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American Morning
Spacewalking Astronaut Prepares Shuttle
Aired August 03, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Breaking news. Outside the space shuttle, a critical moment unfolding before our eyes. Astronaut Steve Robinson preparing to remove bits of fabric from beneath Discovery. We'll be watching this delicate operation live for you this morning.
Also, some breaking news in Iraq. One of the deadliest days for U.S. troops there. Fourteen Marines killed in an attack south of Haditha. We'll have a live report the, as well.
And in Canada, investigating what went wrong for an Air France jet. It crashed while landing in a severe storm. Remarkably, no one killed. Survivors telling their stories on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: We've got a lot on our plate this morning.
Good morning to you.
We're glad you're with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's, in fact, get started in Iraq. Out of Haditha, a developing story there.
Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the very latest on the killing of 14 U.S. Marines and their civilian interpreter, apparently by an improvised explosive device.
Haditha, of course, is a hot spot. It's about 135 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with the latest on that -- Barbara, good morning again.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again to you, Soledad.
Well, now, according to the count, 43 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in just the last 10 days. It has been a very deadly period. These 14 Marines and their civilian interpreter killed earlier today near Haditha. They were riding in an amphibious assault vehicle. A roadside bomb, an IED, exploded.
This is an insurgent stronghold area, of course. It is around Haditha on Monday that six U.S. Marines were killed in a small arms attack by insurgents. That incident still not fully understood. The Marines were found stripped of their weapons, their radios and other gear. Five of those Marines in that Monday attack were found in one spot. A sixth Marine found some distance away. All of this remains under investigation -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: OK, so at the end of the day, though, there's got to be some kind of impact to the security situation on the ground there.
What's going on there?
STARR: Soledad, it could not all come at a more difficult time, as you say. U.S. and Iraqi officials right now are engaged in discussions about the security situation in Iraq, trying to see city by city, province by province, where they can turn the security over to the Iraqis once and for all and begin to withdraw U.S. troops and bring them home.
There is no indication that the insurgency really is under much of any control in western Iraq, where all of these attacks are happening. So it is very difficult to see. In fact, in that attack in Haditha on Monday, the suspicion now, officials tell us, is that Iraqi security forces were penetrated by insurgents and those Marines had their position given away by those insurgents, perhaps inside Iraqi security forces.
So all of this coming at a very, very delicate time in those negotiations -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: That's terrible news.
Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.
Barbara Starr, thanks.
STARR: Sure.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Just about three hours into that space walk we've been telling you so much about. And astronaut Steve Robinson has got his feet clamped into the robot arm of the space station. It's kind of a difficult picture to make out what's going on in there, but basically you're looking at the belly of the shuttle there. And he is making his way toward the location near the nose of the belly of Discovery, where those two pieces of fabric called gap-fillers are sticking out.
His goal is to pluck them out or, if necessary, saw them out; in any case, get rid of the bumps so there's a nice smooth surface for the space shuttle Discovery, which is very important during reentry so as not to create some hot spots which could cause problems for the vehicle and ultimately the crew.
Scott Parazynski is a NASA astronaut and space walk veteran.
He joins us from the Johnson Space Center this morning to talk a little bit about what's going on in space. And he'll explain to us -- he's got some of the tools of the trade, so to speak.
Scott, good to have you back with us.
DR. SCOTT PARAZYNSKI, NASA ASTRONAUT: Thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: Why don't you explain, first of all, what tools are in Steve Robinson's toolbox, so to speak, this morning? As I understand it, they're keeping it very minimal so there's less opportunities for things to bang into the shuttle.
PARAZYNSKI: That's exactly right, Miles.
Of course, the thermal protection system is a very delicate part of the orbiter. You want to approach it with great caution. So he's loaded down fairly lightly for this task. He's gotten rid of several of the tools that he used earlier in the EVA. And ultimately what we hope will happen is he will go in with a spacesuit glove similar to this one. Of course, this is a piece of the gap-filler material. It's a ceramic impregnated material fabric. And we think what's happened is the RTV glue that held it in place has just failed and it's worked its way out.
We think what he'll be able to do is just pluck it out with his fingertips and place it in a trash bag and take it back home. Failing that, of course, though, we have lots of contingency plans. A huge team of people have been working on this for four days, looking at all the different scenarios, and have come up with some other options.
Were that to fail, we could use basically some surgical forceps modified for EVA and just pluck it out that way. And then, of course, the next line of offense, as it were, would be to use a modified hacksaw blade and he can actually saw it very close to the tile surface itself, make it a very smooth surface. And we'd be very comfortable coming home that way.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, let's...
PARAZYNSKI: And finally, we have a...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you...
PARAZYNSKI: Oh, I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Go ahead and finish.
What's the final thing?
PARAZYNSKI: OK, yes, and then, of course, we have a pair of scissors and they're modified for EVA. They have a tether point on them, but similar to any scissors around your home. And he could actually trim the tile gap-filler very close to the tile and we'd be happy with that, as well.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, now, on that first one, the first one using the forceps, it seems to me when you're pulling with the forceps, you could pull so hard so as to perhaps dislodge the tile. I know the engineers have looked at this.
What are the chances of that happening? Because that's bad.
PARAZYNSKI: Actually, the forces are optimized for this tool, as it were, because I've got it fully clamped down and I can pull it off with about 10 pounds of force. So it actually has a failsafe method here. You know, we don't anticipate Steve will need to apply anything more than 10 pounds of force.
M. O'BRIEN: So it's kind of like a clutch. It almost...
PARAZYNSKI: And it is a...
M. O'BRIEN: It's almost like having a clutch then, essentially, 10 pounds and it gives way?
PARAZYNSKI: Exactly right.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
PARAZYNSKI: That's correct.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, let's go to the hacksaw method for a moment. It seems to me, you know, these tiles are very dam -- easily damaged is the term I'm looking for. A hacksaw that close to a tile doesn't seem like a good idea either.
PARAZYNSKI: Well, actually we've done a number of tests and even if you were to apply force directly on the tile surface itself, it's very, very difficult to cut into that tile surface. It's -- the reaction cured glass, the black surface of it gives a lot of structural integrity to it. So only if he were to clip the side of the -- of one of the adjacent tiles would he possibly take off some of the surface coating.
