yo Mirage tinea norm
good morning dance gee it get stuck to
you people wake up time again st. my
strange yeah who door on and we're on a
string here we also hear you have a
seminal stowaway on board ah yeah we're
gonna I guess we're gonna have to
confess to it he wasn't on board when we
launched and he's not bored now so he
must be a stowaway shuttle commander
hoot Gibson and pilot Charlie Precourt
have been involved in final set ups of
equipment aboard atlantis and the
transfer of some logistical hardware
from the mirror into the shuttle which
will be returned to Earth much of that
equipment and experimentation was
accumulated by the mere 18 crew during
their three and a half months stay
aboard the mirror
Atlanta's mirror Spacelab Houston spot
meter that's a possible this view from
payload Bay cameras looking up the
Cristal module if you have up there
there's two more spot meters on board
let me tell you where the stowage is for
three spot meter says we're not sure
which one you were holding one should
have been in a 6 ok we were just
wondering if we had any extras because
the Russians have a spot meter that is
lacking batteries oh now I understand we
have not identified extra batteries yet
ok yeah all of us brought mater's our
finest just that we might have a battery
Atlantis Houston hoot let's delete em
gasps check out we can work that during
mere 19
Jim McKenna Aviation Week for dr.
thagard what is the number one problem
or issue that you believe should be
addressed before Shannon lucid arrives
at mere next next March as well as with
regards to long-duration US Space Flight
my impression is psychological aspects
party probably loon largest there
doesn't really seem to be big problems
or physiologically I think we still have
to find out what's happening with
mineral mineral loss from bone for
instance and obviously radiation is an
ongoing problem as long as you're in
space but I think anybody can do three
months or four months as i'm doing and
six months in my opinion and longer is a
different different matter entirely I
think Shannon won't have any problem but
I think we need to address some things
for the folks who plan to be up here six
months and launder this is Paul Houston
with USA Today for norm thagard sort of
following up on the same question what
about the systems on me roar the setup
or configuration should absolutely not
be done with the International Space
Station if there is anything well from
what I saw it it takes a considerable
offers from two folks to keep mir
station operating i think you would want
to minimize the amount of maintenance
ongoing that were required for a new
space station I don't think I'd run
conduits both air and electrical through
hatches which make it difficult if not
impossible to close those hatches
rapidly if you needed to and lastly I
would certainly pay a lot of attention
to sketch because if there were a
problem that we had it was finding
places to store things next to open for
the voice of America this is for vitamin
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mera with a fury
estancia technisches kids that I blog
with it used to surely the circumstances
of space of the cosmos where things just
tend to fly around by them you know
where you leave something somewhere it
kind of floats there and if you try and
put something in a particular place it
doesn't stay there and the trick is to
learn how to arrange everything for that
bathroom and to make sure that it is
convenient for operation in space etat
Halverson of Florida today for hoot
Gibson who the mission to date has been
remarkably smooth but like with all
enterprises there's probably room for
improvement what types of lessons have
you learned it can be applied to future
shuttle-mir missions or the Assembly of
the space station Todd like you say it
has done pretty smoothly there's an
aspect of it though that you don't see
that's that's how hard we're hustling
here on board every day to accomplish
all the things that we need to get done
on a long-duration flight or a space
station flight you're not going to be
able to keep up the kind of pace that
we've been keeping up and a lot of it
has been associated with the water
difficult area of transfers of material
from the orbiter to the mayor and from
the mirror back to the orbiter both
equipment future test equipment
completed test samples and all those
sorts of things now we expected that
this was going to be a pretty big effort
and there was going to be a lot of a lot
of uncertainty and it was actually going
to be a lot of unknowable they actually
got up here and tried to do it and that
in fact is kind of what we've bumped
into and we've been we've been working a
little bit extra a little bit harder to
try and accommodate all of those things
but that's the one area and I think for
the future docking flights the transfer
plan the locations the storage all of it
needs to be detailed down to it
for us to really be able to do it
smoothly and efficiently and I think
that's one of the big lessons that we
will have seen out of this way when he's
let me finish by saying that was not
unexpected we pretty well knew that that
was the kind of situation we were facing
when we got up here and and I think
we've adapted to it about as well as you
could green brown with GPI 4dr thagard
if you had to do it all again what would
you have done differently or brought
with you that you didn't have to prepare
for four months in space i think i would
have paid a lot more attention to the to
the food that was stored for us on board
i think that in general we thought there
is room for improvement there but
otherwise i felt pretty good with what I
already had on board I don't require a
lot i had two good companions and that
made up for a lot of efficiencies our
lane news day for norm thagard when you
said it psychologically six-month
mission is a different matter entirely
what did you mean did you get on each
other's nerves or were you starting to
get on each other's nerves it had
nothing to do with crew relationships
though so remain fine throughout in fact
I can honestly say there were never any
serious disputes among the crew and
probably wouldn't have been even on a
six-month mission for the American envoy
Russian space station you're the only
English speaker on board in general the
cultural isolation is extreme there were
times when I went 72 hours without
