Preflight
Interview: Paul Lockhart
The
STS-113 Crew Interview with Paul Lockhart, pilot.
Q:
The STS-113 Crew Interviews with Paul Lockhart, the Pilot of space
shuttle Endeavour on this trip to the International Space Station.
Paul, let's start by asking you to give me a thumbnail sketch of
the mission: What are the main goals of assembly mission 11A?
A: Well, we
have quite a few important pieces of hardware that we have to bring
up, but our most critical item that we're going to be bringing up
are the next Expedition crew that's going to be up in space and
replacing the Expedition Five crew there. So we're bringing up Expedition
Six and bringing back Expedition Five. So that's our main focus
is to bring up the next folks on our flight, which is, of course,
Ken Bowersox and Nikolai Budarin and Don Pettit. And then, of course,
if we bring them up we have to bring down the Expedition Five crew,
so we've got to bring back Peggy Whitson and Valery Korzun and Sergei
Treschev. Beyond that we have a very large piece of the space station
that we have to bring up and attach, and that's called the P1 Truss
- "P" stands for the Port 1 Truss -- and so it's a part of the major
structure that's going to lie perpendicular to the long axis of
the space station. In other words if you look at the space station
head on our piece will be running from side to side, and it's going
to be on the port, on the left side there, and it's going to be
attached to what is called the S0 truss, which forms the backbone
of this section.
As
you mentioned, you're bringing home the Expedition Five crew on
this mission. On your first flight into space you delivered the
Expedition Five crew to the space station.
Right.
And
you hadn't been back on Earth from that flight for more than a couple
of months when you were asked to step in for a colleague on short
notice on…
That's correct.
…STS-113.
How did you and your new crewmates respond to the challenge of incorporating
a new crewmember?
Well, for
me, it was almost a case as if there wasn't a break in training.
I found out approximately about forty-some-odd days after having
landed from STS-111 that I'd be assigned to STS-113. So when we
started training-actually two days after I found out, I found out
on a Friday and on a Monday we were starting the simulation training
at 0800 in the morning - I felt as if I hadn't even had a break
in the training there. For my other crewmembers, I think they found
out on Friday, too, that I would be joining, and so it was something
different for them, too, when I started showing up on Monday morning.
But what I found is that the crew that I'm with is very professional;
they took me in, no problem, and they basically sat me down and
said this is how we do STS-113. I compared that with STS-111, and
I said, all right, this is what they do different, and I think I
can adjust to that. And, they've been very good at making small
changes for me … in other words, adjusting to how I say things and
then how I throw switches and so forth … and letting me fit in with
their protocol and the way they do operations. So, for me it's actually
been very good because I've been able to pull the best out of STS-111
and quickly look at how another crew does their operation on STS-113.
And so I've been able to actually probably benefit the most out
of all this.
Well,
tell me, which do you find more intriguing then: the similarities
between these two missions, or the differences between them?
Most intriguing
are the similarities. As you noted, I'll be bringing down the same
group of folks that I'm bringing up, or that I brought up on STS-111,
and so that's the major similarity right there. As soon as I realized
that we would be bringing back the Expedition Five crew, the same
ones that I brought up on STS-111, that kind of formed a core around
which I thought of this entire STS-113 mission. In other words,
everything else kind of revolves around my going up and seeing the
same folks that I brought up. And I think it's going to allow us
to have some good interaction once we get up there, especially when
we open the hatch and go across and in a sense I'm their ride home,
the same gentleman that brought them up. In addition to that I perform
some of the same roles, and it, this matches almost exactly on STS-113
what I did on STS-111. You could almost say that the whole flight
plan that was cut on STS-111, from my part at least matches exactly
on STS-113. And that's why the training actually hasn't been too
extremely difficult-I've been able to flow right in and follow the
same type of procedures and so forth. So the similarities are really
strong-I almost felt like since we're in the same vehicle, we're
on the space shuttle Endeavour, that when we go back and sit in
the cockpit and sit in the seat, that I'll basically find all the
switches in the same position I left 'em in when we landed at Edwards
Air Force Base in June. So the similarities far outweigh the differences.
Flying
twice a year what you had expected when you became an astronaut?
