discovery kick off yes Kurt sorry to
wake up we we have a bit of a payload
problem at this point the orbiters in
fine shape the problem basically is that
we've lost our command capability to the
payloads on the taz hitchhiker and we're
losing quite a bit of science on the Taz
and the I eh hitchhikers and as well the
SLA the laser that's on the test is on
at this point and we have no way of
turning it off and so we had some steps
for you to perform we'd like to to try
those out and and they'll only take a
couple of minutes we think maybe there's
a possibility that on the task payload
the master control unit has locked up so
we'd like to reset it and we have some
switch throws and checks for you on the
SSP the task portion of the SSP on l12
when you're ready hey Park we have a
buffer call our 4-pole call back copy
Kurt now the ground is going to quickly
look to make sure that everything is
powered off and we're going to call you
back in a second standby to power it
back on discovery Houston for Kurt were
ready to power back up the first switch
that we would like you the first and
only switch is we'd like you to take the
Taz avionics power switch back to on
hold it for about three seconds until
you get the talk back up indication okay
bark here comes
discovery Houston it looks like that
worked occurred we really appreciate
your getting up to help us with that and
there's no further action at this time
and we'll see you at wake up ok mark
good does that mean that the looks like
i have commanding back we have only
checked the telemetry side and we'll
have to check the command side it'll
take a little bit of time and if we're
not successful will have no further
actions either way until tomorrow ok but
no probably though we were up here to
help out so uh so pop it off
are you
the more
ma
Oh
my
Oh
you
only one for me
Oh
and goodmorning discovery chances are
Beamer knows where we got that song from
a good morning Houston thanks for the
music
and we're getting you loud and clear I
assume at this point we're talking to
mission specialists of Bob Curbeam yes
I'm speaking to you from the mid deck of
the space shuttle Discovery we just
passed over Sri Lanka and going towards
the western coast of Australia
lieutenant commander Bob curbing we
welcome you to kmox this morning you are
how far into the mission so far on board
discovery we're probably five days into
an 11-day mission Bob how are the other
experiments going you're you're working
with with the space armed with robotic
arm on board the shuttle how are those
experiments going mostly experiments are
going quite well I believe we have like
you said quite a few experiments the
robotic arm we did some work on that
this morning Stephen Jan were quite
pleased with all out wet and we also
have a bunch of other experiments look
at hale bob but comment and various
solar system you know a celestial
objects at odds with in the solar system
and all those are going well as well Bob
this is this mission the 11-day mission
of the discovery has international
significance from the standpoint of some
of the things you're doing let's talk
about the role other countries are
playing at what you're doing in space
right now actually you're right a fairly
international mission we have
experiments all over the world we have
an experiment from the University of
trans in Italy we have soul Khan from
the University of Belgium we have very
various universities the United States
contributing their experiments here as
well university of southern california
university of colorado and several of
the nasa centers like aims and also
goddard and of course Johnson and
Kennedy participating so this is a
worldwide event and we're just happy to
be a part of it and the satellite that
is gathering the ozone data is built in
Germany tell me about your hope you and
your fellow astronauts for what you are
going to learn on this mission about the
ozone layer and what we might be able to
do to protect it here on earth
relatively unique in that not only can
it look at the ozone
layer and look at where we're depleting
it and where we're not where it seems to
be holding up but it can look at all the
constituents of the middle atmosphere
all the significant form and by doing
that and tracking where we see the
different constituents we can tell more
about the upper wind patterns of weather
and basically we can hopefully predict
how that upper atmosphere change and how
long the ozone hold out in different
areas and hopefully it'll hold out for a
very long time Bob you bear the title of
mission specialist with that title what
is your role what are you responsible
for actually I'm mission specialist to
I'm a flight engineer so I fly do both
asset an entry up on a flight tank so it
involves a lot of helping the commander
and the pilot power of the shuttle and
making sure those phases of flight go
well but also I do a lot of the
environmental jobs around the shuttle
making sure the air scrubbers work fine
to take up carbon dioxide I also do i'm
in charge of several the experiments
that are going on like the bioreactor
experiment where I'm growing a colon
cancer cells to learn more about how
they grow and hopefully how to stop them
from growing and a lot of the
