we'll go ahead and go to questions here
in Houston if you have no opening
statement and we'll start with mark
Cairo the Houston Chronicle
good morning what questions your Sacko
you spoke before the mission was some
enthusiasm about the opportunity to
leave academia to pursue some research
in space including your experimental
zeolites I just wonder how you assess
that experience now was it worth the
training the launch delays has the
mission been long enough for your work
and you might just comment on your
zeolite experiment do you think it's
benefited tremendous time about standing
results it's going to be difficult for
me to comment exactly on what those
results are going to be they look pretty
good so far based on what I can see but
we really have to go back to the lab and
use an electron microscope and some
other pretty sophisticated equipment to
look at just how long these crystals
have grown but on a quick look based on
what you can see with the eye everything
seems to be going very very well I'm
real excited about that learned an awful
lot about doing things in space which is
a little different that I had imagined
or the way that I had researched it
pretty well and that's what I'm here for
I'm here to learn and pass on to my
other colleagues or the future they can
do well so if we do want with the
zeolite space experiment which I fully
expect we will I think that we can have
some major breakthroughs down the road
it takes some time we don't we can't run
a lot of experiments up here we really
need a station or something like that to
spend a long a period of time and be
able to iterate off the results that I
feel that these preliminary results have
based on what we had done at us about
one of the follow-on to that certainly
giving us our lead the right direction
as we look towards the space station
Terra Colombia stand by for Marshall PA
Oh
TV here in Huntsville my question is for
dr. Leslie dr. my question is to get you
to please comment on the role that
Marshall has played in this mission we
know that the folks here in Huntsville
have overseen a lot of the experiments
their comment on the support that you
have received from the crews here on the
ground at Marshall well the support from
Marshall has been quite extensive as you
know a number of experiments came from
Marshall so that's a contribution from
the science side we did a lot of our
training there at Marshall there's a
simulator of this laboratory module
there so we says spent a year and a half
training there and of course during the
fly itself the payload operations
control centers provided a tremendous
amount of support in replanting our
activities and keeping the science going
so Marshalls made a tremendous
contribution to this flight
Berkey with the huntsville times dr.
leslie if you could tell me what the
benefit is of having gotten a chance to
go up yourself and do your science
instead of simply sending someone up
that's not as familiar with it as you
well I wish I had the luxury to spend
all my time on on my experiment and
watching the the flows being generated
unfortunately I've got other duties here
so I don't have that luxury but the ones
I've seen look really great as you know
we were trying to look for transitions
and certain types of flows that occur on
a rotating sphere and I've seen those I
know there's a lot of data that's gone
down in fact the instrument is running
now as I look over at it so even as we
speak there's data coming down and I'm
going to look forward to spending a next
year or so going over that data with the
co-investigators and we'll have a great
look at it Martin Burke again even out
Pennington at one point said that he
thought this mission might be sort of
like watching grass grow and that's okay
but I was wondering what you would tell
your folks and friends and Huntsville
about the importance of doing this basic
science that's hard to illustrate to
them personally
well sure farmers might be excited about
watching grass grow and scientists are
excited about watching science
experiments take place so maybe I'm an
optimist but I think the number of
experiments we've been doing here for
the past two weeks is going to really
make a difference so I'm excited about
it and finally dr. Leslie if you could
talk a little bit if you would for
Huntsville people about more
specifically what it was like I mean
when you first reached orbit that very
first moment that you you know began to
experience space around 3GS and we're
killing that lie on our backs we're
filling that to our chest but it's no
longer where my back was but it was
wherever I put my feet so for the next
day or so it took a little getting used
to the slight disorientation but you
adapt after I guess it's different for
individuals but it took me about a day
or so to to adapt to that and it feels
great now this is Marcia Benner the
Associated Press for anyone who'd like
to answer earlier in the mission some of
you mentioned missing pizza and showers
what else are you looking forward to
getting back to and realistically
speaking how much more time do you wish
you had up there welcome to get back but
in addition to that I guess a lot of us
are missing our families I've got a two
natural daughter and I'm real excited
about getting to see her and hold her
again after two weeks but the admission
has been fantastic and as a matter of
fact the oh I know personally I'm open
for at least one wave out there so we
could have spent a little extra time up
here I think Yvonne with Reuters I have
a question for Katie and for Michael do
you feel as if you had enough free time
I know there were there is free time
built into everyone's schedule but do
you
each of you feel that it was enough that
you have enough time just to look out
the window and my situation was a little
bit one of the orbiter crew members I
