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good morning Kevin good morning story
it's good to hear some really good music
for a change well certainly is about a
grand place as all thank you babe said
it's one heck of a town sure is Sir it's
got everything
I used to discovery with the internet
answer
and go ahead this is a question from
castle in form of houston texas and she
wanted to know whether the deployment of
this teacher satellite would make the co
a spa or eliminate it altogether the
answer is that it will not change the
size of the zone of exclusion the
satellite will be checked out over the
next several months and then be
positioned as they already spare this is
the last of a series of teachers
satellites to complete the current
network and some of the original
satellites are reaching the end of their
expected lifetime therefore this will be
put into a spare position and called
into service when needed thanks Tom
this is Mission Control Houston the
northern coast of Australia now coming
into view of Discovery's payload Bay
camera
cameras are being controlled by the
instrumentation and communications
officer here in the new mission control
center as the crew continues to step
through its post sleep activities
getting ready to go to work
on that day night outside add a portion
of Florida we did pick up the SLF and it
appeared to be the only cloudless spot
in Florida and we hope that remains the
same through Friday morning and the
coming across Mexico during the night we
could see cities with the naked eye but
could not acquire them in the fridge
the BDS is made up of a device developed
here at the Johnson Space Center that
uses a rotating cylinder to suspend
cells and tissues in a growth medium
simulating some of the aspects of
microgravity the system which is already
being used extensively in ground-based
research also provides for gas and
nutrient exchange for the cells the
purpose of this experiment on the flight
is to demonstrate the performance of
this bioreactor in microgravity trying
to assess the fluid dynamic
characteristics of the bioreactor the
experiment and what we're seeing right
now our colon cancer cells that are
being grown within the bioreactor
chamber
and discovery Houston you should have
the first three tips pages on board and
for Kevin we're looking at you down in
the mid dec texting me can we use camera
so this is previously recorded getting
getting him ready to hold be hotel
camera copy
Discovery's crew downlinking some
previously recorded video tape pilot
Kevin kriegel exercising on the bicycle
ergometer and the shuttles mid-deck to
the right of the picture you can see the
airlock entrance should now beginning in
picture of dawn operating ESO no
Lawrence a touch screen by Lee and
you're right Nancy that's where we have
and discovery we're watching time doing
the vft or assuming some more video tape
from the crew on board discovery this of
commander Tom Henrik's operating the
visual function tester equipment which
is recording his ability to respond to
visual stimulus
discovery Houston for Mary Ellen we're
happy with the amount of video we've
received so far and just an additional
note the the ground investigators are
interested in the flow patterns that
they're seeing in this phase one part of
the experiment and are looking forward
to phase two I'll a box and I will go
ahead and cue up the tape to yesterday's
and maybe to let me know you can
initiate that from the ground we can
start down linking that
and we're with you in the mid deck Kevin
and done we got to allow clerk good day
USA this is Houston please call
discovery for a voice check discovery
this is good day USA I'm Doug Stefan
hello what mr. Kevin Pringle and have
Don Tomas on my left local board space
shuttle Discovery I was very exciting
for us to be here and very exciting for
the audience to have a a chance to have
a conversation with you first of all
let's talk a little to Kevin can we do
that let's find out as much as we can
about Kevin because this is his first
base like correct correct that's correct
tell us about you Kevin okay myself I
grew up on Long Island New York I was an
air force officer for 12 years military
pilot test pilot I joined NASA and 1990
was an instructor pilot no research
pilot came an astronaut 1992 and of a
training ever since and it's my first
mission a married with four beautiful
kids how long have you been training for
this particular flight and in general
how long have you been training for the
career that you have now as an astronaut
well for this particular mission we
started training about 10 months ago as
far as being an astronaut I guess I'm
one of the newer folks in the office
that dreamed of being an astronaut when
they were very little of course the
original folks never could dream of
being astronauts because they didn't
know it was such a thing but I guess
I've been hoping to be an astronaut
since I was about eight or nine years
old what is your specific mission Kevin
that is the things that you're working
on as a mission specialist okay well
have a pilot the back up to the
commander my primary responsibilities to
back up the commander
entry in the take or take care of all
the orbiter system I've also done some
secondary experiments just before we
went on the air I was to take care of
experiment called hercules which is a
digital video camera taking pictures of
the earth and flan and the sea now the
