Kind: captions
Language: en
You're a scientist. You trained as an
astrophysicist and then you decided to
leave all that and become an astronaut.
What ever possessed you to do that? Why
did you want to leave your scientific
career and become an astronaut?
Well, I'm not really sure why. Uh when I
came to NASA, I didn't think of it as
leaving my scientific career. NASA was
was very good about uh extending us the
opportunity to continue our research and
encouraged us to do that. And I I did
that for a couple years after I after I
came to NASA. Um, as I was here, I got
more and more involved in the space
shuttle and less and less involved in my
research. So, right now, I'm I'm really
not doing any scientific research, but I
I didn't intend to leave research when I
came to NASA.
So, what is so compelling about going
into outer space? Why did you want to go
into outer space?
I really don't know. And uh I've had a
lot of time to think about it and I
don't know what the reason is, but I
think that some of the people in the
world understand immediately and would
love to take my place and would love to
go up themselves and other people really
don't understand the reason for it and I
think that it's it's just something
that's inside people that they can't uh
can't explain.
Tell me about the highlights of basic
training. What was it like?
Okay, the first year of our basic
training was a lot different than most
people imagine. Um, the press only
filmed the aspects of the training that
looked exciting when we were dur doing
water survival or parachute training,
that kind of thing. But really that only
took up maybe four or five days of that
year. Most of the year was spent in the
classroom learning about the space
shuttle systems, the space shuttle
experiments, a little bit of background
on the shuttle, and um, it was just like
going back to school. So there there
really weren't any any highlights or any
any horrible moments. It was all very
much like uh like being back in the
classroom.
Okay.
I know you've had a lot of questions
about being the first woman and a lot of
dumb questions and press conferences.
I've heard them all. I can't imagine how
you'd survive them. But is there any way
that being a woman and an astronaut has
made any difference either positively or
negatively or in any kind of funny ways
uh that you're willing to talk about? I
really don't think that there there is
um any aspect of the training or of the
flight where it's made any difference
that there have been women astronauts on
the crew or not. Our training is uh
really asexual. You know, the the women
and the men go through exactly the same
training. The women and the men do
exactly the same jobs on orbit. And
weightlessness is a great equalizer. You
don't need to be strong to do things up
there. And it's uh there is really no
difference. What does the Earth look
like from outer space? How can you
describe it for people who've never will
never have a chance to see it? I mean,
what is that like?
You can't describe what the Earth looks
like. And it's, you know, I've been
trying and I I found that I just can't
do it. And a lot of the pictures that we
took, although they're spectacular, we
look at them and and we're always
disappointed because it just doesn't
capture what the Earth really looks
like. And there, you know, it's it's
spectacular to fly over the Himalayas in
the moonlight and have them look like
they're just reaching up to touch you.
And you can see rivers in the moonlight.
You can see uh fires all along the coast
of Africa. You know, it's just a
beautiful site that it's too bad
everybody doesn't get a chance to
experience it. When you've come back to
Earth after having that experience, do
you see Earth any differently? Do you
see your surroundings or your life on
Earth differently? I don't think that uh
that space flight had that effect on me.
I didn't uh I don't think that I viewed
really anything in in my world
differently after the flight than I did
before the flight.
Um what is weightlessness like? How can
you describe being in zerog?
Weightlessness. Weightlessness is fun.
That's probably the best way to describe
it. It's a completely different
experience. You can't simulate it on the
ground. None of our trainers even
attempt to to simulate that. We have an
airplane that that flies like this and
when you go up over the top, you get
about 30 seconds of weightlessness, but
it doesn't come anywhere near preparing
you for the feeling in orbit. It's very
benign environment. It's very easy to
move around and I know that uh
personally while I was up there, I I
felt like that's where I belonged. you
know that it was much much easier for
the human body to uh to function in
weightlessness than it is with uh with
gravity. You know, if you want to get
from one side of the room to the other,
you just push off from one wall and and
you're on the other side.
Can you imagine living in space for
extended periods of time? Have you
thought about would you live in a space
station? Would you participate in that?
I don't think there'd be any problem
with living in space for extended
periods of time and the Soviets are
proving that. They've had people in
space for well over 200 days with
apparently no uh no ill effects and I
would certainly volunteer for something
like the space station or a long
duration mission. It's your body adapts
very quickly and very easy to
weightlessness.
Okay, great. Um
okay, George Abby said that he knew
you'd be under a lot of pressure when
they picked you to be the first woman.
Was that true? What kind of pressure was
it only from the press? I mean, what in
retrospect now, what was that about for
you? I was obviously under a lot of
pressure after I was picked. I think uh
most of the pressure
that was
Wait a second.
