Documents - Mir Mission Interviews

Mir-24 Mission Interviews

Following are links to interviews that took place during Mir-24

Jim Van Laak, Phase 1 Program Deputy Director - 8/29/97
Frank Culbertson, Phase 1 Program Manager - 9/4/97
John Charles, Phase 1 Mission Scientist - 9/12/97
Dave Wolf, NASA-6 Mir Resident - 9/12/97
Mike Foale, NASA-5 Mir Resident - 9/19/97
George Nield, Shuttle-Mir Program Integration Lead - 9/19/97
Dan Goldin Greets the Crew of STS-86 - 10/10/97
Mike Foale, NASA-5 Mir Resident - 10/10/97
Mike Foale, NASA-5 Mir Resident - 10/29/97
Dave Wolf, NASA-6 Mir Resident - 11/4/97
Angie Jackman, Phase 1 Mission Scientist - 11/14/97
Dave Wolf, NASA-6 Mir Resident - 11/13/97
Frank Culbertson, Phase 1 Program Manager - 12/12/97
Press Conference with the Mir-24 Crew - 12/12/97
Jim Van Laak, Phase 1 Program Deputy Director - 1/9/98

Mir-24 - Week of August 29, 1997

Interview with Jim Van Laak

Jim Van Laak, Deputy Director of the Shuttle-Mir Phase I Program talks about the current plans for activities onboard the Mir.

Mike Foale talked about the restoration of power to some of the Mir's systems and modules. What is the status of power levels onboard today, and the prognosis for even more operating capability?

Van Laak: We're absolutely delighted with where we are. We were saying that the Russians had promised roughly 3 kilowatts of power as a conservative estimate of how much they thought they'd be able to regain. I can tell you that right now, in terams of peak power, they're ov er 4.5 kilowatts of power and I don't know exactly turns out to in orbital average, but probably 2500 watts or so. And they have yet to connect the Pririda Module. Where we're at today is probably 100 amps, which is roughly 3 kilowatts, going into the Kristall Module and about half that, 47 amps is what was reported today, going into Kvant-2. So they've gotten the large majority of the power that they were hoping to and they have yet to connect the third module.
Foale mentioned the plans for the upcoming spacewalk, a spacewalk that the Russians have asked Foale to take part in, and for which you've already agreed to let him start training. What's the latest on the Shuttle-Mir program's review of the plans for that spacewalk, and the Russian request to have Foale take part as a suited participant?
Van Laak: We're working it very hard. As recently as this morning we were working schedule to issues to make certain that we'd be able to address all the issues prior to having to commit to doing the EVA, which of course is mandatory. It looks now that the EVA is slipped probably until Saturday morning, Moscow time, Friday night Houston time, and what will take place then is over the course of the weekend and the early part of next week we'll continue to work the issues associated with safety and procedures and so on, we'll hold internal reviews on Wednesday, and then on Thursday we will have a joint readiness review with the Russians and at the conclusion of that if it's satisfactory, we'll clear Mike to go ahead and proceed with the EVA. The actual EVA is basically as he described it, to go out and look for damage around the base of the array and other possible leak sources and to restore the Vozdukh.
David Wolf has completed his training in Russia as the next American visitor to the Mir, and has returned to the U.S. How did he do working through a training schedule that was greatly compressed since learning he'd be going to the Mir four months earlier than planned?
Van Laak: Dave has had quite a challenge and he's responded to it extremely well, as we knew that he would. When the decision was made at the beginning of August to make the change, we did it after consulting with the Russians to see what would be involved in terms of additional training for the EVA, which was the fundamental reason for the change, and also to survey what changes might be required in the science, because although he was the backup, the backup naturally lags a little behind the prime crewmember in all those activities. Dave has had an extraordinarily intense period of training. He's done extremely well. The Russians have certified as being EVA capable. A large part of his science training is remaining, to be accomplished in Houston, along with the last-minute shuttle training that he has to accomplish. He's done a fine job. We're very happy with the work he's done and we're very anxious to get him on the shuttle and on the way.
Read Jim Van Laak's Oral History

Back to
Mir Increment
Summaries

Mir-24 - Week of September 5, 1997

Press Briefing, September 4, 1997

On Thursday, September 4, Frank Culbertson, NASA Shuttle-Mir Phase I Program Manager, Greg Harbaugh, Acting Manager of the EVA Project Office at JSC, and Mike Hess, EVA Systems Officer, gave a preview of the spacewalk scheduled for Friday night and answered questions from the press.

Culbertson: Good morning everybody. Weve had an interesting few weeks here and folks have been working very hard on preparing for and training for this EVA. I think things have gone extremely well in getting ready to do this. Mike has had good preparation on orbit on top of all the experience hes had beforehand, and even more important than that, weve had tremendous cooperation and working together between ourselves and our Russian counterparts. Led by the EVA Project Office and Greg Harbaugh, they spent a lot of time working on the plans for the EVA, what was needed to get Mike ready, as well as Solovyev and Vinogradov, and I believe that theyve got an excellent plan in place. We had a very good review this morning. It was a joint videocon between ourselves and the Russian management where we discussed all the factors that are included in the EVA, including the crew training and preparation, safety hazards that weve identified and how theyre being controlled, what hardware is to be used, and how its to be used, and what the roles of the crewmembers and the objectives of the EVA itself are. At the conclusion of that review everyone in the rooms on both sides of the Atlantic was in agreement that we are ready to conduct this EVA with Anatoly Solovyev leading and Michael Foale as his flight engineer. They will go out of the hatch on Friday evening at 7:55 Houston time and conduct about a six- to six-and-a-half-hour EVA, with a maximum probably of about seven hours. Ill ask Greg and Mike to go into the details of the EVA itself and what the specific objectives are and how it will be executed, but I do want to say that all concerned, the people in Russia and the people here in Houston, weve had people from both sides traveling back and forth, have done an excellent job pulling it all together, getting an understanding of what the requirements are, and making sure that we covered all the bases and that we understand the level of risk.

My assessment of this EVA is that it is moderate risk from a programmatic perspective. Ill let Greg address it from an EVA expert perspective, but I believe that, in relative terms, its not very complicated, but it has some very specific objectives and some hazards associated that we had to address and that I think people did a very good job of getting an understanding of. Its good to see folks working together in this regard. It demonstrates the flexibility of both programs to accommodate different crewmembers and to respond to a specific situation such as what we have on the exterior of the Spektr now as a result of the collision. We dont know yet, of course, what the holes look like and what repair procedures might be in the future, but this is the first step in trying to gain that understanding and if any future repair is going to take place we need to do this EVA to see what it looks like.
As far as whether or not we would execute repairs, a lot of that depends on what we learn this weekend, and a lot depends on what it would take to complete such repairs. And again, even if we did do the repairs because theyre good experience for future operations, there is no guarantee that we would ever be able to recover the Spektr Module itself. But there is, of course, a lot to learn in this regard, and people are watching very closely how it might be done.
At any rate, the situation on the Mir remains pretty much the same as it has been for the last couple of weeks, with the required systems operating. The crew is in good shape and well rested for the EVA. Theyve been through their medical tests and are certified to be ready to go and we are very confident that its going to occur on time and be very well executed. And without further ado Id like to turn it over to Greg who will explain the details of it along with Mike and what the objectives are.
Harbaugh: Thanks Frank. Im going to echo Franks comment off the top that the preparation that went into this EVA and the efforts on both sides of the ocean has been realy exceptional. Great cooperation. Mike Hess and the training folks here and Richard Fullerton, Gerry Miller over on the other side with their Russian counterparts have just done an exceptional job of working the details of this EVA to the extent that were all now adequately comfortable that this EVA is safe and can be executed in the time allocated with the given objectives.
Let me just say a couple of words about what the intent of the EVA is. Essentially its a reconnaissance mission. Its going out to inspect and assess and photodocument the damage from the collision. There are a couple of specific target areas, one in proximity to a radiator and one in proximity to a damaged solar array, and Mike [Hess] will talk about the details of that in a second, but both Anatoly and Mike [Foale] will be involved in assessing the damage with their own two eyes and doing photodocumentation, video and still camera documentation, for those folks on the ground to further analyze later on. Beyond that there is the intent to realign at least one of the fishtail arrays on the bottom end or the tail end of the Spektr to put it in a better, more optimum position for accumulating the sunlight and gaining electrical efficiency, and then retrieving a dosimeter, which is a very simple, easy task. Its right outside the hatch and Mike [Hess] will go through all that . I also wanted to point out that we have looked very carefully at all aspects of this from a safety and a preparation standpoint and from the training dimension, we wanted to make sure that Mike [Foale] was comfortable being asked to do this, that he knew what was expected of him and he knew and was prepared for all aspects of the task, from executing in the Orlan to doing the specific tasks outside. And the Russians, our counterparts over there, have been very forthcoming in providing the time necessary and the briefings, information material, both written and video, up to the crew to ensure that they are adequately prepared. We know that they have gone through several dry runs and talked through the scenarios in their own minds and I can tell you first hand that that, taking the time to do that, is invaluable and needs to be done. So we are well satisfied that they are prepared to do this, that its a safe thing to do within our acceptable margins.
I also want to point out a couple of other things with regard to the benefits to the U.S. program from this EVA, from Mike [Foale]'s participation. For the first time we get an American who has done an EVA in the American EMU to do a one-to-one comparison with the Russian Orlan, and that is going to be absolutely invaluable as we move forward into the International Space Station era because were at the moment, as we speak, evaluating all the assembly and maintenance tasks on the International Space Station, and trying to evaluate whether theyre properly to be done by one person in one of these kinds of space suits or the other. It plays very heavily into our planning and provisioning for each of the station assembly missions and the increment missions, as to what we can and cannot do in the Orlan versus the American EMU. So there is great tangible benefit by having Mike go do this. Also we get a second opinion. After Jerry Linengers experience, we wanted to follow up on that with somebody who had done EVA with regard to EVA or spacewalk on a space station as opposed to in the comforts of a shuttle payload bay. It turns out that there are some differences as perceived by Jerry. We want to follow up on those and come to a better understanding of what the real distinctions are and how we can better prepare people for the space station era from an EVA standpoint. Also the Russians have a slightly different tether protocol, safety tether process, that they use in terms of making sure that they are always securely attached to the station. We are going to get a second opinion on that tether protocol, and thatll be valuable. Finally, we get our own perspective on the damage areas. Anatoly and Mike will, as I say, be there on site to do inspection and to document the problems or damage as they see it. It will be to our benefit to have Mikes perspective because hes so experienced, giving us his view of the damage areas and how we might assist in further efforts to recover Spektr if any are deemed necessary or useful. And Mike is coming back on STS-86, so we get that feedback more immediately.
Id like to turn it over to Mike Hess now who can fill you in on the detailed sequence of events for the EVA.
Hess: Thank you Greg. First of all Id like to point out that the Russian timeline is set up with about seven and a half hours worth of activity, but they only plan on doing in the neighborhood of six hours worth of tasks. It will depend on what they find once they get out there. Greg mentioned this is a reconnaissance spacewalk and thats specifically it. If they find something, theyre going to work in a specific area and not work in certain other areas, but if they dont find anything in their first worksite, theyll move along and go to the next one. So itll just depend on how the flow of things occurs with which tasks get accomplished on this spacewalk.
Read Frank Culbertson's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of September 12, 1997

Interview with Dr. John Charles

Mike Foale has been busy with the science research agenda of his tour of duty throughout his time onboard the Russian space station. Dr. John Charles, the NASA-5 Mission Scientist gave an update on the progress of that research.

The June collision that caused the Spektr module to be shut off from the rest of the station not only took away Mike Foale's living quarters, but a portion of the equipment required for his science program. Some estimates were that half his science program was lost. What has been the impact to Foale's science of the loss of Spektr?