No. It took
close to 5-1/2 years or so before I was flying on my first flight,
and I expected the wait would not be quite as long but would still
entail months and years before my second flight. So when the, it
was actually a matter of days -- 42 days before I got reassigned
-- and will be within a matter of months before I actually perform
the flight, has been a total surprise to me. And it shows that you
can never basically guarantee what life will bring to you sometimes.
Tell
me about how you became an astronaut, or how did you become a person
who was astronaut material?
Well, there's
a lot of folks that are astronaut material out there; I think the
question to kind of like lead that in is, what made me want to become
an astronaut, in a sense, and then, how did I form my life in order
to get to this position. And, it goes back to the early days in
the '60s with the first space program. I found myself watching the
early space program on TV, the Gemini and Apollo missions, and I
was just totally fascinated by it. And that was at the same time
that a young boy'd be sleeping outside and going camping with his
brother and stuff and see the stars and everything. And then so
you take Walter Cronkite's wonderful voice describing what was happening,
and combine that with, you know, looking out at the stars outside
in West Texas, and all of a sudden you can kind of form a kind of
like a yearning in somebody right there. And that's where it started
with me-I just became enraptured with spaceflight. And I always
said, well, that's what I want to do is go into the space program,
but then as you go through junior high and high school other things
kind of come in: you get sports, you get your studies and so forth
that lead you one way or to the other. And so as I started in to
college I really wasn't staying focused, I-want-to-go-into-the-space-program.
But once I got my degree and I said, all right, what do I really
want to do with this, I basically came back and said, well, my dream
has always been to go into the space program; let's take this undergraduate
degree and let's get a master's degree and see if I can get to this
point. And it just so happens that I met one of those fateful people
about that time that basically turns you in a certain direction
in your life and heads you off in some direction whether it be the
way you want to go or not. And that gentleman was [an] ROTC Air
Force detachment commander who was trying to help me find some graduate
studies in aerospace engineering, which I thought would lead me
to the space program. And he looked me straight in the eye and he
said do you really want to fly the space shuttle; and I basically
said, absolutely. And he said, well then, if you want to fly the
thing you need to become a military test pilot, and so the next
thing I know I was going through the flight physicals with the Air
Force. And that led me into the Air Force, and then it was just
a case of being in touch … with people who'd been around the space
program, reading about it, starting the application process. And
it became clear that you had to go to test pilot school, after having
flown high-performance aircraft, and then just basically round yourself
out with a lot of different skills and so forth. And so, with the
help of my family you know, specifically my wife and so forth, who
helped me set up the training I needed, I was fortunate enough to
kind of like gather the skills that NASA needed and began the application
process and went through the same thing that, you know, everybody
does here: basically, first time, you don't even come down for an
interview, and then the second time, during the application process
I was fortunate enough to get interviewed and then get selected.
Let's
talk about what you're going to do on this, your second, spaceflight.
The primary payload on this mission, after the Expedition Six crewmembers…
Right.
…is
a piece of hardware that's known as the P1 truss, as you mentioned.
Introduce me to it: how big is it, where does it go, what does it
do?
Well, as I
was describing earlier, if you looked at the space station head
on, as it was coming at you in orbit the P1 truss is a large section
of cantilever beam structure that's going to perform, that's going
to act as kind of a support structure for radiators and solar panels
that will be constructed with the space station later on. So in
a sense it's part of a backbone, it's part of a, the muscular structure,
it's part of the skeleton of the space station. So if you look at
the space station head on, as it's coming at you, our portion runs
perpendicular, so from side to side, and if you look at it head
on, ours would be on the right side, but on the space station, as
it's flying, that would be the left side, and so the left is termed
the port side, so the P1 truss. And it looks like a large, triangular,
cantilever beam structure, and that's basically what it's designed
to do is provide support. However, weaving its way through this
are all types of connections-hydraulic, electrical, fluid such as
ammonia, and things of this nature-and so even though it's basically
inert, steel-type material, it's got the lifelines much like an
arm would in the body have. In other words, the nerves and the blood
flowing and things of this nature; so you can kind of like make
a comparison with that.
It's
carrying the utilities for what's going on…the other end of
it later…
Oh, absolutely.