was not tasked on a minute-by-minute
basis as was the payload through so my
duties consisted mostly in the flight
deck and I got a great chance to look
out the window the pace for me was very
comfortable and I certainly got enough
time off toward the end of the flight
after I started to be a little bit more
efficient about how I did things I found
that I had more time than I had in the
beginning of the flight and I was
actually looking for other things to do
to help my crewmates but you never get
tired of the view and it's a great way
to spend your free time it's bill
Harwood CBS News for dr. Thornton it
seems like every time there's a Spacelab
mission like this reporters always ask
you guys to talk about how it mirrors
Space Station operations and things like
that I guess I've been struck during
this flight by the role of tellus ient
by the multi-user facilities that are on
board could you talk about that theme in
the sense philosophically this sort of
flight really does I think mirror some
of the operations on Space Station can
you give me your thoughts on that are
precursors to Space Station experiments
the drop physics module
the surface tension experiments that
we're doing are precursors some of the
crystal growth experiments will be done
on Space Station and what we learn on
these short duration flights can help in
the development of those facilities for
longer-term use on the space station
some of the things that we've had
onboard this flight that I do are ground
air television and the electronic data
transfer we've had up and down is not
new on this flight but it's relatively
new in the program and also the digital
television where we sit down six
channels of digital video over one high
data-rate kayuu channel is due on this
flight and I think that's the way state
the space that space station is going to
be we have a lot of data to get to the
ground and we're gonna have to do it
this way so this is kind of a pathfinder
for the kind of operations we're going
to have on the space station this is
Michael cabbage with Florida today and
my question is for Kathy Thornton and Al
Sacco I know the people at Marshall are
still in the early stages of reviewing
the data for most of the experiments but
have there been any results that jump
out is something totally unexpected or
anything to characterizes a major
discovery at this point we have seen
some surprises in terms of the crystal
growth in particular what I've seen is
some of the crystals have grown faster
than I expected that the grow based on
previous literature I had read in other
cases crystals that I expected to grow
slower did grow slower but try to
analyze exactly what that is whether it
have to do with the fluid dynamics or
whether we're change something sets of
interesting things the Kathy will talk
about the minute on the combustion
experiments we were looking at flames
burn as well so yeah we've learned an
awful lot and that's what science is all
about things change you postulate
something you I know just how good you
really understand things and then you
move this situation forward an iterative
process and that's exactly what's
working out here there's been some
significant surprises in terms of the
rates in my mind anyways the crystal
glow and will be
my fluids experiments cannot be done on
the ground so everything up here was
pretty much a surprise we found that a
lot of times the procedures that we had
from pre-flight are essentially being
rewritten after the first one or two
runs of an experiment because of the
things that were learned in those first
one or she runs and I think it's great
that we can be flexible enough to handle
that that all the folks on the ground
can turn things around that fast
particularly in the drop physics module
and the surface tension driven
convection experiment we saw a lot of
new things that we're not expected he
called Terry with the West Kentucky news
for the commander by the way thanks for
waiting till I got back from vacation
for lifting off if everything goes
according to schedule you'll be coming
home Sunday and apparently the range is
not going to be able to fully support
you what have you been doing to prepare
for the landing protocol exercise trying
to take care of ourselves getting plenty
of sleep we've also been using the pilot
simulator a small it's a workstation in
a laptop computer that allows us to
practice on landings on-orbit take a
look at our symbology the landing Hudson
Balaji
before we actually get into the landing
pattern and we're looking forward to the
landing this is Marsha Dunn of The
Associated Press again for anyone if you
were going to spend another month or two
or three in orbit like on a space
station I'm wondering what kind of
amenities would you like to make your
life more livable and maybe along those
lines the ground to air TV helped in
terms of your family contacts could you
talk about livable living in space
well I think the we love our food up
here but what I've learned on this
flight is I didn't spend enough time in
my menu and I repeated to me the items
so variety on food I think is very
important even things it's if you're not
gonna like after eating the same thing
several days in a row you're ready for a
change the as far as the other thing
that's very important to have a little
bit of privacy and we've seen that with
our sleep stations on board not all
flights have them but that's very
important and I think for station and
when you start spending two or three or
four months in space you've got to give
people some privacy
just so they can have a little bit of
time alone and that'll make it much more
productive and efficient in the long run
I want to that what they know it'd be
quite a bit different as we've been
working pretty hard for two weeks this
is kind of a sprint compared to a two