Well, it was a big impact, but I think we're finding that even in this program as in the other programs that preceded, we're fairly resourceful in recovering as much as possible. The things that were lost in the impact were a lot of the life sciences equipment and most of the samples--blood, urine, things like that that were collected. Also, we lost the power to drive a lot of the power-hungry microgravity and materials sciences experiments, but with some judicious planning, a lot of hard work by the folks on the ground as well as the crew, alternate ways were found to do a lot of the kind of studies, including doing parts of them, the parts that could be done unpowered, the parts that could rely on laptop computers that were located elsewhere in the module, and sometimes just by dumb luck that items hadn't been stowed back in Spektr before the impact and we were able to, thankfully, use those to do other kinds of investigations. My gut feeling is that when it's all said done, when the dust settles, we're going to be looking at 70-80% of a science program accomplished on this mission.
Since Solovyev and Vinogradov recovered access to power from Spektr's solar arrays during the internal spacewalk three weeks ago, power levels on the station have improved. How has that contributed to the completion of Foale's research?
Well, three weeks ago they got a lot of the power back, they got the capability for the power back, but they still didn't get the power back itself because of the aiming of the solar panels. The panels were not tracking the Sun automatically so one of the tasks was to go out and try to aim the panels a little bit better. Once the power comes back, then, of course, the matter of dealing with the condensation that's accumulated in the unpowered space station. Engineers are justifiably reluctant to turn power on to items of hardware and to entire modules that have been left unpowered and therefore are potentially traps for the circulating atmospheric moisture, condensation. So they're going through the process now of drying out the Priroda module and making sure that the equipment that's in the Priroda Module, this power-hungry microgravity experiment hardware, make sure that's all appropriately dry. We understand that the power to the Priroda Modules going to be coming on about Wednesday, September 17, and at that point we'll be able to start resuming some of our more power-intensive investigations.
One of the experiments we've seen a lot of is the greenhouse experiment, where Foale has already grown the first generation of space-born plants. What can you tell us about the progress of that investigation?
That's one of those wonderful investigations that keeps going no matter what happens to it. There have been periods when the power's been off in the module that it's in and the plants have had to grow in the dark and that may have affected some of their growth processes, but that can be duplicated on the ground, so we can find out what the effects of that might have been. But the greenhouse is proceeding. Mike is getting ready to do his second harvest, the harvest of the first generation of space plants, and then he'll be planting some of those seeds to begin a third cycle of growth. In fact, what he's going to be doing is essentially duplicating the first planting of the space plants to try to get additional tissues samples for analysis of some of the effects of space flight on plants that had parents that were from Earth, but grew up in space.
This week, data gathering began with a piece of equipment Jerry Linenger placed on the exterior of the station during his spacewalk in April. Describe what is going on now with the Optical Properties Monitor.
Today was the attempt to try to reboot the Optical Properties Monitor. There was some reluctance to do that because it had been unpowered for so long and there was some question about whether it would successfully restart and perhaps safely restart after being unpowered for several months. We are optimistic that it will power up appropriately. There had been some indications of some lights on the panel that suggest that it was going to be functional. In fact, I understand that they actually got some data off the OPM that might have been in the buffer at the time of the accident, or it may be current data, we're not sure yet. Assuming it's successful, we're going to then resume our schedule of weekly interrogations of the OPM, which has a little rotating platform that's got different specimens of materials that are being exposed to the space environment, and finding out what the continuing effects of degradation of materials in space have been on those items.
The shuttle Atlantis remains on schedule for a targeted launch on September 25. What science activities are planned for Mike Foale's final days as a member of the Mir-24 crew?
We have spent the last couple of weeks planning for this last two-week period, and at one point we had about 16 hours of available time on Mike's schedule and we had about 35 hours of science time that needed to be accomplished, so you can imagine there's been a real shuffle to try and make sure that the highest-priority items are performed, that any activities that can be are performed by the Russian crew members when they're not busy doing housekeeping or other maintenance. The kind of things we're looking at will be the greenhouse, the final planting and the growth of the final set of plants in the greenhouse, some microgravity experiments that will finally get a chance to be powered, and I'm thinking here specifically of the C-Gel, the Colloidal Gelation experiment, which needs power for some in-depth in-flight analysis of the samples that have been growing for several months in space, and some experiments to document the motions of the Mir station as it is going through day and night, and especially during the docking of the space shuttle. So there are several major activities, several important activities in all the disciplines that need to be wrapped up in the last two weeks, so we expect Mike, in addition to his packing and preparing to come home duties, will be very busy wrapping up the science that we left him with.
Read Dr. John Charles' Oral History

Read more about Shuttle-Mir Science

Mir-24 - Week of September 12, 1997

Interview with David Wolf

The man slated to take over for Mike Foale, when he comes home from four and a half months in space, is Dr. David Wolf, who would be the sixth American astronaut to take a turn living and working onboard the Russian space station. Here are excerpts from an interview he recently gave.

In light of the well-documented recent events onboard Mir, do you have any concerns about going ahead with the mission?

So many people ask me if I have concerns about this mission that I'm starting to feel like I should have some, but, in fact, I don't, and I keep searching for that and I feel fully prepared for this. The training has eased my mind in terms of emergency responses. We're going up with some excellent cosmonaut partners, and I think we'll be able to take care of any emergency that should arise. We're well prepared to use the Soyuz emergency return vehicle should that become necessary, though it's highly unlikely. I'm absolutely comfortable with this mission. It's well within my level of comfort, to the point where I just see the task at hand as what I'm worried about--the science, how we're going to effectively use our time as opposed to danger of the mission.

Wolf had been in training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City for about a year, preparing for the seventh and final increment of the Shuttle-Mir program as well as training as back-up to astronaut Wendy Lawrence for the sixth Mir visit. But after the collision with Spektr, Russian and American mission managers concluded it would be advantageous to have Americans onboard Mir who were capable of conducting spacewalks to help in the repairs; Lawrence is too short to safely fit in the Russian Orlan spacesuit. Wolf got the word about the change in his assignment when NASA's Shuttle-Mir program director came to Star City in July, and he says the news came as quite a surprise.

Wendy and I had our standard meeting with Frank Culbertson who had come to Russia and we have a standard sit-down with him, and Wendy went before me. As I walked in, she was walking out and there was a funny look on her face. And there was a funny look on Frank's face, and when he asked me to sit down I knew something was up. He said, "Dave, over the next 10 hours we want to see if it's possible for you to switch with Wendy, fly instead of Wendy on NASA-6. The requirements for the mission have changed. We want you to be EVA capable. There is the potential for a number of EVAs and the basic issue is you need to do EVA training." And we spent the next half day going over the details of the schedule, what it would take to finish up in the required time with all the training both in Russia and the United States. And it came out to working until about 8 o'clock at night during weekdays, until 2 or so in the afternoon on Saturdays. A lot of studying, a lot of tests, but it looked very doable and I was happy to do it. So, of course, we decided to go with it.

Lawrence remains a member of the STS-86 crew, and Wolf says her continued participation is critical to his getting off to a good start.

She's the most knowledgeable on the experiment transfers, installation in the Mir. She's going to get us off to a real good start, and having her up there during the docked phase is going to be invaluable, so Wendy is a very critical part of this mission, and I wouldn't want to do this without her.

Read Dave Wolf's Oral History

Read more about Dave Wolf and NASA-6

Mir-24 - Week of September 19, 1997

Status Report from Mike Foale

Mike Foale, U.S. astronaut onboard the Russian Space Station Mir, talks about the EVA and the last few days of his mission.

This is Michael Foale on the Russian Space Station Mir. I am the current NASA astronaut onboard, and Id like to summarize what we have been doing over the last two weeks. It is very typical of the things we had going on here on Space Station Mir the last few months. About two weeks ago myself and Anatoly Solovyev, the commander of the space station, conducted an EVA [extravehicular activity, or spacewalk] in the Russian space suits, and we exited out of the airlock of the Kvant-2 module to inspect the damaged area on the module Spektr, which collided with a Progress cargo vehicle in June.

The goal of this EVA was to see if we could find the leaking part of that module, out which all the air leaked during the collision. In that we were unsuccessful. Anatoly worked very hard to cut away insulation on the outside of the module and used the camera to do a survey of the interior underneath the insulation and found that the hull there was unbreached and in good condition, which leads us now to suspect that the leak is probably in another area.

However, much was learned during that EVA, in particular in relation to the solar arrays. The solar arrays on the module Spektr were repositioned so that we could increase substantially the margin of power available to the space station Mir. The proof of that work is that we now have fans and lights running in one module and we are about to turn them on in the remaining module, Priroda, which had been unpowered.

As well as that success--the EVA--we have had two problems since then, computer failures in the same computer, both of which connected with the orientation of the space station towards the sun. This is critical to us to receive electrical power, and when those computers failed we were without substantial electrical power for about 24 hours each time. Once again, even though this was a fairly hard failure to surmount while we were dealing with no power on the station, the crew Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov managed to switch out different parts of broken computers to make a whole one and we are now flying with that configuration controlling the station. And I look today the gyrodynes, the spinning gyroscopes that help maintain the stability of the station without using fuel, are coming back on line.

I myself have switched out one more harvest of the green house and just planted the second batch of space produced seeds and this is the unique experiment that no one has ever managed to produce seeds before in space before this experiment. And these seeds have been planted to see if we can produce flowers from them as well we are conducting experiments on gels and how they form in microgravity.

Over the next 10 days, of course I am getting excited because STS-86, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, will be coming, I hope, to pick me up and switch me out with my successor, Dave Wolf. During the next 10 days I will be extremely busy packing up the 140 or so items that have been sent to me for return to Earth as well as conducting the last pieces of research that we were unable to do when we had less electric power.

Id like to summarize really why I think Dave Wolf should stay onboard space station Mir when I leave. Really I think it comes down to the fact that even though during this flight, in particular for me-which has been one of the hardest things I have very attempted in my life-I have to remember what John F. Kennedy said when I was about 4 years old. Forgive me if I get it wrong, he said, We do not attempt things because they easy, but because they hard, and in that way we achieve greatness.

I believe out of this cooperation of America with Russia, which is not always easy, we are achieving some extremely great things, in sum, and in the big picture. And for these reasons I think Ive really valued my time onboard space station MIR. I will always remember the last three or four months with great, great alacrity and nostalgia Im sure. I really count all that we are doing together, America and Russia, in space and this endeavor to be extremely valuable to future cooperation on the Earth in the future. Thank you very much.

Read Mike Foale's Oral History

Read more about Mike Foale and NASA-5

Mir-24 - Week September 19, 1997

Interview with George Nield

George Nield, Shuttle-Mir Program Integration Lead, talks about the Mir-24 crew's accomplishments and Dave Wolf's science program.

Four weeks ago Mir-24 commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov made their spacewalk into the damaged Spektr module and recovered access to that module's solar arrays. Compare the state of affairs onboard the Mir today to how things were prior to that spacewalk?

The primary difference, of course, is there's a lot more power. After the Progress collision with the Spektr, the amount of power available was essentially cut in half. As a result, though, of the successful internal spacewalk, during which the crew was able to reconnect those solar arrays to the rest of the modules, and the external spacewalk, in which they repositioned the solar arrays to get a better angle to the Sun, the Mir is now back up to about 80% of its original power levels. So in addition to allowing the crew to turn back on the Elektron oxygen generating system, the Vozdukh CO2 removal system, and other important systems, the crew now has the opportunity to go back and turn on the lights in the other modules and crank up thermal control systems in the Priroda and Krystall modules. Without the thermal control systems operating, there had been some condensation starting to form on the walls, but now things seem to be drying out very nicely. The crew has also been able to get back to their science program, and we're optimistic at this point that there'll be sufficient power for Dave Wolf to be able to conduct a very significant scientific research program during his stay on the Mir.
As Mike Foale mentioned in his status report, two weeks ago he and Solovyev went outside the station to examine the damage to Spektr. What's the latest from your Russian counterparts as to the probable source of the breach in Spektr's hull?
The Russians still do not know exactly where the leak is, but the crew did have a chance during their EVA to do a thorough inspection of the area around the damaged radiator, and they are pretty certain now that the leak is not in that area. The most likely location of the hole or holes in the hull is in the neighborhood around the damaged solar array. And during their EVA the crew took some measurements of the relative alignment of the solar array's rotation mechanism and those measurements indicated that there was indeed some deformation. It may take several additional inspections to precisely pinpoint where that hole is, but right now it looks like that's the most likely candidate. And to protect for that possibility, a cover that could be installed over the solar array base area is one of the items that is being ferried up to the Mir on STS-86 next week.
It's now less than a week before the scheduled launch of the next shuttle flight to the Mir. The resupply manifest for this mission has been amended a number of times as more has been learned about the condition of Spektr. Give us a quick summary of some of the recent changes to what's been loaded into the Spacehab module, and discuss the job done by those folks working to implement the changes.
There have been quite a few late changes on this flight. Two of the most recent additions, though, were a computer for the motion control system and the hardware to repair the leak in the Spektr module. The Spektr sealing hardware, which has components that are stowed both in the Spacehab and in the Middeck area of the shuttle, includes an EVA foot restraint that will be used to help the astronauts attach themselves to the Spektr hull for any future EVAs; a longeron reinforcement beam to reinforce the damaged solar array itself; some sealant applicators, with vacuum-compatible sealant, essentially a high-tech caulking gun, if you will; and a cavity-sealing cover, which is the largest, heaviest, and most complex of the repair hardware pieces. It weighs about 150 pounds. Once the damaged solar array is removed the cavity-sealing cover will be bolted down to the Spektr hull in the area where the solar array drive mechanism had been located previously. As for the extra motion control system computer, that was a very late addition to the manifest. In fact it was not available to support the early loading in the vertical in the Spacehab module on September 16, but we expect it to arrive down in Florida in time for the late loading at about L-40 hours.
Mike Foale has been a Mir crewmember for 18 weeks now, and he has a bit more than one week remaining before he's relieved. What's the feeling in the Shuttle-Mir program about how Foale has responded to the unexpected events he's encountered over the last four months?
My feeling is he's done a really outstanding job, and I think that's an assessment that is shared by our Russian and American ground teams as well. I think all our long-duration crew members have been able to get along well with their Russian teammates, but in the first several increments, the Americans were primarily concentrating on their science duties, whereas the Russian crewmembers spent a lot of their time operating the Mir systems and doing repairs and other activities. By the time Mike started his training, I think we recognized how valuable that type of activity could be in terms of lessons learned. And so he spent a lot of his time on the station participating in those events. And that has really made him become a much more integral part of that overall crew.
When Foale returns with the STS-86 crew Dr. David Wolf will take his place onboard Mir. Give us a thumbnail sketch of how the work planned for Wolf's Mir increment will complement and extend that done by the five Americans who preceded him to the Russian station.
This is going to be the sixth long-duration increment, and it will bring the continuous U.S. presence on the Mir to about 22 months, 26 months total time on orbit, and to date there have been about 120 different U.S. experiments performed on the Mir. During Dave's flight, he'll be involved in 35 different investigations, which is more than any of any of the other increments so far. Some particular experiments he'll be working include using a Russian furnace to investigate some alloy formation in microgravity; performing experiments with a commercial bioprocessing apparatus; looking at changes to various areas on the Earth in support of some remote sensing studies; and studying the effects of space radiation on computer systems. So all in all, it's a very ambitious program, but one that we think is going to result in some very significant scientific discoveries.
Read more about Shuttle-Mir Science

Mir-24 - Week of October 10, 1997

Dan Goldin Greets the Crew of STS-86

Jim Wetherbee had guided Atlantis to a flawless landing to bring the STS-86 mission to its conclusion, a mission that had been plagued with questions as to whether another American astronaut should stay on the Mir Space Station. Dan Goldin, who made the decision to let the mission go ahead as planned, talked to Jim Wetherbee by telephone as Atlantis stood on the runway after touchdown.

