Interview: Scott Parazynski
STS-95 Crew Interview with Scott Parazynski, mission specialist.
for a moment the complexity of this flight, and how your first two
previous flights may have better prepared you for this one.
is one of the most scientifically-rich and diverse missions that
we've flown. It is a mission that encompasses science from the full
gamut of space sciences. From solar physics and observational astronomy
and support of the Hubble Space Telescope effort, to advanced materials
science and the life sciences, including the effects of aging. In
addition we're flying a number of experiments in support of the
International Space Station; space vision systems and robotics systems
that we'll be testing out. There are over eighty payloads on the
flight, the majority of which involve considerable crew intervention,
so it's a very exciting and challenging mission, and I think it's
very fortunate that we have such an experienced crew to tackle all
these very exciting payloads.
such a tightly scheduled mission, how are you and your crewmates
going to tackle this type of timeline, which is almost a no fault-tolerant
type of timeline?
Well, I think
preparation and training are the answers to those challenges. We
have spent a great deal of time preparing for all of our payloads,
we've reviewed all the procedures in depth, and I think by the time
we launch we'll be fully ready to tackle that challenge. Of course
if we have any difficulties, if we have any in-flight maintenance
issues, of course the timeline may slip a little bit, but I'm still
rather confident that we're going to be able to accomplish all of
the science objectives on the flight.
us a glimpse of where you and your crewmates will be working during
the flight, and the varying kinds of science that you hope to accomplish
over the course of nine days.
Well the research
on this flight will take place throughout the ship. We have a number
of experiments out in the payload bay, notably the SPARTAN solar
observing spacecraft which will have a two-day free flight to look
at the solar corona. It will essentially get a feel for space weather,
which effects all of our communications; satellites here on Earth
as well as orbiting astronaut crews. So that's a very important
focus for our flight. We have the Hubble Orbital Systems Test Platform
out in the payload bay as well, and that's going to be testing out
a number of "black boxes" that will be used on the next Hubble space
servicing mission. We'll be helping test out those systems, which
include a new computer for the Hubble as well as a new cooling system.
We also have the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker, which
is a suite of experiments that will take solar, stellar, and atmospheric
observations during the course of our nine-day mission. Back inside
the space shuttle we have a number of mid-deck and SPACEHAB payloads.
We have a furnace that will look at materials processing on orbit;
we have, a number of protein crystal growth experiments, a number
of tissue culture experiments, and in addition we have a very exciting
experiment that involves microencapsulation of cancer chemotherapeutic
agents. This is very promising in the future because typically when
we give cancer chemotherapy, of course we kill part of the tumor,
but we also effect the rest of the body -- there are terrible side
effects. In the future we hope with these microencapsulated, chemotherapuetic
agents we can target the tumor directly, say in the liver or the
lung, and thereby avoid all the terrible side effects and treat
the tumor directly. So that's one of the more exciting payloads
we have. And to follow that on in the life sciences area, we have
a number of biomedical studies: in particular, the effects of spaceflight
on the human physiology. And of course Senator Glenn will be helping
us explore the intricacies of the aging process, looking at sleep
disturbances, protein and bone turnover, balance disorders and the
like. So it's a very, very full flight in the cabin as well. I also
mentioned earlier a number of efforts in support of International
Space Station. We'll be flying tests on three different vision systems
used for mating and berthing objects in space. Steve Robinson and
myself will be the prime arm operators on the flight, using the
Canadian space vision system, and another system called ACVS and
VGS. Basically different techniques to assess attitude errors, and
range and range rate as we berth and unberth the SPARTAN.
SPARTAN deployment operation did not go well in its last flight,
on STS-87. How will you and Steve work with each other on deployment
day, to get SPARTAN running in the correct fashion, and what's different
about this flight that's going to contribute to the crew's ability
to have a successful deployment?
time we have an incident like this it's an opportunity to learn,
and we have. We have very carefully gone back and looked at what
happened on STS-87 and how we might do things differently in the
future. I think we have a very studied, and appropriate approach
to the SPARTAN deployment. It's going to be a very busy day on Flight
Day 4, when I will activate a number of the SPARTAN systems, update
its attitude control system, and set it into a mode of preparation
for its deployment. The key here is that Steve Robinson will be
backing me up. We'll check and double-check each of the steps as
we go through them, and in a similar fashion as we prepare the arm,
we'll power up the arm, we'll grapple the SPARTAN satellite from
the payload bay, release the latches, and put it up into a poised-for-deploy
position. All this will be carefully cross-checked and choreographed.
