Oh
good morning discovery that's exactly
what we were going to say how about them
Indians and we knew that would wake you
up sure are just like you all up there
this is Mission Control Houston wake-up
music today for the crew of discovery
was talkin tribe the song about the
Cleveland Indians who are about 15 games
ahead in their division at this point in
the major league baseball season four of
the members of the discovery crew are
from Ohio and taking a lot of pride in
the Indians performance this year
discovery if you're not on the flight
deck you've got a fantastic view of the
Nile Delta the pyramids Cairo
Suez Canal coming up you're right it is
beautiful
discovery Houston for Marielle and no
action on the BDS message
and we're ready to do the event early if
you are discovery discovery this is
Houston are you ready for the event CNN
this is Houston please call discovery
for a voice check discovery CNN how do
you hear me guys look good this morning
we won we'll get started I'm gonna do a
little tin second you know hello and who
you are and then we'll just plunge in my
order of battle here is to go
Maryellen first and then Nancy and then
Don and if that makes I'm gonna try to
do it as three separate things so you
guys don't have to play past the
microphone in this delay you know during
the interview where are you okay great I
couldn't tell it doesn't look like the
mid-deck I know and love it looks like
something else behind you there great
okay here we go I envy you you talked
about envy and the mere gang geez I envy
the discovery gang yeah okay we're gonna
start with me Joe here we go we're
joined by three mission specialists
aboard the space shuttle Discovery
orbiting more than a hundred fifty miles
above the earth right now the team of
scientists includes Mary Ellen Webber
Nancy Curie and Don Thomas we're talking
to them from the mid deck of the space
shuttle this morning Mary Ellen let me
start with you
I'd like you to think back to launch day
last week I know this was your first
trip into space I want to know what was
going through your mind as you left the
earth for the first time and what it was
like to experience weightlessness for
the first time going through my mind was
we're really going we're really going
it's really happening and it was just
incredible shaking
and how long as I was preparing to talk
to you this morning I was sitting at my
computer typing out questions and I
discovered the a key on my computer done
work a few problems like that when
you're up there I know I can take my
computer to the computer guy here and he
can fix it do you have somebody who can
do minor repairs like that and if you
have any problems
I've been looking while we were
preparing for the interview down here on
earth a bunch of things that look like
pictures through a microscope
I'm not totally sure what you're doing
and how it's going to help people down
here on earth what's your take on that
yeah alright would you pass the
microphone over to Nancy for a minute
Nancy I've I've been a private pilot for
about three months now I've been
training to do this for a long long time
I know you've got 3,300 hours minimum
particularly in helicopters how is it
different to be on the space shuttle
compared to being in a helicopter or
being in a fixed-wing is it a lot
different in reality for the for the
launch and in practice that you've done
for the landing is it is it a lot
different as a pilot to bring this thing
down it would be to bring down a
helicopter one of the things that NASA
was trying to find out was how does this
new improve main engine work I'm sure
you couldn't tell it if it's and how it
felt but could you see any difference on
the meters that you were monitoring
in your mind when you take off
experiments onboard tell me what is most
interesting in those experiments
how do you think and how long do you
think it will take for things that you
were working on today to actually come
into use particularly these medical
things down here on earth when can I go
to the hospital and get a micro
encapsulated drug how's your vision and
are there any other physical changes
that you are poking you and your
colleagues and prodding your bodies are
different on this alright Mike over to
Don Thomas if you will but you've been
smiling through this whole thing and I
hope you'll keep smiling as we talk here
I want to find out about the experiments
you're running you're known here on
earth is the zookeeper in space how's it
going with the with the live animals and
the eggs and the embryos well as you
know we have ten pregnant rats on board
this is an experiment with the National
Institute of Health that we're working
in cooperation with them and the Ames
Research Center and the investigation is
focusing on looking at the muscular
development and also the bone loss
mechanisms in rodents that hopefully
we'll be able to translate this over to
humans on the earth it's particularly
important for elderly people where you
have osteoporosis a weakening of the
bones if we can understand bone loss
mechanisms
space maybe we can understand why
elderly people lose calcium and have
weakening of the bones and able apply
this to help many people back on earth
yeah you're excited about this aren't
you I'm pretty excited about it I love
the research we're doing up here and you
can't get a better laboratory to work
you know or a greater group of people to
work with and those associated with NASA
here yes space programs getting a lot of
publicity right now last this month
docking mission with the mirror was