Dan Goldin: Jim, welcome back.

Jim Wetherbee: Thanks. It's great to be back on the planet.

Goldin: I know. It was a wonderful mission and you and your crew did the country proud. It was a perfect mission.

Wetherbee: Well, I'll tell you what, it was a pleasure watching this crew. They really were superb on the ascent and the rendezvous. Bloomer did a great job on the flyaround. They did a wonderful job transferring. Vladimir was awesome getting all the equipment transferred from the shuttle over to Mir and back and stowing everything. And Mike's doing really well. We think Dave is doing pretty well, but we haven't seen him in a while.
Goldin: Well, he's busy. We want to keep him busy. How close did you come in the flyaround?
Wetherbee: 170 feet, closest point of structure to structure.
Goldin: That's fabulous. Michael did a wonderful job. You know, I can't get into a space shuttle, so I have to sit on the ground and watch, but it was exactly as you described it and the crew described it when you went up there. Taking up that computer was terrific. It was just terrific. The Mir is now stabilized and we're going to do some great science.
Wetherbee: Well, that's great. We're proud to be part of it. I tell you what, our simulators are really good. The vehicle flies a little bit better than the simulators and that's the way you want it. You want the sims to be a little bit harder, and I tell you, we couldn't have done, obviously, we couldn't have done it without Mission Control, the folks following us through for a week and a half and helping us and correcting our mistakes. And the trainers, who trained us also. Obviously it's a team effort and, by the way, thank you for your leadership and allowing us to go on the trip. We really appreciate all of the work you did in the week prior to launch, that we know was tough for you, but we think you make the right decision and we'll stand behind you all the time.
Goldin: Let me say it this way. The actual decision wasn't hard, it was very logical. The only stress I felt was the travel that I had and the tremendous volume of work I had to do. When I spoke to the crew it was very clear that if the people whose lives were involved felt comfortable, I was hoping that all the outside committees would come to the same conclusion, and by God they did, but I tried to remain agnostic until the moment when I had all the data because I wanted to leave no stone unturned relative to safety, but the feeling I had was, if the world's experts tell me it's safe to go up and we looked at it four or five different ways, how could I go tell the American people it's safe to go up but we're afraid.
Wetherbee: We believe you, and we believed in the decision and we thank you very much for making it. It's a lot of responsibility you have on your shoulders, and we think you shoulder it very well, and so thanks for doing the job that you do.
Goldin: I was prepared, if it wasn't safe, to pull the plug. So I want you to understand, I was agnostic. But we had the data. It was the right thing to do, and God, it was wonderful watching this mission. I'm in Italy now, at the International Aeronautics Federation, and it's wonderful. Is Michael Foale there? Could I talk to Michael?
Wetherbee: He's coming in a little broken, but he did answer you.
Goldin: I didn't hear him.
Wetherbee: I think he said he's doing fine. We can't even hear him from here and we're only about 7 feet away from him, but just before, he said he was doing fine, so I'm sure he's OK.
Goldin: I'll tell you what. Let me not hold up this channel any longer. I just wanted you to be sure you knew how positively I felt about the mission. And just pass on to Michael my best wishes, and I will call him tomorrow after he's all cleaned up.
Wetherbee: We appreciate it. We look forward to seeing you when you get back. Good luck wit h your trip. By theway, I think we got to do a little bit of crosswind DTO and you can be the first one to know that it was really easy. The vehicle flies really well. I don't know what the crosswinds were, but it was no problem at all. Thanks a lot. We look forward to seeing you when you get back.
Goldin: I will see you. Thank you. Bye.
Read more the STS-86 mission and crew

Mir-24 - Week of October 10, 1997

Mike Foale Returns to Earth

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center on October 6, bringing to an end the second longest space flight by an American. Mike Foale had spent 145 days in space, 134 of which were onboard the Russian Space Station Mir.

Shortly after landing, he was reunited with his wife Rhonda, daughter Jenna, and son Ian, and answered some questions about his time in space and how he felt to be back on Earth.
Q: First of all, how do you feel?

Mike: Not particularly heavy, but a little uncertain in terms of walking and balance. I'm very glad to be holding these children.
Q: Have they changed much?
Mike: Yeah. He's grown twice. You've become a rebel, rebel, rebel. And Jenna has become a little lady - sometimes.
Q: What was the first thing you said to your family?
Mike: I've no idea. I think I said, "Ian! Jenna! Over here!" because they were going that way.
Q: Have you been outside yet to feel the breeze or touched the ground?
Mike: I just felt it coming in I think through the hatch. I missed that, I want to see the breeze pretty soon.
Q: So what are some of the first things you want to do?
Mike: I want to get strong enough to be able to go outside and walk. That's going to be my goal for the next day.
Q: Do you think you want to take a vacation anywhere or go anywhere special?
Mike: Yeah, we're thinking in the sun to start with. Get tanned. Then after that who knows. Europe or Russia maybe.
Q: What do you think was one of your most significant accomplishments while you were on the Mir?
Mike: Well, actually, this hasn't hit the newspapers yet, but they had a very, very laborious way of taking their messages from the Control Center over the packet radio. It involved like an hour's process every night printing all of the radiograms and messages out, so I thought, "It's time someone put this in order," and I wrote a program that does that all for them.
Q: So you wrote a software program?
Mike: Saves about an hour for everybody every day.
Q: Did they like it, your cosmonaut friends?
Mike: Yeah. I've got all copyright . . .
Q: What was one of your more memorable experiences while you were on the Mir?
Mike: Well that's hard to say. To be really honest, one of the most memorable was when Vasili realized that he was not going to do the EVA and that he felt responsible for the whole accident, which I don't quite feel . . . no, it's too hard to talk about.
Q: We've had quite a few calls from your fans in England. Is there anything special you might want to say to over there?
Mike: I think to everybody, not just those in England. I thank them very much for the enthusiasm, the interest. I think they feel that we're doing something important in the world. And I just hope that they keep supporting our programs and the joint efforts, the international efforts that are going on so that they, in Britain especially, can think about going into space one day like these little children can realistically dream about here in America.
Q: Is there anything you want to say, Rhonda?
Rhonda Foale: Well, I'm glad he's back. Glad everything went pretty smoothly.

Read more about Mike Foale and NASA-5

Read Mike Foale's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of October 31, 1997

Postflight Press Conference with Mike Foale

Dr. Mike Foale returned to Earth on October 6 with the crew of STS-86 after 145 days in space. On Wednesday, October 29, 1997, he answered questions from the press about his time on Mir.

Mike Foale: "I was up on Mir for about five months and I'm very glad to be back here on Earth both with you and also, of course, with my family.

"This little adventure of mine started about two years ago when I learned, rather abruptly, that the program would like me to go with my family to Russia and train for a mission on Mir. I must say, the experience has been probably one of the most enriching in my life, especially learning to relate to a new culture and also learn a language. The flight itself for me has been very rewarding. I would say that 99% of the time I was basically having a good time, and this may seem surprising to some people. I don't thrive on misadventure or bad things happening, but certainly, in the trying to fix things and put things right, I enjoy that, and we certainly had our share of that on this flight and I believe right now we've left Dave Wolf, my successor, there in pretty good shape to carry on his scientific program, and it's my hope and my belief that this program will continue through the planned end, which is the NASA-7 flight with Andrew Thomas in May of next year. Thank you all for being here. I look forward to your questions and let's press ahead."

Question: "There has been a lot of attention and interest in the way Tsibliev and Lazutkin have been received. If it were up to you, how would you receive them? How do you think people should regard their performance, what they went through, etc? And, of course, as you know, there have been some who want to blame them for problems; there are some others that say that that's unfair. Would you talk about that, how you feel they should be treated, and how we should look at their performance?"

Mike Foale: "For me they're about as close to being family without being family now as anyone on this planet, and I love those guys and they became very, very close friends of mine. So I would greet them with a big hug and tears probably when I see them next. But specifically in terms of how they should be treated by their organization, their country, people who they don't know so well, I think they are heroic and they stuck through, they did a lot of repairs before this accident with the Progress vehicle, and in fact quite significantly improved the condition of the station in terms of its ability to redistribute heat. They had a leak that was going on for months and they finally fixed it with a lot of difficult conditions while they were doing it. Then, with the collision itself occurring, Vasili feeling that he was totally responsible for the accident, or he felt that the world would see him that way, was quite unfair for him to believe that about himself and I think for anyone to suggest it to him. And so as they then worked hard, as we worked hard to try and get ready to do this EVA to repair the Spektr power situation, get the power onto the station and to then steadily clean up the station after that event was heroic on their part and I think they only deserve commendation."

Question: "The majority of Americans who've had this opportunity now have come back and left the space program. You and Shannon Lucid, apparently, are the ones who plan to stick around and said you'd even like to go to space again. What, if anything, needs to be done to encourage the people who do what you do to stay around in the space program, to really truly capitalize in the long term on this investment that you made in this program and that we have made in you?"

Mike Foale: "You bring up a good point about investment. It's the time investment I think in an astronaut's career that determines whether or not they're going to do another flight. And it's not actually the flight that changes them, it's the training and the preparation before it. It was the impact on their families before the flight that affected their decisions, especially if they'd already flown. For example, in the case of John, who's flown many times before, as a commander twice, on the shuttle, it's quite understandable that he has other things to do in life and this was an interesting phase and I can understand why he decided to move on. In my case, I'm younger, and this was my fourth flight, but I have always been totally committed to working in the space program. I'm not quite sure where else I would go, so I'm left with nothing else to do except to ask for another flight. I believe as you bring in more and more crew members to fly on the station, and they have only had one flight beforehand for example, and then they do the preparation for Mir or for International Space Station, this won't be too hard for them in terms of the training effort etc. and for t heir families so they will also want to stay. And I believe there are very exciting things coming up in this program. I think we're going to going to the Moon and then to Mars while I'm still working at this agency."

Question: "What things occupied your mind the most? What things did you miss terribly while you were on Mir? Things like the wind on your face, certain foods, family members. What consumed you?"

Mike Foale: Actually, surprisingly, I thought I'd miss the wind, but as it turned out, I missed my son, I think, mostly, and it was seeing how he was learning to speak. And that was the one thing I focused on the last few weeks was how he was learning to speak because I would sometimes hear him on the radio. He'd try and talk to me at length, but I didn't understand him."

Question: "What have you been consumed with catching up with? What can you not get enough of now that you're back here?"

Mike Foale: "Probably just being with them, alone. I can take that as much as you can give me."

Question: "One of the things that really jumped out at me in the story in Time this week was the concern that you and Lazutkin had for Tsibliev and his, I guess, depression or difficulty. Did it get to the point where you were concerned whether or not he could really lead or command and what you were able to do? Did you feel like you were able to get him back on his feet emotionally, especially after the delay in the spacewalk?"

Mike Foale: "When you have three people working together, they're sometimes in a command role and then they're just your friends. This person, in the case of Vasili, he has to take two roles on. He has to either be the commander and instruct us occasionally, and he also has to be our friend. And we also are his friends. So when he has a burden on his shoulders, this business of recovering the station after the collision and dealing with the consequences on the ground after landing, so we wanted to ease that burden for him. We knew it was strong. We never felt, Sasha or I, that he was ever going to fail us in any way in terms of leading us or taking us home if that was necessary, in the Soyuz. We discussed this specifically - with Vasili - and when you're that close these things all come out, and it was quite clear that Vasili was in control of himself. He was just thinking very hard about the severe consequences that could befall him."

Question: "They're talking about maybe making Mir into a tourist destination at some point in the future. What did you leave in the Spektr that the tourists might want to know about? Like, there's Mike floating green toothbrush. What did you leave up there? "

Mike Foale: "There's an exploded shampoo bottle I expect. There is probably toothpaste up there and a toothbrush somewhere. But what I hope they find and then return to me is some charms that I flew for my wife and some close friends. Little gold emblems of our flight, our flight patch. It's been a tradition of ours to fly some of these for our wives and family and those are onboard there, unreachable right now. Other than that, there's a library that Shannon had that I found and enjoyed browsing through. There's not much else of really quizzical interest I think."

Question: "Do you think that there's any question of Vasily Tsibliev being blamed because Energia were keen not to have the Mir blamed for the problems that went on?"

