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CNN Sunday Morning

Shuttle Atlantis' Crew Gets Ready to Return to Earth

Aired July 22, 2001 - 08:29   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to return to Earth on Tuesday. The crew packed up for home and undocked from the International Space Station during the night. Their 10-day mission was highlighted by the installation of an airlock that will permit space walks from the space station.

Just a short time ago, I had a chance to speak with the crew of the Atlantis about their historic mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Commander Lindsey, I first want to congratulate actually all of you, Charlie Hobaugh, Mike Gernhardt, Janet Kavandi and Jim Reilly. How did it go? Commander, why don't you begin.

STEVEN LINDSEY, ATLANTIS SHUTTLE MISSION COMMANDER: Well, we thought it went very well. It went pretty much according to plan. We had a few minor hiccups along the way, very busy timeline, but these folks here with, the expedition crew just did a fabulous job of putting it all together and making it all work and getting it all done, so I'm extremely pleased with the way things -- with how the way things went today, or throughout the week.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the difference between a hiccup and a problem. Charlie, do you maybe want to address that?

CHARLES HOBAUGH, ASTRONAUT: I don't know if you want to call them a hiccup or a problem, we just call them bumps in the road, and we'll just call it by another name, but it seemed like we -- every now and then, we always were faced with a small challenge, and the good news is we always seemed to overcome it and work through it.

The ground really was very helpful the whole time, able to help us troubleshoot the problems, and we were able to work through everything that we came up against. We were extremely lucky that the hardware was in as good as shape as it was and that we were able to do everything we planned to do. We were really surprised with just adding one day that we did everything we were planning on doing.

PHILLIPS: What about the time it took to depressurize the airlock? Were there ever any concerns?

JAMES REILLY, ASTRONAUT: No, not really. We figured we'd probably get out sooner or later. It was a little more time than we anticipated that it would take to depress the airlock, but it continued to depress and everything looked fine to us, so we eventually got out, as you know, and it turned out to be a great space walk. It was a spectacular set of views from out there.

PHILLIPS: Give me the personal feeling for you, as it was happening, what was going through your mind?

REILLY: Once we got the job finished, Mike and I had done everything we could do. We took the 35-mm camera out with us and we took some pictures, and that's one of the few times we actually had a chance to just get up and look around, and to look back down and see the two spacecrafts joined as one was pretty spectacular.

And then, I really got a sense of speed as we were zipping across the ground out where we were. So, it was really spectacular just to be able to see it and to get the views that you can't get any other place.

PHILLIPS: Janet, was it an emotional farewell? You spent a lot of time building some terrific relationships?

JANET KAVANDI, ASTRONAUT: I think it was actually, personally, I think it was emotional. I mean, you have an experience with some people that hardly anyone gets to share. You get to be in space, around the earth, going 17,500 miles an hour, building and constructing a space station that you know is going to benefit all of mankind for many, many years to come, and it's just an experience that you can't share with anybody else.

So, yes, of course, you have very close relationships with those people. The two crews acted as one. It was a wonderful experience, working together, and it was sad to leave, and -- but we know we'll see them in about a month, so we've already made plans to get together and have dinner when we land, when they land.

PHILLIPS: Talk about the benefits, Janet. You mentioned that. What does this mean, not only for all of you, but what does it mean for me and my next door neighbor?

KAVANDI: Well, like I said before, I don't think we always realize what discoveries we're going to make. Most of them major discoveries that have been made were made by accident, and we weren't exactly looking for what we found.

So, I think sometimes there's a by-product of what we're going to experiment on in the space station we will get huge benefits from. We just can't tell you what those are just yet, but from the science that has been done, and has been planned to be done. We already know that we've made great strides in medical sciences and geology and earth sciences, weather studies, all kinds of sciences that -- things that we can only do from up here, especially the microgravity experiments.

PHILLIPS: Mike, the airlock's premiere coincided with the anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's walk on the moon. Were you thinking about that? I mean, you had to have been thinking about it, but how did -- when you think about that and what all of you have done, how does that make you feel?

MICHAEL GERNHARDT, ASTRONAUT: Well, actually, that was an unplanned and quite nice coincidence. When we come up into space, we actually switch into what we call mission elapsed time, so we're only thinking in terms of what the mission elapse time is, and I personally had lost track of the date, didn't know what exact date it was. And it wasn't until the cap-com called up, that it was the anniversary of the first moon walk that I was fully aware that that was actually the case.

So, that is kind of a, like you said, an interesting coincidence and certainly our ETA was in no way similar to the great feet of Neil and Buzz, but, you know, in our own small way with our team we did usher in a new era of space walking from the new space station.

PHILLIPS: Commander Lindsey, how does this advance international relations? I mean, we've been covering a lot of stories about war and strife on the international front, yet here all of you were building some pretty terrific relationships and making some amazing strides. How do you think it will effect the world?

LINDSEY: Well, you know, Charlie and I have both been in the military, you know, the Cold War didn't end all that long ago. And I can remember training for the Cold War, as well as Charlie did, flying airplanes. And if you'd have told me that, you know, 10 years ago that I'd be, you know, doing space and I'd be working with my counterpart at the space station, Yuri Usachev, who is a Russian, I would have told you you were crazy.

If you want an example of how international relations work at the working level, you just have to watch the relationship between the Russian cosmonauts and the American astronauts in the programs. We have been working together with them for many, many years now, and we have a great working relationship. Yuri is a good friend of mine, as well as we have several other international partners involved in the space station from many different countries.

If you walk in our astronaut office, you'll see people from all of these countries participating that are active astronauts, and if you want an example of working international relations, just come look at our office.

PHILLIPS: We've been covering the eight days constantly, and it is an absolute pleasure to talk to all of you. Commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Charlie Hobaugh, specialist Mike Gernhardt, mission specialist Janet Kavandi and mission specialist Jim Reilly, thank you all so much, an absolute pleasure. And congratulations.

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