M. O'BRIEN: Well no...
PARAZYNSKI: So we don't think that's going to be a problem.
M. O'BRIEN: And they are fragile, though, you know...
PARAZYNSKI: But another...
M. O'BRIEN: You know, I've got to tolerate here, just to point that out, and you'll notice, I've dinged it a little bit. It's easy to ding it.
PARAZYNSKI: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: They're kind of fragile. They're sort of hard, but also fragile at the same time, aren't they, Steve?
PARAZYNSKI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
PARAZYNSKI: Actually what we're worried about is were his helmet to contact the tile or his mini work stations, his tool chest, if you were, if that were to contact the tile surface, that could be a problem. But we've looked at this in our big swimming pool, the neutral buoyancy laboratory, and found a good body position that he'll be using. And that'll keep him at a pretty good distance from the tile surface.
So we think he'll be out of harm's way.
M. O'BRIEN: Scott Parazynski, thanks very much.
PARAZYNSKI: You're welcome.
Good to see you.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Air France is now saying that it's going to be totally transparent with investigators. The airline's Flight 358 from Paris crashed after landing in Toronto on Tuesday. All 309 passengers and crew were able to escape.
Jeanne Meserve is live at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto -- Jeanne, good morning to you.
What's the reaction on the ground today? Is there a sense that people are pretty clear on what happened?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A sense of great relief is what you feel here in Toronto today. The newspapers really tell the story. Here's one headline: "Miracle On Runway 24L." Miracle a word you're hearing over and over again. Here's another one: "The Great Escape." It certainly was that.
The weather was very severe here in Toronto yesterday afternoon -- heavy rain, wind, lightning -- when an Air France jet came in for a landing. It went careening down the runway here, according to witnesses, went off the end of the runway, went about 200 meters into a gully. There, it burst into flames.
Miraculously, the 297 passengers on board and the 12 crew members were able to get off. Forty-three people taken to local hospitals, but with injuries that have been described as minor.
Every passenger, however, came off with a story to tell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ABEDRABBO, SURVIVED THE CRASH: We actually did not know what was going on. We thought he was going to slide for a little bit and then the aircraft would come to a complete stop and we'd go our own way. But it took a few seconds for the aircraft to slide to the front and then sideways again and come to a complete stop. That's when we saw the left side engine was actually up in flames and the crew sprang and opened the doors for us. And people started like getting up and filing out, trying to leave. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Now, we have some still photographs to show you. This gives you another perspective on exactly what the passengers were seeing and experiencing as they got off of that aircraft.
Now, of course, a lot of talk about what might have caused this. Speculation only at this point in time centering on the weather. But investigators clearly will be looking at the aircraft, Airbus A340. This has a good safety record. Also, at the flight crew. Air France tells us they had considerable flying experience.
But everyone here thanking lady luck for what has happened here today, what they're calling a miracle. Three hundred and nine people surviving. Only an aircraft lost in this crash -- Soledad, back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning.
Jeanne, thanks for that.
Time now for a check of some of the other stories that are making headlines this morning.
Let's get right to Carol Costello -- good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.
Good morning to you.
Now in the news, the body of an American freelance journalist has been found in Iraq today. A Western official says Steven Vincent was shot several times. Vincent and his female interpreter had been kidnapped in central Basra. The interpreter survived. Vincent was in Basra working on a book.
In Virginia, a brain dead woman on life support has given birth to a healthy baby girl. Susan Torres was kept alive since May to allow more time for her baby to grow. The baby was born two months early, but is said to be doing pretty well. It's unknown whether Susan Torres is still on life support.
In business news, sneaker maker Adidas is gobbling up a rival to go after an even bigger goliath. The company is purchasing Reebok for nearly $4 billion, giving it about a fifth of the U.S. sportswear market. That would put Adidas in a position to compete with Nike. Adidas is expected to lace up the deal some time next year.
Did you like that, lace up the deal?
And President Bush is addressing a conservative business group in Dallas on the first day of his vacation. The president arrived in Crawford, Texas later Tuesday to begin a month long holiday. But White House officials do emphasize the president has plenty on his plate, with bill signings next week and a meeting with Colombia's president tomorrow. So he will be busy on vacation -- Chad. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It sounds like my vacation, you know? Because that...
COSTELLO: Come back in and cover a hurricane.
MYERS: Yes, exactly.
Good morning, everybody.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: We continue to keep an eye on the shuttle Discovery this morning. The astronauts getting a little closer to starting those risky repairs on the shuttle's underbelly. We'll have it for you when it happens, of course.
S. O'BRIEN: And next, we're back to our other big story, that crash landing of Air France Flight 358. One of the survivors describes some of the moments before he was able to get out. We'll talk to him ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: About three hours and 23 minutes now into that space walk and Steve Robinson, the astronaut at the end of that space station robot arm, is making his way toward the belly of the space shuttle, Discovery, where he will try to pluck out those pieces of fabric, those so-called gap-fillers. toward t
What happens is when they don't get a full fledged TV signal, we get these -- they call them sequential still pictures -- about every 30 seconds. It's more like a slide show, I guess, than it is television, which at least gives the folks on the ground a sense of what is going on during the space walk when they don't have a full fledged satellite capability for a TV signal.
Let's listen for just a moment to what the spacewalkers are saying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... sensor system survey, having been completed, collecting sensor imagery of the repair work that was done back on Saturday during the first space walk by Noguchi and Robinson on the deliberately damaged tile and Reinforced Carbon-Carbon samples.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up with the robo guys? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) windy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got you loud and clear, Steve.
STEVE ROBINSON, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: You, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contact with Houston from EV2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston has EV2 loud and clear.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, you're listening to Steve Robinson doing his com checks, checking out his radio, making sure he can talk to Wendy Lawrence and Jim "Vegas" Kelly, who are working on those robot arms. Also, you heard the voice of Rob Navias, public affairs officer there in Houston.