experiments in the payload Bay that are
looking at Jupiter that's on the Earth's
atmosphere and also doing some laser
mapping of the earth Bob you mentioned a
little bit ago about an experiment to
observe the hale-bopp comet that so many
of us saw from afar when it passed by
the earth a couple of months ago what
are you hoping to see and to learn about
hale-bopp well the big advantage of
being up here in two phases if you don't
have the atmosphere attenuating a lot of
the light then hale-bopp is getting off
so it's a little bit clearer in
different frequencies as far as
especially frequency that we can't see
with the naked eye so by being up here
we can look at the difference what we
call spectral lines of the comet is
giving off and tell more about what it
consists of what kind of training
elements are in it and hopefully learn
more about the formation of our own
solar system because comets are
considered some of the remnants of the
original formation oh is it Bob you have
you're married you have a couple of
children
since this is your first mission how do
you prepare them for 11 days away in
space on board the discovery well I'm
being in the Navy my wife i think is
because I'm in the Navy my wife
understands that at certain times I have
to be separated for my family but it's
of course it's a little more difficult
for kids especially since tomorrow's my
daughter's birthday and I won't be able
to say happy birthday to her tomorrow
I'll said now happy birthday and so it's
a little more difficult for them and
they don't understand why dad has to
leave for two weeks all the time but I
think that by preparing them for talking
to him a lot beforehand and explain to
them just how important the missions
that we go on our they're much more
accepting of it and they know that what
a fun before the mission me I think they
enjoyed the launch and we have a whole
lot of thought after it to my name is
Amanda go Brent I am in grade 12 at
Walter Murray in Saskatoon be Arnie we
know that one of the programs you have
been working on for a long time is
aboard the space shuttle with you is
them operating buddy hoped it would
never see it here at the lower part of
the view here is right beside me to buy
to my left ear and then it's working
very fine we've turned about the first
day of the flight that's been operating
well in the last four days and if I do
it now it's doing some analysis I don't
know whether you can see the middle
screen beside me here they're looking
very well we've got good good isolation
somebody says we've tried on and haven't
worked as well as we'd like but as part
of the experiment that we're doing with
it is to learn how to make a word butter
my name is Heather pond I am in grade 11
backwards in Saskatoon what and how much
of Canada can you see from space I've
been pretty lucky at this mission is a
high inflation orbit so we're going up
to fifty seven and a half degrees which
takes as well north of edmonton and
saskatchewan we have to do that i've had
a beautiful look at that Cooper Calgary
Edmonton Montreal good look at their
maritime so some of the great lasers
been that fabulous to see cabin from up
there
my name is bone and Brooks I'm in grade
nine at Holy Cross High School describe
how it felt to be launched into space
yeah the number of shuttle launches or
the past few years they're pretty
spectacular when you look at them from
the ground but being inside is a very
unique unique experience you know you
wait their anticipation on the launch
pad as you come to the last few minutes
of Lawrence and then you finally feel
the kick of the main engines coming on
and the shuttle sort of pictures board a
bit and sprays back and then you get
this those kicking your back when the
solids come on and actually just stays
and propels you upwards as credit
sensation is a lot of vibration they
last for a couple of minutes and then
those followers are off and then you get
a steady clean push it just keeps
pushing your armors into space and it
builds up to about 3 g's after about six
minutes and by then there be this a
little bit labor because you've been
under this G load for a long time but
it's it's quite an exciting ride it went
a lot faster than I expected and and it
was a little smoother than I expected as
well was that just an incredible ride up
in this space and go so fast my name is
Nicola Skinner I'm grade 9 a toy Cross
High School in Saskatoon beyond my
question for you is this have you or any
members of the crew experienced space
motion sickness or back pain and if so
how is this affected what you have been
able to accomplish well back pay and
invoices sigmas are pretty common up
here monsters crew has been pretty good
I was green and the second day of the
flight but I managed to do all of my
work and and after a couple of days
everybody's just fine I back pain is
something that happens because you're
spying elongates a bit because you're
not under the compression force of
gravity all the time up here so you get
a little bit longer in space and I put
some stretchers or pressure on your
spine and so I've had a little bit of
back pain but not very much not enough
to disturb my sleep and right now it's
basically all gone away