Preflight
Interview: Rex Walheim
The
STS-110 Crew Interviews with Rex Walheim, mission specialist.
Rex,
I'd like to get you to start by telling me about your mission in
a nutshell. What are the main goals of STS-110?
Well, in a
nutshell, the main goal of our mission is to bring the S0 truss
segment up to the International Space Station and attach it, and
provide power to it, and that's the main part of our mission. And
also we're going to bring up some supplies to the International
Space Station crew that's living on board, the Expedition Four crew.
We're
going to talk in more detail about the hardware. I want to ask a
couple of questions about you first, though. This is…your first
flight as a member of the flight crew…not your first shuttle
mission, but first time you're going to be flying. What was it like
to get the word that you, indeed, were now on schedule to leave
the planet?
Well, I first
heard about my flight assignment, actually, on a day I was headed
down to the Kennedy Space Center. So, I was flying to the Kennedy
Space Center, and when I got to the Shuttle Landing Facility down
there, there was a note there to call Charlie Precourt. And so,
that's always a good sign when you're in the Astronaut Office that
there might be some good news headed my way. And so we tried to
get a hold of him there, and couldn't get a hold of him, we went
over to crew quarters and called them back and found out that he
wanted me to fly on STS-110. So, I told him I was down there to
look at some space hardware, and he said, well, make sure you look
at the S0 truss segment; I said, "I sure will." So I found
out when I was down there, and literally half an hour after I was
assigned to the mission I was looking at S0 hardware on the floor
at Kennedy Space Center. So, it was tremendously exciting.
How
did you get to be an astronaut in the first place? I mean, what
was it that you did in order to become someone who could become
an astronaut?
Well, the
main thing was to, number one, work hard in school; the school obviously
provided your main foundation for the later successes in life, for
things you've tried and places you've worked and stuff. So that'll
be the first thing, work hard, especially in science and math, the
technical background, all the way from high school through college
through graduate degrees. And then after that, once you get into
the working world, it's just to work hard at, as best you can, at
your current job, 'cause they always say the most important job
you have is the one you have right now. And then, to find jobs that
prepare you for the type of career that you want, and for me, my
background was I always wanted to fly. And I, finally after a number
of years in the Air Force, worked my way into becoming a flight
test engineer. And so as I worked in that field, it's something
I loved to do, so I was able to do it well. And that also provided
me the good background that NASA was looking for. And so the combination
of the education, working hard, finding the right jobs, and then
kind of preparing yourself for a career in aviation and then hopefully
in space one day was my path, and it seemed to work out pretty well.
Let
me get you to take us back even a little further. In your own case,
as an example…you just started at the Air Force, but you must
have, you had other stops along the way before you reached the Air
Force.
Yes. I mean
I started thinking about flying in space when I was a little kid.
I used to read books about…fiction books about kids who built
their own spacecraft and went to this planet, and so I enjoyed reading
about it from a very young age. And that's kind of what got the
bug for me. But I also, it was also tied closely to the flying,
'cause I wanted to fly, and I used to go to air shows with my father
and my family, and used to love watching the airplanes fly over
my house in San Carlos, California. And so that's kind of built
upon that, and that's where I started taking the interest in the
technical background-the science and the math-and following that
through high school, and then getting into engineering school 'cause
I thought that was a good background to have as a…in the aviation
field.
If
I could get you to tell me a little bit more about the why: you
just took, referred to these books you read, but why did you want
to be an astronaut? It's one thing to want to fly airplanes; why
did you want to be an astronaut?
Well, it's
actually kind of a progression. You know, it's something that you,
it's a, the possibility to explore, to do something new, to do something
that few people have done. But then there is the key connection
to the flight. It's taking flight and as a flight test engineer
myself, taking the flight test to another height. And to do something
to progress on what you've built on from flying an aircraft out
at Edwards, being a flight test engineer in the backseat there to
working with the flight crew on a space shuttle vehicle. So that
was one of it, the chance to work with some very interesting people
is also another thing that, people from various backgrounds, you
know, I have the aviation track through to becoming an astronaut
but other people have medical backgrounds, you know, anything from
geology to physics or various degrees and they have various backgrounds
and so it's a chance to meet some people who are at the top of their
field and to work with them. And then it also gives you a chance
to do stuff that you didn't really prepare for. For instance, I
have an engineering background but part of being an astronaut you
learn other fields like the med, some parts of the medical field,
some parts of the Earth observation, physical chemistry, physical
science fields, type of things, and running experiments or working
experiments and all sorts of different things you get to do as an
astronaut. And it kind of lets you look at different fields and
kind of participating in, participate in them without having done
the formal years and years of education to learn up to that.