things that you have to do i'm looking
at the background on you the things that
you have to do are they basically we
have okay I got it I'm getting some
communication from some of the people at
the Mission Control the things that you
are involved in doing are they things
that benefit us as far as health are
concerned I know you're working on the
environment tell people I think some
other people listen to this program are
interested in the benefits that they get
from these missions that are not well
known okay well i right objective of
this mission was deploy tracking and
data relay satellite which we did on the
first day and that satellite is used for
space communication network and it's the
last of a series and that was a primary
mission for flying but we had a lot of
extra room in the mid deck once we went
to the expense of getting the shuttle at
space we have these smaller experiments
which have a lot of potential benefits
for mankind we have one that's working
very well at the final reactor and it's
growing living tissue and the hopes is
that we'll be able to grow tissue a
little bit better here at space and
perhaps one day be able to grow some
replacement organs mints in the future
will also have some crystal growth
experiments that we're growing and we're
able to grow bigger crystals that can be
used for drugs to help out cancer
research and help out patients that way
we have another experiment that is going
to grow a micro capsules what's that use
for is for pills that you can take and
that perhaps in a shot that you can take
and instead of taking a shot every day
for insulin maybe only have to take a
shot once a month because it has
a small time release capsules in it
we're also doing another one called NIH
which is looking at the skeletal
structure which will help perhaps in
people with osteoporosis so there's
quite a few secondaries that we're
looking at all right let's spend a few
minutes talking to John Thomas who is on
his second flight as a mission
specialist on welcome to good day USA
come on it's a pleasure to be here it's
nice to have you here tell us a little
about you and where you're from and the
same sort of thing that kevin gave us i
was born in 1955 in cleveland ohio i
went to case western reserve university
in Cleveland's got a bachelor's degree
in physics went on the Cornell
University in central New York and got
my PhD in material science from a
materials engineer crystallographer
background i work for AT&T bell
laboratories for six years in new jersey
and moved down to houston and 1988 where
i worked as a materials engineer I'm
married and I have a five month old
little boy whose home wait for me to get
back congratulations have you as a
matter of course or the other members of
the crew had conversations with your
family can you do that when you're in
space yes we can we have one opportunity
during the mission to have a private
conference with our families I just had
mine last night and i'll tell you
brought a big smile to my face we've
been in quarantine a week before the
mission and then being up here for a
week or so it's a long time away from
home and it's good to talk to the kids
and your wife and everybody else back
home this makes me feel a little bit
part of the family again your first
mission was about a year ago at this
time wasn't it that's right it was
exactly a year ago that I was up on st
s65 that was a 15-day mission last
summer and how much different is the job
that you're performing this time from
what you had to do last year last summer
I was on a Space Lab which is a science
module that we have in the back of the
payload Bay here and we conducted 84
different experiments from around the
world we had 15 different countries
participating
so I was busy the whole time performing
experiments during the 15-day flight
this mission as Kevin mentioned our
primary objective was deploying the
tracking and data relay satellite as you
know this is critical for all the images
of the hubble space telescope's every
time you see one of those great pictures
from Saturn or Uranus or one of the
other planets or galaxies out there
those are all being transmitted to the
capabilities of the tracking and data
relay satellite and so in this mission
it's a little different we were
deploying a satellite now we're working
on these smaller mid-deck experiments
for the remainder of our flights the
kids that watch you in space that follow
you are inspired usually I have been
doing a program with NASA bringing j
Honeycutt and Mike McCully and some
other former astronauts around the
schools here and there in the country
because I believe very strongly what
NASA does how do you fellas the people
the men and women of the crews
themselves get around and get your
message around so that kids will really
understand what you are doing while
you're out in space well we have an
amateur radio on board we have an
experiment called SAR x it's the shuttle
amateur radio experiment and it's
specifically designed for astronauts
here in orbit to talk to students on the
ground and during our mission we've made
contact we will make contact with eight
different schools from around the world
we've taught to Argentina we talked to a
school yesterday Kevin did up in
Schenectady at the Schenectady Museum
and as I said we have eight schools that
we're talking with students from
answering their questions and it's so
much fun for us to share our enthusiasm
with them and to try to get them