Mike Foale: "What Vasili felt would happen was, because he was the person at the controls when the accident happened, that it would be simplest for organizations that did not want to accept responsibility just to blame him. And he believed that in the past, in Russia's history, this has occurred. And so the whole effort of Sasha and myself was to convince him that the world knows about this accident. We know that many, many people are involved in the decision to do this test. And it turned out to be a great mistake. We tried very hard to convince him that he should not be judged so harshly."

Question: "During your stay up there many of us down here reached the point during the various emergencies where many of us wondered really when we were going to be hearing the last of the Mir. For some of us it did reach that point. Was that an overreaction on our part, and did you ever reach the point where you were in fear for your life?"

Mike Foale: "I was in fear for my life for about one second, and that was the impact of the Progress on the station. And that was probably the case of the whole crew. But as soon as we realized a second had passed and we were still conscious, it turned into a situation of find out what happened and try and do the next best thing. Beyond that moment, I never feared for my life. Indeed, the only thing I felt about the station was, "It is degrading in this situation. We needed to recover its capabilities, recover the power especially available to the station," and that progressively improved. The final thing that worried me and caused me to think that we might be forced to leave the station was when we had successive failures of the computer that controls the orientation of the station. But always there were two steps that we could go to, maybe extreme, in terms of dismantling other boxes, in which we could recreate the computer to control the station. So we never got to the last step and so I never felt, "This is it." One of the things I learned in this whole flight is that the Russians are so resourceful and resilient. When they think they're at the edge, you suddenly find there's just a little bit further you can go. We found that especially, I think, when we were repairing these computers because of the way they would go about actually taking them apart and have us take boards out of a computer and put them into another to make a whole one."

Question: "Do you believe that Spektr can be recovered or is it a total loss?"

Mike Foale: "Spektr might be recovered, I believe. If you threw an enormous amount of time on the parts of the cosmonauts and the crew up there to repairing it, it might be done before the end of the Mir Phase I program in May of next year. At some point, a realistic decision will be made, I think, whether or not to just cut their losses and move on. The most important thing that Spektr provides, actually, is power, and that has essentially been restored. The volume, of course, is useful. There are items in Spektr that were planned to be used that cannot be used now, but already the programs, both the American and the Russian, have reappraised their priority list on what to do on Mir and so at some point, if they haven't repaired it in, say, the next six months, I think they will cut their losses and just press ahead with the remaining volume."

Question: "From a scientific point of view, what do we have left to learn on Mir that we don't have already?"

Mike Foale: "Scientifically, no one knows the answer, and I'm sure you've heard that before. Whenever you're doing research, you don't know what you're going to find and that's the whole point of the exercise. So for as long as Mir flies and as long as Mir can support the energy for experiments and the crew time, science can be performed and it may be priceless. But in terms of how realistically we can continuously devote crew time to science and not just to maintenance of the station, that is open, and clearly more time is being spent, a lot of time is being spent by cosmonauts especially, in just maintaining the station. But the way the crew is divided up up there right now, Anatoly and Pavel are mostly occupied with maintaining and repairing the station, but David is mostly occupied with science. And so that's a pretty good third of the crew time that you're seeing working on science."

Question: "On Earth, while you were there, there was much discussion of the psychological situation with the crew. In your debriefings with NASA, what advice will you give them for improving the morale and psychological fortitude of the crew during long-duration flights?"

Mike Foale: "The psychological mix and interactions of the crew are really dependent, obviously, on the crew members and their characters. To some extent, though, I was surprised at how well the two different crews with which I was working interacted, in spite of obvious differences in character between us and also culture of course because I was from America and they were from Russia, and I think a lot of this is because psychologists have prepared us and warned us to be tolerant, to look for certain traits of irritation and then try and work around them. Going in there, knowing you have to make this work, it's like when you get married, I think, you have to make it work. There is an enormous commitment, maybe more than in marriages because it's only for six months, that a crew puts into getting on together. So it works surprisingly well. In fact, more pleasurably and more acceptably than I expected."

Question: "Regarding the difference between the perceptions on Earth and the perceptions in space, there has been actually in the media considerable "sport" made of Mir. It's been compared to an old jalopy and there's been a lot of joking and ridicule actually. How would you counter that impression? Obviously that's not your impression. Have you encountered this in your dealings back on Earth with civilians who have been hearing about your experiences? How do you respond to that?"

Mike Foale: "Anybody who can't laugh at themselves is having a pretty miserable time. We on the Mir, the crew there, I got the occasional Mir joke that I think I got from some late night talk show that was sent up to me, and I told it to the crew, and we all chuckled and laughed. Everyone should be able to do that, no matter how serious or dangerous the job that you're doing is. This shouldn't hide the fact that what is being done in space on the Mir by the Russians, when they are limited financially, and they're at the end of the space station's life, and way over it's designed life time, is incredibly brave and incredibly meritworthy. The efforts they're making are extraordinary, and I have learned a lot in terms of what you can do with limited resources from this flight of mine."

Question: "A veteran Russian space psychologist recently described conditions onboard Mir as a sweatshop and that cosmonauts are treated like galley slaves. What is your opinion about that? And how much do you think stress and fatigue affected the mistakes that were made during your mission?"

Mike Foale: "There's a lot to that question. Specifically, it's very hot sometimes on the Mir and we sweat profusely when we're exercising and if we're working hard. We do have the ability to cool off in other places on the station. So all of that's true, but it's the way you put it that isn't really accurate. We work very, very hard, and I doubt we're ever in a condition of slaves because we have the ability to say "Stop." The crew has the ability to do that, but because everyone knows that it's important that we do the work, we would work harder and longer than you would normally on the Earth in an office job. Really, when you've prepared over two or three years as a crew, you've set yourself up to execute this mission over five, six months in the case of the Russians, it's reasonable to put all you've got into working and maintaining that equipment, since this is your time in space, and everyone expects that of you and you expect it of yourselves."

Question: "How much longer do you think you realistically could have stuck it out up there -- another couple of months, another six months -- and when you think about the cosmonauts who have spent a year or more aboard the Mir, does that just boggle your mind?"

Mike Foale: "I had to ask myself how long could I stay here in the case that the shuttle couldn't dock in the light of that computer failure that we were seeing. And I basically said to myself, don't burn your bridges, don't just kick back, think that you're going to be here until Anatoly and Pavel go home, and they I would go home with them. That was due in January/February. So I was prepared to stay that long, although I didn't want to. Specifically, as I have mentioned earlier on today, I was aware of my son especially changing and developing, he's three years old, and I wanted to be back with him. Talking to Vladimir Titov, who stayed a year onboard the station, he told me and a number of others have that really the ideal period on the station is four months. It's harder for six months and it's awful for a year. So I didn't want to test the "awful." And I'll leave it at that."

Question: "Can you expound on how you feel the money problems in Russia, and especially the space program, affected the conditions on Mir and especially the accident?"

Mike Foale: I don't know all the details about how money is moved around in the Russian space program. What I can only say is that I know the reason why this test for the Progress was performed was because they wanted to take off the Core's Guidance, Navigation, and Control System. And that system apparently costs a lot of money. I believe it's built in the Ukraine, at least originally, and as such the test was being performed for financial reasons. And it drove them into a situation, in the case of the test, where things had not been totally been worked out and we had an accident. So, yes, financial pressures did affect us on the station."

Question: "A follow-up on that. If financial pressures were a major cause here of the accident and affect the station, financial pressures still exist. How concerned would you say NASA should be about the safety of your two successors given the financial considerations in Russia? How can you be sure some other problem with money won't affect them in a dangerous way?"

Mike Foale: "This is always an extremely important and pertinent question for all space managers, either here at NASA or in Russia. Always we are cash-constrained. We don't have a cash cow just feeding the program and giving us money to do things in space. Maybe right now the Russian managers are under a stiffer constraint than American managers in conducting their program. America is watching very carefully the pressures that are on the Russian program and rightly so, the Russians should watch what pressures are on the space shuttle program in launching pieces. I think a great lesson was learned out of this accident with the collision, and I don't believe it will be repeated and as such we will end up with a stronger and better program working with the Russians in the future."

Question: "In a memo to JSC Phil Engelauf studied relations between Mission Control Moscow and your crew up there, and it was pretty brutal. It said that basically Mission Control was rude and didn't listen to your crew. How is the feeling about Mission Control from up there? Did you feel like they were ignoring you and were rude to you and didn't listen?"

Mike Foale: "No, that's not the case. Whenever we spoke to them, they were extremely polite and answered us. There is a cultural difference though, in the way in which the crews have had input into the flight design and into the flight rules. I believe here in America our crews, our astronauts, have had more input into the development of flight rules, flight procedures, and training than in Russia. Very much in Russia the cosmonauts are trained in a separate place, away from the developers of the hardware and the people who developed and control the flight. As a result there has been less feedback from the cosmonauts to the institutions that are using them to execute their program."

Question: "Now that you've been back on Earth for a couple of weeks and you're back in the so-called "routine," how do you think your time on Mir has changed not only you as a person but your life?"

Mike Foale: "It certainly has changed my life a little bit. I have to get used to my face on a magazine, which is not particularly welcome, I must add. But overall it's been very worthwhile and I feel strengthened by it. Certainly as things happened on Mir, especially, and as I was thinking about how my wife and my children, especially, were reacting to all this, we as a family have grown a lot stronger because we've communicated, we've talked to each other about these events, continuously, but more important, we've learned to accept the punches - you just roll along with this thing and take each thing as it comes along and put it right. And I've found even now, I came home and I found there was a big hole next to my house and I was worried about structural foundation. I've been able to deal with this in a much calmer way because of my experience on Mir and I hope that approach will stay with me."

Question: "How much did the stress and fatigue affect your actual work on Mir, your own assignment, and at what point do you think it started to affect your productivity?"

Mike Foale: "Stress and fatigue are two things. The stress can build up over a period of time and you don't really know it. The fatigue is pretty obvious, you start falling asleep and you just want to nod off. Sleep we certainly got all the time, mostly eight hours a night. I slept generally better on the Mir than I do here on Earth because I didn't have little children on the Mir. Stress is something that builds up, mostly in anticipation of carrying out a complicated operational task and the stress I felt was not related to the condition of the Mir or any of these failures, it was related to what I expected to do next. In particular it was my being in the Soyuz during the time that Anatoly and Pavel were going to do the IVA into Spektr and connect up the power cables, and it was also in preparation for the EVA I did with Anatoly on the outside of the station looking for the leak in Spektr. Once the events are past, all the stress goes away and you just enjoy a good meal and coffee and you just sleep soundly."

Question: "We've heard so much about the difficulties you've had on Mir. Relate what was your best experience or your best day up there."

Mike Foale: "I had a number of extraordinarily warm, amusing, and funny social gatherings with Vasili and Sasha especially in the Mir-23 phase of the flight. We would laugh. We would discuss what the effects of this collision was having on Earth, and we would puzzle over why it was so interesting to them. To be honest, much worse things were going on on the Earth and I would get the news updates about the strife that was happening in Africa and different countries; also the problems in Israel. So in relation to that, we felt we were fairly well off. We were alive. We were being fed. We had a home to go to. Things weren't so bad for us. We also heard a story that we were likened to Apollo 13, and we laughed about the idea of being Mir 1 or Mir 13 or something and we would brainstorm and wonder who would be portrayed by which actor and we would just have a good time out of all this. That's the beauty of being with good guys like Vasili and Sasha. With and Anatoly and Pavel, when they came we had so much to do operationally we didn't have the time to have those social moments, and so often we just worked fairly quietly together preparing for the two EVAs that were performed and the flyaround that we did. We did an enormous amount. And that was just very rewarding in terms of the things we did together."

Question: "You mentioned having your face on the magazine wasn't entirely welcome. How are you dealing with your celebrity status? Are you stopped everywhere you go? Do people ask you questions, and what do they want to know?"

Mike Foale: "People just want to know how it was up there and did I really have a bad time, and the answer is, "No, I didn't have a bad time." Actually, I'm pretty well off. I was spared, I think, in the Time article and I'm grateful for that. I believe Shannon's had a harder time dealing with it, and I sympathize with her."

Question: "From your point of view, what are your greatest concerns about the health of Mir's hardware, any particular subsystem or something like that that needs a lot of close looking and care to make sure it can last for the rest of Phase 1?"

Mike Foale: "There's a lot of equipment up there that needs care and attention, and in fact, mostly the TSUP, the Mission Control in Russia, is doing that via telemetry. They also preemptively change out boxes that they think might soon fail, and that is an ongoing process that they occupy themselves with and I think it works fairly normally. They have a lot of what they call "prophylactic" measures where they send up spare hoses, spare fans, and they change those out on a fairly regular basis."

Question: "After the collision, how much relief was it to talk directly to your friends and colleagues in Houston? I understand you talked to Dave Leestma, Ken Bowersox, a couple of your other colleagues just a couple of hours after the collision."

Mike Foale: "One of the most startling things about talking to friends from the Mir was that they always seemed to know like seconds after something had happened on the Mir all about it. And I guess it reflects how effective your news media is right now at getting the word out around the world. So this always caught me by surprise and I would spend most of my time finding out what they thought had happened, and then I would tell them what I thought had happened."

Question: "When did you find out about the Russian reports blaming everything on Vasili and Sasha, and what did you think of those reports when you heard them?"

Mike Foale: "I've mentioned that we anticipated that, and I'm sure for a long time there'll always be a group of people who will be more severe in judging it than others. So that was expected, and the reports appeared quickly after landing. I think as soon as they came out I was seeing them sent up to me by radio hams. The other good news is that I was seeing reports saying that Vasili and Sasha were heroes, that they had stuck with it, that they had done a great deal to preserve the station, and that also made me feel much more pleased."