So,
the idea of being an astronaut is something that was growing…
Yeah, it was…
…over
time?
…it was
growing, but it's one of those goals that it doesn't seem possible
when you're young. And even all the way through college, you know,
it seems like something you can try to do, and then if it works
out, great; if it doesn't you know, that's probably the more realistic
possibility, and that's kind of the way I approached it: yeah, I'd
love to do it, but my real goal was to fly in the Air Force. And
I wanted to be a pilot but I ended up becoming an engineer which
worked out good for me but that was my main goal, saying hey, I
can, that's doable, a lot of people get to do that. Now, if on top
of that you get to become an astronaut, that's just great. So it
was something that as I progressed on after college, through my
Air Force career, I started doing flight test work and really enjoying
that and that's when I started thinking, well, this is a real possibility,
I'm starting to get the kind of experience that NASA's looking for.
And then it became a, you know, a more realistic goal to try to
become an astronaut for me.
Did
the couple of years that you were assigned here before you were
an astronaut contribute to that, too?
Absolutely.
When I was working here at the Johnson Space Center as a mechanical systems flight controller it was just a tremendous motivational
type experience for me. It still wasn't, back then it seemed a little
bit unreal also in that, you know, the people who you looked up
to so much, the astronauts back then it almost seemed too big at
that point to be real. For instance, when I was here as a mechanical
systems flight controller, I was a young captain, lieutenant, in
the Air Force, I worked on mission STS-27, which Jerry Ross flew
on. Now if you would have told me as a, you know, twenty-six-year-old
young captain that I was going to one day fly with Jerry Ross I
would have thought you were crazy! So it was just one of those big
dreams that are almost too big to dream at that point. But eventually
I've worked my way through my career, and it became more realistic
and became real. But back then it sure did provide a lot of motivation
'cause I got to see close up how it worked and what it was all about.
Other
people who you think back and say, they were pretty strong influences
in my life, too?
Well, yeah,
there's a number of people. My parents, obviously they were always
very supportive and provided the foundation that I needed to learn
how to work hard in school and work hard in everything I try to
do. So they provided that background, and they always encouraged
me. And then the teachers that I had, the, you know, the ones that
worked tirelessly to try to help me learn and develop my study habits
and study skills. And I've had the great opportunity, since I've
been assigned to this flight, to get in touch with some of my old
teachers from elementary school and through high school, too, and
let them know what I'm doing and invite them to the launch and stuff,
and that's been very rewarding.
The
primary payload on this mission, as you told us before, is a piece
of hardware that's known as the S0 truss.
Yes.
Introduce
us to it: how big is it, where does it go, what does it do?
The S0 truss
is a very large segment of what will be the main truss of the International
Space Station. And, it's 28,000 pounds heavy, and it's about forty-three
feet long, fourteen feet by fourteen feet wide, and it goes on the
top of the U.S. Laboratory module. And it's basically going to be
anchored down there, and it's going to be the structural backbone
for this truss, which will hold the solar arrays for the International
Space Station and allow it, basically, to have the power-generating
capabilities it needs to provide power to have a full international
complex with all the partners participating.
Is
it a structural piece simply for whatever goes later, or does it
have operational systems of its own?
Yeah, it does,
and it looks like a structural piece and that's the big portion
of it, but once you go meet S0 it's got a lot more inside of it
than you'd suspect. And it's got computer systems, it's got Global
Positioning System antennas, a number of different systems, and
it will be actually the backbone for the Mobile Transporter, which
is a railcar system that will be able to move the mechanical arm
up and down the truss segment. So it, that was one of the big eye-opening
experiences for me when I first saw S0 that day I got assigned:
it was, wow, there is a lot in here. And so, it's more than just
a structural member; it's got a lot of equipment attached to it,
also.
You
mentioned the Mobile Transporter. That's a component that is going
to be integrated with pieces that are coming from other international
partners.
That's correct.
The Mobile Transporter is basically the driving mechanism that will
drive the Canadian robotic arm…basically up and down the truss
segment when needed for repair work. And what will go on top of
the Mobile Transporter is a Mobile Base structure, which will be
brought up on the next mission after us. And then they'll be able
to put the mechanical arm on there, and that'll be a great increase
to the capabilities of the mechanic, the robotics system, basically:
the arm will be able to grab on to the Mobile Base structure and
then the Mobile Transporter will drive it up and down the truss
segment, so it can go to a number of different, more work locations,
and it'll be quite an increased capability.
