Counting and the ground launch sequencer
has been initiated NASA test director
Bill Dowdell was about to call for the
transmittal of stored pre-launch
commands as endeavour is only nine
minutes from its seventh mission in
space on board is the space radar
laboratory and a crew of six astronauts
t-minus seven minutes thirty seconds and
the orbiter access arm is now being
retracted away from the vehicle this is
the walkway used by the crew to gain
entry into and out of the vehicle and
can be returned to position within
seconds if need be
and final eros eros surface checks of
the orbiters flaps and rudder are being
completed this verifies the orbiters
hydraulic systems and the three main
engines are being gimbal does a final
test before launch t-minus two minutes
30 seconds all is ready to fly today on
NASA's four-and-a-half million pound
space shuttle vehicle t-minus one minute
50 seconds everything continues to look
good for launch this morning as the
space shuttle Endeavour soon will begin
its 10-day mission to continue its radar
mapping expedition and study
environmental taejun's on earth
and we have a go for autosequence start
endeavors onboard computers have primary
control of all the vehicles critical
functions t-minus 20 seconds fifteen
twelve eleven ten nine eight seven we
have a go for main engine start four
three two one and liftoff of the space
shuttle Endeavour on a mission to study
the Earth's ever-changing environment
endeavours roll maneuver is underway
vehicles now in a heads-down position on
course for a 57 degree 120 nautical mile
orbit
approaching two minutes into the flight
the next event is burnout in separation
of the solid rocket boosters
SRB separation is confirmed endeavours
altitude is 170 thousand feet downrange
from the launch site 32 nautical miles
now traveling 4,400 feet per second or
about 3,000 miles per hour three and a
half minutes now into endeavours mission
the orbiter is downrange from the launch
site 91 nautical miles
traveling 4,400 miles per hour at an
altitude of 300 to 6000 feet endeavour
Houston we see a nominal nominal Mako
homes one not required this is Mission
Control Houston we're now receiving some
videotape from the space shuttle
Endeavour of the external tank as it
drifts away from the shuttle Endeavour
following today's 616 a.m. Central time
launch from Kennedy Space Center this
tape being sent down to us through the
Merritt Island tracking station on the
coast of Florida
confirmed copy Roger roll endeavour
looks like I don't we see the roll
copy good bottle up 3 at 104 never go at
throttle up
that's our beset
copy SRB set 103 converged so why'd you
press one for endeavor single-engine
press 104
we have five decibel tighter tighter
tighter for the fuzzy logic you copy and
endeavour Houston we copy all thanks 12
the answer two plus 12 is sterilized not
disable the messages I'll stand by for
about 13 with your go all right we copy
let's look at it
now let's talk about the first of the
two experiments the first experiments
called brick it's biological research in
canisters and it's sponsored by the
United States Department of Agriculture
there are five canisters aluminum
canisters like this on board within each
canister there are a thousand gypsy moth
eggs so we have five thousand gypsy
moths they explain what's this you're on
endeavour now you might ask why do we
have gypsy moth eggs on Endeavour it
turns out that the gypsy moth is very
destructive a very destructive pest in
the United States especially to
Northeast hardware hardwood forests so
the United States Department of
Agriculture has a goal of controlling
the population of gypsy moths in that
area now the way they control gypsy
moths population is by introducing
sterile gypsy moths into the wild they
tried to produce sterile gypsy moths on
the ground but it's a very difficult
process and also very time-consuming we
also don't know exactly the mechanism
within the gypsy moths that makes them
stir but we do have a ground process
that works well by by accident we have
actually found out that gypsy moth eggs
if they are carried in spaceflight
produced Daryll gypsy moths we don't
quite understand the mechanism and
that's the goal of this experiment if we
take these 5000 gypsy moth eggs with us
and give them back to the USDA after the
flight they should produce still gypsy
moths and the USDA will be able to look
at those gypsy moths and understand the
exact mechanism that creates their
sterility now they wouldn't want us to
grow sterile gypsy moths in space for
introduction to the wild at mass
populations but they would like to
understand the mechanisms that create
sterility and hopefully reproduce it on
the ground so there's one example how
going away from the Earth's surface
actually can be used to solve a problem
we have on earth so that's the first of
the two experiments
the second experiment I'd like to
discuss discuss with you today is called
the commercial protein crystal growth
experiment or CPC G and it's sponsored
by the University of Alabama now before
I get into the details let me tell you
that the goal of this experiment
it's 132 times on the shuttle by the way
is to either create new drugs or to
improve drugs we already have now drug
design in the United States now is based
on a sophisticated process called
structural based drug design
that's where experiment is rather than
taking a sample of a disease and
applying different drugs to it in a
somewhat haphazard way actually study
the disease's structure
study the drugs that they might consider
what solve that disease so they just fit
together so they actually look at the
structure of this crystal or drug to try
and find out what exactly fits into that