Question: "Was there ever a time where you and your crewmates felt overwhelmed by the level of work and the difficulties, and was there any point where it seemed that perhaps it was time to give up for a day or perhaps even come home altogether?"

Mike Foale: "Giving up for a day is what I call a weekend. Certainly there were times when we felt we had worked too much on weekends and we wanted a weekend. Vasili was clear in asking for that and the request was granted, and we did have one or two days where basically we got to watch a movie and relax for at least half of the day. But, I tell you, some of the hardest days to actually get through were the weekends for me, days when we didn't have much to do, because that's when you start thinking about the family on Earth. That's when you start thinking about the things you might be missing, so it's nice to have things to do, and generally we were happier when we were working."

Question: "You were very emotional when you spoke about Vasili's reaction to the news that he wouldn't be able to do the spacewalk. Could you relate to us what the circumstances surrounding that were, how he heard, and how he reacted, and just what the mood was like in that period aboard the station?"

Mike Foale: "Basically Vasili had hoped to take part in restoring the capability of the station, especially since he felt and bore some of the blame of the collision. So for him it was important to be one of the executors in that plan. I feel that he should have taken a lot more comfort from the fact that he could be the leader of it, but not the executor. His experience was far greater than either mine or Sasha's in EVA; he'd already accomplished, I think, six EVAs by that time, and so he was the leader in this event no matter where he was, whether he was in a space suit or in Soyuz. We told him that, Sasha and I, and he basically accepted that fact. I think the cultural idea of them always being the executor and not the originator of an idea or leading a program is maybe why he didn't feel that this was as worthy as I believe anyone in America would consider it."

Question: "What was the actual physical cause, as far as you know, of that collision? What made the capsule hit the station?"

Mike Foale: "It was the lack of obvious, what we call "cues" in flying, that the range rate, that's the speed at which it was closing in on the station was too high, too close. That range rate, the speed built up too quickly a long way away from the station, so that the Progress no longer had time to brake. It has a very weak series of thrusters. That's not bad if you give the Progress time to use them, but what Vasili was seeing on his screen was an image that didn't change in size very fast. That's the nature of using a TV screen to judge your speed and your distance. So he couldn't determine accurately from the image that the speed was too high, so by the time it was really apparent the speed was too high, you get what's called "ground rush," as if you were a parachutist jumping toward the ground, the ground rushes up fast. In this case the station grew fast very quickly in the image. By that time there wasn't enough acceleration or thrust from the engines of the Progress to prevent what happened next, which was the collision."

Question: "So he simply didn't have enough navigation information available to him?"

Mike Foale: "That's correct, yes."

Question: "What suit do you like better, the Orlan or the U.S. suit?"

Mike Foale: "They are equivalent and I like them both. I can't say which one is best. This is a strange answer, but I would take the Orlan suit on the Mir and I would take the shuttle suit on the shuttle. They are suits that have been worked out in great detail for their design purposes. It'll be very interesting to see how an Orlan suit works on a shuttle and vice versa. I expect both will be rather clumsy. I really didn't notice when I was doing the Orlan EVA on the Mir that I was in anything but a suit. It was the same feeling that I had when I was doing an EVA on STS-63 on the shuttle."

Question: You've alluded to this in an earlier question about the recovery of the Mir. You've said now it's in better shape than it's been in quite some time. Dave Wolf's able to spend a third of the crew time doing science now. There's an EVA coming up on Sunday night/Monday morning, and then there's two more scheduled in January for possible Spektr repairs. What do you think the outlook is over the next six months -- you mentioned six months as maybe some arbitrary line they might or might not decide to stick with repairing Spektr or writing it off -- what are the prospects do you think, given their resilience and all of the things you've alluded to earlier, to actually pull off some of these repairs?"

Mike Foale: "I'd give it a 50% chance. I think the leak is probably right at the base of the solar array and I think Anatoly will give it a really good shot at removing the solar array and putting the glue and the cap on that area, and if all that goes per plan, that will seal it. It's the stuff we don't know, and I can't guess at it. But, for example, it might be the inability to remove some bolts that tie the solar array to the drive mechanism. They'll be something unexpected, where a bolt's too hard to turn or the wrench'll slip or something. That's the stuff that could prevent them doing this repair."

Question: "Obviously before STS-86 was launched there was all kinds of outside criticism and people saying it's too risky and we shouldn't do this and we shouldn't send Dave Wolf up. Now that you've had some time to think about it, what was your reaction then, when you were hearing this kind of talk, and what are your thoughts now? What would you say to people now who expressed all of this concern about your own safety?"

Mike Foale: "It's good. Democracy is founded on an opposition principle, and the same thing is needed in NASA, especially, and also in Russia. We need protagonists who are saying to us, "Are you doing this right? Are you safe?" And NASA needs to stand up and say, "We've looked at it honestly, and we think it's safe." That to and fro questioning was extremely valuable and has contributed to the safety of Dave Wolf and the cosmonauts onboard the space station Mir. I think that same process is occurring in Russia, and we need that to continue. I'm not in any way dismayed that the Congress had us reconsider what we're doing. We need to be asked to do that periodically."

Question: "From the standpoint that there's nothing like some real genuine emergencies to give you some real quick on-the-job training in dealing with emergencies, to what extent are NASA and perhaps the Russian agency picking your brain and making use of your experience in developing training for astronauts in dealing with future emergencies."

Mike Foale: "I haven't had much chance to do much more than recount what happened in the two weeks that I've been debriefing, but already questions are coming to me from the space station program, the International Space Station group, as to what they can do better, or what should be done that would improve the situation that we saw on Mir. And they're taking specifically the recommendations that I had about how to clear the cables and tubes that led into the Soyuz and into Spektr away from these junctions between the modules. Specifically, this is a very bad practice if you want to be able to isolate a volume on a space station, just like on a submarine you have hatches that you close quickly, or on a ship, to prevent flooding throughout the ship or the submarine. We have hatches on the station that allow us to isolate modules so that we don't lose the whole station if we develop a leak. That worked on Mir, so basically the design was good. We executed it. We closed off the Spektr module in 10 minutes. Nonetheless, I think we should be able to do it faster, and to do it faster means that engineers need to pay more attention to how they, when they have to put tubes or cables across an interface, across a hatchway, that needs to be closed in these cases, they have to put quick disconnects, they have to put means there so that we can quickly and tidily remove these things and then seal off that area. Or, in the case of going to the rescue vehicle, pull things out of the way and get in the Soyuz. The situation was not broken, it worked, and it all turned out well, but maybe we could have done it better and certainly I think in the future we will do it better."

Question: "Do you still hope to fly to Mars one day?"

Mike Foale: "I have discussed that with Rhonda a length, and my take on this is, just because I love my children so much, Rhonda and I want to do this together, but only when our kids are old enough, mature enough to accept it. So that, I hope, would mean that I would not be the first one to Mars."

Question: "Based on your experience, could you project a little bit for one of your colleagues going to the space station in the future who expects to go up there and do solid research. Do you think, realistically, that they're going to have to be a little more flexible than to think that they're just going to spend all their time in a laboratory? Are they going to be dodged for time to help with the maintenance, do you think? Is there some balance? Did you learn something from your experience about what the mixture of skills and talents should be? And expectations in a person who's going to work on the space station?"

Mike Foale: "I'm certainly colored by the lack of the science and the amount of the repair work and having to respond to unforeseen situations. Certainly, a crewmember or two needs to be really well trained in that area because you never know when that will happen. But to have maybe one crewmember, just dedicated to science, I think is a reasonable approach. To the extent that you can divide responsibilities and specialties among the crew, I think it's good that we plan to have maybe one crewmember really concentrating only on research. I didn't see this on Mir, but I do believe that on Mir years ago, two or three years ago, single crew members could be almost totally dedicated to their research activity, without being involved in maintenance at all."

Question: "How is your physical recovery coming along? I understand you resumed windsurfing. How far can you go now versus what you could do before?"

Mike Foale: "If I didn't feel so restrained here I'd hop up and down with my eyes closed, which I can do. Honestly, the physical recovery has gone much faster than I expected. There are some areas in my bones that are less dense in calcium and that will take, we know from the experience of cosmonauts and the other NASA flyers before me, that that's going to take months to be rebuilt, and I'm taking calcium supplements, for example, and drinking milk, which is always a good thing. Other than that, I don't even feel that decrement. I basically feel strong. I have been running the last two or three days. I ran actually four or five miles yesterday -- very carefully -- and NASA's very careful to make sure I don't overdo it or push myself beyond my limits right now. But I'm enjoying this rehabilitation program. It's an excuse, it's a planned excuse to go to the gym every day to do some exercise. Not everyone has that luxury if they're in an office job, and I'm probably making a speedier recovery than a lot of people in regular jobs will ever get to."

Question: "Clearly your time is committed right now to NASA and to your recovery, but I think Rhonda wants a vacation. Where are you going to go and when do get to get away?"

Mike Foale: "Well, it's going to be somewhere very hot, with coconut palms I expect, coral beach. Probably the Bahamas. And it'll be in the November timeframe."

Question: "You've discussed periodically the debates that went on over whether to send your replacement up. Basically those debates centered around whether or not the risk was worth the benefit. Some people said the benefit was science, some said the benefit was experience, some said the benefit was this new area of NASA's expertise called diplomacy. What benefit makes this work worth the risk in your mind?"

Mike Foale: "Surprisingly it was the last one. I think the benefit is in two countries working together. And most extraordinarily, it's America leading the world and bringing the world together in these economic industrial endeavors in space. That is really, absolutely extraordinary, and I think we'll go down in history. The rewards for America, for its leadership in this, are not entirely monetary. I also believe, at a totally different level, business watches what's going on here between our countries and they are not related to space in any way, but they feel confident now to invest in Russia, to work in Russia, because they see this harmony, this work together at the higher level in the space programs. So it's all very positive."

Question: "There were a lot of discussions in the U.S. on whether NASA should continue cooperation with the Russian Space Agency on these Mir-space shuttle programs. Based on your flight and your own experience, do you really think that it was necessary, not only from the political point of view as you mentioned, but from significant technological points of view?"

Mike Foale: "Yes, because Russia has skill and expertise in large launches that America currently does not have, and I refer specifically to the Energia rocket. The proton boosters are also a very powerful and adept way to put payloads into space, and I think the merging of our programs is technologically complementary. As such, it is overall more effective if we work together in achieving these technological goals than if we work separately, just from a technical point of view. However, I still feel the overriding importance is that we work together as nations."

Question: "Could you talk a little bit about what it's like to lose your personal sleeping quarters as happened on Spektr. I mean, were you guys sharing toothbrushes or how did that go? "

Mike Foale: "It's not too bad! It's just like losing your luggage in the airport. Probably better. Vasili quickly found a toothbrush for me and some toothpaste. After that Sasha somehow managed to find a razor, and in the end I was so used to the Russian stuff that I'd been given, when if finally came up two or three weeks later on the Progress-235, some good old NASA toothbrush and toothpaste and things, I didn't start using it right away. I waited until I'd used up my Russian stuff. In fact, I continued using the razor that the Russians gave me. And that's just fine. It was just a little irritant, a nuisance. It wasn't anything that bothered me. The first night I went to bed with clean teeth, so that was all OK."

Question: "The Russians say they want to keep Mir going at least through 1999 I believe is the latest date. Did you see any signs of real physical deterioration on the space station in terms of frayed insulation, wiring going bad?"

Mike Foale: "When you have human beings living in an area that's small, you're going to scuff things, kick things, knock things. And things are frayed and worn out and we continually do repairs. This takes up a lot of the Russian crew's time, especially, just doing small repairs. Changing out fans that are rubbing. Changing out cables. Taping off cables. We have air ducts that keep on getting kicked and they get knocked down. That's something you just do all the time. It's no different from being in your house and picking up after your children. And that's expected. As far as overall physical degradation of the hull and exterior, I saw nothing change while I was there. During the EVA I could see that there had been some degradation or peeling of the insulation, but none of that was affecting the overall performance greatly of the space station's systems."

Question: "Please follow up on what you said earlier regarding, you considered yourself to have been "spared" in the magazine article. How did you mean that exactly and what did you mean when you said you were sympathetic with Shannon Lucid? What is her concern regarding her treatment here on Earth?"

Mike Foale: "I'm just specifically thinking of just having your face recognized everywhere you go. It's nice to be able to go into a grocery store and not be noticed. And Shannon was always noticed, I believe after her flight. And so I think I have been spared that. Thank you. Shannon has also had to talk a lot to Congress and work very hard in all the investigations while I was in space on my behalf, and so I thank her for that."

Question: "Could you expand on why there's a big hole next to your house?"

Mike Foale: "We have a lot that hasn't had a house built on it and the building's progressing. We want a house next to us eventually because it makes it stronger in hurricanes, and that started up while I was gone. I wasn't able to supervise some of the initial stuff."

Question: "Continuing on a lighter vein, when you talked about the humor on Mir when you were talking about who would play you in the movie. So who did you guys decide would play you, and what was the best Mir joke that you ended up relaying to your crewmates?"