There's going to be more portions of the space station that will
be attached onto that, onto the other end, and so as you can imagine
it has to, in a sense, provide the rigidity in order so that the
whole system is sound, structurally, and then, as you said it's
got to carry all of the connections that go out to the pieces that
will be attached later.
In
order to accomplish a mission a space shuttle crew has got to possess
a range of talents. Tell me what are going to be your top jobs on
this mission?
Well as the
pilot, I'll do almost everything that all the pilots do on ascent
and entry, so I'll be in charge of the critical systems at least
on my side of the vehicle, during ascent and entry. So that means
the engines, the auxiliary power unit, the hydraulic systems, the
orbital maneuvering system, the reaction control systems, and the
electrical system. So, in a sense my side of the cockpit has all
of these critical systems that allow the vehicle to basically maneuver
and stay in control of itself. The commander, on his left side,
is in control of the computers, or the brains, of the space shuttle
as well as the environmental control and life support system unit,
the pressurization and the oxygen and so forth. So, as any pilot,
that's my responsibilities on ascent and entry-make sure all of
those are functioning properly, and to back up the commander wherever
he needs me to help him perform his duties. On orbit, my duties
as a pilot will differ from other pilots on other missions because
they put you into -- NASA does and the training teams -- put you
into the positions that they need filled and they think that your
skills fill the best. For my mission, it almost matches STS-111
exactly. So, when I am on orbit I'll help maintain the orbiter;
I'll help maintain its water system, I'll help maintain its electrical
system, I'll watch over it: I'll feed and [take] care [of] the orbiter,
in a sense. But then, my main job in addition to that is to be kind
of the choreographer or the director of the three spacewalks that
my crew will be doing. We have Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will be our two Mission Specialists that'll be performing the three
spacewalks, and when they go outside the confines of the space shuttle
and are working around the space station they're enclosed in their
spacesuit, and the spacesuit is very bulky, and it's got a large
visor that they can see around and see with, but still it's confining;
they can't see around and to the side, plus their capability to
perceive what's around them is dramatically reduced. And it's very
difficult work to be inside one of the spacesuits. So my job will
be to help them maintain an awareness of where they are, what job
are they supposed to be performing, what tools will they need, and
to help them stay one step ahead of their task so that they are
never in a situation where they don't understand what is occurring
or what they should be doing.
Let's
talk about the spacewalks, and take a couple of chunks at a time.
Sure.
For
the first spacewalk, activity begins on orbit with the robot arms
and Airlock prep hours before Mike and John ever go out the Airlock door.
That's right.
Describe
what you're going to be doing during this time prior to when they
actually go outside.
Well, any
time you see a spacewalk, I think people realize that they can be
a long task. In other words, the gentlemen that are out doing the
spacewalks -- or the ladies -- can be out there six-and-a-half,
seven hours for a spacewalk. But what most people don't realize
is you have to tag on to the front of that, and also to the end
of that, another set of three hours of work, sometimes four hours.
So before we go on the spacewalk we have to prepare the guys to
go outside of the confines of the space shuttle, and that requires
some physiological preparation as well as equipment preparation.
We have to take the crewmembers that are going out on the spacewalks
and we have to basically prepare them to go out in a lower-pressure
environment, which is what they experience in the spacesuit, and
what that means is they have to rid their bodies of nitrogen much
like somebody who does scuba diving has to be careful when they're
coming up from underneath the water; they have to come up slowly
so as to control the amount of nitrogen that's released in their
joints and in their body. And so we have to do the same thing. We
have to basically purge their bodies of nitrogen, which requires
them to breathe in a protocol for several hours 100-percent oxygen;
in addition, we have to get their suits all ready, they have to
get them into the suits, the suits have to be connected, and then
we have to do a checkout of the suits-we want to make sure that
there's no problems, of course, before they go out. In addition
we have to get their tools ready: it'd be a shame to send the guys
out and [we] found out that we left a tool, or we found out that
we had the wrong size socket, or we found whatever the case may
be. It's not a case where the guys can come back into the garage,
get the right tool, and go back out. If they go out and don't have
the right tools, then we basically have to shut down the EVA to
bring them back in, re-pressurize portions of the airlock, and then
get the tools out to 'em. So it's real important that we think ahead,
get everything set, and get them ready. Then they go out and do
their spacewalks for six to seven hours. And, so they've been in
these suits now for probably ten hours, but they've been in preparation
for this about eleven hours. And then after they come back in from
the spacewalks my job then is to help them do the postflight post-EVA
work, which is we have to take the suits apart, and we have to carefully
tend to the suits-because we only have one suit per person up there,
basically; we have some spare parts, but there's not a lot-and we
have [to] tend to both of the guys who come in from the spacewalks.