disease actually would cure that disease
now this National Institute of Health as
a structural based drug design is one of
their number-one priorities in the next
ten years
now unfortunately in some cases where we
grow crystals on the ground again trying
to analyze the crystals to heal this
disease the crystals cannot be grown on
the ground because of our gravity well
the good news is that in space we don't
have vanity and we can grow crystals for
the scientists okay what I have here is
a picture on the bottom of a
ground-based crystal phone and on the
top is the crystal grown in space now
these photos are the same magnification
of the same drug so you can see that
these crystals on the ground grow on the
ground we're limited in size and quality
whereas the crystals grown in space are
much bigger and much better quality
therefore space flight produces crystals
that are better quality and larger
scientists can then can then take the
crystals on the ground and analyze and
now on earth while we're flying
something called alpha interferon it's
already a very successful drug around
the world used in 60 countries to treat
various forms of cancer and also viral
diseases however remember that the goal
of C PGG is either to help discover new
drugs or to improve current drugs and in
our case we're trying to improve alpha
interferon and when you try to
prove a drug you're basically trying to
eliminate some of the side effects so
now that's the second experiment I've
decided to describe to you and it's an
excellent example of how we go into
space to improve our lives on earth and
to solve problems we have on earth so
when you think of NASA and the shuttle
program going up into space we go away
from the Earth's surface to actually
help our families and friends in the
world
on the ground
the future load switch I'm doing that
and pushing that ahead calibration
go right to the green center left of the
green center release
and over here and show the target
a horizontal head calibration trial
number two
one of the medical experiments were
participating in you may have noticed
the device that's on Dan and my wrist
it's called back to low and it's part of
and not only they monitoring the
melatonin levels in our urine and saliva
they're also monitoring the light levels
that were exposed to light apparently
controls the production of melatonin so
the devices that we have on our wrists
are actually measuring the light levels
that were exposed to 24 hours a day in
addition to measuring our levels of
activity there's some accelerometers in
these devices and so it measures the
level of activity during the day and
then particularly it's been the level of
activity while we're sleeping it can
tell them whether we're sleeping very
well or not and therefore that's a good
measure of how well we're adjusting our
time clocks pretty much count on looking
at the imagery after the mission we
don't have ready access to NASA select
but we're very excited about the work
that you're doing and we'll be looking
forward to seeing you after you get back
to mother earth
burn some of their circuit boards
we have a few minutes here at the end of
the ship where I could tell you about
our activities on board tell you about
the major components of the space radar
laboratory talk about our science goals
for the week's activities and tell you
about some of the examples of global
change that we look forward to sharing
with the people and the scientists back
on earth this space radar lab - is part
of NASA's mission to Planet Earth that's
a program that NASA is conducting to
look at Earth's Wiese land water the air
around the planet and all the
interactions of those components we're
trying to understand earth as a single
complex system so that we can get a
handle on the real numbers behind the
changes our globe is experiencing now
spit the space radar lab goal as a part
of mission to Planet Earth is to look
for those hard numbers on Earth's
changes most been made and natural to
try to bring those back to North so we
can understand how we're affecting the
planet and how we have to cope with
those changes now to do that we have a
payload base full of sophisticated
instruments the last flew in April on
SPF 59 and I'd like to tell you a bit
about those and I've got a little video
segment here to show you those
components the first component we have
onboard space radar lab is a
state-of-the-art imaging radar and we're
going to show you here in this view as
we come down from the overhead windows
search the XR radar out in the payload
Bay the other components of SRL is the
maps air pollution sensor and in this
year the payload Bay you can see the
large radar array stretching from about
the short end of the day all the way
back to the tail it's labeled JPL that's
the Circe X our instrument the wildly
Research Center logo is on the mapped
instrument just to the right of the
screen to the left of the Canadian there
arm and the small segment of antenna
labeled X R as the german-built
component of space radar lab now these
sensors in the cargo bay right
useful unless we have the cruiser on
board to operate them for the imaging
radar part of the mission the crew has
an essential role to play there's a huge
amount of data coming down from the
instrument out there as it images the
Earth's surface and those images have to
be transferred to the ground we don't
have enough communications link onboard
to transfer them all in real time so the
first role the crew is to handle the
data coming back from the radar we do
that by changing out our data tapes
onboard and about 207 data tapes onboard
each of them holds 50 gigabytes of data
and we've gotten really good at