There're a number of internal changes to the SPARTAN as well, as
a result of the STS-87 flight. The primary one that effects the
deployment, however, is the timer that is set once we actually derigidize,
and prepare to let go the SPARTAN satellite. On STS-87, once that
initial bit was set, there was only an hour of time between the
release and the time that they had to have it re-berthed within
the payload bay. Had they not recovered it within that one hour,
the, the entire SPARTAN mission was lost for the flight. for STS-95
that duration has now been increased to forty-three hours, so there
is no time crunch, there's no time compression; if, SPARTAN does
not do its pirouette properly, we have essentially unlimited time
to go and regrapple, reberth it, reset, the SPARTAN and, and redeploy
of the upgraded software there'll be this time, that's a guarantee
that no steps will be missed; you guys will have full insight that
the satellite's ready for deploy?
We have essentially
full insight into all but the attitude control system update. We
issue a series of commands to update the attitude control system;
that is not seen by the ground, it has to be exactly perfect. That's
why we'll have two or even three pairs of eyes looking at those
numbers to make sure that they're correct. Beyond that however,
we will have direct feedback on our laptop computer indicating that
the SPARTAN satellite is ready to go.
you give us a little more detail about the kinds of solar phenomena
that SPARTAN will be observing?
has a couple of solar-observing instruments on board, and their
primary focus is to look at the radiation flux that we receive from
the sun's atmosphere or corona. And it's a radiation flux that is
received here twenty-four hours a day on Earth, but it primarily
affects the upper atmosphere and beyond, where Earth-orbiting satellites
live -- they're very susceptible to these radiation fluxes. And so
the key emphasis is to take measurements in ultraviolet, using the
ultraviolet, coronal spectrograph and the White Light Coronagraph
to monitor that flux of energy. This will form part of a database
throughout the course of an eleven year solar cycle. You may be
aware that there's an eleven year solar cycle, and we're coming
up towards the Solar Max in the next couple of years here, so this
SPARTAN mission is an ongoing effort in solar science.
us a kind of bird's eye view of what you and Steve will be doing,
as your crewmates close in on SPARTAN during the rendezvous and
Well, the rendezvous
actually starts the morning of Flight Day 6, when we'll essentially
be thirty miles ahead of SPARTAN; we'll set up a burn to do a two-orbit
transfer to actually end up eight miles behind the SPARTAN satellite.
At that point we'll perform another burn, which we call TI, to initiate
the transition to dock with SPARTAN. There will be in addition a
number of mid-course correction burns to kind of fine tune our approach.
We'll have an optimized, R-bar approach where we come up from underneath
the spacecraft using a trajectory that's very propellant efficient.
Curt will be at the controls on the aft flight deck for this final
phase as we close in, and Steve will be operating the VGS -- vision
system, which is a laser tracking device that may be used in future
spacecraft for automatic docking. We'll come in to about 220 feet,
do some measurements with the VGS, come on back out to about 600
feet, and then re-approach all the way up to grapple range. During
the rendezvous phase of the approach, Steve Lindsey will be in the
forward cockpit monitoring all the orbiter systems, and I'll be
essentially the navigator. I'll be working the laptop displays that
we have, taking in all the sensor information -- the range radar
and the hand-held laser, sensor information, and making sure that
Curt has a good feel for where we are relative to the SPARTAN satellite.
I'll also be operating the hand-held laser out the overhead window.
As we get in closer to grapple range, Steve and I will transition,
and I'll be looking over at our computer displays as well as the
aft flight deck, backing him up as we approach for a grapple.
years from now four astronauts will conduct six spacewalks on the
third servicing trip to the Hubble Space Telescope. Why do we need
to put upgraded instruments in Hubble, and why test them on your
STS-95, is very, very similar to the environment that the Hubble
Space Telescope lives and breathes in. We'll be flying at an inclination
of 28-and-a-half degrees, and 300 nautical miles above the Earth's
surface, just like Hubble. And so this is a perfect opportunity
to test out some of the advanced systems that will be flown on the
next servicing mission. The instruments that will be deployed on
the next servicing mission include a new, hardened, 486 computer,
which they hope will not be susceptible to radiation events at that
high altitude. And, perhaps even more challenging is a new cooling
system; a cryogenic cooling system for the NICMOS instrument aboard
the Hubble Space Telescope. You may be familiar with some of the
very beautiful images that NICMOS has acquired in the very far reaches
of our universe -- galaxies in evolution, at birth essentially, in
places where we once thought was just black sky. So, this instrument
requires very, very cold temperatures to operate, and unfortunately
the NICMOS, when it was first deployed, relied on cryogenic fluid
to cool the instrument, but it wasn't of a sufficient quantity to
last forever. On the next servicing mission, a new cooling system
will be deployed that entails a radiator and a new plumbing system,
if you will, and it seemed very prudent to use this opportunity
on STS-95 to test out the hardware.
us a feel for the kinds of things that we're looking for that could
help aging and senior citizens on the ground; correlations that
could be drawn between young astronauts and in this case, with John
Glenn, the oldest human ever to fly in space at the age of 77.
thing about flying John Glenn into space is the ability to study
the aging process in an environment that's very similar to the aging
process itself. And what I mean by that is when even young astronauts
fly into space, the effects of microgravity on their body is very
similar to what happens in the normal aging process. Our bones and
muscles weaken as a result of inactivity; essentially, we don't
have to support our own body weight. Our heart muscle doesn't have
to pump uphill, as it does here on Earth, so the heart muscle weakens.