So those guys are basically physically and mentally spent, 'cause
they've been out there working so hard, and so we want to take care
of them, get them comfortable and off to where they can get something
to eat-of course, they haven't been eating for probably eight or
nine hours-and then, I and another crewmember will probably help
regenerate the water supplies on the spacesuits and things of this
nature. So, a spacewalk day, from a Pilot's point of view, or as
the IV -- which is going to be my job, the intravehicular person,
the IV -- generally is a full-day job. If I compare it to what I
did on STS-111. II would wake up in the morning, do a couple of
my shuttle duties real quick -- in other words, make sure that the
shuttle was in good shape -- and then I immediately started to set
up for the preflight or the preparations for the spacewalks. And,
only about three-and-a-half hours after that, just as they were
about to go out the door, would I eat a little bit of breakfast,
and then I would spend the rest of the time in the cockpit helping
them do their spacewalks; they would come in from the spacewalks,
I would help the postflight preparations, and then I'd look up at
the clock and it was time for bed. So it's a full day.
In
the case of the first spacewalk on this mission, while you're in
the Airlock helping Mike and John get prepared, the P1 truss is going to be lifted out of the payload bay and moved over and attached
to the port side of the S0 truss. But it's not until then that Mike
and John go outside. From that point, describe to us what's going to happen outside the shuttle the rest of that day.
Well, when
Mike and John come outside the shuttle for the first time with the P1 truss there, our main thing is to make sure that we get power
to the truss. Because it has electrical connections that have to
be made in order to keep a lot of the critical avionics systems
that are on it alive, thermally alive; in other words keep them
thermally warm and stuff. So their main job when they come out is
to make a lot of these connections that go between the S0 truss
that it's attached to and the P1 truss properly mated, electrical
and things of this nature, so that we can keep the avionics alive.
And that's on a time clock, so that's basically our primary job:
get out there and make those connections, and provide what we call
keep-alive power to the P1 truss.
You
mentioned that there's a time limit; what, how much time are we
talking about? Is this, do they have to rush to do this?
No, they don't
have to rush to do this, they've got several hours to do it. But,
what happens is if they start to bring the P1 truss out of the cargo
bay, the clock has started because when you bring it out of the
cargo bay you no longer have electrical power connected to it and
so it's basically exposed to the, to space and so isn't thermally
protected. If we start to go out on our spacewalks and we find that
a suit has a problem and then they have to come back in, and then
have to go through this entire process of de-suiting, replacing
something, then go through the checks one more time, we could lose
a couple of hours in that whole process. And then we would be rushed
in order to try and get the clocks connected, or try to get everything
connected in time so that we meet the thermal clock.
So,
for the first spacewalk then it's primarily plugging it in?
Plugging it
in, making sure it's alive, and then there are a few other things
that we're going to be doing. We have to move a couple of, some
of the braces which were used to support the truss inside the cargo
bay, one of which are called drag links but they're just support
structures, those have to be moved and put out away as well as we're
going to be positioning what is called a wireless antenna for the
helmet cameras on the spacesuits. The spacesuits have three little
lenses across the visor of the spacesuit itself, and these cameras
are wireless, and they allow us in the space station and the space
shuttle and on ground to see what the astronauts that are doing
the spacewalks are actually working on. So they're really critical
because they help provide us situational awareness in the cockpit,
but they also provide documentary evidence of what the space the
astronauts that are doing the spacewalks are doing. So as they tighten
a bolt, we see that, we can film it, and so forth. But these wireless
little cameras that are on the spacesuits of course have to have
an antenna in order to transmit the little signal, and so what we're
bringing out there on the spacewalk number one, on EVA 1 and also
on EVA 2, are these transmitters, these wireless antennas, that
will help transmit the signal.