No.
Okay, go for it.
Well, there was obviously a lot of
pressure um on me when I was selected to
be the first woman. I think that that
most of it was generated by the press.
Uh there were a lot of requests for
interviews. Everyone wanted to talk to
me and basically I was trying to train
and NASA was trying to get me trained.
And I think that NASA did a very good
job, especially before the flight, of
shielding me from the press and allowing
me to train for the the job that uh that
I was supposed to do. Um, right after
the flight, of course, NASA wasn't there
to shield me anymore. And uh I I just
had a lot of attention focused on me. I
knew during the flight that after the
flight I was going to get a lot of
attention. So I think that there was
quite a bit of extra pressure on me just
to avoid mistakes.
Uhhuh. Did that make you feel angry or
disgusted or proud or I mean I don't
think I felt angry or disgusted. Uh I
certainly felt proud. I think that
anyone would have under those
circumstances. It made me um all the
more determined to do things right and
to and to look professional while I was
up there.
That's true. Um, okay. We have these
great shots of you right before you go
into the orbiter and you're putting on
your helmet, you know, that NASA took
and you waving and what was going
through your mind? I mean, there you're
about to step into this incredible
machine. Well, as we were about to step
into the orbiter just before the launch,
I think that we were all a little bit
apprehensive about what was about to
happen. But more than apprehension, I
think we all felt excitement. Very, it's
very exciting situation. You're the only
ones on the launch pad. You've just gone
all the way up this elevator to the top
nearly and there are just three or four
people up there and they're the ones
that are they're only there because
they're going to strap you into the
orbiter and then they're going to leave.
So, it's a it's a very exciting time.
You've got a a very strong feeling of uh
of teamwork. You know, you feel like
you're part of a team. And it's a very
lonely feeling as soon as the as soon as
the people close the hatch and kind of
wave goodbye to you and and head down
the leave the launch pad.
Um, can you describe what re-entry is
like? What does it look like? What does
it feel like? I read there's sonic
booms. I mean, what you're done and
you're coming back. What is that
experience?
Well, re-entry uh re-entry is is one of
the more interesting parts of the
flight. When you first reenter the
Earth's atmosphere, for example, um the
orbiter comes in and ionizes the
atmosphere as it comes in contact with
it. That's what causes the
communications blackout, but it also
causes uh just a brilliant orange glow
that surrounds the orbiter. You look out
the windows and all you see is bright
orange that kind of fades into pinks and
reds. And it's it's spectacular. And I
was glad somebody told me about it
before I saw it for the first time. Once
you once you get down a little bit lower
and you start feeling the effects of
gravity, u even though you're not
feeling very much, you're maybe feeling
half a g or half what we are feeling
right now. Uh it feels like an awful lot
because you're not used to it anymore
and checklists get heavy and cameras.
You feel like you're carrying 200lb
cameras or 300 lb books. Um, my job
during during re-entry was to hold the
checklist, read the checklist, and
follow the procedures along with the
commander and the pilot and help them
monitor the systems. So, I really wasn't
looking out the window and didn't have
much of a view anyway. So, I'm I'm not
too sure what it what it looked like. It
feels very very smooth. There are a
couple couple spaces, especially right
around Mach 1, just as you're going
subsonic, where you get kind of a a
burbling. you get a lot of lot of
shaking but not very much more than that
and we don't hear the sonic booms
of course so you the otherwise the
landing uh feels surprisingly like a
like an airplane landing towards the
very end
were you disappointed coming back after
seven days or were you ready to come
back what was that feeling like
I think when it when it came time to to
de-orbit and come back um we were ready
to come back we didn't necessarily want
to come back but you psychologically
prepare yourself to be up there for
seven or eight days And when seven or
eight days are up, you know, you start
looking forward to re-entry because
that's a that's another new experience.
That's a that's that's an exciting
exciting event. So, we were we were
ready to come back.
On 41G, when Sullivan and Leitzman were
preparing to do EVA, did you have some
role and were you assisting them and
getting dressed or what was your
participation in that?
When uh Dave and Kathy were getting
ready to to do their EVA? Basically, uh,
I was was helping I was helping and
working with up on the the flight
deck. John McBride was helping them, uh,
put their suits on and preparing them,
getting the airlock ready and helping
them with their EVA. And I was doing
things like, uh, changing tapes in our
our video recorders and positioning the
arm for helping them during the EVA and
uh, operating a couple of the
experiments.
Um,
there's this great footage of all of you
guys at the end of 41G doing this little
roundroin and going around and around.