We'll check back with them and, of course, you won't miss a bit of this space walk if you stay right here -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Our other top story this morning, Miles, 309 people who had just moments to escape from that burning jet in Toronto on Tuesday. Air France Flight 358 had skidded right off the runway in severe weather at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Olivier Dubos is one of the passengers on that flight and he joins us this morning.
Thanks for being with us.
I guess there's only one way to put it, which is great news on your escape.
Tell me where you were sitting, Olivier.
OLIVIER DUBOS, SURVIVED PLANE CRASH: Well, I was sitting at the rear of the plane, at the very end. And we just couldn't believe that we were going to an emergency landing.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people have described it as a perfectly normal flight until the moment where it just kept going off the runway.
Is that how you would describe it, too?
DUBOS: Yes, completely, because actually the pilot told us that we would be late for like half an hour because of the weather conditions, because of the storms. And then when we landed, it landed perfectly on the -- a lot of people, we all applauded, actually. There was a lot of applause to the pilot for like 10, 15 seconds. And then the plane started to go half way and the whole thing started to burn and like shake everywhere in a very, very high speed. And we started to see flames and fire on the outside and that we really were holding to our seats and we thought we were -- we would just die at that point.
S. O'BRIEN: Eventually it hit a gully and came to a stop.
What was that like when it hit the gully?
DUBOS: We -- when we hit the gully, we were actually in the end of a ravine. We couldn't believe that we were still alive and our reflex, our natural reflex was really to get up and rush to the emergency exits. The crew was very fast to open the doors, especially at the end of the plane on the right hand side, because there was a bit less fire. And we jumped on the slide and were running in the field to the highway, where cars or trucks were stationed, parked there, waiting for us.
So they took us back to the airport. But it was completely surreal. We thought actually the plane would blow up and we were all running like crazy in the field.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people on the ground described lightning hitting the plane and there were also descriptions that the lights went out just as you were landing.
Is that right?
DUBOS: Yes, I don't recall, really, that we were hit by lightning. Maybe we did, maybe not. I don't know. What I know is that there was no more light. We completely lost electricity in the plane minutes before landing.
S. O'BRIEN: How do you think the crew did? And how long did it take from when you finally came to a stop until they got you off the plane?
DUBOS: Well, the crew did very well. Actually, once the plane stopped, they opened immediately the emergency exits and asked people to jump. And we -- I was one of the first ones to jump, sitting, really, next to the emergency exit. And then people were just rushing, rushing and sliding.
We could not run any faster to get out of the plane.
S. O'BRIEN: How are you feeling today with that terrible experience behind you now?
DUBOS: Yes, I mean we just feel that it's a miracle. We're looking at the pictures in the newspaper this morning. I just can't believe that we all managed to get out of there, that there are any survivors. We -- I'm feeling shock. I don't really understand the whole thing, what happened. But just really happy to be alive and that's a quite unusual feeling when you come back from a week's vacation.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet. That's kind of the understatement of the year there.
DUBOS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Olivier Dubos, thank you for talking with us about your experiences on Flight 358 -- Miles.
DUBOS: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, a story you'll see only on CNN, a conversation with America's new ambassador to Iraq. He's only been on the job for a couple of weeks, but he's already making a big difference.
That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures now in space, 220 miles above us. I'm covering over right now Steve Robinson. There he is at the end of that robotic arm. That's about a 50-foot arm, which is attached to the International Space Station. It's a pretty cool arm. It's able to inchworm its way across the space station to any part of the station where it is needed. And as a matter of fact, before Steve got on it in the midst of this space walk, it inchwormed its way over to him, got itself onto an attach point and is now being driven -- driving Steve, astronaut Wendy Lawrence, along with Jim "Vegas" Kelly working that operation.
And it's interesting, that robotic arm procedure is done entirely in the blind. They don't have a window to see him right now. And I've watched them do this before. They do it with just a couple of TV monitors. And, you know, clearly future recruits for this kind of skill would be found in video arcades, because it's actually a very challenging task to sort of get your orientation, know which way is up, which way is right, which way is left.
And when you think about what they're doing, moving ever so slowly, but moving in close proximity to the most sensitive part of the space shuttle.
Let's listen for a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, and we do the big O.T. and we don't know yet how long it will take.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this move should take about five minutes. We're about halfway through it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this one here. Yes. And we've got, what, three of these? Isn't that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next one takes, I believe, about nine minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
And are there three? (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, just two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, really? Good (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
M. O'BRIEN: All right, you're listening to Steve Robinson talking about the maneuvers that they're going to do to get him into position there as he takes this amazing ride. And imagine it for a minute. You know, he's able to look down at the Earth beneath us, you know, 220 miles, moving along at this 17,500 mile an hour clip.
Some astronauts in the past have reported, you know, feelings of vertigo...
S. O'BRIEN: I'll bet. M. O'BRIEN: And they tell them it's very important for them in these cases to sort of latch onto the reference point, you know, kind of a data -- pick the space station or the shuttle, or whatever it is, and turn that into your horizon. Otherwise, you can get very disoriented, because there's no up or down.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
So he's got to go and he was just talking about two fixes that they have to do at this point, at least, for this first maneuver. And he's got to remove that fill material.
But you can't just pull it out, can you?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's the hope. Let's listen for one second to Kelly Humphries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the International Space Station. The current work with the robotic arm.
M. O'BRIEN: And as fate would have it, Kelly Humphries has stopped talking when I can give him an opportunity.
Here's the thing, this stuff, the tile and the gap-filler -- and maybe we can get a quick shot of this -- is all attached the shuttle by glue. And it's not just any glue, of course. We're not talking about Elmer's glue. It's RTV. It's actually a very specific process, a specific temperature, a specific clamping...
S. O'BRIEN: And it's sticking out like this right now?
M. O'BRIEN: Right. And it's sticking out like this.
Now, imagine the surface that is attached to the orbiter itself for this gap-filler is very small. So you can see why it's difficult to glue it.
S. O'BRIEN: And he's going to try to go and just pull it...
M. O'BRIEN: So he's just going to go and give it the pluck. He just did it.
S. O'BRIEN: But then don't you need this...
M. O'BRIEN: Congratulations. You're a spacewalker. You just -- you just passed the test.
S. O'BRIEN: That wasn't that hard at all.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: In all seriousness, but that leaves the unfilled gap.
