ah
Oh
good morning Atlantis and happy space
day good morning bill and thanks for the
salute to the military folks this
morning especially those of us in the
Air Force on board celebrating our 50th
anniversary appreciate that well happy
birthday to the Air Force and the music
was courtesy of the West Point cadet
glee club go air force beat army
and the bow rack ground team wants to
express their sincere gratitude for that
thank you this is Peter the back chief
project matter etha with Eddie here is
launched I am working your biology
experiment position I can ask a feasible
now Roger
at last Houston a new orbiter state
vectors being uplink
I understand we have a naval academy uh
around 77 timeframe 19th company number
down there good to see you down I'll be
good to see you in another day or two
you
good morning to all of you Jerry the
last time we try a nice area Jerry the
last time we talked you predicted that
you'd be feeling pure joy on this
journey home is that what's going
through you right now absolutely elation
i'll tell you when i saw the shuttle out
the window that was one happy moment it
was a beautiful sight so i predicted
that one correctly well two reasons why
you're pretty happy is that you've got
an 18 month old son named john waiting
for you also your wife Catherine who is
eight months pregnant have you thought
about those first few moments are going
to have with them yes someone I think
that's gonna be pure elation also you
know my son's changed a lot in those 18
months and my wife's grown a bit but
it's going to be a fantastic moment i'm
sure we're just gonna hug a hug each
other and do normal things that people
are separated from loved ones do it's in
fact talking about walking you've been
doing your best to keep in shape while
in space and it's being reported that
you're determined to walk off the
shuttle after it lands why are you so
determined to walk off because some of
the astronauts have been carried off the
shuttle after all the time and space as
you say I've been working very hard and
it's one of my goals to come back in
condition to be able to egress from the
shuttle I think that's important
operationally to know that in an
emergency you'd be able to get off the
shuttle so it's been kind of beyond that
just been a personal goal to keep
running on the treadmill two hours a day
takes a lot of determination and to have
a goal to walk off the shuttle game is
something to shoot for but Mission
Control certainly has had to tell you
prepare you for what you probably will
expect in terms of coming back into
coming back into Earth's atmosphere how
that's going to impact you it's going to
be 50 lakhs physiologically a big
challenge I think I'm gonna have a lot
of adrenaline flowing and I think I'll
be able to get off on my own power
I may have to crawl a little bit to get
out of the orbiter it's very hard even
when you're feeling good to get out of
the orbiter because of the arrangement
the space suit you're wearing you got
the being weighed down by the spacesuit
and of course the first feel of gravity
for for this year basically for myself
last january's left by myself any pull
of gravity so it's going to be
interesting and i'm partially doing it
also as a physician I'm kind of
interested in the response of the human
body to long-duration spaceflight and so
I'm going to test myself you know after
all of this is said and done you're
going to hold the record for having but
you're going to hold the record for
having the longest period in space is an
American astronaut 132 days in space how
does that make you feel actually makes
me feel good because I'm number two
Shannon lucid is ahead of me by a bit
there and I was very glad to see the
shuttle on time because I don't want to
break that record tell me about
undocking from the mirror the last time
we spoke you expressed some concerns
about the safety of aamir Jerry now that
it has a new oxygen generator and some
other equipment are you feeling a little
bit better about the safety of it I feel
better i think mike foale who took my
place is still has some challenges ahead
but we did the best we could get it the
mirror in shape for mike and i think
it's in better condition than it was
Charlie and the crew brought along a lot
more needed supplies equipment and so I
think we're leaving Mike in reasonable
condition on the other hand I think
they're still challenges to be faced and
Charlie you want to add anything to that
bikes off to a really good start Jerry
made it diligent effort to inventory
things and show him the way out the best
he could and so I think makes a lot more
comfortable than Jerry himself was at
this point in his mission and so that's
going to be a great start for Mike Jay
we all a big detik credit him for the
work that he did in a very tight
timeline one the shuttle was getting
ready to come aboard he had a lot of
work to do to get it ready
is all right Charles precor thank you so
much for those thoughts also jerry
linenger to the rest of the crew safe
journey home everybody I was going to
say we're all very very proud here in
the metropolitan Detroit area of a
native son four months in space how do
you feel about what kind of an
adjustment have you got coming here I'd
say I've adjusted very well to space and
that means it's going to be maybe a
little tougher adjusting to get back to
earth right now while Pierre I feel as
natural as uh as walking down on earth
six months ago so it's going to be a
readjustment getting my earth legs back
well the next major events from our
point of view as the International Space
Station which we plan on launching the
parts of that beginning next year and
that should become operational sometime
around the year 2000 and we hope that it
will operate for another 10 to 15 years
or more all of this is in preparation
for some day sending humans to Mars and
of course that's the dream of all of
ours to see people go to Mars some day
and expand the human race off the planet
earth and and add some more exciting
places in the universe oh boy jerry
linenger we have this question for you
we know that you were bored mirror could
you tell us what it was like and how you
feel the mission went I think the
mission went very well we had you know
on a percent success accomplished all
the goals that we wanted to accomplish
and we also had some a lot of side
tracks along the way repairing some
equipment aboard mir but overall we had
a great mission and it's been a great
stay and you know once in a lifetime
experience
you