Our balance system is effected, obviously, from a lack of gravity,
which is a gravity-dependent process. Our sleep patterns are disturbed
somewhat because we're going around the Earth every ninety minutes,
and you see a sunrise and sunset every forty-five minutes, so the
circadian rhythms within the body are obviously effected. Our immune
system is suppressed somewhat on orbit just as it seems to be in
elderly people. So it's a very interesting parallel, if you will,
to the aging process; and by taking John into space we can see if
there are notable differences. The research emphasis on STS-95 in
the life sciences area will tackle all of these issues. We have
studies on sleep disturbances, we have an experiment called Protein
Turnover, which will study how muscle is effected by exposure to
the zero-G environment; muscle build-up and breakdown, which is
a normal process here on Earth. We have studies on balance and bone
strength and the immune function as well. So we're going to be able
to determine with John which are the most interesting areas for
further research. Obviously John is just one subject, but I'm sure
there will be more in the future.
the Senator going to be poked and prodded and stuck throughout the
flight? Talk about the Sleep experiment, because he's going to have
a lot of stuff hanging off of his head, isn't he?
and John are both subjects for the Sleep experiment, and I believe
there are twenty-one different sensors that will be monitoring everything
from their EEG data, to electrocardiographic data, to their respiration,
to the oxygen level in their blood … a number of very sensitive
instruments will be recording their every, every activity. And so
we'll really be able to get a feel for how his sleep patterns are
effected by being in space, and also the efficacy of a drug that
you may be familiar with, melatonin. It's a very efficient drug,
here on Earth at least, for helping us sleep-shift, and during the
mission we'll be sleep-shifting back forty minutes each day, so
that'll be another added topic for the research. In addition you
mentioned the fact that John would be poked and prodded a few times
during the flight: he and Pedro Duque, our European Space Agency
astronaut, will be subjects in the Protein Turnover Experiment,
and for a course of six days throughout the flight, they'll have
in-dwelling IV catheters that will enable us to draw blood and also
give them intravenous infusions of a labeled amino acid called histidine,
to study how muscle proteins are built and destroyed in a body.
So they will have a bit of blood drawn during the flight, but not
as many pokes as you might think.
was your reaction when you were selected to fly with Senator Glenn,
and how has it been to train with somebody who is considered to
be a legend?
Well, my initial
response was this is too good to be true, this is science fiction.
I think to put it in perspective, this would be like a physicist
having the opportunity to make a great discovery with Albert Einstein,
or a mountaineer to summit a Himalayan mountain with Sir Edmund
Hillary, or to play baseball with Babe Ruth, or soccer with Pele:
this, for an astronaut, is about as exciting as it gets. And so
I'm thrilled to be a part of this flight. I think on a more global
scale, certainly John has been a hero and an inspiration to young
people, for many, many years, but the exciting part now in history
is that he's going to become a role model and hero for senior citizens.
I've heard it many, many times; people will say well, if John Glenn
can go and fly in space at age 77, I ought to be able to, you know,
tackle this project or that. I think that's his continuing legacy.
there a historic link here, between the origins of human spaceflight
and the future?
think so. John was a pioneer in an era of Cold War competition,
and he opened up the space race, if you will, on this side of the
ocean. And now we live in a very different world: the new world
order is such that the United States is working with Canada and
Japan and Europe, our traditional allies, and also with Russia,
the former Soviet Union. And here John is, a part of an international
crew on a flight just prior to the first building phases of the
International Space Station -- so I think it's a very exciting time,
and it shows how the world has changed and grown, since those early
you feel that you and your crewmates are under a significantly greater
microscope because of the presence of John Glenn, and is there a
pressure that's associated with that?