month or three months or four months
spin on orbit and so I think things
would be a little bit different rather
than have every minute point out to them
to the detail we would probably have
some more general goals to accomplish in
a day or even a week and we would
probably not be working 12 hours a day
either because that could be that'd be
pretty tough to maintain over that time
so the question because of what you're
going to do in your free time and I
guess you need to come up with some sort
of entertainment and he mentioned
ground-to-air TV that would be one thing
certainly a selection a greater
selection of music and I personally
would wish I would have brought a book
along to read because sometimes it takes
a little while to unwind after the days
over and when you get into into the
sleep station without anything to read
you kind of have to let your mind wander
a little bit and it's a little bit
tougher that way and I think I could
have learned something and enjoyed
myself at the same time
this is Vicki Vaughn with Reuters again
I have a follow-up to Marshalls question
Michael I'd like to know what kind of
music you didn't listen to or what was
available up there but my question is if
I'm hoping maybe two of you could answer
this if you were suddenly put in charge
of a new mission USML 3 what changes
would you like to make either in terms
of scheduling or the science aboard
anything maybe any broad issue that you
would like to address or change on an
upcoming mission Vicki though a long
question let me see if I the beginning
of it I think that's what kind of music
or what selection we have actually each
of us got to bring a selection of music
with us and I'm not sure but I don't
think we've done any exchanging yet but
that certainly is an option as far as
what other changes we've what other
changes we might entertain well I took
they mentioned a few of them as I said
I'd like to bring along a Brook I don't
think we have any complaints with the
scheduling whatsoever for the length of
mission that we have it was not too much
work yet it was enough and I think we
really got a lot of bang for our buck
with the science teams so I think that's
that's something that I would not change
now as I said if we were going to step
it up that long ago we might slack off a
little because it this is a pretty
sprint type pace it would be tough to
maintain over a much longer period and
now I'll let Katie answer
well I was three it would be longer once
we got up here to do some of the
experiments that we've been practicing
and talking about and planning and
trying to figure out exactly what is the
best way to do them up here on orbit
when you actually get to do them it's a
wonderful thing I just feel like I'm up
here doing what I like to do and that's
great for me so it'll be a longer
mission certainly and I guess so I would
probably do a lot more exchanging on
music yes for commander Bowersox I guess
the weather forecast isn't all that
optimistic for Sunday landing here if
you land Monday you'll break the shuttle
record for a long duration flight
can you just two things can you discuss
a your readiness to land after this long
of a flight you know how you stay in
shape I realize you exercise and use
pilot but just your general views on
landing after a long flight and broader
than that what is the state of knowledge
now about how long you think a pilots of
the shuttle can stay weightless and
still perform properly when you pull
jeans coming back down the biggest
concern that we have out there somewhere
where as he's coming back his vestibular
system causes them to get uncoordinated
and he loses that programming that's
been built into them over years and
years and years of training and so he
makes a mistake on the landing what we
do to make sure that programming is good
is we we work on it a lot pre-flight
I've got over a thousand approaches in
the shuttle training area seeing out the
window I've seen that the view looks
just like the shuttle training area and
just like the shuttle training error is
that that programming in me is good as
far as how long that that to my last I
got
it's probably out at 3040 days I know
I've gone as long as four months without
planning the shuttle training and I
jumped in and everything works fine
I make reasonable landings on my first
attempt but we're still working on a lot
of unknowns with the microgravity aspect
and that's why we're doing kind of a
gentle build-up that we've gone from 11
days to 13 days to 16 days and maybe one
of these days we'll get out to 17 18 or
even longer
I think that's gonna be possible but
it's we want to use our heads we want to
do it in a common-sense fashion and with
a nice gradual buildup this is Michael
cabbage with Florida today and my
question is also for commander Bowersox
and it's kind of a follow-up of an
earlier question on all prior shuttle
landings nASA has gotten c-band radar
tracking support from the Air Force's
Eastern range but because of a Titan
launch scheduled for Saturday night at
the Air Station this will be the first
landing not to have that data available
does that create any additional concerns
for you we've looked into it and we
think it's a reasonable thing to do
where we always like to do things the
best way we possibly can and that's the
c-band beacons when when they're
available but when we have to go to a
fallback we go to a fallback we try to
be flexible that's what we're doing at
this situation just trying to be
flexible with our operations and I think
what we're doing is very reasonable we
call Terry with the West Kentucky news
for Katie this mission seems to be going
real smooth the stars of science is
concerned in fact I kind of liken it to
it's like the Apollo 17 of shuttle
missions can you comment on how
sophisticated you think this is this
