Oh
you
good morning Atlantis sure came early
but good morning
Lisa seems early came early for us to
excellent murn Atlantis nice after birth
yeah we appreciated the K you peek into
his vivid down here too
floating into view in this live
television picture from the flight deck
of Atlanta's commander Jim Weatherby now
in his fourth flight into space
Weatherbys last mission more than two
years ago aboard discovery on the STS 63
mission was the first to rendezvous a
wid the MIR space station in which
weather be guided discovery to within
thirty seven feet of the mirror and a
practice a dress rehearsal if you will
for the eventual initial docking of the
shuttle to the mirror two months or
several months later by a commander
who'd gibson he there is pilot Mike
bloomfield about to make his way down
into the mid deck of Atlantis as the
astronauts continue to set up equipment
in preparation for the day's activities
ok it's tough to figure out how to get
all seven of us up here on the App
flight deck but it was even tougher to
get all seven of us down the mid-deck
after launch yesterday when we had all
the equipment down there trying to
recover after a great launch in a very
short flight they want to stow
everything it was amazing the troops
here did a great job o is very impressed
with bloomer our rookie on a cent it was
an incredible ride he did a great job he
had a couple of minor failures right off
the launch pad which spits them out too
much but it does cause us to really get
our brains blown if they weren't flowing
right hand lift up and he did a great
job identifying the failures and
deciding what to do about it which was
basically nothing because Atlantis is
such a great ship it turned out there
were just do sir problems and mine are
anomalies but it was a great ride I
didn't look out by the window very much
on my fourth wife Wilma looked at only a
couple of times because he was really
doing his systems work he saw a couple
of interesting things around SRB Sep it
really pushes you it's unbelievable that
we're not halfway to Mars after this
plane engines quit you know as a thanks
to all the people who worked on the flow
for Atlantis it is a great vehicle
we got right to the orbit that we wanted
to so we're on our way to mirror which
we should be there by tomorrow a couple
of burns today to improve our orbits and
get closer and basically today we're
just in the catch-up mode trying to pack
everything that was out for launch and
get set up for the run-in with tomorrow
I'll say that all of the crew members
i'm very happy was very impressed with
their just charging around doing things
and get anything sorted out everyone
pretty much working standalone today
will work as a team tomorrow everyone
coordinated today we're all relatively
separate once again thanks to the ascent
team and the folks who worked on the
processing of the vehicle and I'll turn
it over to Scott now why just like to
echo what Jim said thanks all the great
troops that made all this possible it
was really the greatest ride of my life
real a ticket ride and we're all very
busy on our first flight day but things
are really coming together for the crew
I just like to point out in this picture
that too short Lawrence is really taller
than I am in space yes everybody always
wants to know are you nervous on the
launch pad and I've been up we're busy
enough or thinking about enough that
we're not usually but in the last 15 30
seconds you start start thinking about
it and both wax bloomer Scott and Bob
bloody up here literally I just thought
about these guys that are just
incredibly all pro at this and this is
what professional astronauts are all
about is pulling this off safely because
those solids go really when the engines
start Embling on the ground and the
vehicle starts shaking around and you
know there's a lot of moving parts here
under G in a suit and I just thought
about those guys up then you really feel
safe so
guys are just the best darn you should
see him up here moving also it's it's
impressive so thanks as the rookie it
was a pretty impressive deal launched
the most impressive thing is it started
out dark as we're sitting on the pad but
all the way uphill it was basically
daylight in the fire behind us push this
up in and right at SRB Sep you can see
the SRBs come off and it's a very very
impressive show I hope that looked just
as neat on the ground and it's great to
be up here with the great crew they're
making life easy for me one new
experience for me and my first flight
this is the first time I've had to
double space hab module and I did get to
float down the tunnel past the volumes
that we're going to dock with mere and
it's a pretty long way so it was awfully
fun floating down there the length of
the tunnel we hope that more of these
short visits with you where we get
everybody up on camera and thanks a lot
it's time for us to go back to work
dr. David Wolfe I think it would be an
understatement to say that the the whole
world is watching and is very concerned
about you going aboard the MIR are you
the least bit concerned about going on