motivated to learn more about science
and math and maybe you know become
future astronauts here we're talking a
mission specialist Donald Thomas is on
his second shuttle flight and Kevin
creeglers on his first shuttle flight
from discovery where exactly are you if
you look out the window tell us where
you want what you can see right now
right now we're coming up over southern
Florida just heading out over the
Caribbean we go around the earth every
90 minutes or so and we r 160 miles
above the earth that's kind of a low
orbit is it not
actually no that's about our standard
orbit is 160 we have gone down as low as
around 105 do it some of the earth
observations and we'll go up to as high
as almost 300 to service the Hubble
Space Telescope yeah I thought that the
average was around 200 220 230 in there
what differs explain to the audience
what difference it makes whether you're
at a hundred and sixty or where there
were two hundred miles or I know the
300-mile thing is for the things like
the Hubble that are out there far but
what different sensations and what can
you see differently at 160 miles you
can't see it 220 last summer I was at
160 miles up for 14 days in the last day
of our mission we dropped down to 135
miles and that 25 mile difference was
just spectacular the ground seems so
much closer to us the detail that you
can see I could see runways and airports
and almost the markings the numbers on
the runway from 135 miles up so the
farther out you go you lose a little bit
of detail on the ground but then again
you gain the perspective the global
perspective of the planet Earth you have
brought some windex with you I don't
know that you really did but what's the
window experiment that I've been reading
about well the window experiment back
Nancy Perry is setting up we've already
done one day to take today and we'll do
another it's a look at the environment
and spacer space another we're at
actually does have some molecules out
here and so we're looking at the
interaction of the shuttle and the
shuttle steps with the very same tenuous
atmosphere that we have to try to
understand it better from just a physics
perspective but also on a practical
perspective when we dock with me the
Russian space station as we did earlier
this year and when we dock with the
International Space Station we want to
know what kind of effects the plumes
will have on that station and how we can
protect against that you have a new
engine in Discovery do you not we sure
do have a black one engine it worked
like a champ it had a nipple pump on it
which brings down the wells from a
couple of hundred to just a handful
which anyone does any kind of
maintenance knows that make it a
more reliable system as far as the
performance from our aspect it worked
just perfect and we're looking forward
to putting three of them on the show I
guess in September all right can we go
back and talk to Kevin for second
actually I want to talk to the two of
you together as you live closely in the
environment you're five people distinct
to have all different backgrounds have
you become friends and do you become
friends because of the work that you do
together or do they actually put you
together because you all seem to work
well together well I think it's probably
where the traits they try to do when
they do the selection is folks that can
work together well as a team if it is
closed environment and we've been
working well together for the last nine
months I have to correct you know that
the backgrounds aren't that day we have
four people from ohio and up from New
York so I'm the only one who has to
really try to fit in that's right this
was a so-called Ohio crew as I recall
that's correct well we have stations all
over ohio columbus Toledo Dayton
Cincinnati and suburban Cleveland area
that are hearing you right now so it
should be like old home week what day
are we in Kevin would show are we in the
fifth or sixth day of the mission I only
had to think about that because when you
go through 16 sunrises and sunsets every
day it gets kind of confusing but we're
in the latest late morning of flight day
6 okay so you have not only the windex
operation scheduled today but you were
talking about Hercules and the
bioreactor demonstration systems do
these continue every day like tomorrow
and then the eighth day and so forth
will you be working on all these things
for the rest of the mission
this correct will be kept busy the rest
of the mission doing all the secondary
experiments skinny as much stat as we
can for the investigators and then the
day before landing is tasked with
basically tidying up put the way the
experiments and get me over there ready
to come home and so if I asked you to
give us the things that that this this
experience both gone and and Kevin this
experience means what to you personally
for me personally this is my second
flight and it's a dream come true for me
I've wanted to be an astronaut since I
was about six years old so they have a
little boy who dreamed to be living it
now is just the best thing that can
happen to you in life on a personal note
what I'm taking away from this mission
is working with these great depot on the
FCS 70 crew he's our friendship so I'll
have the rest of my life I know and the
images that I have in my head right now
of the planet Earth as we go around it
when you're flying 160 miles above it in
the shuttle you really get a perspective
