WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 GEORGE DILLER: Like the International Space Station itself, the STS-124 mission represents the spirit of global teamwork. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Commanded by Mark Kelly, and joined by JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:19.000 The crew of Discovery will build on the success of STS-123 by adding a large 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 pressurized module and a versatile robot arm. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.000 STS-124 is the second in this series of flights. Discovery will be in place on 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Launch Pad 39A and the countdown clock is already ticking toward liftoff. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Live from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, this is L minus-one. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:47.000 (Crew recording) Close and lock your visors, initiate O2 flow, it's time to fly. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.000 ALLARD BEUTEL: Thanks for joining us here for our prelaunch show, L-minus-one. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.000 I'm your host Allard Beutel, news chief here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000 L-minus-one is also NASA-talk for the day before lift off and we are almost exactly 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 24-hours away from the launch of space shuttle Discovery. And we can feel the 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.000 pace picking up here at the launch center as the clock is counting down. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.000 We've got a great show lined up for you today. We have veteran astronaut Mike Foale 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:16.000 who will take us inside the STS-124 mission that will dramatically increase the science potential of the International Space Station. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:20.000 But first let me set the stage for you. This very studio is located inside the Kennedy News Center 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:26.000 and media from around the world have been pouring in the last couple of days to cover tomorrow's launch for a global audience. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.000 The hub of this activity is right across the street from here, in the launch control 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:35.000 center, or as we call it the LCC, which is really the "brain" of the shuttle launch complex. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.000 Every mission launched at Launch Complex 39 from the Apollo missions straight through 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.000 to the shuttle program have been controlled from the firing rooms inside the launch control center. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 Right now there are controllers on duty, round the clock, monitoring the health of Discovery from Firing Room 4. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 It's a very exciting time to be here and it's a very good time for us to introduce Dr. Michael Foale, thank you for joining us. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.000 MICHAEL FOALE: It's a pleasure to be with you. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 BEUTEL: When I call you "veteran," that's no lie -- six flights and including one on 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.000 the long duration flight on the International Space Station and long duration flight on the 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:08.000 Russian Space Station Mir. You've gone through a few countdowns yourself. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:09.000 FOALE: Yes, I have. BEUTEL: What's it like? 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:16.000 FOALE: Why, it's nerve racking. I was surprised I was able to sleep before each countdown ? 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:22.000 the night before I got sleep. But once you get out there, once you get up you have your breakfast, 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.000 you're part of a team, and you're aware of this team, building you up getting you ready, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:31.000 making sure you get out to the launch pad on time. They don't want anyone lost in the toilet or anything like that back home. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And you feel some tension with your crewmates. As the Astrovan, the silver van takes you out 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:44.000 to the launch pad, you're aware that this day is very, very different from other days, 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 because other days you've seen workers out there at the launch pad, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.000 just regular things are going on the guard checks happen, the badges are checked. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.000 But this day, no one is out there. In fact, if there are any vehicles, they're all leaving the launch pad, 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.000 and that's because it's a really dangerous place. And you're going out there and it makes you think, ah, 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 this is the most dangerous place in the whole area and you're driving out towards it. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.000 Once you get into the vehicle you kind of settle down and it's more familiar to you again. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.000 It's stuff you trained in the simulator many, many times. The countdown progresses 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:25.000 in a very steady way over two hours to that magic moment -- 3, 2, 1, 0 and then the solid rocket boosters kick off. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 BEUTEL: And really, is it like the training? I mean do you kick back into your 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:34.000 training mode or really does feel extra special -- that this is real, not simulated? 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:42.000 FOALE: The other big difference, about actually driving out in the Astrovan, to the launch pad is the, of course, 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.000 you're not going to a simulator; you're going to the real thing. And so simulators, no matter how good the 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:55.000 graphics and our graphics in our simulators back in Houston are not as good as even the best games around these days. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:00.000 So when you actually get in the vehicle and you see the sky through the windows 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.000 and you see blue sky and you're on your back. And the smell of the vehicle is a little different 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.000 from the simulator and it's newer looking. And all that tells you, this is different. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:18.000 And so however, nonetheless, everything that you do is familiar to you because you've done it before. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:24.000 BEUTEL: Right. Well actually for this particular crew on Discovery, two of them are veterans and two of 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:30.000 them are actually experiencing a countdown for the very first time. So let's take a look at the STS-124 crew. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.000 DILLER: Two-time shuttle pilot Mark Kelly takes the reins as commander of space 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.000 shuttle Discovery on the 26th mission to the International Space Station. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:48.000 It's the first shuttle mission for crew members Ken Ham, Karen Nyberg and Ron Garan, and the second for Mike Fossum. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Aki Hoshide represents the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on his first space flight. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.000 Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will join the crew aboard the station, 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.000 replacing Garrett Reisman, who will return to Earth after his stay in orbit. