Posted on 11/09/2002 12:27:47 PM PST by snopercod
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Nov. 9 — It was bad enough when a medical problem sidelined one astronaut, but then a back injury forced another off space shuttle Endeavour's upcoming flight, sending shock waves through the crew.
Not since Apollo 13 had a career astronaut, let alone two, been bumped from an impending U.S. space shot because of health concerns.
"We were joking a lot about being Number 113," said Kenneth Bowersox, who at last check was still fit for Monday's launch and a lengthy space station stay. He suggested, during lighter moments, changing the mission's STS-113 designation.
For the record, Endeavour's flight to the international space station remains Space Transportation System No. 113. The mission patch plays it safe, though, and goes with Roman numerals: CXIII.
Seven astronauts will be aboard Endeavour, including eleventh-hour fill-ins Donald Pettit and Paul Lockhart.
Pettit will spend the winter aboard the space station with Bowersox and Russian Nikolai Budarin. Lockhart, Endeavour's pilot, will deliver them and bring back the three who have been living on the orbiting complex since June.
Pettit and Lockhart were upgraded over the summer. For Apollo 13, the countdown was already under way in 1970 when the switch in command module pilots occurred. Thomas "Ken" Mattingly was exposed to German measles and replaced by Jack Swigert on what was to become an even more star-crossed mission.
Pettit was training in Russia as the space station backup for Donald Thomas when Bowersox broke the news in July: Pettit was in and Thomas was out. NASA's medical experts had been debating for months whether Thomas should be grounded because of an undisclosed issue and finally ordered that the two Donalds be swapped.
"It was one of those things that was right on the line," said Bowersox, the expedition commander. "I had trouble sleeping before it happened because I was so worried about which way we should go and what was right and what was wrong and the best way to handle it."
A couple weeks later, in August, shuttle pilot Christopher "Gus" Loria became the second casualty after hurting his back at home. Because Lockhart had just flown to the space station on Endeavour in June, NASA asked him to step in.
Lockhart told his flabbergasted wife, who had been planning their vacation: "There's no need to finish getting the passports. We're not going to Germany and Austria."
For Bowersox, the pilot swap was "an even bigger shock" than having Pettit suddenly on board. Bowersox and his station crew were still in Russia and had no clue anything was amiss.
Pettit and his wife, meanwhile, were stunned by their own turn of events although perhaps less so since he had been training all along as a backup. But the impact on their lives was greater since Pettit was departing on a four-month station mission, rather than an 11-day shuttle flight. For starters, he was going to miss his twin boys' second birthday.
Worse yet, NASA already had delivered the meals and clothes for the upcoming space station crew, leaving Pettit stuck with Thomas' selections.
Thomas filled his advance shipments with chocolate, but no coffee. Pettit needs two cups of Java a day and craves green chili, not chocolate. So he's stashed instant coffee and northern New Mexico's finest green chili aboard Endeavour.
Because Pettit is taller than Thomas, he's taking up some pants along with bigger size-13 shoes. The shirts already on the space station should more or less fit. At least the name "Don" on the shirts is a perfect match.
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| Sat Nov 9,10:02 AM ET |
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Astronauts, from left, Don Thomas, John Herrington, and Christoper 'Gus' Loria, pose in this Jan. 2002 NASA (news - web sites) photograph, from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex. Both Thomas and Loria were bumped from the STS-113 mission for medical reasons. Herrington is scheduled to be the first American-Indian to fly in space when the shuttle Endeavour lifts off early Monday morning Nov. 11, 2002 (AP Photo/NASA) |
Down on the middeck, the whole forward bulkhead is covered with "lockers" - drawers that contain "stuff" for the mission. Each Astronaut has his own personal clothing, food selections, books to read, music, etc. Plus, there is emergency equipment specifically sized to each astronaut. All that stuff has to be weighed, for CG considerations. Many of the lockers are loaded into the crew module during the final part of the launch countdown, since they contain perishable items.
Try and picture a busy restaurant with all the waitstaff and bussboys having to crawl through a 36" dia crew hatch with their food and trays, and you get some idea of what a bottleneck FCS Stowage can be during launch countdown.
It's going to be painful for the launch team, as well as the Astronauts. FCS stowage is a major, MAJOR part of the launch countdown planning. Getting the spaceship ready to launch has to be interwoven with loading all the "stuff" into the Crew Hatch and stowing it properly. If you forget the toilet paper, you're in big trouble, 'cause you can't stop at the Jiffy Store once on orbit.
The crew module is small, and the floor is now a wall (in the vertical), and only so many people can be inside at once due to "confined space" (OHSA) regulations. (I think it's ten - twelve in an emergency - but memory fades.)
One can only hope that the new guys don't end up spending six months on the Station wearing somebody else's clothes.
I wish the launch team well. They're pros, and will pull a rabbit out of a hat like they always do. (Then Houston will take the credit, like they always do.)
The problems occur when there is simply too much work to cram into too little time. The "built in holds" allow for a certain amount of catch-up if things get backed up, but you can only do so much. Especially with these 5 minute windows thanks to the hi-inclination orbit of the station.
If the ship has to go to sea Monday morning, that's the last word, period. Captains lose their job if they can't get underway on time, and life becomes hell for the crew (the old axiom of crap rolling downhill). When the JFK couldn't pass the required maintenance checks to go to sea safely, the Captain got fired and the crew forfeited Christmas leave to get it fixed.
Been there. :-( I have been on console for launches. We usually rehersed for months.
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