M. O'BRIEN: So...
S. O'BRIEN: Why isn't that going to be as...
M. O'BRIEN: This is a very good question.
S. O'BRIEN: ... big or a bigger problem...
M. O'BRIEN: This is a question.
S. O'BRIEN: ... than gap-filler that's sticking out?
M. O'BRIEN: If they put the gap-fillers in the first place, why is it not a problem when they're removed?
S. O'BRIEN: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: So why bother?
Well, a couple of things.
First of all, one of the gap-fillers they're going to remove is there primarily to keep the tiles from chattering during lift-off.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh.
M. O'BRIEN: OK, there's a certain aerodynamic thing that goes on when it's attached to the fuel tank, buffets it and they're worried about the tiles getting damaged. That's why that one gap-filler is there.
The other one is a thermal gap-filler. But we're told be -- you know, look how narrow it is.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: It is just such a thin thing that while it does allow for a little bit of additional heating, it is actually less of a concern than it would be to keep the protruding gap-filler in, which would actually create more heat, OK?
So the gap-filler not being there will, you know, cause some problems, not immediate problems.
S. O'BRIEN: Less of a problem than...
M. O'BRIEN: Less of a problem.
S. O'BRIEN: ... more -- too much of it being there?
M. O'BRIEN: So that's why they do that.
S. O'BRIEN: You know, I think one of the things that's interesting to show people is this -- it's hard to get a sense of what this tile feels like. I mean it's just like a little piece of Styrofoam...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. S. O'BRIEN: ... covered by, you know, some kind of shell. And this is really a flexible, almost a piece of cardboard, it feels like. You know what I mean? It's really not tough material that you would sort of imagine being around the space shuttle.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: How much of a risk is it that when the astronaut goes to pluck this out that he bangs it or hits it? I mean your version has chips all over it.
M. O'BRIEN: I would be a bad astronaut. I'd be scrubbed out of the corps because I've chipped it. But that does bring out a very important point. While these things are incredibly hardy, able to withstand 23,000, 25,000 degrees, sometimes 30,000, depending on where it is, it's incredibly light and fragile. It is, you know, it's ceramic with a glass coating and it's very light and you want to be very careful not to do what I just did.
So that's the big concern today as we watch this space walk unfold.
A simple task in an incredibly fragile, delicate environment.
S. O'BRIEN: Wow!
M. O'BRIEN: It's amazing when you think about the shuttle, all the things it does, how hardy it is in one sense and yet how fragile it is, as well.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, right. I mean when you finally feel this material, it...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: It's pretty amazing.
M. O'BRIEN: All right...
S. O'BRIEN: We'll continue to watch it.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's listen to NASA for just a second.
They're talking about what's going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I use them by going to the unlocked position and then letting go and making sure they're clamped on. They'll be tethered, of course. And then reaching down and pulling on the forceps themselves.
If that doesn't work, we'll go to the hacksaw tool and I will cut in the port aft direction, which is toward my upper right.
All right, I copy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Discovery Houston for Steve and Andy. We copy all and concur with all of Steve's words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Mission Control Houston with a live view from Steve Robinson's helmet camera as he's maneuvered into position for the gap filler task. He just discussed the order of priority for him to try to remove those gap fillers as he takes a close look. The first human being to look underneath a space shuttle during -- on open operations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Houston has complete (INAUDIBLE)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, that's a great picture, isn't it? Seeing him at the end of that.
S. O'BRIEN: It's an amazing picture. Why are they talking to him while he's doing what could be the most difficult task that someone's been ever asked to do on a repair of the shuttle. It's like, shush, leave him alone.
M. O'BRIEN: It's like, be quiet, I'm busy. No, you know, really what he's doing -- he's kind of talking through his procedure and just reminding folks it's -- everybody feels comfortable about what's going on, that he's thinking about the right order of business, how to do it. OK, first thing I'm going to do is try to pull. Next procedure is to do this. In other words, it's kind of like going through your checklist before you go fly an airplane or whatever. And Steve Robinson does a lot of that. So he's familiar with checklists.
S. O'BRIEN: How does zero gravity impact sort of -- physically, what he's going to have to do? I mean, there's a note that says he's not going to yank, he's going to pull. I get that. He's not going to yank pieces of the shuttle off. You know, in zero gravity, it really makes a big difference in how you physically can pull those pieces off.
M. O'BRIEN: Exactly. Now, for example, if he were not -- his feet are, you know, latched down to the end of this robot arm. If he didn't have that capability, if he was free floating out there, he wouldn't be able to -- he'd have no leverage except to put his feet on the shuttle and pull. You can imagine that being a bad scenario, because you could very easily damage the heat shield, which is, after all, what you're trying to protect.
So that's an important point that whenever you do things in space, you need something to attach yourself to because -- for example, if you went up and were free floating and you took a cordless drill and you went to unscrew it and you weren't attached, you'd start spinning around. Because you'd have no...
S. O'BRIEN: So all of his leverage is coming off his feet. If he wants to do any kind of tugging, he has to basically brace with his feet because that's where the pull is going to come from.
M. O'BRIEN: Right. And as -- he's got to be careful as he does that, because he'll probably bend his knees to get down and get in a little bit closer. And even though those helmets are -- you know, have a pretty wide field of view, you've got limited peripheral vision, and, of course, the helmet extends beyond what you normally would perceive -- the outer limits of your head.
So you have to get used to that notion of being about 30 percent more space that you take up. Now, of course, they spent hours and hours training in these suits, so they're used to that notion. But this is where it gets most critical. Let's listen for one sec.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, Sogui.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, just (INAUDIBLE) real quickly start. It's about to close (INAUDIBLE).
M. O'BRIEN: EV-1 is Soichi Noguchi. He is Soichi Noguchi, EV- 1, extravehicular is the term they use, space walks for the rest of us. EV-1, EV-2 is their designation. He is deliberately away from this scene. I think you can see there. This is probably Soichi's helmet -- no, actually Steve Robinson's camera, I think, as he comes in. There you see the outline of the shuttle.