here well you have to always take space
flight seriously and where I'm concerned
as I would be in any other space flight
but the mirrors in excellent condition
to my mind and I'm looking forward to
being over there I noticed from your
résumé tijera stunt pilot how would this
mission compare being a mere with your
stunt piloting experiences well I don't
this stuff I do aerobatics and which are
I don't consider that particularly
dangerous as long as you do it carefully
and don't cross the line and that's how
I plan to conduct this mission also in a
conservative fashion and will do it very
safely commander Lawrence besides
dropping off David Wolfe and picking up
Michael Pfohl you're delivering some
much-needed supplies to the mere
including a new computer and drinking
water Atlantis is supposed to dock with
me or tomorrow what happens if the
Amir's computer goes out before the
shuttle docks with it I'm gonna pass
that went off to the commander since
he's been training for that scenario
right up until launch okay good also say
that we do have a long tunnel between
our living quarters here and the
Spacehab and I do stunts going down
there and beaten when i'm trying to get
from one place or another we left the
new roles and flip sets or translating
that's where we do our stunts in between
modules if they lose their computer
before we dock we will separate it for a
safe distance away and allow them to
reboot the computer they've been
successful in doing that they practice
that technique over the past couple of
weeks and they are very good at
rebooting it now
getting it back up to speed here will
regain control capability and then we
will back maybe the next day if they
lose it in close we can continue the one
rule and the docking manually and Scott
and Mike just matched the rates that we
have with the mere and I continue to
dock in village it continues to take
ranging measurements with a laser gun
that's similar to a police laser for
ranging information so either way if it
doesn't fail we'll have a successful
docking hopefully if it does then they
can reboot it commander Lawrence give us
an idea of some of the supplies that
you're going to be carrying up Tamir in
addition to computer for the air and
water for the near we're taking over a
gyrodyne which will also improve the
motion control system we're also taking
over a great deal of scientific hardware
that David will need to complete his
mission the experiments are in a wide
range of disciplines you will be doing
some experiments that will help us
better understand how the human body
functions in weightlessness over long
periods of time specifically studying
the loss of calcium which is very
important because it's very applicable
to patients who are bedridden for a long
period of time we're also going to
continue a series of protein crystal
growth experiments we have a handful
experiments that we will be transferring
once we docked and then we also have a
very interesting experiment fact david
has participated in this field for many
years we're going to be growing some
tissues on board some cancer tissues
that we hope in the long run will help
us better understand that disease and
find a cure for it so there's a great
great number of experiments that are
going or an even larger amount of
hardware for mere
others of course good then personal
equipment for day but we're gonna be
very very busy transferring about 7,000
pounds of equipment david wolfe a-- do
you anticipate doing space walks while
you're there trying to find the leak in
the mirror I sure would like to we have
trained extensively for both say a group
of scientific space walks and two to
repair to repair work in various
scenarios but we'll have to watch that
as it unfolds of course we have Pablo
and anatoly who are up there extremely
capable cosmonauts so I'll be happy to
help them from inside also do you think
that the problems with the mere have
been blown out of proportion David well
not in the minds of those of us working
in the space program both the Americans
and the Russians because we don't tend
to think that they're out of proportion
we don't think that they're big failures
some of them of course were the fire was
very dangerous for about several minutes
but once it was taken care of then there
there is no more danger in the and the
decompression of course was a short time
event but after they isolated the leak
within about three minutes doing a great
job as a crew then the danger has passed
and so we go about our business to try
to fix problems and ensure that they
don't happen again we don't dwell on the
failures other than to make sure that we
do everything we can to make sure that
they don't happen again and we improve
our redundancy in the future design of
the International Space Station they may
be blown out of proportion other
people's minds but those of us working
in the program don't really see it that
way okay bill already and in fact in
case you guys are wondering what these
big blocks are floating around here
these are pieces of the odometer which