That's
some of the payload; let's talk about the workers. What are your
primary jobs as a member of this 8A crew?
My primary
job is going to be to do two EVAs, or spacewalks. I'm going to be
working with Steve Smith and going out on EVA 1 and EVA 3. And besides
that I'm also a member of the ascent flight crew team, so as MS1
I'll be sitting on the flight deck for ascent and helping to basically
monitor the systems and deal with any malfunctions that occur during
ascent.
After
ascent one of the first big hurdles that comes up is to successfully
dock Atlantis to the space station, so you can carry out these tasks.
Tell me about what your role is on rendezvous and docking day, and
describe how the docking's accomplished.
Well, I get
a real fun role to have during rendezvous-I get to shoot the handheld
laser. And what this is is a laser ranging and range rate device,
which basically, I'll be able to aim it at the station when we get
close enough, and be able to tell how far we are, and feed that
information as confirming cues, to the Pilot and Commander, who
are flying the vehicle, and also give them range rate, or basically
velocity, how fast are we closing in on the station. As we get a
little bit closer, I'll also help with the, what's called the fly-out.
When you get close to the station, you'll find out, well, are we
misaligned a little, and so we'll read some targeting information
and we'll decide whether we need to do a little maneuver to make
sure we're properly lined up. And then we'll press on in and dock
with the International Space Station.
Is
the rendezvous profile, the approach, the same as has been flown
lately?
Yes. It's
the same profile we've been flying lately now that we have the Laboratory
module there, and we can fly up and dock from the front end of the
Laboratory module.
After
docking, on that day, there's a lot of work that's going to be done
right away…very little time for handshaking and hellos. And
some of your work has to do with preparing the spacesuits for spacewalks.
Tell me about what you do the remainder of that day in the Quest
airlock.
Well, the
first thing we're going to do is bring Steve's spacesuit over to
the Quest airlock and hook it up, basically, and do interface checks.
The suit that I'll be wearing on the first EVA is already up there,
so the only thing I need to take up there mainly are some of the
accessories that I'll wear and my-the main thing is my gloves-so
we'll bring my gloves over, put 'em on the suit, and we'll check
out the suit, and then we'll do interface checks with Steve's suit
to make sure it's interfacing with the airlock properly. And then
we have to make sure we have all our tools ready, and we [have to]
make sure the airlock is ready 'cause we're going outside the next
day and there's not a lot of time to get ready 'cause the EVA day
is a big and very activity-heavy day already, so there's a lot of
activity to do right from the start. So we try to get everything
as best we can, ready that night and then be able to hit the ground
running the next morning.
In
your time as an astronaut you've been learning not only what to
do on the spacewalks on this particular mission and how to do a
spacewalk, since before you were assigned to this mission; have
you given any thought to how you expect to feel the first time you
float out into the space as your own spaceship?
Well, it will
be exciting, I'm sure, so it's hard to know exactly what to expect.
We have ridden on the zero-g airplane here at the Johnson Space Center, and that's kind of been a very short-lived example of what
it's like to be in zero-g. But if it's anything like that, I mean,
as I'm sure it is, it's got to be incredibly exciting, especially
when you couple on the incredible view you have from up there. And
we train in the zero-g Neutral Buoyancy Lab which is in the water,
basically, a pool, where we put on the suit and go down and practice
on a full-scale model of the space station. And everybody who goes
up to do these spacewalks says, you know, you get out there and
you feel like you've been there before…you're so familiar with
the tasks and the landscape of the station, and where you're going
to put your hands and stuff like that, that it really feels comfortable.
And I'm looking forward to that 'cause I feel I know my way around
the mock-up in the water pretty well, and so it'll be nice to get
out and see the view, but also feel a little bit at home, knowing
where you are and what you [have to] do.
OK;
tell us what you [have to] do. Take us outside with you for the
first spacewalk on this mission, and describe the tasks you and
Steve Smith have to accomplish.
Well, spacewalk
number one, the first goal is to structurally attach the S0 to the
space station. So that's the big thing. And the way we're going
to do that on the first spacewalk is to attach the forward struts.
There's four sets of struts that hold S0 down to the Laboratory
module, and we will release and swing down these forward struts,
and then bolt them on to the station and bolt them down tight, obviously.