And you see there, you see those gold rectangular things. Those are the solar arrays, big solar arrays for the space station. And you see the outline of the shuttle as he makes his way in there. That's pretty neat that you can actually see his view as he gets a little bit closer to the belly of the space shuttle.
S. O'BRIEN: It has to be incredibly disorienting in ways that, honestly, all the practice in a pool will just not prepare you for.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, while we're doing this, we have Kathy Sullivan with us this morning, who is the first woman ever to set foot in space, do a space walk for the United States. And let's ask her. Kathy, are you with us?
KATHY SULLIVAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: I'm with you.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that, how disorienting this all is in this environment. You know, I've heard people say over and over again, you have sort of have to pick a point and sort of fixate on it or else you get really confused as to which way is up, which way is down. Of course, there is no up and down in space.
SULLIVAN: Yes, you don't actually care which way is up and down. You just -- the most important thing about orientation right now, and you heard Vegas and Steve rehearsing that before, is it's a complex geometry. And Steve's looking out a window here, and Vegas is looking out a window here, and Steve is pointing this way. When Steve says forward or backward, does he mean your forward or backward or his forward or backward? So they're being very clear with each other about when Steve gives commands moving closer to the shuttle, what direction that he says, means which piece of motion. But, you know, Steve is, I'm sure, very well-referenced and comfortably referenced to the cherry picker end of the arm. You don't feel disoriented. You feel kind of amazed. You can tell from the camera views, those are pretty amazing views. But he knows where he's at, and he's got a good frame of reference of what the station geometry is on the shuttle itself.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad has a question, but I just want to tell viewers, when Kathy is referring to Vegas, that's Jim Kelly, the pilot. That's his, you know, aviation handle, is Vegas. And I'm sure there's a great story that goes along with it that, his call sign...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... but we're not going to get into that now.
SULLIVAN: Probably not.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Kathy, I want to ask you a question about all the training and the preparation? Was all the training, did it make the space walk that you did exactly as you had planned, or was it quite different?
SULLIVAN: The truth of all simulations, Soledad, is that however good it may be, you have to remember, in some way, hopefully very subtle, it is still lying to you. So underwater is the most effective way to get familiar with what moving around on a space walk will be like. But you still have mass, you still have to move the water aside. If you pick up a tool like they've been doing all morning today and hang it on your wrist, it's going to dangle and tend to destabilize you. And you have to remember those are factors that are not going to be present in zero gravity.
You also have to remember, sometimes you're letting the water help you. If something would flail around wildly, the water is preventing it from doing that. So you can get a surprise from either of those signs. But if you've been paying attention, really thinking it through and learning the lessons of other space walkers before you, you'll find the number of surprises to be small. And hopefully they'll be in the sort of mildly amusing category and nothing more serious.
S. O'BRIEN: So what was the biggest thing that surprised you? When you went out to do your space walk after training in the water, you said, oh, my goodness, this -- hopefully mildly amusing -- thing is way different.
SULLIVAN: Well, the really way cool thing is you look around and there are no scuba divers, and it's not water. And that big blue thing over there really is the Earth. In our case, the one little technical thing was a little piece of hardware that moved on a hinge, and in the water when we moved it aside, it would stay right where we put it. In zero gravity, there was really no friction on that hinge and every time you moved it aside, it would just flap right back to your hand. So it just wafted back and forth like that as if it was waving in a breeze. Didn't bother anything, wasn't a problem. But we just -- both of us, Dave Weissman (ph) and I, said look at that. Who would have thought it would do that? But it makes sense as soon as you think about it.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. Interesting. And how cool to look down at Earth and say, huh.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, not a bad place to do work, Kathy Sullivan. Stay with us. Don't go away. She's watching it with us and we're watching it very closely. You're not going to miss any of this.
But you're also not going to miss the headlines. Carol Costello is checking those for us -- Carol.
COSTELLO: No, I've got them right here. Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
"Now in the News," it's been a deadly day in Iraq. Fourteen U.S. marines and an Iraqi civilian killed in an attack in Northwestern Iraq. The vehicle they were traveling in was apparently hit in a roadside bomb near Haditha. U.S. troops death have now passed the 1,800 mark.
We are waiting to hear more from Air France about Tuesday's crash in Toronto. Investigators looking into what caused the Airbus jet to skid off the runway and into a ravine before it burst into flames. They're hoping for clues from the black boxes, as well as information from passengers, crew, witnesses and air traffic controllers. All 309 people aboard the plane survived. Air France is expected to hold a news conference in the next hour.
The Amber alert is going from billboards to your cell phone. State of Florida expanding its system to include warnings to cell phone customers. It's the first program of its kind in the United States. The alerts will show up in the form of text messages when a child is reported missing. The service is free to subscribers.
And Prince William is making a grand debut at Madame Tussaud's in London. A wax double of the 23-year-old royal heartthrob was unveiled earlier today. There it is. The 6'3" wax work is sure to be a big hit with female visitors. Robbie Williams is currently the most popular -- Miles is on the phone. What you doing?
S. O'BRIEN: With NASA. I'm listening. I'm listening for the both of us. You know he's, like, on the phone with NASA, checking out the space walk.
M. O'BRIEN: Sorry, those hunky royal guys just aren't doing it for me this morning, I'm sorry.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm all over that story, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Soledad.
M. O'BRIEN: A little more interested in this.
S. O'BRIEN: Have you ever been to visit it? Madame Tussaud's?
COSTELLO: No.
S. O'BRIEN: The one in New York is pretty cool.
COSTELLO: It's eerie, isn't it?
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, come on, this is what's cool. Forget that stuff. Look at this. This is -- he's about seven feet away. That's Steve Robinson.
S. O'BRIEN: How much closer does he have to get?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, I think -- Kathy Sullivan, do you know exactly how far away he'll be? It's, you know, pretty much arm's length away, right?
SULLIVAN: Yes, the work envelope that the station permits you is pretty limited. What they're doing right now is just truing (ph) up the precalculated angles on the shuttle -- on the station arm. And from this point on, they'll be in what's called GCA mode. And that will be Steve, on his own visual cues, making calls to Jim Kelly, Vegas, saying left, right, forward, good motion. And you'll hear him about every 15 seconds, he'll say good motion, good motion, good motion.