we're having the process of setting up
while we're doing other things a copy
Dave we're two minutes to the z OE and
we'll pick you back up at 1833 now
having gotten that out of the way let's
see what we see looks like you have is
the
Alice unbalanced you got a free-floating
cable coming out of one end now is one
of the ends at the other end of the
cable connected to the PDF yes they can
connected these two join together and go
back to a white cable to the P dip one
says the open one says TV IP video cable
and the other one is a downlink balanced
unbalanced TV video cable and David do
you know if you are located the actual
ssv box itself they'll have it yeah
that's a completely separate box it's
got a number of LEDs on it it should be
powered it's got a DC utility power
cable or PG SC power cable that goes
into it the other cable to that box also
comes out of the PD panel out of the J
107 port we found it bill got it here
Thanks and here's and roll cipa to you
now let us know see Adam and we've got
it ok what you see of course is my
navigator Scott Berezovsky on the left
side in the foreground of the camera
closest to the camera and would the
vanity top sitting on the light side
cast in the cockpit closest to the
camera Mike will fields in the pilot
seat up on the right and I'm in the left
side you can see the checklists and fun
with the xenos lamps illuminating a
portion of Mike's checklist across the
three CRT's
I think we've already had the access arm
retract and here comes main engine
ignition and in six seconds later you'll
see SRB ignition notice the light show
and the violence as we go uphill I don't
recall I don't remember it being this
much vibration because we're
concentrating a course on
parameters in the roll program etcetera
in other systems things you see is gone
through two displays looking at the high
sensor that we had on the fuel cell of
course muttering for stage steering
performance which was a new thing on
this way where we had first stage
guidance first hearing which of course
worked as advertised he can see a light
show out the front windows as we get
higher into the thinner atmosphere the
plume expands and we're still chowing
around in a cloud of stuff that gets
eliminated in front of us and you see
that out the window it pretty much is
like daytime even though of course we
lost at ten thirty four in the night you
see the seats vibrating as we do a pill
starts at about one g vertical
acceleration and liftoff bill to about 3
G's after 2 minutes
and he can see Mike pointing at
analyzing the assayer that we had with
the scissor and we also had the other
anomalous water spray boiler sensor
indication we look at that briefly and
of course Mary isn't pelvis on gog to
the upper right cathode ray tubes and
here we are getting ready for SRB
separation and notice the light show
that you see here it's pretty incredible
the solids are separated with rockets on
the side of each salad that pushes the
solid rocket boosters away from the
vehicle so that we can continue to
accelerate uphill using the fuel in the
external tank and the three main engines
the fellows are separated jettisoned and
parachutes open in their jobs into the
Atlantic Ocean picked up with ships and
refurbished yes SRB Sep we talked to
them raise our visors as we approach my
25 mike is concentrating more and more
on the engines and there's main engine
cutoff and you see we instantly
decelerate 20 times the force of gravity
and we're immediately weightless within
a few seconds the external tank tops off
of the vehicle and it chops into the
ocean and there are the Jets firing and
the pyrotechnics that separate the
external tank we are traveling in
orbital speed in a cloud of residue from
the Jets and as the Jets fire for
attitude control you can see them the
light bouncing off of the haze that's
around us in it it flashes like
had a pretty good initiation into the
spaceflight business on his first flight
with the two tires right off the launch
pad which were relatively minor but yet
to mess no alarm rings and and it gets
your attention right a textile tank
separation he had his third failure
manifold left 3d a jet on the left side
of the vehicle the third manifold that
is pointed in the down direction that
helps the tail go up if we find that jet
failed and that rings the caution and
warning system and he analyzed that
correctly and one of the things the
vehicle does is dump the residual
propellant from the vehicle out through
the main engines and that takes a couple
of minutes after main engine cutoff and
it is slightly propulsive even though
the propellant is not ignited or on fire
that comes out of the vehicle it is mass
flow and so it does accelerate us a
little bit faster it also cut wants to
cause the vehicle to change its attitude
or pitch a little bit and so the Jets
are firing here and you see them again
flashing every time to jet fires to
maintain proper attitude of the vehicle
which by the way is upside down relative
to the earth but we don't think about
that at all especially for not looking
at the window and seeing the earth