So that's job number one, getting the forward struts down. And then
my next job will be to hook up some avionics connections: while
Steve Smith is working on the aft end of the S0 to do some umbilical
connections, I'll be taking some large umbilical trays-which are
basically just large beams with a bunch of connecting cables on
them-and I'll be attaching them to the Laboratory module and then
plugging them in. It's basically to get power…and data, to
S0. So the two main goals are to structurally attach it and then
get power and data to it on that first EVA. And that should be our
main goal, and it'll pretty much take up most of the EVA. We will
also, time permitting on the first EVA, hook up power and data,
one string of power and data to the Mobile Transporter we talked
about…basically get it power and get it data on one string
and allow the ground to take a look at how things work there.
Now,
the spacewalk that you're going to do is booked at some six, six-and-a-half
hours, and the S0 truss will already be moved up onto, in place
on top of the Lab…
Yes.
…by
the time you go out the door.
Yes.
And
yet, you've got something of a time deadline…
Yes.
…time
by which you've got to have power connected to S0. Tell me, what's
driving the deadline?
Basically,
we need to get the power to S0 so that it stays warm. Basically,
we need to get the power to keep the components warm so that they
don't freeze. And it is a very careful orchestration of how we're
doing all this. While Steve and I are getting ready in the airlock
to go out EVA, Ellen and the station crew are helping to dock, or
basically put S0 down, onto it and basically do the initial attachment
of S0 onto the top of the Laboratory module, so that's going on
when we're getting ready so that when we come out it should be already,
basically attached in a temporary manner to the top of the Laboratory
module. But then we have to get our connections. Obviously, the
first order of business, like we said, was to structurally attach
it, so we get those struts down, but we have a number of different
branch activities that we can do if things don't go according to
plan. We've got to get that power applied to S0, so the first thing
we want to do is we want to get those avionics trays that we talked
about to hook up the Lab to S0. Now, if we have problems with those,
or we have problems with the struts and can't get to them fast enough,
we also have a backup method of getting power to the S0 truss segment,
and that's called the launch-to-activation cables. These LTA cables,
as we call them, were strung out on mission 7A.1 as a backup means
of providing power to S0. If something doesn't go right, or if it
takes too long to do the activities we plan on doing, we can always
divert at some point to the launch-to-activation cables, hook them
up, and provide temporary power to the S0 truss segment. And then
we can regroup and figure out how to go about business the next
day.
On
the schedule, the next day is planned for everybody to stay inside
the station. What's the job for you guys then?
Mainly we're
going to have to transition from having mine and Steve's equipment
ready to go out the door to taking that out of the airlock and getting
Jerry and Lee's spacesuits into the Quest airlock and get them powered
up and checked out, get the tools ready, and all ready to go for
the next day. So that's going to take quite a bit of time right
there. And also we can possibly start some of the transfer activities
at that time, if we have a chance.
As
you've reminded us…not that we've forgotten…but that,
there is another spacewalk coming up the following day; Jerry Ross
and Lee Morin are conducting that one. Tell me about what happens
that day, and tell me what you are going to be doing inside the
shuttle and the station while they're outside.
Well, during
the first EVA, we got the forward struts down, so we have two of
the four down. On the second EVA Jerry and Lee are going to bring
the aft struts down and attach those. And, that's the first main
goal of that EVA is to bring down those aft struts and attach them
to the top of the Laboratory module. And at that point we have a
full mechanical connection to the space station, so that gives us
a lot of relief right there. And then other activities, they will
also bring power to the, it's redundant power to the, or a second
string of power, to the Mobile Transporter at that point, too, and
also start disassembling some of the pieces of equipment on S0 that
were needed for launch but are not needed on orbit, like keel pins
and drag links which were used to hold the S0 inside the payload
bay but are not needed now. And so they can start stowing those
and other activities as time permits.
What's
your job inside the station?
I'll be helping
Steve be the IV or intravehicular crewmember, who basically helps
to orchestrate the EVA from the shuttle cockpit. And so, Steve will
be the IV, but I'll be helping him and keeping tabs of where the
EV crew are keeping their equipment and their tools and giving Steve
a break here and there and controlling the EVA for short periods
of time, too, when he's gone.
So,
as you've described it, after the second spacewalk, both the forward
and aft struts of this new piece of hardware will be attached; it's
not going to fall off…
Right.
…anymore,
and power's been attached.
Yes.
The
following day, the third spacewalk of the mission, you and Steve
Smith are back outside.
Yes.