If they lose communication and they don't hear that twice, they'll stop and back out. So they've talked this all through to make sure they're going in very carefully and that they each know exactly where the other is and what they want done.
S. O'BRIEN: And so what's Vegas doing? I love that handle, by the way. What's he doing back in mission control? He's moving his arm...
M. O'BRIEN: Wait, no, he's in space.
SULLIVAN: He's not mission control.
M. O'BRIEN: He's in the robot arm.
S. O'BRIEN: He's in the EV-2, yes. OK, so he's moving the robot arm?
SULLIVAN: Yes, he's inside the space station, he and Wendy Lawrence, and they're at the robotics control panel there. There you see the helmet camera shot that Steve has.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, look at that shot. Wow.
SULLIVAN: Let's listen for a second. Let's see if he describes it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a look from Robinson's helmet-mounted wireless camera.
M. O'BRIEN: And, Kathy, I think I see the protrusion there.
SULLIVAN: That round thing that you may be looking at is where the...
M. O'BRIEN: Or is that something else?
SULLIVAN: Yes, something else.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's listen for a second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a chipped tile on the back starboard edge of the nose gear door, on the starboard nose gear door. Actually it's a chip about three-inches wide, and it covers two tiles, and it's right on the aft edge of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We copy that, Steve. We've already looked at that.
ROBINSON: Very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your wireless video dropped out for a while there, so we expect that we may be losing it shortly.
ROBINSON: I think, when I get closer, you will, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so we may lose this picture, which is remarkable, Kathy, because this is his helmet-mounted camera, and it relies on sort of a line-of-sight to antennas. The closer he gets to the shuttle, the harder it will be for him to send that signal back. But we'll be able to see him from the robot-arm camera and see what he's doing.
Kathy, you had an acronym that I wasn't familiar with. As he gets closer, you call it GCA? Is that what it was?
SULLIVAN: Yes, it comes from Naval aviation. It stands for ground control approach, and that's when an airplane is coming in like on an instrument approach, but someone on the ground is actually watching the instruments and telling you up a bit, left a bit, right a bit. That's what Steve will be doing for Vegas.
M. O'BRIEN: Got you.
S. O'BRIEN: He's just confirmed that what he sees is the same thing that's really been diagnosed back down at mission control. Can we see in the shot at all -- and I understand fully that it's from very, very far away, and it's from someone's helmet mounted camera.
M. O'BRIEN: He's getter closer now.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he is getting -- where's the damage that we're looking at? SULLIVAN: Soledad, if you see the white dot in that trapezoid, come to the left of that a bit, and there's a line that moves diagonally sort of upper right to lower left, go down along that a little bit, and you'll see a slightly brighter spot of tile there. That's a couple-inch long damage zone to the nose landing-gear tile that's been surveyed in the prior camera surveys and pretty thoroughly analyzed already.
S. O'BRIEN: So not what looks like a circle right in the middle, but a couple of inches the left and down, that's the damage. A little sort of rectangle that is sort of sticking out and glowing more than any others.
SULLIVAN: Yes, that's correct.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, interesting.
M. O'BRIEN: So as far as the location -- we've lost the shot now, but the location of the protrusions is right in that area, right, Kathy?
SULLIVAN: Yes, one of them is just a bit -- they're both a bit aft of the nose gear door. So a little bit to the right of that bright spot that you saw. And one is closer to Steve, and the other is on the further side of the vehicle. A couple feet apart.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, we're looking at the boom camera now, obviously. This is Steve Robinson. You can see how he's affixed to the end.
S. O'BRIEN: He's close.
M. O'BRIEN: And he's getting closer now. Let's listen for a sec.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good motion.
M. O'BRIEN: And there's that GCA she was talking about, good motion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good motion.
M. O'BRIEN: Guiding him in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll get a (INAUDIBLE), a good (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.
M. O'BRIEN: And what he's just basically telling Jim "Vegas" Kelly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, stop motion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop motion. And if you're ready, we'll go (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not ready. I'd like to go toward my feet by one foot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Towards your feet one foot, coming your way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to back up a little bit here.
S. O'BRIEN: So they're just honing in on the exact position he needs to get into before he even thinks about attempting a repair. He is within inches of this thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're feet are well clear. Your head is well clear. Your hand is still the closest thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why I have it out here.
M. O'BRIEN: That's interesting. Kathy, he said, go to my feet. That goes to what you said earlier. Up, down means nothing. Go to my feet makes a lot of sense.
SULLIVAN: That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Body right eight inches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy. Keep going towards your feet to your call and body right eight inches.
M. O'BRIEN: Body right. Don't just say to the right, right? That's important.
SULLIVAN: Yes, whose right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, stop motion.
SULLIVAN: Motion.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Kathy, how is he -- Miles said earlier that his feet are sort of latched to that. How are you connected?
SULLIVAN: They've attached a metal plate. You can see a sort of strut that comes off to the upper right from the end of the arm. So they attached that strut. And on top of that, there's a foot platform. The way you hook the boot in is you slip the toe of the boot underneath basically a hoop, and then you slide your heel out and a little clamp catches on the outside of the heel.
M. O'BRIEN: It's like a ski binding.
SULLIVAN: It is kind of like a ski binding. That's a good analogy.
S. O'BRIEN: How long is this going to take?
SULLIVAN: Well, you know, there are no points for doing this fast, Soledad; there are only points for doing this right.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, well, I am 150 percent behind that, Kathy, I hear you on that. But once he gets into position, is it a 10-minute project? Is it a two-hour project?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it depends. It could be about a five second project if it comes right out and then move on to the next one, but it just depends on how lodged it is.
S. O'BRIEN: And what's the distance between the two damaged tiles?
SULLIVAN: It's just a couple of feet, and I think he's on one of them now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The brakes are on. Here I go.
SULLIVAN: Here they go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm grasping it and I'm pulling. It's coming out very easily, beautiful, very nice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Steve, (INAUDIBLE) back away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, away from my body.
M. O'BRIEN: I think the first one's out. That was it. That answers your question. About a second, I think, is the answer. It's all in the prep work, Soledad. It takes a little while to get there. But once you're there, you pull.