practicing changing out those tapes we
hope to bring back about 50 to tera bits
of data something like 20,000
encyclopedia volumes of information by
the time we're finished the second part
of the cruise role is to handle a
photography that supports the science
investigations around the world in many
freezes to the world we don't have
scientific teams on the ground to
validate the results from the radars or
from the maps pollution sensor and so we
are the ground troops photography from
14,000 still photo frames is going to be
used to provide the environmental
conditions over those targets and remote
areas of the globe will don't have
independent certification and the last
thing we're doing and probably the most
important role that the crews playing on
this mission is to point the payload Bay
instruments at the required targets and
to do that we're conducting a succession
of maneuvers about 409 of them during
the mission and that's about 25,000
computer keystrokes to tell endeavours
computers how to orient the payload
basis to get the optimum data coming
back down to the ground so the radar in
the cargo bay thrust the XR is a
synthetic aperture radar and it paints a
picture of the Earth's surface through
darkness and clouds and conducts operate
around the clock all the way around our
orbits every 90 minutes around the globe
the maps pollution sensor is an infrared
spectrometer and it measures the amount
of heat radiation coming up from the
ground and converts that into
information on how much carbon monoxide
is lying just beneath the Space Shuttle
as we go around the planet and over a
couple of days we can construct a map of
pollution sources and the way the co is
moving around
world on a day-to-day basis and this is
a very good comparison with information
we got last spring and on to previous
flights of maps and this is just the key
to our whole mission just looking for
changes around the world we're looking
for changes since last April's STS 59
mission statement or lab 1 we're looking
for changes in the previous Maps data
over the last 10 years and these two
flights and other flights and NASA's
mission to pilots will show the ability
to murder the earth or the global system
on a permanent basis we're looking for
changes like ecology changes phases
around the world climate changes and
some dramatic changes on the surface
that we're more familiar with like
volcanoes and storm systems for example
in the area of ecology we're looking at
clearing into forestation around the
world with the tropical and northern
forests of the world to see the rate at
which we're destroying the forests and
the rate at which they're renewing
themselves so we can really quantify
that important phenomenon in the
ecosystem they've already seen a lot of
forest fires over in Asia and in
Australia some at night over Africa and
in South America as well and our data
when we come back will give us the rates
of forest change around the world terms
of pollution we're looking for the way
that carbon monoxide drifts around the
world from its sources like forest fires
and that will help us track these what
we're looking for climate change by
looking at the geology around the world
for traces in the geologic past of radio
radio and dryer periods in the Earth's
deserts and the valleys that show
alluvial fan erosion those are very key
points to investigate for looking back
into the Earth's climatic past before
we've also been looking at several storm
systems down in the southern ocean that
which can track on a day-to-day basis
and there are targets for birth to radar
and some of the maps instruments because
they are those phone systems can
distribute pollution around the world we
have a busy week ahead of us here on
space radar lab we've got a lot of work
to do in terms of maneuvering changing
the tapes and most important for us on a
daily basis is taking all those still
photography still photos from the aft
windows it keeps us constantly busy when
there's a daylight pass going on
that's not surprising news is a very
complex system takes a lot of study to
understand it and the only future
permanent platform or suite of
instruments in orbit it's going to be
able to do that on a permanent basis and
we hope that by flying this testbed will
prove that that principle will in fact
work we're getting a taste of some of
the exciting results that we're
anticipating here in orbit with our own
eyes and it's going to be an exciting
look at the data when we get back to the
ground with those 207 data tapes and
really see in full fidelity what the
Circe XR and map sensors have brought
back well we can see the changes here
we're going to try to show them with you
in the coming week
okay you should be getting this Europe
through the square volcano you can see
the upper slopes and there's a very
active eruption going on from the
northeast portion about des County is
behind the smoke plume it will looks
like some the shadow heights you can
even estimate the height of the eruption
through but we're guessing it at least
35 or 40 thousand and that dark gray
dust will goes down with at least 500
kilometres if not more okay now this is
a going away shot east end of the
volcano you could still see the lava
flows at the top of the screen where the
eruption is actually originating and
this gives you good users the profile of
the clue and there's about a watch shop
adaptogen starting to stat it shows you
the extent of the ash this is Mission
Control Houston we are receiving some
data from the space radar laboratory
instruments this particular data is
coming down real-time or near real-time
and is data as of the Kamchatka
Peninsula the orbiter is flying over
this peninsula that is to the east of