speaking to an english-speaking person I
didn't get a lot of news up here all of
those things start to weigh heavily
after a while since on you from the
start I could do anything for three
months it wasn't going to be a problem
for me if I've been looking at six
months I would have been really worried
at about three months that I wasn't
going to make it their impressions of
the coordination between the ground
control centers and the orbiter and
mirror especially with the science crew
and norm seems to have gotten a bit
testy at times in
last couple of days over things that you
all are being asked to do and there have
been concerns that you've been
overbooked could each of the commanders
please talk a little bit about your
impressions of that do you feel
overbooked is this and just an it that's
being picked or is this a serious
problem that will have to be worked out
before the next joint mission is flown
this regard to norm standing testy let
me just say that not all this sounds
like that and i don't i don't believe
that norm has been testy or meant to
sound testy doing any of this i have to
give the ground tremendous tremendous
grades on on the coordination and the
way they put everything together in a
way that things have flowed up here this
is not an easy thing to coordinate the
activities of of mere 18 min 19 and SDS
71 and i think that both mission control
centers the soup and houston in my view
and from what I've seen have done just a
spectacular job of learning this are all
in making this flow smoothly so that's
what i think about the whole thing i
would like to hear the russian
translation come up of the question for
Anatoly and for Volusia at this point
really didn't have any concerns such a
question really surprises me because
norm was prepared for all experiments
and he performed them like spectacularly
without any help from us and he didn't
ask for any help from us and he didn't
need our help so there weren't really
any complications isn't that true norm
would like to say to answer someone from
a different angle on this question I've
got a ganar for when we're talking about
coordinating the to ground control
centers come in the coordinate
of crews in orbit I think this is a very
important issue and I think that it must
be carefully prepared very very much
like a sports team this sports team
spend a lot of time training and in
coordinating an understanding among team
members so that the team members can
play well on the field for example like
the Houston rotten rockets and then you
can achieve very great successes in this
way most everything must be carefully
prepared for a flight so that flight
will be a good training ground for
future work this is seth borenstein from
the Orlando Sentinel for a norm thagard
you after spending nearly four months on
mere you're just about to leave it can
tell me what parts of me are you going
to miss and what's going to be going
through your head as as you pull away
and watching it the first thing that
comes to mind is not too long after the
flight is over the mere 18 crew desert
separate ways which means vulajin
Gennady back to Russia while I remain in
the united states that makes me sad of
course because I think we've gotten to
be good friends this may well be
probably is my last space flights off to
think about the fact that I won't get to
experience this again and that also
whether we're on nurse station or on the
space shuttle I would think about that
this approach and earth news fan atole
you were aboard mir five years ago when
crystal first arrived what was your
impression going through the docking
channel especially since he came from a
u.s. shuttle rather than the Soviet
shadow of a proscan italiana
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which also be no without facts to
withdraw sweep rebel in Americans
rather than my style I think that the
docking module docking node is in a good
technical condition although of course
the station itself has been in orbit for
a long time and it should always be kept
in mind that in in space space is a very
aggressive environment and right now
we're testing this this and this
engineering technology over a course of
many years experience opportunities to
matheran my impressions of the dynamics
of controlling the complex from the
shuttle and then we alternated with
controlling the complex with mere all of
this depended on the docking module and
i think that the structure showed itself
to be a excellent piece of equipment and
we always keep in mind that highly
qualified specialists were engaged in
fabricating it this is James for from
WFTV in Orlando for dr. thagard is sort
of a follow-up to set born science
question what's your concern is you get
ready to land and come back into 1g
after being in microgravity so long and
what are you going to do once you get
back here on earth perhaps the answer
that question explains what was
interpreted as being tested you heard
the girl I could complain this morning
that I'll because of task I was assigned
I've missed my exercise bill I'm
concerned about physical condition when
I get back on the ground the Russians
believe that you need to exercise with
21 hours a day and that that it ought to
ramp up in severity toward the end of
the flight just before coming home and I
concur I think that's important too so
we have to do something and we ought to
do what we can to protect those
sighs foods just before coming home
other than that i'm not sure i've been
so so testy but that that came out of a
real concern about being healthy and
being able to walk and do well
immediately upon return to my reports
have led me here to do you avoid him
question from Moscow Russian commanders
I wanted to know about your colleague le
Polyakov that there were there was a
female to remember who performed
traditional female tasks such as washing
dishes I wanted to know your opinions on
this
it's difficult to say such particular
changes there weren't any such changes
the up here on the station we have a
particular way of working in it really
doesn't matter if you're a man or a
woman everybody's got their
responsibilities everybody tries to do
them i would say that with all these
people here that it is more interesting
up here cannot yet add anything of
course women are needed and the more the
better first of all we have this
gigantic complex and orbit this is a new