Before
the second spacewalk there's another major task of this mission
and, as we mentioned before, the exchange of the crewmembers.
Right.
Describe
what's required-and that's to transpire on that day between the
first two spacewalks-to change out Expedition Five for Expedition
Six.
Well, I think
there's two things. There's a physical aspect of it, and then there's
a command leadership change aspect of it. And probably the physical
aspect of it is the most important, and when I mean physical I'm
referring to these hand-molded seats that crewmembers will use in
a Soyuz to return back to the Earth in case there's an emergency.
And these hand-molded seats are made, of course, in Russia, and
they're, they fit inside the Soyuz, which is docked to the space
station and provides a lifeboat, in a sense. So, the ones that are
on the Soyuz right now fit Expedition Five crewmembers, and we're
bringing up three to fit the Expedition Six crewmembers. And so,
[an] actual change as to who would stay on the space station side
and who would come back in the space shuttle…that question, or in
terms of an emergency, that question is not decided until we know
whose molded seats are where. So, if we haven't transferred over
the molded seats for Expedition Six yet and we have to do an emergency
undock, well, the Expedition Five crew would stay there and the
Expedition Six crew would stay on the shuttle side. Once we've taken
over those molded seats for Expedition Six then they basically,
in a sense, inhabit the space station, and that's an important part
of the transfer process. The other thing which occurs is each Expedition
crew has a commander, of course, and on that day between the two
spacewalks, as you alluded to, we have an official change of command
ceremony, in a sense, where the Commander of Expedition Five will
relinquish command over to Expedition Six.
The
following day the second of the three spacewalks is planned on this
mission, and you're the IV crewmember again?
Again.
Walk
us through what the tasks are that involved for the second spacewalk
of the mission.
Well, on this
one we're basically continuing to bring alive and set up the truss
for future activity, and so the first thing we have to do are hook
up some very critical fluid lines that go between the S0 and the
P1 truss, and these are some of the thermal control lines that will
be carrying some of the thermal control fluids that will be used
further on down as the whole truss gets larger. So we have to make
those connections-there's some actual lines that are sitting there
that have to be pulled off of the truss and then attached between
S0 and P1. Then we have another wireless antenna that we have to
deploy, and then we also have to go back down to the P1 truss and
we have to take some of the, again, some of the support structures
that were used to hold the truss in the cargo bay, and we have to
pull those off, disengage them, and then place them up inside of
the truss where they'll be out of the way. So, the way I look at
[it] is it's…it's [an] EVA where we continue to set the truss
up for use for later on. We provided electrical power, thermal capabilities
in the first spacewalk, and in this one we're setting up a lot of
the fluid connections.
So
that by the third spacewalk you can spend time pretty much on I
guess what might be called a maintenance task because Mike and John have got a lot of installation work to do.
Yes, on the
third spacewalk this is one that basically changed over the course
of their training. And I came late to the game, so I'm not real
sure what they had been planning, but I do know, of course, now
what they're doing on the third spacewalk. On the third spacewalk
we have to deploy a lot of what are called spool positioning devices-and
we call them SPDs-and these spool positioning devices are, they're
temporary or they're permanent fixes to the quick disconnects that
are found-excuse me-throughout the entire space station. Any time
we have two fluid lines that are coming together they have fittings
that allow the two pieces to come together and hold themselves.
And, they're concerned about back pressures and about some leakage
and so forth, and so what we're doing are bringing up these spool
positioning devices and attaching these to all of the critical fluid
lines to ensure that none of these quick disconnects leak or can
inadvertently open or lock in the closed position where we can't
open them in the future.
And
this work is apparently taking place in a lot of different locations
outside the station.