Mike Foale: "At that time you may know that I had a hair cut, well I didn't have a hair cut, I had very long, wild hair. At some point Vasili and Sasha cut my hair extremely short, the way you would see a marine at Quantico. After they did it, they were a bit frightened by me because I looked serious and they decided I looked like Schwarzenegger, so I said, "That's fine, he can play me." I can't remember who we figured out that Vasili and Sasha should be played by, probably Russian actors, appropriately. The funniest Mir joke, I seem to remember someone talking about "I was driving to work today and had trouble dodging all the nuts and bolts dropping from Mir" or something, I think it was out of the sky. It was in that frame."

Question: "Can you relate some of the other more humorous postcollision occurrences or situations that helped cut the tension?"

Mike Foale: "There's nothing that really stands out in my mind. We would basically tease each other a little bit. For example, occasionally we'd hear a bump, and I know at one point we'd hear a bump and Vasili would react and we would make fun of him because he had appropriately been alarmed. It turns out these bumps are things someone else caused and were false alarms. Occasionally I would lose things and people would tease me for that, or Sasha would lose things. Just numerous tiny little details. They're quite boring really for you, but we found them amusing."

Question: "How worried were you about the health of Vasily Tsibliev after he developed the irregular heart beat? Would you consider that his rock-bottom period right then?"

Mike Foale: "Yeah, I think when he realized he couldn't do the EVA, for the reasons I've already discussed today, he felt that was a blow to him in terms of his leadership. I don't believe so, because I think his expertise was what we needed out of that more than anything else, not so much his physical presence in a suit. He took it harder than that. He felt that he had to be the one out there connecting up the cables and that's why he took it probably hardest. And that probably was his lowest moment."

Question: "When it came time for him and Lazutkin to leave Mir, were they happy to leave the station behind after all the trouble, or were they not looking forward to going back to Russia and face all the probing questions there? Would they rather stay up longer or were they just happy to get out?"

Mike Foale: "Everything has to come down eventually. Vasili, specifically, was on his second flight. He'd spent a year in space. His son, Vasili also, is a mature young man who might be getting ready to get married. He was worried that things would happen in his family that he knew nothing about while he was in space, like marriage and things like that, so he wanted to be back on Earth with his family and he felt he'd been away from his wife Larissa too long already on travel on all these business trips, so he wanted to go home. Sasha, on the other hand, would say, "Well, Mike, I don't know. I haven't looked at the Earth enough yet." And I'd say, "Well look at your beautiful wife there and your two beautiful daughters. You need to go home Sasha." And he says, "Well, no. I don't know." So there was some misgiving on Sasha. He really believed, I think, that he would enjoy being there quite a few months longer. I hope very much that when he got home to his family he realized he was mistaken."

Question: "Sasha had been scheduled to do a couple of space walks and one of them ended up getting done by Jerry Linenger and the rest got canceled. Any reactions from him about that? Any depression about the fact that he was one of the only cosmonauts on Mir not to do a spacewalk."

Mike Foale: "In recent times that's true. Sasha is a very mature, easygoing philosophical man, and he and I talked specifically about the fact that, "Oh, it turns out that he's not going to do an EVA." I had already, cruelly I think now, told him how much fun an EVA is to go outside, and so he was disappointed, but I said to him, "Sasha, you're young. Your program needs cosmonauts with experience. You will have another chance to do this again." And I certainly hope that's the case."

Question: "Let me follow up on EVAs and a previous question, but getting a little more specific. I asked Vladimir Titov the same question after the STS-86 landing. How would you compare the tactile feel of the Orlan versus the shuttle EMU gloves, as far as being able to do very fine, delicate tasks?"

Mike Foale: "Both the tasks I did during my STS-63 EVA and during the Mir EVA could have been done by either glove. Tactility was sufficient. In fact, in terms of what you feel through a glove, the Russian rubber tip actually lets you feel more instantaneously than the American. However, it's only a one- or two-use glove and after that they are discarded and replaced with new ones. The American glove can be used many, many more times over and so it's slightly thicker. The Russian glove is a little stiffer to close, but that's because the pressure is 50% higher in the Russian suit. We're comparing apples and oranges here when we talk about specific figures of merit when you don't consider how you designed the suit to perform a specific task, and that's why I say that the suits are functionally equivalent in what they can perform because you design the task so that they work with the suit."

Question: "Since you're the one who recommended that NASA send Dave Wolf up, could you forgive yourself if anything bad happened to him?"

Mike Foale: "Of course. I take responsibility for my actions and for what I say both here and to my management. I still believe, given what is the current situation on Mir, that Dave is safe -- and it's not just Dave, we're talking about Anatoly and Pavel onboard there. And it all depends, I think, on the reliability and the readiness of the Soyuz spacecraft, and that spacecraft is in good shape. I got to see it fly in action and it impressed me. It is in good condition and ready to be used to get those guys off the station should they need it."

Question: "You mentioned a couple of times how younger astronauts have a better chance to stay on and want to make a career of it, and older go into retirement, some like Story Musgrave, for instance, was even told he would not fly again and that's when he quit. How would you go about holding astronauts who have the experience that will be needed on the space station? Do you feel there should be an age cut-off just to get younger astronauts like yourself who want to stick around? What would be your recommendation to both space agencies?"

Mike Foale: I think that problem generally works itself out on its own because those astronauts who really want to fly in spite of their age generally get to stay on a lot longer than the normal average. And those who want to leave earlier can leave earlier. But as in all operational programs, you do need to keep young people coming into those programs and you do need to take the experience of the people who have flown already and apply it to the program as a whole. So inevitably there's a movement upward, and I must say that with regret I feel that pressure on me also. But I still think I have at least one flight ahead of me in the bag."

Question: "I understand that the greenhouse experiment went very well. How well did that work out for you psychologically, both before and after the collision, I guess, that you were still able to do good science and there was a little piece of Earth there with you growing?" "

Mike Foale: You put your finger on a good one there. I loved the greenhouse experiment. It didn't matter that the shrubs were tiny and miniscule. I enjoyed being a bee pollinating plants, I enjoyed looking at them every morning for about 10-15 minutes. It was a moment of quiet time almost. It was a moment where it was nice and bright and almost sunny in a module that had no power (Krystall) for about two months. And I believe Jean-Loup Chrétien especially mentioned this during the STS-86 flight, that it would be essential to have something like this for astronauts or cosmonauts going together to Mars because there would be so little to do in that long period in between planets, and growing and tending plants is certainly a very soothing thing to do and also important to the life support system onboard."

Read more about Mike Foale and NASA-5

Read Mike Foale's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of November 7, 1997

Interview with David Wolf

David Wolf gave an interview on November 4th, answering questions about life on Mir and the scheduled EVAs.

Question: "Howdy from Houston. It's great to see you. How are you doing?"

David Wolf: "It's a pleasure to see you too. I'm doing fine up here. Just getting used it."
Question: "This is election day down here on the ground. We understand you got to vote early. Tell me about that. How important are things like voting when you're up there in space?"
David Wolf: "It's important. It makes me feel attached to the ground like I didn't feel before. I feel it's more important here in space even than I did on the ground. Voting's important to all of us. It's what puts the people in charge."
Question: "I had a chance to talk to Mike Foale who says everywhere he goes the most common question he gets is, "Gee, what's it like up there?" So, let me ask you. What's it like up there? How's life in space treating you?"
David Wolf: "I love space, and I'm getting a good dose of it here. It's fun, everything from floating and flying to handling floating equipment. It's a beautiful view. You never get tired of looking at the Earth. Space is a wonderful place to work in. We plan to do some very important things with it, as we have in the past at NASA."
Question: "Are you used to being up there yet? When you wake up in the morning and you're in orbit, is it a surprise, that you're not dreaming, that it's real?"
David Wolf: "You know, I dream that I'm in space. Last night, in fact, I dreamed I was with my friends and we were playing volleyball and it was a wild game. But I'm surprised every time. I look up and I wonder how I'll reach that, and then I realize I can just float up and get it. It takes a moment for that to register still, so I'm not fully used to it. But I get better at it every day."
Question: "Now that you've been there a few weeks, what is the biggest difference between working aboard a space shuttle and working aboard a space station?"
David Wolf: "On the shuttle we might have two weeks, three now at most. It's a sprint race, you might say. We can work real long, hard days. We practice for a year or more in many cases to do a week or two of activity. In this case, you can't practice anywhere near the time per hour of mission, so it takes more analytical thinking, in terms of planning for the next day in terms of what should we do, adapting. It's more like you operate in a laboratory on the ground."
Question: "You've had a chance to spend some time on the Mir. You're well aware of all the questions that were raised about it before you went. What do you think of that place now that you've spent a little time there?"
David Wolf: "This is a classic space ship. It's a wonderful spaceship. It's a fixer-upper to some degree, but not one you wouldn't take a long ride in and feel perfectly safe. I love this space ship in fact. The system works well. The senators' queries were good. The questions were answered well by NASA. The leadership that Dan Goldin and Frank Culbertson showed was wonderful. The Agency thanks them. And it was a system that worked well. In the end it came up with exactly the right answer and I'm glad I'm here and we're getting a lot done. This laboratory's open 16-18 hours many days."
Question: "Describe some of what you're going to do and where you're going to be during the next space walk this week and your thoughts on the probability of doing your own spacewalk before you come home."
David Wolf: "On this next space walk Solvyev and Vinogradov will go down along a long arm to a set of solar panels, so they don't have to go the long way, along the actual structure. They will take a short cut down a long arm and install a new solar array so we'll get more power yet. The last space walk took out the old solar array. And these are the kinds of things that we'll have to think about doing in space on the International Space Station, large maintenance tasks, because it's going to be up there for many years and we need to design it so that can be done. As far as my own space walk, it will be likely Anatoly and I, we have a number of pieces of scientific equipment on the exterior of the space ship measuring the long-term effects on the materials spacecraft are constructed of and we need to bring those instruments back in to get much of their data, and also take some new data on the surface coatings using a reflectance measuring device that understands the surface properties after long exposures in space."
Question: "Why are you going to do that? What's the importance of that?"
David Wolf: "We want our next space station to be a step beyond the current technology and we need to understand the areas in which the current technology is degraded over time in space. In this case, the important surface coatings of the space ship that are responsible for thermal characteristics, resistance to micrometeoroids, and so on."
Question: "What went through your mind when you were watching your crewmates launch that duplicate of the Sputnik that was manufactured -- to give you an indication of how far we've come in the 40 years -- was manufactured by a bunch of high school kids and working just as well as the original, apparently?"
David Wolf: "The first thing that went through my mind was, "God, I've got to get this video camera on it and get the picture right." But after that, when I reflected on it, 40 years is how long it's been. I believe it was October 4, 1957, the first satellite was launched by the Russians. And you just look at where we've come in that amount of time. It was not much more than 40 years before that the first airplane flew, and I thought a lot bout the pace of technology and how our lives are changing, and NASA needs to be a part of designing our future way of life just as it was a large of part in creating our current quality of life."
Question: "With that in mind, NASA is saying today that it looks like the Mars Pathfinder has probably reached about the end of its days. What do you make of missions like that? The search for signs of life on Mars rocks and so on?"
David Wolf: "I think clearly one of our most interesting and fundamental questions in the world is where did we come from and is there life in other places? And we all want to know these kinds of answers, and NASA's poised to answer those questions. Hopefully in the not too distant future we will get key pieces of the great puzzle."
Question: "How in touch with friends and family can you stay aboard a space station now?"
David Wolf: "The computer helps a lot. I cast my ballot on the computer. E-mail also goes through it and I have some CD disks, some video disks of family. It gives me video and lots of images. The computer really helps keep in touch, and it is important as the weeks go by, I think we're approaching six weeks in a day or two -- it becomes more important than I imagined to keep in touch at least visually and by audio with the people you care a lot about."
Question: "Explain that a little bit. Why do you say that?"
David Wolf: "After a week or two in space, if you know you're coming home in a week, two weeks, three weeks, not much will be different. The likelihood of things changing in a drastic or significant way is small. Heck, you barely miss much of your mail. But when you're gone for months, in this case four months, it could be longer, you really start to lose touch a little bit with the Earth. In other words, I start to feel like this space ship is my world and that the world you're on now, the Earth, starts to feel a little bit dreamlike. I hear it through this audio communication system. It really reinforces the real place that we all live on, the great space ship Earth, to be able to keep in touch with it visually and through any media and means that you can."
Question: "Are there any holiday greetings you'd like to pass along in case we don't talk to you again before then?"
David Wolf: "Of course, to all my friends and family, happy holidays. And to the great city of Houston happy holidays. And it's great to be here and I'll see you after the holidays."
Question: "It's great to see you and talk with you. Keep up the great work. We're all proud of you down here."
Read more about David Wolf and NASA-6

Read David Wolf's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of November 14, 1997

Interview with Angie Jackman

Angie Jackman, NASA-6 Mission Scientist, talks about the progress of Wolf's scientific research over the first seven weeks of his mission.