What was going on? What were you
thinking about?
Well, we had seven people on the flight.
We staged that obviously and we had
seven people on the flight, which was
the largest crew that's ever flown.
There was a lot of uh a lot of talk
beforehand that that might be too many
people and we had a lot of questions
about the habitability in the shuttle
with seven people. So, we just decided
to stage one one camera shot where we
all flew by the camera twice.
So, it looked like there were 14 people.
Looked like there were at least 14
people in there.
That's great. Um, okay. You've been at
NASA for six years. And it took you
about six years, not took you, but it
took NASA six years to get you up into
your first flight. And where do you
think you'll be in five years? Where do
you want to be in five years?
Five years from now, I have no idea
where I'll be or what I'll be doing. I
have uh I have no goals right now. I'm
not really a goal oriented person. I
don't have anything that I'm looking
forward to in five years or 10 years or
20 years. And there's uh nothing that
I'd rather be doing right now. I I'm
intending to stay with NASA as long as
uh as long as they'll let me stay.
Okay. Um,
oh, tell me what is T38 flying and why
is that part of your training and it
looks like a lot of fun, but is there
something more about it related to going
up in the shuttle?
The T38 flying is a very important part
of our training and I didn't didn't
appreciate how important it would be
until I till I came to NASA. One of the
first things that we that we learn is uh
how to coordinate as a flight crew. And
you learn that in the T-38. You learn to
appreciate what the pilot's doing. The
pilot learns to trust you in uh
navigation and communication. You learn
how to use the radios. You learn how to
use all of the uh the navigational
equipment, some of which is similar to
what we use in the in the space shuttle.
And I think that it really provides an
environment that uh is closer to a space
shuttle type environment that is a
flight crew environment um that nothing
else around here provides.
Okay. Tell me about the kind of training
that you had to endure to be able to be
so proficient at the arm and what you
did in this space.
There's a lot involved in the training
to operate the arm. I started um started
working with it right after I came to
NASA the first year that I was here and
worked a lot with the the engineers up
in Toronto where the arm is made in the
the engineering development. Spent a lot
of time in their simulators. Once I uh
got assigned to a flight, that's when I
really started spending the time at at
mock-ups like this where we've got a a
real live arm. You know, it's a piece of
machinery that you can move around and
and fly around and, you know, you can
bump it into things. You can break
things with it. And this is the only
simulator that you can do that. The arm
itself is not strong enough to support
itself under gravity. So, you can't use
the real arm on the ground. You can only
use it in orbit. All the other
simulators that we've got are
computerenerated simulations. So, you're
looking at a computer drawing and it's
almost like a video game. you're you're
playing a video game and although you're
doing all the things that you would do,
what you're seeing is a computer scene.
And this this right here um is really
our our only opportunity to move real
equipment around. And we spend seems
like forever in this building, hours and
hours and hours, and it's a very
important part of our training.
Okay, good. Um being an astronaut is
more than a 40-hour a week job.
How do you h how do you have how does
that fit into your life or is being an
astronaut your life? I mean just kind of
a typical week, a typical day. It's
mostly devoted to your job. Just a
little description.
Being an astronaut is not a 40hour work
week. Um every day is different,
especially when you're training for a
crew. You have to spend 12 to 16 hours
in the simulator one day, spend the next
day flying to might be Florida for a for
a test. It might be Colorado to visit an
experimentter and see the the experiment
that you're actually going to be flying.
You might spend uh the next day over
here operating operating the arm. Every
day is different and every day is long,
especially the two or three months
before flight. Uh you probably put in
you certainly put in at least 10 hours a
day and work at least one day on the
weekend. So uh really the training for
the flight becomes your life. that that
is your life for the two or three months
before a flight.
We have this great shot of you on the
treadmill eating cashews. I mean, it
looks like you guys play a lot, play
around. I mean, not that you don't work,
but there's a there's an element of fun
and
That's true.
And uh
That's true.
Is that because it's weightlessness? Is
it because you're so close together? Is
it I mean
Well, I think uh uh there's really a
sense of camaraderie while you're up
there. You're part of a team. You're
great friends with the people that
you're you're flying with. you've been
training with them for a year. It's just
like a family in a new experience. And
people ask if there are funny things
that happen, and there are hysterically
funny things that happen, but it's
almost it's like slapstick comedy. It's
you can't describe it. There's no there
aren't oneliners that come out. It's
just uh the whole effect of being
weightless and bumping into people and
spinning around and spilling your food
that is just kind of keeps you laughing
for for quite a bit of the time.