That's very
true, and that's one of the differences between…STS-113 and
STS-111. In STS-111 the two crewmembers I had there worked basically
together the entire time, and so when we did the choreography on
that I could use one sheet of paper because the two were working
together as a team. On this one, with all of these spool positioning
devices scattered throughout, John and Mike come out of the space station, come out of the space shuttle and move onto the space station
and then they're gone to different sides. One person is behind the
Z1 truss, and then down near the Lab, what we call the Lab heat
exchanger, and then John's over at the end of the P1 truss. And so I basically have to track them in two different positions and
so, it's made the job a little bit more difficult in that sense
because I have to track two people at two different times. But,
John and Mike are really capable of working at high speed by themselves, and so it's not going to be a problem at all.
Outside
of the time of the spacewalks, during the docked phase of this mission,
there's some other work involved that includes transfer of supplies
and delivery of some experiments. Tell me a little bit about some
of that other activity that's going to go on.
Well, we,
of course, we have to bring up supplies for the Expedition Six crew
and so we will be carrying some of these on the middeck portion
of the space shuttle. This is one difference between STS-113 and
111: in 111 we carried a module in the cargo bay called the MPLM
logistics module…it was just basically a, almost like a big
U-Haul van, where we carried everything, and so we carried quite
a few packages of things. On this mission, because the truss is
so large and it takes up the entire cargo bay, the P1 truss, we're
not carrying that logistics module but we are carrying supplies
that'll be used to help the crew carry on and do their work over
the next period of time until the next mission comes up that does
have a logistics module. So we do bring these packages to and from.
But one part of this mission which does match, just as STS-111,
is we do have several powered payloads that are on the space station
that are performing experiments right now that we have to bring
out of the space station and put onto the space shuttle, and then
power up and keep them alive, working properly, until we land. And
that matches almost exactly what we did on 111, and in fact many
of the experiments that we took from 111 and put onto the space
station so that they could perform I'm sure are the ones that we're
going to be bringing back.
After
you depart the station you've got another drop-off to make on the
way home; this involves an experiment package known by the acronym
MEPSI. What is a MEMS-based Pico Satellite Inspector? What do you
do with it, and what is it that it is investigating?
Well, this
is an attempt with the Air Force Research Laboratory, to try and
develop the capabilities of pico satellites, or micro-satellites,
to perform basically an inspection task in space. So, what the Air
Force Research Lab is looking to do is develop the capability to
have little micro-satellites that can be flown attached to larger
satellites or, I suspect, can be brought up on other types of vehicles
later and can be deployed to actually come out and around a critical
piece of equipment-i.e., a satellite or something else that's in
orbit that is of concern-and actually have these pico satellites
or micro-satellites fly out and then perform an inspection task;
in other words, take sensor data and determine the health or the
status of that critical item, whether it be a satellite or whatever.
So for us, we're going to actually show that this little system
of two pico satellites, or micro-satellites, can be deployed properly
and that they will function together as one. They're tied together
with a cord, and so they're interested in the capabilities of the
thing being deployed properly, that the physics of it being in orbit
doesn't cause the two micro-satellites to behave improperly, and
then just to show in a gradual increase of capability, that these
little micro-satellites can be functioning properly. So, on our
flight I basically get to deploy one of these, and then we're just
going to film them as they move on up, and then they're going to
be transmitting the data back down to the ground.
By
the time you and your crewmates get home with Valery, Peggy, and
Sergei, it's going to be a little bit after the second anniversary
of the arrival of the first Expedition crew on board ISS. Paul,
in your opinion, in these first two years of crewed operations,
what's been the best thing to come out of the International Space
Station program?
When I got
to the space station and went from the shuttle side over into the
space station side, it was quite obvious that our team of NASA personnel,
along with our cooperative nations, all of the nations coming together,
have put together up there an extremely robust and capable and dependable
piece of structure. When I floated through the Lab and then into
the Node and then into the Airlock and then into the Functional
Cargo Block and the Service Module, it is, it was and is very obvious
to see that it's a very sturdy, well thought out structure that
we're going to be able to use for a long time. I never had the feeling
that I was coming into a structure that was makeshift or that was
fragile or that couldn't perform the job that it was supposed to
do. But the whole system as a whole allowed the, allowed our astronauts
up there to perform their duties. And so I think that was the most
impressive thing, and I think that's the thing that we've gotten
the most out of it, is that I think we can all be very proud that
we've been able to plan, produce, and put into orbit, and now use
this thing much as we had designed it to do.
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