Russia and on the western side of the
Bering Sea
he said there were you should be getting
that video now that's affirmed and so
once again really just a fantastic video
image
from the synthetic aperture radar
instrument onboard endeavor as it passes
over the rico michigan super site these
are live pictures from the XR instrument
Rico Michigan is one of the ecology
sites being studied the the ground looks
just like it did then we have a
beautiful mosaic of fall colors
beginning to develop and you should be
beginning to see lots of reds and
yellows as you look down over our site
in the days to come you know week last
night will simply be looking for it the
lighting so far is made a little hard to
distinguish colors but we have noticed a
little bit greener in wood near the
coastal lines for the Great Lakes it's
looked a little bit more far like well
that should be proceeding along rather
quickly now we've had two nights of good
hard Frost's with clear weather and the
drying so fall is coming quickly upon us
and endeavours now moving across the
northwestern portions of Africa again
using the synthetic aperture radar it's
very evident that the orbiter is now
crossing over land this is a geological
site a super site again over the Sahara
Desert area and the Sahara is an area
which is about the size of the United
States prior to its becoming a desert
area it had been apparently well laden
with fairly major drainage networks with
increasing dominance of the wind and the
sands and the channels and the various
floodplains of the rivers began to be
reworked into thin sheets and eventual
scattered dunes this is Mission Control
Houston we're now receiving some
additional real-time downlink from the
synthetic aperture radar instrument in
endeavours payload Bay as it flies 118
nautical miles over the coast of Japan
with us again is dr. Jeffrey plow the
geology representative for soar cxr dr.
Platt what are we looking for in these
XR images well at this point we're
traveling over the Sea of Japan and this
is an inland body not an inland body
this is a strait between the main
northern tip of the island of Hokkaido
which was the vicinity of the offshore
earthquake earlier today dr. Platt is
there any possibility I need or line
because of the waves that have been in
the area that is the type of observation
that we would be interested in making
and in this case perhaps looking for
ponded water or any bright returns right
radar returns from the near shore area
here we're coming over the southwest
corner and then beyond in the top of the
screen there is the northeast section of
the island and there's no obvious
evidence of damage but this is going by
rather fast and we'd certainly need more
time to sit down and do a detailed
processing and analysis of the image and
the next day to take underway with the
synthetic aperture
radar in endeavours payload Bay as the
orbiter tracks northeast now approaching
the Great Lakes region
the Reiko Michigan super site is located
on the eastern end of Michigan's Upper
Peninsula
the particular site of interest is
located between forested regions in the
northern temperate forest which is known
as a transitional zone that is expected
to be ecologically sensitive to global
changes the baseline studies are of the
vegetation areas and those areas are
essential for being studied in
monitoring the global changes again the
orbiter is tracking along the Great
Lakes area to the Northeast
coming up here's the shoreline of one of
the islands and we can clearly see the
volcanoes on those islands these are
some of the most remote volcanoes in the
world and some of the least studies
because of the remoteness and the
difficulty of getting to them in
addition this area is often cloud
covered and makes it difficult for
aerial observations or satellite
observations
once we get the radar set up and ready
to go it's ready to start taking data
and the next scene that you're going to
see is a picture of us passing over the
Sahara Desert as you can see that to the
eye it doesn't look very like there many
features but when you turn the radar on
this is what the radar can see
underneath the ground or ancient
riverbeds and that was part of our study
this was a geological site that we
wouldn't understand the history of how
the Sahara Desert became what it is
today because obviously it's climate in
the past must have been very different
to have these riverbeds underneath
this is Mission Control Houston
endeavours tracking across the Northeast
portions of North America just to move
off the coastline just to the north of
Newfoundland we use coming from the
payload Bay cameras aboard the orbiter
it's see where it is it's see the
pincers and there's covered involved in
you take it is it open wide open
maybe
looks like 68
shoots away
endeavor on energy at the 90
approaching 1,000 feet
and the landing gear is now down and
locked
main gear touchdown
and nose gear touchdown endeavour
rolling out on runway 2 to the Edwards
Air Force Base facility in California
after 183 orbits of the earth traveling
4 million 700 3,000 miles
Houston and order a wheel stop roger
wheelstop endeavour and welcome home
makes you and your crew have done a
great job made a significant
contribution to the mission to Planet
Earth
we on the ground are proud of your work
and proud to be a part of this flight
well done
Osby neighbor autoloader he's happy
Roger wheel step endeavor and welcome
home
fakes here and your crew have done a
great job made a significant
contribution to the mission to planted
everything we on the ground they're
proud of your work and proud to be a
part of this flight well done explain
copy so post-landing deltas pick up with