of the earth as a planet when you can
look out and see the moon out there you
can see the milky way the moon also so
you really get a sense of the solar
system here that we're in and as we fly
over they you know the blue water of the
planet Earth and look over the
continents it's just it's a great
perspective to bring back to the to the
planet well we want to thank you
gentlemen we've enjoyed this this has
been a first on good day USA and I hope
it will not be the last I hope that to
both of you if you want to stay in space
are able to do so Kevin kriegel
astronaut Don Tomas enjoying the view
and the work from discovery Houston good
day USA this concludes this event
and we are with you in the mid deck ok
so is actually pretty recorded we're
short up to the flight deck ok this is
Mission Control Houston we're expecting
guests some video tape down like video
of the window strike reported earlier
apparently a micrometeoroid hit the
corner one of the shuttle windows of
course the daylight makes a little more
dramatic than it really is so after this
day lit and we took some under a
flashlight and will show that at the end
copy Tom and can you gauge any kind of
depth it looked like maybe a 30-second
come an inch it's just tough to tell
them because we can't get close to it
either fact that's about the same angle
you're seeing here that's as close as we
can get Jaffe ms1 said he'd be glad to
go check it from the outside and this is
just to show you what it is the window
now that's excellent upper left corner
houston we did have a slight delay get
off the ground but once we got into all
that we're ready to go right to wood and
one of the first things that we found on
orbit was an extra crew member that had
come along and we heard that there was
some relation to this crew member that
was also participating in the control
activities at the new FCC as you can see
who's happy to come along and really
have smile at pico and at ricoh the
first sensation as you know is the
relaxation 2g after three cheese's are
happy to get out of the helmet it's more
difficult for some than others but once
out you're floating free and right after
we get up on all of it it's really
important to document the condition of
the external tank and you can see this
crew member is doing an excellent job of
tracking the external tank as it falls
back to earth to burn up in the
atmosphere that's some particular
interest in that tank do you think I
think so I know Mark is about six
Americans helping us for some of
secondary extended sisters bah our
experiments looking at mammalian
development and developmental changes
induced by microgravity
my reactor is another experiment that
this remember was helping us out with
and during this fight we managed to go
some outstanding human cells you mr.
issues and you can see this crew member
about to take that scare all cell
culture right now think it's always a
good idea to learn a lot always go on
aboard we were able to make a lot more
sarax contacts at the show amateur radio
experiment when which we're contacting a
school around the world and talking with
hundreds of students trying to get them
enthusiastic about the space program and
get up steer towards engineering and
science field the next experiment you'll
feel remember monitoring is the safety
CT which is a protein crystal growth
experiments growing shuffle soak off the
energy rom which is man I die alone in I
cancer-fighting judge really excited
about the other crystal for going and
hopefully will bring back some good
science annex terminus of the immersive
Alabama at Birmingham Michael capsules
in space and experiment we're gonna
activate tonight let it run overnight
which will be producing some micro
capsules of ampicillin and hydrate which
is a drug for the took that we use for
antibiotics see ft lb expand meant which
is a space peel-off experiment or flying
fish embryos in this case medaka fish
and looking again at developmental pages
seduced by microgravity and we've
already been told they've been noticing
significant changes between the ground
control study embryos and ours on board
carry extra crew member is doing the
Hercules experiment which is a digital
video camera used to geolocate dipper
targets on the earth and water we've got
some good of a spectral data and also
some technical manic data looking at the
earth
on the other experiments also using a
society on type camera as in Hercules is
the window expert looking at the flow
field with the particles around the
orbiter which will help us understand
physics here is low space orbit and also
help us with documents for three
stations said yes to that completes it
down wait till we hope this draw some
attention to the secretaries that we
have on board and we did appreciate the
help for six crew member in bringing all
the benefits of the secretaries to light
and if we have any more wood for Willis
of that ventilator copy that discovery
and it's obvious that with the high
level of activity on board it was handy
having that extra crew member to help
out we also think that we understand now
the alignment problems with Hercules and
we'd like you to check that your extra
crew member is not going outside we
think that might explain that w16
exactly at the w 6 thing we think was
due this crew member and were also
suspicious of him pecking at the power
cords for the back of cleaner I think we
can absolve all the other crew members
of blame in this flight
you