What's
on your plate that day?
There's a
number of activities that day. One of the main ones, the first ones
we'll tackle is a number of reconfigurations of power and data to
the robotic arm of the station making it, basically, the power come
through S0 instead of just straight through the Lab. And also providing
a power path to the Mobile Base structure, so that the mechanical
arm will be able to operate on the Mobile Transporter when it eventually
gets there. So there's quite a few reconfigurations necessary for
that where we'll pull some panels off and reconfigure some electrical
and data connections. And then the other main activity that day
will be to get the Mobile Transporter ready for work, basically.
We'll release a lot, a bunch of launch restraint locks-it's all
locked in place during launch, obviously, so that the launch vibrations
don't shake things loose. And so we have a very complex order of
removing bolts or basically loosening them and getting the suspension
devices and the drive units of the Mobile Transporter ready to go
so that the ground can check it out after we get all these launch
locks released.
That
checkout of the Mobile Transporter, the MT, is scheduled for the
day after your second spacewalk. And it includes a lot of activity
not only on the ground, as you mentioned, but inside the shuttle
and the station. Tell us about what's involved in that task.
Well, the
whole EVA 3, as a matter of fact, is quite a complex orchestration
of both the ground and the space crew, the shuttle and station crews,
and it's been quite a fun challenge to orchestrate that and to practice
that. We've done it, a number of sims…for EVA 3, and we've
also done a number of water runs, obviously, but what has to happen
is during EVA 3 we make a number of these power connections and
that enables the ground to test out that string and power down another
string so we can make the redundant string. We generally do things
in pairs: we power down the primary string, make some reconfigurations,
and then power that one up and power down the backup string and
then we can make reconfigurations on that. So, while we're doing
things on orbit, the ground is just busy as all get out reconfiguring
things and testing things out. And so it's quite a complex kind
of a ballet of activity between the guys on the vehicle and-both
inside and outside the vehicle-and the ground, so everybody's working
together and it's been real fun working together as a huge, huge
team. It's not just people throwing bales and driving bolts up there,
'cause we're all interconnected and it's been very interesting practicing
all that.
Now,
after your second spacewalk and you've done those connections for
the Mobile Transporter, that's got to be tested out before you folks
leave. Is it going to run up and down the track the next day?
Yes. I believe
they're going to try to allow it to drive down to its second dock
station and see how that works out, so hopefully if everything…goes
well they'll have a chance to do that. And, we really like, would
like to see that 'cause then if something doesn't work right we
can always go back out on the fourth EVA and take a look at something
that might not be operating properly and maybe make some adjustments.
So that would be nice if they could get to that; we hope to see
that.
Tell
me what is currently planned for the fourth spacewalk of the mission,
assuming you don't have to go out and do any other corrective actions.
Yes. In the
fourth spacewalk, we'll have a lot of miscellaneous tasks that not
only things that we have had to postpone to do then, but new tasks
that come up. Also, some scheduled tasks like energy absorbers for
the CETA cart that goes on, is attached to the Mobile Transporter,
to the Charged Particle Detection System will be deployed, and we'll
also have to photo-document all of the work we've done, too. And
so hopefully there'll be time on this EVA to document a lot of the
work that's been done.
Now,
you have brought up a point that a lot of people will think about.
There's a chance that all the S0 and MT installation won't go exactly
the way it's been planned and the way that you've been training
to do it for some time now. What are, I guess, the most critical
trouble spots that you've prepared for, and, tell us how you've
prepared to respond to them?
Well, the
main trouble spots would be the, obviously, can divide them into
two: the mechanical attachment, and then the power and data connections.
The mechanical attachments for instance, if we swing down the forward
struts and we're able to drill the bolts in to tighten up to a certain
extent, we then have to put what's called a torque multiplier on
it to basically tighten these bolts even farther so that they are
extremely tight so that it's not going anywhere. Now, if for instance
the torque multiplier won't fit on the bolt due to structural interference,
which is quite possibly the case on a number of bolts, we've also
manifested a torque wrench, a very large torque wrench similar to
what you might use in your garage that we can pull out of this,
the side of, there's a bag on the side of our spacesuit, pull it
out and just torque on it until we get a torque wrench limit, and
tighten up these bolts this way. So, that's our way of dealing with
bolts that won't go quite as planned. And then we also have, like
we talked about earlier, if some of the electronic connections don't,
the avionics trays don't work exactly as planned or take longer,
we have these launch-to-activation cables, which more simple to
use, and then we could hook those up to give us a capability, too.