Angie Jackman: "We really couldn't be more pleased with the progress Dave has made. He has activated 15 of our experiments so far. They have all required varying levels of operation. Some he just turned on and let run and he occasionally monitors. One of the experiments that we are extremely pleased to have him onboard for, because of his expertise in tissue engineering, is the Biochemistry in Three-Dimensional Tissue Engineering Experiment. We are flying three different tissue lines, all of which will supply unique scientific data for us once they're returned to Earth. The biggest benefit is without having the forces of gravity on these cells, they are able to grow more like they would be reproduced in the body in a more three-dimensional manner."
Question: "This week Wolf completed the Canadian Protein Crystallization Experiment. Describe the goals of this experiment and talk about how well it all went."
Angie Jackman: "This experiment has made a very successful debut on the Mir station. The Canadians have provided the experiment with 700 tiny tubes, or wells as they call them, which allow the proteins to crystallize. There are 15 universities and research institutions around Canada that provided these protein solutions and they will grow throughout the duration of the mission. We have just ended the experiment and will be very happy with the results. They are providing research on 32 different proteins. These are specifically looking at debilitating diseases on Earth such as breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, meningitis, and several others. And once they get these proteins on the ground and are able to do a structural analysis on them, that structural analysis is the first step in effective drug design. Another part is 44 of these wells were set aside for students and students' research that were proposed on the station and that was part of an initiative from the Canadians to provide more interest in sciences for the students."
Question: "With the Canadian Protein Crystallization Experiment now completed, Wolf has also begun another microgravity experiment, the Interferometer Protein Crystal Growth Program. What's the protocol on this experiment? How's it different from the other protein experiments that are on the Mir?"
Angie Jackman: "The unique part of this experiment is the imaging, where we are using laser technology to analyze the growth of the cells and so as you do a comparison between crystals that are grown on the ground and those that are grown on the station, you can try to pinpoint the advantages and what helps proteins grow better and larger in space versus how they grow on Earth. With the structural analysis that they perform in this experiment, that is the first step in effective drug design."
Question: "Another area of the NASA-6 science mission, as in previous increments, is to learn more about how the human body responds to long periods without gravity. What's the status of Wolf's human life sciences research?"
Angie Jackman: "Dave has been doing some of the human life science research, but we are about to start a new phase, within a week, where he'll be starting three new experiments. The first one is to address bone loss. Previously, in other long-duration missions, they have shown that there is significant bone reduction in load-bearing regions of the skeleton, mainly the lower back and the pelvis. What we are trying to do here is analyze the rate and possibly his recovery once he returns to Earth. They are also looking at a more comprehensive manner of looking at his muscular fitness as well as the bone loss. And there's a new part of the experiment dealing with calcium metabolism. He will take a tracer of calcium in his blood, then will take various samples throughout the mission, so we will be able to do a comparison as to the amount of calcium absorbed in the blood and what's given off. He also has a renal stone formation experiment. Data from previous shuttle missions have shown that there is an increased risk for astronauts forming renal stones, and what they're trying to do here is quantify the risk that is involved in long-duration flight and how long that risk remains on Earth."
Read more about Shuttle-Mir Science

Mir-24 - Week of November 14, 1997

Interview with David Wolf

David Wolf gave an interview on November 13th, answering questions about life on Mir and talking about his science experiments.

Question: "After a rough year for many on the space Station Mir, the newest crewmember, U.S. astronaut David Wolf, is having a much smoother ride. There were many questions and fears over the last several months about the safety of Mir and there was even great debate as to whether you should even be allowed to go up aboard Mir. You've been there for about seven weeks now. What condition did you find the space station in?"

David Wolf: "Mike and the cosmonauts left the space station in good shape after a sequence of problems, and we're continuing to bring it up to snuff, and it's kind of a constant effort, like a camping trip, to get it in order."

Question: "I've heard the space station described as a real fixer-upper. Is that a fair description?"

David Wolf: "It is a fixer-upper, but it's one you can trust to take a long trip in. It could use some new carpet."

Question: "I understand that you're scheduled to make a spacewalk. It's not confirmed yet, but you are hoping to make a spacewalk in the near future. What will the mission of that walk be?"

David Wolf: "That's right. I sure hope to go outside. I've been inside for a while now. We will be bringing back some scientific instruments that are measuring the effects of long-duration exposure to the harsh environment of space to help us learn how to build the coatings on the outside of our next space station--windows, and various detectors."

Question: "Obviously you astronaut types are very calm and collected all the time, but are you even the slightest bit nervous about making that spacewalk?"

David Wolf: "Not at all. In fact I'm looking forward to it very much. The training is very good, both at Star City and in Houston, at Johnson Space Center, and all the space centers, and we feel ready to handle any reasonable contingency or problem that should come up."

Question: "You've spent time aboard the space shuttle in the past. How does that compare in the feeling as to spending time aboard Mir?"

David Wolf: "One difference is in the laboratory. Right now, for instance, on the computer display, we are watching a laser image of a crystal as it grows. You can see the sides of the crystal as microgravity helps it grow, and we get to send these images down to the scientists on Earth. We then listen to what they say and we make decisions and change what we do in response to the results. It's more like a laboratory would be run on Earth, whereas on the shuttle it's kind of a sprint race. You get up there and in 8, 10, 12, 14 days just do all you can. Here we think we can plan and change the plan during the mission."

Question: "What about the overall living conditions on Mir as opposed to onboard the shuttle?"

David Wolf: "They're very similar actually. In fact we use a lot of U.S.-type hygienic equipment, towels and such, and the Russian equipment. They're both very clean spacecraft"

Question: "You will be aboard Mir during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Any feelings about being away from your friends and family over that time?"

David Wolf: "Sure there are. In fact, the Earth starts seeming a little dreamlike. In fact my dreams now are microgravity. Everybody floats in the dreams. That started about a week ago. But we've got about 18 million miles behind us and about 33 million more to go by rough calculation, and I miss everybody a lot, but right now I live in space and I like living here and I sure look forward to living on the ground and seeing everybody again."

David Wolf: "I'd like to talk about some of the kinds of science we do in the Priroda module, which is one of the modules of the space station Mir. Right now, isolated in a glove box, is a crystal-growing apparatus and the crystals are being imaged with a laser. You can see the image on a computer screen. You can see the crystal, which has six sides. The laser image gives resolution down to approximately one wavelength of laser light, so we can see very fine details on the surface of very small crystals as they grow.

"Another type of experiment we're doing is some tissue culture. On the computer screen we can see small pieces of human nervous tissue, which are growing. The three-dimensional environment is extremely quiescent. The culture is freely suspended. This kind of environment for doing tissue culture is just not possible to achieve on the Earth and we plan to exploit the advantages of doing tissue culture in microgravity on our next space station and now, in fact, on Mir."

Read more about David Wolf and NASA-6

Read David Wolf's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of December 12, 1997

Interview with Frank Culbertson

Astronaut Frank Culbertson, NASA's Shuttle-Mir Program Manager provides the latest information on the status of Wolf's tour of duty on the Mir.

This week NASA and its Russian partners jointly agreed to push back the targeted launch date for the next Mir docking mission by five days, to January 20th. How much did the EVAs, Dave's science program, and the arrival of the Progress and Soyuz during the next 30 days influence that decision?

Well, that was a factor in our discussions with the Shuttle Program. It was their decision to move it to the right, but we were requesting that they look at moving it even further if it were achievable with the consumables we had onboard and their schedule. That didn't turn out to be possible, but they had some problems they needed to work related to the last mission, and we would like to see an opening up of the schedule a little bit to allow the EVAs and all the activities Dave needed to do at the end of his mission to be completed. With the addition of the Progress, the shuttle, the Soyuz all happening at the same time, a little more time will help things out, though we do have to watch the date of the Soyuz that's coming after the shuttle.
Late last week Endeavour's port payload bay door was dented when a weld on an external support structure failed. Did this figure into the decision to push back the targeted launch date, and what's the status on the repairs?
No, that actually occurred after the decision was made. Mr. Holloway informed me this morning that repair has been completed and there'll be no further issues with that we don't believe.
What impact will the change in STS-89's launch date have on Dave Wolf's planned activities during the final weeks of his tour of duty on the Mir, including the possibility of him making a spacewalk?
It'll give him a little more time to finish collecting data on some of the science experiments and also a little more time to finish his stowage activities, which, of course, are critical prior to any shuttle mission. You've got to make sure you've got everything ready to come back to Earth that's expected, not just your personal things, but the data, the science experiments, etc. It'll also give a little more time for the EVAs that are planned during that time, the first one of which, of course, is to repair the hatch, which is important and then we also would like to see them retrieve the Optical Properties Monitor that was installed during Jerry Linenger's EVA, which is scheduled to come down on STS-89.
When will a decision be made as to whether or not Wolf is given permission to conduct that spacewalk?
I expect that decision in early January.
Wolf is now finishing up the eleventh week of his stay onboard Mir, roughly two-thirds of the way through his scheduled tour. What's your report card on the job he's done so far?
Dave's certainly an A student. I mean, he's worked very hard and he not only gets an A for his results, but A for effort, because he puts in a lot of long hours and makes sure he gets everything done, and redoes it if necessary to make sure he's gotten what the scientists are looking for in the research. He's had to overcome some challenges, fix some equipment, work with the computers, etc., and they've also had the EVAs that occurred during that time, which Dave was an enthusiastic observer of and photographer of, which I think enhanced everybody's understanding of what was going on. So Dave's done a great job and is well qualified for long-duration in my opinion.
Read Frank Culbertson's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of December 12, 1997

Press Conference with the Mir-24 Crew

The Mir-24 crew gave an interview on December 12th, answering questions about life on Mir.

David Wolf: "By way of introductory remarks, I want to say that Anatoly and Pavel are two spectacular cosmonauts who have shown me just how much work and what kind of repair work and installations can actually be done on orbit. It's an eye opener, and it's been a pleasure working with them. We're learning by the hour lessons that I'm looking forward to debriefing."