missions been
the last part I question I'll pick it he
restricted it yeah
can you comment on how how sophisticated
you think this mission is in the way of
being a complex science mission
experiments we have on board
and we built a lot of contingency time
into our time to take care of that well
we haven't used any of that for
contingency so we've been able to
collect a lot of data I think that we
weren't expected to get captain Coleman
training for Spacelab mission of course
is a real sprint for a couple years you
guys work around the clock and then you
finally get up on the mission and you're
working dual shifts to do all this you
have a chance at all or have you had a
chance yet to think about versus reality
and
this is Michel cabbage with Florida
today and this question is for anyone
Debbie Brown in the aerospace education
opposite JSC said the idea for holding
the interactive sessions with high
school students first was suggested by
crew members and my question is who
initially came up with this idea and do
you think this is a worthwhile teaching
method that should be repeated on future
shuttle flights and on Space Station
because I'm the a commission I guess in
a group but it's the one that we're
talking about how we all got here and in
that course of the conversation decided
that science isn't really for greets
which is a general perception up against
people today and we thought we'd bring
that home because young people look up
to the astronaut corps we'd bring it
home by bringing some of the science
we're really doing which is world class
science and have some of the kids do
very similar things and interact with
them so it was really an idea that was
bred from all of us at Kathy - it went
forward with it and pushed it and we
were able to get her on board and I has
an activation and an educator hope we'll
do it the future I hope the kids
benefited from but I certainly did and I
think it's very important this country
we keep these kids excited about math
and science because that is will bring
this country as a leader into the 21st
century and we all have to keep that
mind all the time but it was really
great and we had a lot of fun and I just
hope the kids good as well okay you have
said you had two dreams one to be a
teacher and one to fly in space now
you've done both do you have a third
dream not the least of which is to grow
some of the largest for perfect zeolites
that haven't been grown hope to do that
on this flight there are a lot of things
there had to be as an individual I have
a lot of development to do I need to
talk to a lot of kids which I hope to do
and not to get them excited about math
and science and the future is out here
as I look at the cosmos and see what's
around I realized that the universe is
really our playground and we need to
take advantage of it
to get kids excited about it moving
forward so that's one of the things that
one of the messages are becoming
hopeless okay
commander how has now been is a
companion in space I can't imagine a
better crew member on board it now of
course prejudiced people they're both
really good guys but I'll brings a
certain fire to the crew a certain
spirit he's a lot of fun he's always
joking around and his wife makes great
spaghetti okay well any chance the
flight will be extended at all for a
couple days maybe we'll get an extra day
so hoping for that because we all feel
great none of us are tired what time we
have a lot of things we accomplished a
lot of things and would like to just
keep it going
I thought the training you received
getting up there is it was the training
exactly what it is like up there in
space or have you been caught by
surprise at all good it really was
excellent they told us exactly what to
expect sometimes we come up here and I
was not expecting some things that they
thought were gonna expect because I just
felt that that probably wouldn't happen
and sure you know experience always good
so a lot of these folks have experience
that's what they learn about the crews
and so what you have is training that
really is specific for what you're doing
and it's very very good and I haven't
had any surprises at traps of
vibrationally I know commander Ken
Bowersox is with us as well on the line
and Ken is is out pulling his load
they're on board the shuttle great
dehydrated spaghetti that she made at
home and he's been doing an outstanding
job in the science and weather despite
his excitement about the science that
we're doing that
I'll just beams up when he's got
something going on in the glove box or
on the DPN module or SUV any of the
unities working on and that spirit rubs
off on the rest of us and makes us
excited about the science too and Ken I
know you've got over 500 hours in space
does it ever get routine or is it
exciting every time you go up it wasn't
my first fight and I'm looking forward
to seeing it some more how do you sleep
are you tied in or you just pretty much
find an open corner we have they look
like kitchen cabinets you could open a
door and crawl in and they're very
comfortable they have liners it you just
sort of the ultimate waterbed you know
you just float there and I have to
listen to music all night orally at
least about all night for an hour or so
before I go to sleep sometimes do some
reading and that that drift off to sleep
it's very comfortable
what about any motion sickness stomach
problems how have you been faring as far
as your health goes expected to have
maybe a little bit of an upset stomach
and I feel so well the first few days
and I went a couple of periods where I
felt like I was not going to feel good
but I just took the advice of my
commander which was the slowdown and to
concentrate just relax a little bit and
it went right away and I didn't get sick
the whole time I was up here in fact
none of us did