So there's, we have a number of different fallback plans as, if
things take a little longer or don't go exactly as planned.
We've
spent a bit of time talking about the spacewalks on this mission,
but there is other work that doesn't involve the spacewalks particularly.
There's transfers of supplies and delivery of new experiments. Tell
me about some of the items that you and your crewmates are delivering
for the Expedition 4 crew to have and to use after you're gone.
Yes. There's
a number of experiments that we will transfer for them. So basically
we will do it in a couple of different ways. Either we will have
a place set aside for the experiment to go directly, so we can transfer
it right over for the Increment crew to use, or we can also put
it in a staging area, where it can kind of pack stuff for them to
put away after we get there. So we'll have a number of things, not
only experiments, supplies, food, personal items that we can bring
up to them. We don't have a, we're not carrying a logistics module
with us in this flight 'cause we have S0 in the payload bay, so
we don't have anywhere near the room of logistics transfer that,
that logistics module transfer flights have but we will have all
of a wide variety of things that we bring up to the crew, and so,
we'll be transferring those as time permits, when we have gaps and
we have scheduled times, too, so we'll try to get that done as fast
as we can. But we'll also be bringing stuff down for them: you know,
it results of experiments that have already run or other equipment
that's no longer needed or is not working properly, we can bring
that back down and have it serviced on the ground to be brought
up again later if necessary.
It's
an awful lot of work on this mission. Are you going to have any
fun while you're there?
I'm sure we
will. And I look forward to, in the spare time, looking out the
window looking at places where I've lived in the past, and I really
would like to see the northern lights if we can, get a chance, when
we go up north-I used to watch that when I was stationed in North
Dakota and look at that from the ground; I'd be greatly interested
in seeing it from space, I think it'd be quite an experience. And
then just [experiencing] life in orbit, I think, will be quite exciting.
The
International Space Station is a, it's a science laboratory as well
as it being a place to develop technology and to encourage commercial
research and development. It's also a place where people can learn
how to live in space. I'd like to get your opinion as to what you
think is the most valuable aspect of the ISS.
Well, I think
that most valuable will be their research, what comes out of the
research from all sorts of different fields. From physical sciences,
medical fields, you know, learning about new medicines, combustion
research, all sorts of different fields will learn…research
will have a, I think have a tremendous effect on life on Earth.
And it's hard to know exactly where it's all going to go but there's
so many different opportunities to really advance the state of the
art; I think that's the number one goal. But the other things you
learn from the space station like you say, is how to live in space.
If we ever want to get beyond Earth orbit, go back to the moon or
go to Mars someday, we will have to learn to live in space longer,
and we are learning so much just from the station. We've learned
so much in the past from the shuttle and from the Shuttle-Mir Program
and Skylab and all the others, and we continue to build upon that
and to learn how to live in space better, more effectively and to
deal with all the problems that come up. And, I think the third
important area that the International Space Station contributes
to is just international cooperation. It's not easy to build a complex
engineering project, and it's not easy to build a complex engineering
project as multinational; and then, try building that in space!
The way you learn to cooperate with other nations has been a real
eye-opener for me. Having traveled to Russia and to Japan and to
Canada, it's really been very enjoyable to see how dedicated all
these other countries are to this project, and how we're willing
to learn to work together in different ways and to make this happen,
because it's not an easy project. There are a lot of obstacles along
the way, just from cultural, language, different approaches and
you learn to iron those out. And it's not easy, but you learn to
deal with other countries and how they attack problems, and you
learn from it, too-there's certain ways that the Russians will attack
a problem, or that the Canadians will attack a problem, that's different
than ours. And you see the strengths in their approaches to this
problem solving, and you kind of fuse those together and you can
all learn from each other and just learn how to operate in an environment
where you can't make decisions all by yourself. And it's been a
very valuable and I've really enjoyed it, being a part of it from
an engineering perspective as I've been working in various technical
jobs in the Astronaut Office. And it, I think it's a very valuable
result of the International Space Station.
From
the point of view of now being part of a flight crew, tell me, with
all of that in mind, how you feel about the fact that you are now
going to be such an important and visible part of this whole project.
Well, it's
very exciting and I'm very excited to fly in space, to finally get
the chance to do that. It's also a lot of responsibility, and I
want to work hard, and study hard, and be prepared, and make sure
I do everything I can to make sure that I fulfill the confidence
that people have placed in me by putting me on this flight crew.
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