Question: "How are you actually coping with the length of stay of this mission, physically and mentally?"
David Wolf: "That's a very interesting question. This type of mission is an endurance run instead of a sprint race like a shuttle mission. And I would say after about a month I was feeling extremely good, and after two months, I realized just how good you could feel in space. And I'm feeling better and better every day, enjoying working in space more and more, learning to handle the difficulties of working in space better and better. So it's getting better and better, although I miss home more and more."
Question: "As you enter the home stretch of your flight, do you think all the extra safety scrutiny that preceded your launch was warranted at this point and do you think that same sort of analysis will be necessary for your replacement, Andy Thomas?"
David Wolf: "Some good questions, very important questions were raised, and our agency really did a good job of thoroughly looking into the safety issues of the mission, and I thank them all for doing that. Our Administrator, Dan Goldin, did a wonderful job leading the agency through that period, as did General Stafford's group, which investigated the issues in Russia, as well as all of Phase I, Frank Culbertson. And really what we saw was a system of checks and balances that worked perfectly. Questions were raised, they were looked into, and we came up with good answers, and after being here for a while, those answers, I can say, were quite accurate. Personally, I don't think that it would be necessary to go through such a large endeavor again, unless some new issues were raised. I don't see any such new issues and I think Andy will have a very nice stay on this station and should be looking forward to that."
Question: "It seems that everybody that's ever been up into space seems to have a deep appreciation of the universe and of the planet Earth in general. With the New Year coming up, I'd like to know if this has affected the way that you think about life and the universe and the planet Earth, and what New Year's resolutions will you be setting for yourself up there in space?"
David Wolf: "Well, as we orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, and we look down, it is a universal that astronauts notice the beauty of the Earth, and we notice that there are no borders between the countries, and it's just one continuum. I guess world peace where those borders mean less in terms of wars and the problems we have and more in terms of helping each other would be my wish. I look forward to coming back and holding on to what I've felt and learned up here, the kind of emotion and feeling that you gain from space flight."
Question: "How's your Russian, and are you thinking in Russian every moment up there?"
David Wolf: "I'm definitely dreaming in Russian and the people float in my dreams, and that happened after about six weeks. That's a good question for Anatoly or Pavel." (Translates question into Russian.)
Anatoly Solovyev: "Well, at least, I can say that you speak better now than you spoke a year ago."
Question: "Can you summarize some of your work with the bioreactor experiment and, just in general, do you feel that you've had as much time to do science investigations as you had hoped when you began your flight?"
David Wolf: "As you know, the bioreactor and three-dimensional tissue culture in general are one of my pet areas of interest and I think an area of great potential at NASA and for science in space in general. We have done an important group of projects related to that where we have grown three-dimensional tissues of a number of types and taken them through a few generations. We've learned some ways not to do it also, but I see every reason to continue the work and be very hopeful, and I'm very optimistic it will prove to be as important as we think it will. In terms of doing science in space, we get to do the work, think about it, send data to the scientists on the ground, react and continue the experiment maybe in a little different direction or a lot different direction, and this is the way we do science on the Earth in a laboratory and we are converging on doing that type of science in space, and it's very dependent on the interaction of the Earth-based researchers and the space-based, hands-on people at the moment. It's good interaction, and we're learning how to do that."
Question: "Commander Solovyev, you've worked and lived now with two Americans. Have you had to make any cultural adjustment to your American colleagues? Do you have any funny stories to tell about this cultural adjustment. And for Dr. Wolf, what sort of cultural surprises have you encountered while living on Mir?"
Anatoly Solovyev: "Undoubtedly, one must take into account the two cultures in socializing and getting along together. Since the time when we began to work very closely with one another and cooperate with American astronauts, and began to work much with them jointly, both on the ground and in space, we have come to understand that it is absolutely necessary to take into account the differences in culture because this could sometimes lead to a misunderstanding. Naturally, well-bred people will tolerate one another and will conduct themselves in a manner so as to avoid conflicts with their colleagues and this must all be taken into account. I remember in our first training sessions at Johnson Space Center, we even had special lectures in this area, and we found out many interesting facts about Americans, about their way of life, and their ways of going about their work, and this helped me personally. As concerns work aboard the Mir complex, we've worked with Michael and with David. Of course, it must be considered that we haven't had any large problems, and I think this is basically due to the fact that both Michael and David come more than half way and try to understand Russian culture and to engage in a mutual exchange. For example, we have quite a lot of good music onboard, both Russian and American, and we often listen to it, both Russian and English, and I notice that both Michael and David listen very attentively and with great interest to Russian music and it is evident that they understand it and this pleases us. Perhaps Pavel will help me as far as some funny instances."
Pavel Vinogradov: "Well, I don't think it's really a good idea to take up the time to tell sea stories. We've been excellent crews up here. There haven't been any problems. We have, of course, different cultures and religions. There haven't really been any problems up here. I would say for myself that I have noticed that we're basically one people, there's not really much of a difference. It's going to be strange for me to return to America."
Question: "How will you observe Chanukah and Christmas onboard? What will be going on then?"
David Wolf: "We'll celebrate in the traditional way. I have a menorah and some of the standard items, and we'll enjoy the light show on Earth instead of our own Christmas lights -- well, actually our consoles here look a lot like Christmas lights a lot of the time -- and we'll enjoy the holidays with the rest of you on Earth. Happy Holidays."
Question: "What has been the most unexpected aspect of your mission? What could your months of training not prepare you for?"
David Wolf: "I guess, just how much gear and equipment is in this space station and where it is stowed and how to get to it and set up equipment. There is no single simulator that even approaches this density of scientific and station stored equipment. I wish I could show you the density here. That takes a lot of getting used to."
Question: "Dr. Wolf, what are you craving? You've been in space for three months now, if you could do take-out, what would you bring up?"
David Wolf: "I was just thinking about those sweet potatoes with the marshmallows on top that my mom makes. I'm missing those a lot, and I guess then it's a good pizza."
Question: "I was struck a little bit about your comment about how good you can feel in space. How good can you feel? Better than you feel on Earth?"
David Wolf: "Yeah, I think so. You can really feel good up here. It's insidious, the need to exercise, because we're really getting weaker all the time as our bones demineralize if we're not careful, but we can lift anything. I could lift a 250-pound space suit with my baby finger. That's fun, and it's fun to be able to fly and see something up there on the ceiling and you just go right up to it. You can fly effortlessly. This all feels just wonderful."
Question: "Next year, the U.S. presence will come to an end and possibly the station will be face decomission soon after that with the start of the International Space Station. From your standpoint onboard the Mir, how difficult to you feel it will be to decomission such a large space station and safely deorbit it."
David Wolf: "I guess I'm not well qualified to answer that questions. Maybe that's better for Anatoly or Pavel."
Anatoly Solovyev: "Sadness. Well, I would say this, as long as all our efforts are devoted to maintaining the life of this station and honestly speaking, I didn't even think of that, but actually, yeah, some day this station will be deorbited, but I hadn't thought about it really. All of our efforts right now are devoted to keeping the station going as long as it can. In practice, of course, we must consider that some day this station will cease to exist, but at least during our presence here, this theme, this direction of thought is just not admissible. Of course, it would be, from a human perspective, very sad to say farewell to this complex. We don't have thoughts of this nature."
Pavel Vinogradov: "Solya is correct. We expect the station really to stay up here for quite a long time."
Question: [Asked in Russian.]
Anatoly Solovyev: "Well, let's start with the practical questions. The loop is working and the test modes have been operating for two days. Everything is normal. In any event, the experts are satisfied with our work. The temperature is maintaining itself very well. It is adequately comfortable here. I hadn't thought about this earlier. When everything is going well, you don't really tend to notice things. The air is good, the temperature is good. In this regard there is really nothing going on. Of course sometimes there are excursions but we can say that this does not affect our basic tasks. But if we're going to talk about our general work, it's more important, it's probably a more important question than the second. Our work is, of course, most important. It's not for nothing that they said as soon as you see the New Year you can go further, as we will meet the New Year aboard the space station this is a feature that cannot be duplicated on Earth. We meet the New Year with the Australians first, and honestly speaking, until we get to Western Europe and the U.S., it becomes very, very difficult, because there is a lot of traffic, both through the official and the ham radio links. We spend a lot of time on the radio and a lot of people come out and want to talk to us on the radio and to wish us the best of wishes. This is a rather difficult time for us in that regard, but in general it's also very pleasant. There is, apparently, no champagne here for us to celebrate the New Year, although there is, of course, the desire."
Question: "Dr. Wolf, would you mind elaborating a bit on the exact type of tissue that you're growing up there and what, if any, preliminary results you can tell us about what you're finding."
David Wolf: "Of course, a lot of our results depend on the molecular biology work that will happen when we get on the ground, but we're growing kidney tissue, and nerve tissue, and on the next mission coming up will be breast cancer tissue to investigate functions of all these tissues. We have, in fact, observed the three-dimensional structural formation that cannot be achieved at this time in a gravity field. We hope to learn from what we've formed up here how to do it on Earth, and the best outcome would be that we can then later do it on Earth without space, but maybe we'll have to use space. These are matching well our theoretical predictions and I think we see every reason to be very positive to progress with our tissue engineering work in space."
Question: "Regarding the highly publicized events of last summer, when a lot of the problems on Mir were attributed to the aging of the space station, how do you account for the lack of problems now? The space station is still aging. What's changed?"
David Wolf: "Well, you know how your car goes in cycles. A lot of things break, you fix a lot of things, and it runs real great for a while. I think we're probably seeing a cycle like that. In terms of a related question of safety, I see no reason to think that any catastrophic event is more likely now that it was five or eight or ten years ago. We always have the Soyuz escape vehicle should we need it, in the unfortunate event, and I think that's highly unlikely and I feel very safe. I sleep very well at night, very comfortably. I think we made the right decision, clearly."
Question: "You've been very, very busy putting in lots of hours with experiments and everything else. Is the loss of the Spektr and the crowding or other problems that have caused this science work to be more time consuming than you initially expected?"
David Wolf: "I didn't get to work with Spektr in place, so this is all I know, but I can tell you that I could not accomplish any more scientific work. I couldn't do any more no matter how much space or gear I had available. We are running a full, intense program in the Priroda module, so I think in any case we've worked around the problem. It may have been more comfortable with the more space. Our stowage and packing might have worked out better, but we can't do any more than we're doing with one person in the science area. Really, the U.S. work I do mainly myself, so I couldn't do any more."
Question: "How is your EVA training going? We know you're looking forward to doing that. Are you ready, getting prepared and fired up to do a space walk?"
David Wolf: "You know that since I was nine years old and Ed White did the first space walk from a Gemini capsule, I've wanted to do a space walk. And I've a healthy respect for the issue. It must be done right. And that brings up training. We trained intensely before the mission. I continue to train onboard. The space suit is in itself a spaceship. It has all the fundamental systems of a spacecraft itself, and in a mission this long you need to study on orbit . . . [transmission broken up], and I'll be going outside if all goes well, as planned, with the most experienced space walker in the universe, certainly on Earth or in space around Earth, Anatoly, and I'll look forward to taking a lesson from this fine space walker."
Read more about David Wolf and NASA-6

Read David Wolf's Oral History

Mir-24 - Week of January 9, 1998

Interview with Jim Van Laak

Jim Van Laak, NASA's Shuttle-Mir Program Deputy Manager provides the latest information on the status of Wolf's tour of duty on the Mir.

Wolf is completing his fifteenth week as a crewmember onboard the orbiting Russian outpost today, and is now three weeks away from his scheduled return to Earth onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. While assisting his Mir-24 crewmates, commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov, in seeing to station operations the past few weeks, he also helped them prepare for the spacewalk they successfully completed January 8.

Last evening Solovyev and Vinogradov conducted a three-hour spacewalk with special attention paid to the outer hatch of the Kvant-2 airlock. Bring us up to date on Dave Wolf's role during the spacewalk, and describe what his crewmates did during their excursion.

Jim Van Laak: "The primary objectives of the EVA were to identify the problems with the hatch and hopefully rectify them and retrieve the Optical Properties Monitor that Jerry Linenger had installed out on the Docking Module when he was onboard Mir, and they were very successful in that. Dave's principal role was to support by operating the station systems. He was operating the Antares system so that they could have satellite communications during the EVA and also operating the Glisser camera system from inside in an attempt to get some pictures during the EVA. Those pictures did not come down live, but they were downlinked later, afterwards."

What were Solovyev and Vinogradov able to find when they examined the airlock hatch?

Jim Van Laak: "They found early in the EVA, before they'd actually departed the airlock that one of the dogs, the actual mechanisms that engages the hatch, was not fully engaged from the primary mechanism. The last time an EVA was performed, they had time to close only 4 of the 10 secondary dogs and, as Murphy's Law would have it, insufficient of those were close to this location to effect a seal. At the completion of the EVA, when they, in fact, engaged all of the secondary dogs, they were able to effect a good seal. Also, and this is something we don't yet fully understand, they cycled the mechanism of the primary latches several times, and the latch did engage at the end of that. That's good news in so far as it means there's an excellent seal on that hatch surface right now, but it's bad news from the standpoint that we don't have a clear understanding of what the failure of the mechanism was, and that needs to be understood before additional EVAs are performed.

Another spacewalk is being planned for next Wednesday, January 14, and Wolf has begun on-orbit training to accompany Solovyev on that spacewalk. What tasks are planned for this spacewalk, and what steps remain before NASA gives the "OK" for Wolf to participate?

Jim Van Laak: "The EVA just completed, had the hatch not been an issue, would have involved the retrieval of the Optical Properties monitor and also the performance of an experiment with a space photoreflectometer, which they actually hold against selected surfaces on the outside, and it evaluates the optical properties of these things that have been on orbit for a long time. They were expecting a full six hours EVA. They got done in three hours because things went exceptionally smoothly, but they did not have the SPSR as it's called with them. So Dave's goal is to go out and achieve at least some of the SPSR objectives by performing evaluation of some locations on the Kvant-2 module. As it's currently planned, they're still reserving a fair amount of time for hatch operations and so it's not a complete SPSR mission suite, but that is the goal."

What must still be accomplished before the Shuttle-Mir Program decides to say yes or no to Wolf's participation?

Jim Van Laak: "The outstanding issue is the actual failure of the hatch mechanism and understanding what it is. There are some push rods that are operated by a central wheel that activates these mechanism. In fact, it's a fairly rigid, straightforward mechanical system, so when something works one time and not the next, you suspect there's some kind of a physical blockage or breakage and it would be unwise we think to just go ahead and trust that it's working now, even though it didn't work previously. We would like to see a conclusive understanding of what that mechanism problem is. I would point out that even if that entire mechanism failed totally, the back-up mechanism for closing the hatch when they're all engaged is satisfactory, but wisdom would say that we should understand the failure before we go on."

A new resupply ship docked to the space station with holiday supplies for the crewmembers just before Christmas. Since then they've also responded to some developments relating to station attitude control and environmental systems. What's the status of Mir systems today?

Jim Van Laak: "They're in very good shape overall. The major problems that they had were failure of a computer, similar to the failures that occurred back in September. They had a new spare that was fully reconditioned that they were able to install. They had minor problems with attitude control as a result, but they were very minor. They have gotten this down to a science, and they effected the recovery in 24 or so hours, very easily. And, by the way, that happened on two different occasions. The other thing that happened was a central exchange module that failed, and they had spare for that, and we are carrying hopefully spares for both of those up on STS-89 to keep an additional one in the cupboard. The other thing that happened was a failure of an air conditioning unit, whose principal function is to provide humidity control. It cools down a heat exchanger so that water condenses and then that's recycled back into drinking water. Currently they're maintaining humidity control by pumping water overboard through the CO2 removal system so it's not an immediate problem, but it is a long-term consumables problem."

Under the current launch schedule Endeavour is targeted to arrive at the Mir with Wolf's replacement, Andy Thomas, two weeks from tomorrow. Apart from the upcoming spacewalk, what are Wolf's planned activities for his final couple of weeks as a Mir crewmember?

Jim Van Laak: "The EVA activity is certainly something he's got his eyes set on. In addition to that training, he's primarily interested in closing out the remaining science activities, which are fairly modest, but a lot of prepacking, getting his own personal effects ready, getting the science hardware properly stowed, so that we can have an effective and efficient activity when STS-89 gets there is what's going to keep him occupied."

Endeavour is slated to undock from the Mir January 29, the same day the Mir-25 cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin, along with French researcher Leopold Eyharts, are to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on their way to take over from the Mir-24 crew. Given the possibility of launch delays at the Kennedy Space Center, are there deadlines in the launch planning being done by NASA or the Russians to keep from having all three crews onboard the Mir at the same time?

Jim Van Laak: "That would be an interesting development to see 13 people on the combined stack at once. In some senses we'd love to see how it works out, but practically it's not a goal that we would really like to exercise. The deadline that we really face is that the Soyuz that's on orbit today has a certified on-orbit life of 200 days. If we go as we're currently scheduled they will land with three days margin. The Russians believe they have another three days or so they can easily extend the life, so there's about a six-day margin without any impact whatsoever to the planned French mission, the three-week mission. If we delayed longer than that, they would either have to consider shortening that mission, which they would prefer to not do, or we would probably slip into mid February with STS-89."

Read Jim Van Laak's Oral History