S. O'BRIEN: That's what Kathy said, right?
M. O'BRIEN: So that's good news. Of course, the other one could be a different scenario. But that does raise optimism that the other one will come out as quickly, right, Kathy?
SULLIVAN: That's correct. There's a lot of experience on the ground during the servicing flows of pulling these things out. So it wasn't a guess how well they'd come out; there was some data to help guide that position.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's listen for a second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Shuttle Discovery reported it only took about 1.5 pounds of force to pull it out with his fingers.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, great. We got a shot now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm slowly backing you away.
M. O'BRIEN: He has a trash bag with him that is tethered to him, and that's where these errant gap fillers will go.
S. O'BRIEN: You can see it in his hand right now.
M. O'BRIEN: There you see it, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These gap fillers are a thin, stiff fabric.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, good motion away from the orbiter.
SULLIVAN: And you now can see that bit of damage that Steve was referring to a little more clearly, Soledad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In some ways, it looks like a flat paint sample from a hardware store.
S. O'BRIEN: Kathy, do you cease to be amazed by this. I mean, I am just blown away that we are looking at an astronaut working in space holding a gap filler he has just tugged out of the underbelly of the shuttle in his hands. I mean, you're the veteran at this. Are you ever just...
SULLIVAN: I never failed to be amazed while I was there, Soledad, and I never cease to be amazed now. And certainly when I was in the middle of it doing it, you know, one part of my head felt absolutely clear, calm, I know what we're doing; this seems so normal. And the other part seemed to be sitting back a little bit, going this is really kind of amazing we're even doing this. Me and my buddies know how to do this well enough we're mainly focused on, please don't scuff anything.
M. O'BRIEN: I think it's really important never to lose that, right? Because, on the one hand, you want to be focused and do your job and professional, but I mean, jeez, you got to stop and smell the roses while you're up there, right? I mean, enjoy it, holy cow, right?
SULLIVAN: That's exactly right. I don't think I'd ever want to be in a spacecraft with someone who wasn't duly impressed and hugely amazed about being there. There's got to be something wrong with that person.
M. O'BRIEN: That's a good shot looking up. And then, all right, here's another one.
SULLIVAN: This is Soichi's view.
M. O'BRIEN: That's Soichi's camera. That's -- and as we said, Soichi is sort of deliberately out of play here, because you don't want to increase the risk of damage being caused. If he were needed, he could make his way over there, if need be.
S. O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of how he is located in space.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, he's right now -- is it the P-6 truss, Kathy? He's on one of the trusses.
SULLIVAN: He's up on the truss just a little bit and outport as you can see to port, in order to give him an angle of view to help the extra eyeballs watching this.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's listen for a second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inward.
O'BRIEN: That voice you're hearing is Kelly Humphreys. He's in the public affairs officer in Houston, and he's able to listen in on all of the in-flight loops, in addition to what we're hearing, the air to ground loops.
SULLIVAN: Now they're going to move Steve over to -- I think they did port first, and they're coming back to starboard.
You may have noticed, as they flew Steve in for the first one, there was a time when he had his hands up around his hands quite a bit. Pretty sure what he was doing was just reminding himself by looking when he can see and not see his hand, reminding himself what his field of view is, so he doesn't make a mistake and move his helmet the wrong way.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
S. O'BRIEN: And then did -- you also heard him being reminded that his hand was the furthest thing out, because I guess he couldn't get a sense of where his head and feet are in relationship necessarily to his arms.
SULLIVAN: That's right, but he also gave all the guys in the station a very clear visual indication of how close they're getting by having his hand out in front of him.
M. O'BRIEN: We're speaking. If you're just tuning in, we're speaking with Kathy Sullivan, who was the first American woman to do a space walk, few years ago now, not that long ago.
SULLIVAN: Yes. Are you calling me old?
M. O'BRIEN: No, no, no. I did not say that.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm happy to hit him for you, Kathy, if need to.
M. O'BRIEN: No, I did not say that. She will do the hitting if need be.
But tell me this, the peripheral vision, which is key in this case, because you don't want to turn your head and smack the shuttle, when you're in that helmet, how good is it? You have a pretty good field of view?
You have quite a good field of view. Actually, if you turn your head, it won't move the suit. Your head moves independently of the helmet. You have to pivot your whole body to move the helmet. But it's, you know, it's a good-sized fish bowl, but you do put sun visors and things over it. So you've got a good field of view, but your peripheral vision is compromised.
M. O'BRIEN: And how much does the helmet sort of extend beyond where your forehead would be, for example? Another about six inches or so?
SULLIVAN: That's probably a good estimate. It's a little smaller than that, I think. But, you know, it's out in front of your nose, and it's -- it comes above you a bunch. And then you put the visor assembly and the cameras on top of that. You have a lot of structure sort of above and to the side of your head that you're not -- in places you're not used to thinking about having any ability to contact something.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, you spend so much time wearing the suit in training. Does it ever become, you know, second nature to be in this thing that is, after all, inflated to 4.6 pounds of pressure? It's kind of like, you know, you're in the Michelin Man suit, and it's difficult to operate in. Does it ever feel like second nature?
SULLIVAN: It gets pretty second nature. I a chance, a year and a half ago, to hop in the current suit and do some underwater work on the space station. And I hadn't done any work underwater in about a dozen years. And it was impressive to me how quickly it came back, even with a few changes that had been made to the suit in the meanwhile.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Kathy, we should take this moment to welcome our viewers, our international viewers who are following this story. I mean, it -- it really is -- I mean, talk about an amazing live shot. Because we have, of course, the repair of the shuttle. And now we have the astronaut Steve Robinson going for that second gap filler, the first one coming out with just a tiny tug. And very, very quickly he's moved on to the second now.
What kind of tools -- you know, Miles has been showing these forceps and this little hacksaw. What kind of tools do they pack along on the trip? And do they have extra tiles? I mean, if you have to do some kind of mid-space repair, how do you know what to bring?
