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American Morning

Interview of Dan Bursch, Yury Onufrienko, and Carl Walz, Astronauts

Aired January 03, 2002 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's something special, something you don't see every day. Orbiting high above us, the crew of the International Space Station is busy at work, and our Miles O'Brien, who is CNN's space correspondent, as you must know by now, is right here in the CNN Center, and he has arranged an interview with the crew above us -- Miles, good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Leon, they have a busy schedule up there. I've been chatting with them during the commercial break. They've been sort of cooling their heels, if you will, waiting for our opportunity to chat. First of all, let me tell you where they are. Take a look at this tracking software we have. They are coming across the southern tip of South America right now. You can see it highlighted right there. The traveling overhead at 17,500 miles an hour, about 250 miles in altitude.

With that, let's take you aboard the International Space Station Alpha, and introduce you to the current crew. Screen left is Dan Bursch. In the center Yury Onufrienko, the commander, and to the right, Carl Walz, another NASA astronaut. They have been up there about a month now, and we have solicited from our loyal viewers some email questions which we would like to pose to them on behalf of our viewers all around the world, and this first one comes from somebody in Australia, gentlemen.

The person's name is Shane Roelofs and he asks this: "In Australia, we are currently experiencing some pretty severe brushfires, I was wondering if you could ask the crew if they could see the smoke clouds from up there?"

CARL WALZ, SPACE STATION CREW MEMBER: Miles, we -- right now, while we are flying over Australia, it's nighttime, but a couple of weeks ago when we flew over when the shuttle was docked, it was daytime over Australia, and yes, we could see the brushfires, huge billowing clouds of smoke dotting the continent of Australia.

O'BRIEN: Must be really interesting to see that. Let's go to another email question. This one comes to a viewer in Canada.

The question from Richard Murray is: "We keep hearing about the great view of the Earth from the I.S.S., how is the view in the other direction? Do you spend much time observing the moon, Mars, the other planets, the stars," and Richard says, "I wish I could join you up there."

DAN BURSCH, SPACE STATION CREW MEMBER: Unfortunately right now, the attitude that we're in, we really can't see -- spend too much time looking at the stars and the other planets. It would be great to be able to do that, and, yeah, the view is absolutely tremendous. I wish that you -- that more people could be up here too, to appreciate the view.

O'BRIEN: All right, you can put me on the list of people who would like to join you up there for sure. Let's go to one more question for us.

This one comes to us from David Stoetzer. Excuse me, David, if I have mispronounced your name. "I would like to know how the crew spent their holiday on orbit. Did they get a break from their workload? How did they celebrate?" And David says, "I'll be watching tomorrow at 9:15." David, we're glad you are out there.

YURY ONUFRIENKO, SPACE STATION COMMANDER: Right now, holiday for us is finished, but we spent only two days, because that was scheduled holidays for us. We have all spoken with our families, with our friends. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) That's all, thank you (ph).

O'BRIEN: You know, I guess a lot of people, just to follow-up on that, don't realize that you have the capability of doing video conferencing with your family and emails and that sort of thing. Carl, just to follow-up, do you feel like you have enough contact with Earth and the people you hold dear on Earth?

WALZ: Yes, Miles, we have a lot of different ways that we can communicate. For example, on Christmas morning, my family came in to mission control in Houston and my kids got some cell phones, and so they showed those to me on the video camera. Of course, they could see me as well, and -- and we also have e-mail, we can e-mail family and friends. And we also have an Internet phone and when we have the proper satellite coverage, we can phone home.

O'BRIEN: Great, I'll give you my phone number later. I'd love to hear from you some time, drop me a line. Another question from Canada. A lot of space fans in Canada, apparently.

Let's take a quick look at this one from Aaron Bensette. "Regarding your air quality, what does your air taste like, and does it deteriorate as the mission continues?"

BURSCH: I did notice it was a different kind of smell when we came on board from the shuttle. It's different. I don't know how to explain it. It -- all people told me was it smells like space, but that's kind of what it was like, but it's fairly -- it's really clean. I can't tell any difference in the air quality right now, but we do have to be careful how we store our clothes that we're through with. We have to be very particular about storing those clothes and getting rid of them and picking up after ourselves. My wife will be glad to hear that.

O'BRIEN: Tidiness counts in space too. It is good to hear that. Josh Juror (ph) has four quick questions for you. I'm going to throw them out there, I'll remind you if you forget what they are. The first one is, "do they have Internet access?" Number two, "can they pick up television or radio signals?" Number three, "Do they listen to music? If so, are there speakers, or do they listen to headphones?" Number four, perhaps the most important one, and the one on everybody's mind, "do they still drink Tang?"

BURSCH: I already volunteered for the first two, and Carl can do the second two. But, no, we don't have Internet access, but the other was -- the only way that we can listen to TV or radio broadcasts is if the ground, real-time, kind of tells us that they have something for us, and if we have the satellite coverage, then we go to a certain computer and they can send it up to us. Now, on to Carl for number three and four.

WALZ: And we actually can listen to music. We have speakers in the -- in the service module, and also in the node where we can listen to whatever tunes we would like to listen to, and we also have a little CD players, private ones, that we can listen to with headphones in our little cabins, and as far as Tang, we sure do have it. I had some this morning, in fact.

O'BRIEN: All right, I think we have time --

ONUFRIENKO: What about me? I have (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's -- one more question, this is good one. This is one that a lot of people, I think, think about when you're -- well, I don't know if the term is "couped up, " when in you are in a space station, but nevertheless, you are in close quarters for a long period of time.

This from Eric in Florida, "It is known that in the past space flights that Mission Control and the astronauts or cosmonauts have had arguments between the two, how are they rectified, and if the "nauts" refuse to talk to mission control for a while, how is it handled," and what happens if there is an argument on board as well.

BURSCH: Really, what it comes down to is what we were -- some advice that Frank Culbertson told me during the hand-over before they left, was patience and tolerance, and yes, I think both the ground and here on board, between the ground and here on board, and also between each other there is times when it's just like a relationship at home, where there's times when things get tense, and might be some miscommunication, you may not understand what the other person wants, or you think they want too much, and it just boils down to the same type of tools that you use at home, and it is patience and tolerance, and we get tested probably every day.

O'BRIEN: Anybody want to add to that or afraid you are going to start an argument?

ONUFRIENKO: Patience is the word, when you think about missions. Thank you. O'BRIEN: Patience is the byword. All right, gentlemen. Carl, you want to add some closing thoughts there? Go ahead. Well, we've had actually great relations with our ground team in Houston, and we actually are like one big crew both at Houston and at Moscow, working together with us, and we've had tremendous success so far.

O'BRIEN: All right,gentlemen, that was great. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with us. Dan Bursch, Yury Onufrienko, Carl Walz, from left to right. Aboard the International Space Station Alpha, hurtling over the Earth, and watching us from afar, we appreciate your time and your insights, and you know, there is just -- it seems like the well is never ending on the number of questions people have, Leon, about what it is like just to live up there. All the little things are what people are interested in.

HARRIS: I tell you, Miles, that was perhaps the most original question I think I have ever heard posed to you on one of these space missions, "what does it smell like in space?"

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, you know, what do you want to know? You want to know what it smells like up there. After all, it is, you know, like living in locker room.

HARRIS: Oh God, there's a thought. Thanks, Miles. Miles O'Brien reporting for us here, live in the studio. Appreciate it.

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