pretty exciting what you were doing I
imagine is just as exciting to you
there's this Apollo 13 movie right now
do you think of support for what you are
doing in space growing back here on
earth we have a amateur radio on board
here and we've been going around the
earth talking to many schools during the
last five days and the kids are as
enthusiastic today as I was when John
Glenn first went up in 1962 so I really
see being enthusiastic and these kids
today are gonna grow up to be
enthusiastic scientists engineers and
carry our space program into the next
century one of the most unusual things
about this mission to me I think other
people here on earth is that it came so
soon after Atlantis landed just just a
few days later did you have any
apprehension that about the fact that
you were going to go up so soon after
another shuttle had been in orbit
I had no apprehension whatsoever the
same people that launched Apollo 11 26
years ago yesterday I found at the cave
the same caliber and we have the
greatest group of people working at the
Kennedy Space Center to get vehicles
ready
they got Atlantis on the ground after
the 71 mission and within a few days we
have another team getting us ready for
launch so I think it's a tribute to the
Kennedy Space Center and a great group
of people down there that and their
can-do attitude that we were able to
launch successfully right on time yeah
I've talked to a lot of young people in
the past couple of weeks about the fact
that I would be talking to you today and
they said to be what we want to know
about some of the weird things that you
can do in space that you can't do on
earth or that you can't do in space that
you can do on earth is it true that you
can't whistle
okay how about smell and taste and one
of our Simon editors said how bad is the
food up there the food is it's typical
like camping food I've had better food
in restaurants and I've had worse food
that up here and it's good enough to get
us through the mission some of the
selections that we get to make I really
enjoy other ones I'm not too wild about
it's really an individual thing here as
far as taste and smell goes some
astronauts experience a blandness in
space where they need spicier food but
for myself the same foods that I enjoy
in earth I enjoy you up here such as
stadium mustard from Cleveland Ohio now
while you guys have been up there in
relative comfort there has been a
monstrous heat wave down here on the
earth it's been above a hundred degrees
in the Midwest for a few days it's been
near a hundred and over in the
northeastern United States and you've
been in space several times I know that
if you get spare time you like to look
out the window at the planet below does
it look any different down here right
now particularly in the u.s. Midwest and
and southeast than it than it has on
your previous trips with all this
monstrous heat aboard sto 65 that was a
15-day mission got to look out the
window a lot and the cloud patterns have
changed and some of the ocean currents
are different but basically the planet
looks you know very similar to what it
did a year ago so there's nothing we can
see up here that you know gives us an
indication of why it's so hot but we're
welcome to share our Houston weather
with the rest of the country last
question for any of you who want to take
it what's the most amazing surprising
thing that's happened to you on your
trip
the windows it is just incredible an
amazing last night before going to bed
the last thing we saw was a set and it
was just spectacular words can't
describe it
alright thank you all three for joining
us on CNN today Huston CNN that
concludes the event
discovery Houston we're about a minute
to the CEO II will pick you up again at
22:14 great interview
now coming into view from Discovery is
the Baja Peninsula the southern extrema
that Peninsula in the Gulf of California
in view in the center of the
screen is Miami so it seems in
and now coming into Bui the Bahamas
there the island of Andros
this is Mission Control Houston this
view from Discovery showing a tropical
depression forming in the Pacific south
of the tip of the Baja Peninsula this is
and as-yet-unnamed storm just a tropical
depression in its early stages again off
the Mexican coast in the Pacific
discovery Houston we had about 10
seconds of that inch cable now we have
the picture again okay again we're
pointing right there that's when we
found pinched in the door in m57 alpha
and the back cleaner stopped and that's
where we found that the pinched wire and
actually it was when we started up the
vacuum cleaner going from the pantry
food area to the WCS is when we found
out it didn't work anymore as expected
and why further we had to other places
those are two of the places we've
discovered on the water that also had
some damage so we cut the water and the
water status right now is
and do you need anything further they're
using Kevin if you just tell us where
that spliced section is in relation to
the connector or cable and otherwise
we've got a good video of it only one
break in the wire correct that's correct
we have about three where you see the
four water's coming out that attaches to
the vacuum cleaner and we have about
three feet of water to the vacuum
cleaner and then the rest of the water
goes through the connector and discovery
if you just hold this view understand
this is a tape downlink we'd like to get
a rotation of that spliced section so we
could see all sides of it
discovery we have all the video we need
there thank you great work