SULLIVAN: There's quite a good tool kit for repairs that you might have to do inside the vehicle, ranging from wrenches and pliers to electrical engineering and repair kind of stuff, tapes, all sorts of things. And it basically is -- think ahead to all the possible things you could ever want. You know, the hardware store is not right around the corner. There's a similar forethought about the tools for space walks, and every now and then, as we saw here, you make them cross over and use an onboard tool outside. I think we're going in for the second gap filler momentarily.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and that's -- in the case of this hacksaw, it is a tool that was not conceived as being a extravehicular space walk tool. It was an IVA, intravehicular. NASA loves these acronyms. But inside the shuttle. And so they just...
SULLIVAN: Here's the other gap filler, miles.
M. O'BRIEN: OK, let's -- oh, we can see it up there, mid upper- right, mid-right of your screen there.
SULLIVAN: Bottom edge of the dark tile. S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I see, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And he's -- let's listen to him as he goes in on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good motion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Continuing.
M. O'BRIEN: That's Vegas Kelly on the other end of that. Jim "Vegas" Kelly running the arm.
S. O'BRIEN: Moving into place.
M. O'BRIEN: Moving into place. Steve Robinson guiding them in. As Kathy put it, just like an instrument approach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, stop the motion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Motion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) my hand is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do. If you can move your body to the right a bit.
M. O'BRIEN: Too bad. He moved and lost the signal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's do that. Body right six or four inches, please.
SULLIVAN: They're going to put the tile right in the center of his field of work.
M. O'BRIEN: So he'll probably ask to go to the right, I'm guessing...
SULLIVAN: That's correct.
M. O'BRIEN: To get that centered up and everything.
S. O'BRIEN: When we see that shot again, we can remind people, what you see is sort of two black squares, and under the square on the right is the gap filler that's sticking out. That kind of looks grayish and very thin, almost like a piece of paper or something stuck under there.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, someone was describing it a moment ago as kind of like a paint sample. That's a good analogy.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's actually a great...
M. O'BRIEN; You know, the kind of thing you'd get in doing some design work at your house. It's about that thickness, and it looks like it's just a sample of gray paint.
SULLIVAN: Well, the heavy plastic cover you sometimes get on a notebook.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's a good analogy, too.
S. O'BRIEN: He's got to move to the right a little bit.
SULLIVAN: Well, there it comes.
S. O'BRIEN: A little more in focus.
SULLIVAN: The big thing, when you take a tool that's used inside the shuttle to outside, is to adapt the handle so you can use it effectively with these golfy-glove (ph) hands.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's be quiet as he tries to get this thing. One second, Kathy.
SULLIVAN: There we go.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's see if we'll get that moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dave, are you ready for brakes? .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready for brakes.
M. O'BRIEN: Which means he's ready to go to work, because that means he's got a nice stable platform.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brakes are on your go from M-2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), here we go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
SULLIVAN: Piece of cake.
S. O'BRIEN: Unbelievable.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go. That's what it's all about, folks. It has been -- ladies and gentlemen, no more gap fillers to worry about on this mission.
SULLIVAN: Plan carefully, make it look easy.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, now, it kind of looks like it's singed there, doesn't it, Kathy? Look at that -- I guess that is possible. What is that discoloration?
SULLIVAN: Well, what you have here are tiles -- excuse me -- of different vintages. So they're very sharp black ones that have clearly been replaced more recently than the ones around them. And you do get a discoloration and a streaking on the tile surfaces from re-entry heating.
M. O'BRIEN: I was actually talking about the gap filler, but as I look at it, I think it's probably the glue that I'm seeing.
SULLIVAN: I'm sorry. I think that's exactly right, Miles. The stuff along the one bottom edge is the bonding compound.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And he said, while we were talking there, he said -- Steve Robinson -- that this one was actually easier than the previous, which was, as he put it, a pound and a half of pressure. I don't know how he knows what a pound-and-a-half of pressure is. Kathy, do you know how he's able to guess that?
SULLIVAN: Yes, you know, a good engineer. And if you've done enough space suit work, you get a sense for how much force you're putting on something and what does that amount to in foot pounds.
M. O'BRIEN: There you have it. Two gap fillers now gone.
S. O'BRIEN: Still work to do, though.
M. O'BRIEN: There is more work to do in this space walk. They're going to continue their efforts on the space station. And then there's the question, which we haven't even gotten into yet, Kathy, the possibility of yet another space walk to deal with that loose blanket, which is on the top side of the shuttle, which originally engineers thought would not be the problem. And now they're thinking, well, maybe if it fell off, it might be a problem during reentry. And so there's some discussion about potentially a fourth space walk. Have you heard much about this, Kathy?
SULLIVAN: I know the analysis has as been going on. Of course, it's been taking a background role to the planning and preparation for this space walk. Now that this one is complete and you can tidy up everything on the gap fillers, they'll finish up with that analysis. Just like they did here, the risk of an extra EVA versus the risk of the unknowns that may be remaining once all the analysis is done on the crumpled blanket.
M. O'BRIEN: I can't help, Kathy, but after seeing all this build-up, it was almost a little bit anti-climactic.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, not at all.
M. O'BRIEN: No? It didn't do it for you?
S. O'BRIEN: I am just amazed. I was going to say -- I am utterly amazed.
M. O'BRIEN: What did you think, Kathy?
SULLIVAN: Well, exactly what you want in this business is to be overprepared and undertaxed, so it's exactly what you want.
M. O'BRIEN: Overprepared and undertaxed.
S. O'BRIEN: That was amazing to watch it live.
M. O'BRIEN: I think that's our motto here. Overprepared and undertaxed, wherever possible.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. M. O'BRIEN: Kathy Sullivan, the first spacewalker -- female spacewalker in the United States joining us. We appreciate you guiding us through that.
SULLIVAN: It's been a pleasure.
M. O'BRIEN: And the gap fillers are gone. Steve Robinson has done his job. Not just Steve Robinson, the entire team. Definitely good work in space. And we'll be back with more AMERICAN MORNING in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Some breaking news, as we witness a remarkable moment outside the shuttle Discovery. Fortunately, it wasn't breaking news in the literal sense. Nothing was broken, as astronaut Steve Robinson, floating at the end of a robot arm, in a daring repair job. He's two-for-two now, and we're watching the mission live on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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