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.000 BEUTEL: Well, let's get to the part where we have the thing in the back 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.000 of Discovery, in the cargo bay, the payload, as we call it. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000 This is Japan's major contribution to International Space Station and overall 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 the laboratory's called the Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM or -- 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:25.000 FOALE: Kibo, yes -- BEUTEL: or Kibo. FOALE: I think hope, is that right? 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.000 the biggest lab on the space, it will be the biggest lab on the space station and the biggest module we've ever taken up. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.000 Right now we really have all the, really all the major scientific elements up on the station, or will be after this flight. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:40.000 FOALE: Just about, yes. This mission is key, it really I think psychologically for the partners it will 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.000 be the accomplishment of all the dreams of building an international space 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 station?an international experiment facility and laboratory. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:57.000 And Kibo lab is the "end piece," it's not the final piece, but I think psychologically it is. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.000 BEUTEL: And there have been people here at the Kennedy Space Center from Japan who have worked here 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:07.000 since the pressurized module arrived. You yourself, obviously not only flown on the original space station, 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.000 but on Mir, had to train and live in Russia for some time yourself. So what's it like having to immerse 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.000 yourself into a different country and work with their space program? 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.000 FOALE: Well, that's the neat thing about being an astronaut today. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:22.000 At least a government astronaut in the United States is you get to meet all these other partner 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.000 nations and their astronauts and their engineers and support people. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.000 It's a little tough for me as a scientist and physicist who wasn't very good at languages initially in 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:38.000 school to have to learn Russian for example and I speak Russian really well now, fluently as a result of living many, 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000 many years in Russian and flying on the International Space Station. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:48.000 But that, that, all those new friends, that new experience is extraordinarily valuable to me personally, 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:56.000 and I welcome the day when -- I met Souichi outside just now, when I can start learning some Japanese. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:05.000 I'd like to be assigned to a space station mission in the future where I get to travel to Japan, 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.000 you know, and learn about the experiments they're going to do in their laboratory Kibo. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:13.000 BEUTEL: Hint, hint, to management. Actually Kibo is an extensive and complex addition to the International Space Station. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:18.000 Let's take a closer look, with NASA Payload Mission Manager Scott Higginbotham. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:22.000 SCOTT HIGGINBOTHAM: The Japanese Experiment Module is named Kibo -- meaning "hope." 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Kibo is actually made up of five major segments delivered to the 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:30.000 International Space Station over the course of three space shuttle missions. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.000 The diverse elements making up Kibo will allow the space station crew to conduct experiments both inside in microgravity 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.000 -- and outside in the direct exposure to space. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:44.000 The larger of the two pressurized modules will serve as the working laboratory. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:51.000 A smaller pressurized logistics module that sits atop the laboratory will be used primarily for storage of tools and supplies. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:58.000 On the outside are two more segments -- the exposed facility to hold experiments -- and a logistics platform. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.000 The final piece is a robotic arm attached to the laboratory. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.000 The arm will allow astronauts inside the lab to access the external facilities and experiments. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:18.000 Attached to the space station's Harmony module, the arrival of Kibo greatly expands the scientific work of the orbiting outpost. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 BEUTEL: As luck would have it we happen to have a model of Kibo. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Let's kind of go through in general what's up there now and what's not. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:31.000 FOALE: Well the only thing that's up there right now is the logistics module which was launched on the last mission. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:36.000 To set the scene here, the space station is flying this way and the space shuttle is 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.000 docked here and this module is attached to the Harmony Node, 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.000 Node 2 on the zenith, on the opposite side of the station. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Once Kibo is pulled out of the space shuttle's payload bay it'll be attached to the port side of the space station traveling this way and 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:56.000 then they'll move this logistics module from the top of Harmony and stick it on top of Kibo. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:04.000 This piece will come out later on, next year, I think it is and represent external experiments that 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:09.000 will be done using the vacuum of space. It's a pretty harsh vacuum but very, very good for material science 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:12.000 and for studying the properties of new and modern materials. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:19.000 There's an arm mounted on the Kibo that's going up on the shuttle, on Discovery, and it's 30 foot long. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:23.000 It will be used to manipulate the experiments that are out here on this pallet. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:31.000 In addition, there's a scientific airlock in the middle there and it's not an airlock that lets humans in spacesuits do EVAs. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:36.000 It's an airlock that allows experiments here to be passed out and put on the pallet 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:43.000 using the arm or brought back in through the airlock to be used and studied by the astronauts that are inside. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:47.000 BEUTEL: And just for clarification's sake people will wonder, we are taking up the main part of the robotic arm? 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:51.000 A six-foot extension to it will be added on another flight. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.000 FOALE: And that's called a "fine arm." And it's much more dexterous, 00:09:54.000 --> 00:10:00.000 it's more detailed work that it can do and it's carried at the end of this 32-foot arm. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.000 BEUTEL: Let's see this is actually a very good time for to go to questions that people have submitted 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:07.000 on our question board at NASA.gov so I'll jump right into it and say, the first one 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.000 Robert from Ontario asks: How many hours of EVA training are required for 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.000 every hour spent outside the station on an actual spacewalk? 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:22.000 FOALE: Roughly about seven to one or ten to one. So if you're going to do one EVA on a space shuttle mission, 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.000 to build something, do some of the space station assembly or get an experiment out there, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:34.000 it would take roughly ten times the six hours of EVA, about 60 hours or so, 70 hours of training. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.000 BEUTEL: And you're training in big pools. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:43.000 FOALE: Yes, of course that training, we don't, we forgot to mention that that's in a big water tank, 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:48.000 a huge water tank, where a large part of the space station is submerged full-scale 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:54.000 and then we work in that water in spacesuits as if it was weightless. But of course it's not, 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:00.000 we can feel weight inside the suit. But our bodies basically move as if they were in space. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.000 BEUTEL: Let's go to the next question. Bill from Ann Arbor asks: 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.000 Are there any plans to lengthen crew stays on the International Space Station so we'll better understand 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.000 what astronauts will experience on a future journey to Mars? 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:14.000 FOALE: Six months is what we do on the space station. I've lived on the space station six months and 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:21.000 that is good enough to get to Mars and get back from Mars using chemical rockets. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:25.000 It's possible that we might go slower, but I think it's unlikely. And in that case, 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:32.000 yes there would be value in extending the missions on the International Space Station. But right now, no plans to do that. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.000 BEUTEL: Well, let's see, we've actually been getting a lot of other questions that 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.000 for something that really is not part of the original cargo for Discovery. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:43.000 But we added some, some, some pieces for the International Space Station this week. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 People have heard about. We have a broken -- a partially working toilet on the space station. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:51.000 We added some parts that we'll be taking up including a pump to help that. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.000 The fact is you, my man, have actually (laughter) used the facilities there, 00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:00.000 so just briefly, how again, we get asked this all the time. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:08.000 FOALE: A toilet is really, really a key part of the space station. It's terrible if the toilet breaks because it makes life very difficult. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.000 The big issue, the great advantage of being in space, of course, is that it's weightless. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.000 You can do experiments with that environment that you can't do on Earth. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:23.000 But it has its complications and especially for the toilet. And the key is that urine in this case is a liquid, 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:27.000 it forms a nice yellow ball if you put it out in the open -- and it shouldn't be. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.000 It'll wobble and stick together through its surface tension. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:37.000 But if you try to get it into a bag or into a tank it won't go. It's going to stick to walls -- and it won't move. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:42.000 And so the toilet specifically has a vacuum cleaner type of arrangement where it blows air through 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:48.000 tubes and tries to get that liquid air mixture to go in towards the tank. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.000 Well, how you get the liquid to go into the tank and the air to separate? 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.000 And that's what's called a liquid-air separator it's like a centrifuge in a way, 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:01.000 and peels off the liquid in one direction and the air in the other. And that's what failed and that's what's 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:08.000 being delivered now on this shuttle, Discovery, to help the crew that are onboard the station right now. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:13.000 BEUTEL: I guess if you had to have this happen it's not bad to have it right before a shuttle flight to bring parts up. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:19.000 FOALE: That's true, yeah, otherwise you could be doing a lot of maintenance. In fact, we should say right away, 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:25.000 they can go to the bathroom, it's just using a lot more water than they normally do and it's a lot more complicated, 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:28.000 they're having to do extra flushing basically to keep the urine in the right place. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.000 BEUTEL: But these are the kind of things that we have to develop on the fly. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:36.000 FOALE: Absolutely! Living, working in space you're learning all kinds of stuff about how the pumps work, how they don't work. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:41.000 You're learning about how to make machinery and equipment work that 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:45.000 would allow us to do colonies in space, for example -- live for a long time, not just six months. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:51.000 Same technology will be used going to Mars and the same technology, or similar technologies 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.000 will be used on the Moon and then Mars when we have colonies there. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:00.000 BEUTEL: Well, alright, that's interesting way to leave us. And I do appreciate you joining us and thanks for stopping by Mike. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.000 FOALE: Thank you, it was a pleasure. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:05.000 BEUTEL: And tonight at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, the rotating service structure 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.000 -- the protective covering for the shuttle at the pad -- will be rolled away from shuttle Discovery. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:15.000 And liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen are set to begin flowing into that external fuel tank a little after 7:45 a.m. tomorrow. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.000 Right now the weather forecast calls for about an 80 percent chance of good 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.000 weather so our fingers are crossed and we'll be looking towards the sky. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:30.000 To follow the launch countdown, tune in live to NASA television, or click your way over to www.nasa.gov/shuttle 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.000 to find NASA's launch blog for online play-by-play of the action leading up to the 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 liftoff of space shuttle Discovery and the start of the STS-124 mission. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:43.000 I'm Allard Beutel -- thanks for watching. At T-minus 11 hours and holding, this is L-minus-one. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:50.000