step in the creation of this is
something that seal coughs get one time
had dreamed about all of these dreams
have been practically implemented and
are being implemented and of course you
can't do that without women you said I
guess so story I guess we're ready to
proceed we have come to that point in
the mission that I guess all of us have
actually been writing to add some degree
and that's the point where we have to
say farewell to the men 19 crew and I'm
glad we called it farewell and that
goodbye because we are going to see them
very shortly they're going to be going
much too long they're going to be gone
60 days but we are all of us I think
looking forward to when we get them back
on earth we have started with the
mission of mere 18 sts 71 and mid
nineteen
is intended to be and what will be a
very long a very long program a very
fruitful program 50s 71 is going to be
drawing to a close here in a very few
days when we return with the crew of
mirror 18 back to the earth however none
of us feel like the mission is really
going to be complete until we get not
just our our comrades our compatriots on
Muir 19 but are very good friends from
their 19 back to earth we're hoping to
be in Kazakhstan when they come back in
the series so our mission none of us
have felt would be complete until all of
our fellow crew members are back again
to the earth so we're here today to tell
them fair wall and the mission that
we've set out on is a very ambitions our
phase one is a continuation of what we
started with mere 18 min 18 sts 71
international space station will be the
next continuation of what we started and
what we're preparing to say farewell to
just one small part of that farm
continuing overall program so we are
drawing to a close one mission the
preview mission the continuing mission
is a mission of many many years and that
is going to continue on long after we
have landed and long after been 19 has
landed when we leave Mia 19 is going to
be very much in our thoughts and in our
hearts we want to leave them with a few
presents to remember us by and so we
have a couple of presents to present to
Anatoly and to Nick at this time so
they'll be able to think of us we have a
couple of our crew pins so that they can
keep us in their thoughts during the
next couple of months before they come
back
and we also have a SD s71 wristwatch for
an Italian Nick very shortly we're going
to be closing the hatch tonight and
tomorrow we'll each climb into our own
individual rockets speaking of rockets I
bathroom Houston Rockets I don't know if
you noticed but doing the press
conference during the press conference
and it's already mentioned the houston
rockets and it turns out he's a very big
fan of the rockets and so we ever know
another present that we'd like to
present to Anatoly and it's the new
emblem of the Houston Rockets we have a
Houston Rockets t-shirt and it has the
it has the brand new emblem and anatoly
it so true it's a druggie fedora that's
another present for anatoly never know
the emblems know the emblem houston
rockets
are you able to see this new emblem on
the TV yes sir we certainly are in a boy
talk about basketball players in the air
you all are getting more air time there
than anyone ever and that's all we can
really jump at least I tell you I've
Lisa well we have a couple of other
small presents for them we have just a
little bit of fresh fruit and just a
little bit of of a real American
tradition I guess we have a few bags of
tortillas that we'd like to leave with
them and we have the remainder of our
fresh fruit that we'd like to leave with
mere 19 because I'm not sure it may be a
while before they see fresh fruit again
Nikolai you're saying this will be my
happiness so i guess i guess we're home
with we hit home with many of our
presence
okay who we're looking at some great
smiles there someday we'll be growing
oranges up there it's not too long from
now oh so I guess we're going to leave
Rudnick which is anatoly's cosine
anatoly's crew call sign I guess we're
going to leave just right Nick one and
Rudnick to up there may be a word or two
from rodnik three and case you didn't
know we were called rodnik which is a
word which means exploring it then I a
water spring in the woods and anatoly
Rudnick one and Nikolai Rebeck two and i
was driving through and we trained
together at the backup crew together
keep eyes for over a year and I really
enjoyed the experience great commander
and a great bird engineer and I have
some emotional thoughts about saying
goodbye to them but I know they'll be
just an absolutely great job up here
until their landing at this soft landing
the octopus vodka in August and I wish
them a lot of luck and success notice
that the production
you
then it's only I don't know how to say
this in Russian but we wish you fair
winds and following seas and soft
landings we will count the days until
you come back and we get to see you
again
I hope we meet in moscow in august with
our very cool and i think it was a very
good ship on the space station were on
the atlantis and in sunday your medial
formula it to go away a good time for
you and I think in Tomas will threaten
our family too and i want to set to
control mission in lewiston for his very
good job and the helps our flight
eastern new interest i guess we are
about to the end of our farewell
ceremony I want to acknowledge once
again drop castle till angle house obey
all of our cap comes all the folks on
the ground it has done a spectacular job
of putting together this very
challenging mission we've reached
another milestone in that mission but as
I mentioned earlier it's just one of the
small milestones along a much greater
journey but at least we have begun that
whole long journey thanks sorry thank
you very much sir it's been an
incredibly memorable event for you all
for us controllers down here it is a
memorable event for us too it is a major
part in our lives working with you all
is something that we will not forget and
as you said who very appropriately yes
it is a farewell but is also a very
important beginning you all have started
us out
on an unbelievably great beginning
cooperation in which the humans of
planet Earth together pursue the heavens
thank you very much for being who you
are and for the fabulous job that you've
done on this flight and the same words
back to your story thank you very much
for all your help