I think that
the presence of John on board, of course, is a major factor, and
I think it's a very exciting time. His presence not only excites
other people who might not follow the space program as closely,
but people around the world -- to the things that NASA and the international
space program is doing now, including the onset of the International
Space Station assembly. And I think in just a few months here another
very, very exciting flight will occur, and that's the flight of
Colonel Eileen Collins, the first female Commander of the space
shuttle -- so, I think the media attention is a wonderful thing for
have you been impressed with Senator Glenn's ability to get right
back up on the horse after thirty-six years, so to speak, and pick
up basically where he left off?
has picked up right where he left off. He's got a keen mind and
he's clearly in great physical shape, and it's been remarkable how
he's been assimilated in the crew. He's no longer Senator
Glenn, he's John Glenn the astronaut, one of the crew. But it's
interesting; every once in a while, in a training session or in
the middle of a conversation about any topic -- politics, or the
space program, or the weather, to look over and think "My God, that's…that's
John Glenn!" That's pretty exciting.
a medical doctor; you've flown in space twice, you understand the
rigors of launch and landing, and sometimes the aftereffects of
a sudden adaptation to a weightless environment. Do you have any
concerns for Senator Glenn and his health at all during the course
of this flight, especially with the level of activity expected from
I'm just hoping
we can keep up with him. You know, he's a United States Senator,
they keep a very brisk pace back in Washington, D.C. And as you
mentioned, he's very physically fit. I don't have any real concerns
about his ability to complete his mission objectives, or his physical
condition. I think on his return to Earth, when even young astronauts
can have some problems in terms of orthostatic tolerance -- in other
words, not getting light-headed and passing out, and some of the
balance problems that people occasionally have on return -- he may
have some of those problems, but we hope to prevent those things
by proper fluid loading, and exercising on orbit. So I'm fairly
confident that John's going to sail through this without any difficulties.
International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker, a whole suite of scientific
stuff; give us a little insight into what all of this is about,
its diversity in terms of scientific investigation.
Well, as you
mentioned, it's a full suite of instruments that among other things
will be looking at the ultraviolet radiation of the sun and taking
observations of the planet Jupiter, as well as various atmospheric
targets, during the course of the mission. In addition, the IEH
contains a device that will measure the total solar energy received
from the sun, called the solar constant; so this is an experiment,
or a suite of experiments, that will tackle a number of astronomic,
solar, and atmospheric issues.
are you looking forward to doing on this flight, that you might
not have had an opportunity to do on your first two missions?
I've been very
fortunate on my two prior flights to have a bit of window time,
in particular my first mission, STS-66; it was an ozone mapping
mission essentially, and the majority of my energy was spent up
on the flight deck, monitoring equipment out in the payload bay.
My second flight, up to Mir, I actually had an opportunity to go
outside and walk in space, which is the best view in the house,
if you will. This flight I'm not all that certain I'll have much
time to look out the window. The time that I will be looking out
the window will be the times when I'm actually flying the robotic
arm, and that's something that's very new, for me. That'll be a
first flight experience and I'm very excited about the opportunity
to do some of that.
first got you interested in the space program -- inspired you to
become an astronaut? Was Glenn, specifically, an inspiration for
you as you grew up?
was one of my role models, and one of the inspirations for me being
here today. Of course I don't remember his pioneering orbital flight
because I was only seven months old at the time, but my father worked
on the Apollo program. I've wanted to become an astronaut ever since
I was five or six years old; ever since I've dreamt of spaceflight
and pursued that dream. I can't pin it to any one particular space
achievement; I know that the Apollo missions to the moon rank right
up there as, you know, spurring on the dream.
Mir, the upcoming International Space Station, John Glenn wedged
in the middle as part of your crew: what is there to say about our
contemporary time in human spaceflight?
Well, I think
it's a wonderful time to be alive; we're doing remarkable things
in space as well as here on the ground. We're doing things that,
I think, were unimaginable even five years ago. If someone would
have told me when I became an astronaut, back in 1992, that someday
I would fly up to a Russian space station and do a spacewalk with
a Russian cosmonaut, or that one day I would fly with my hero, John
Glenn into space, that would have certainly been considered science
fiction -- impossible. So I think it bodes very well for the future -- international cooperation aboard the International Space Station,
and more long-range, towards returning to the moon and Mars exploration
as well. I think all of these things are possible, and they will
after the flight, if you had to sit down and write what the historic
significance of your mission will have been, how do you think you
would portray the scope of it all?
Well, I think
to wrap up STS-95 we have to say that it was a very ambitious and
complex prelude to the International Space Station era. We're doing
a phenomenal wealth of science on board, very similar to what will
be accomplished on the International Space Station. We have an international
crew on board, a Japanese and a European astronaut, so that, of
course, is the wave of the future as well. Then, of course, having
Senator Glenn on board, astronaut Glenn. Here's a Cold War space
pioneer, flying again in a new era of space exploration where the
world has joined hands. Together, to go into space for science and
not proof of technological superiority. I think that'll be the primary
legacy of STS-95.