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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With the Crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour

Aired December 16, 2001 - 11:50   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's time to talk to the space shuttle Endeavour. Here are some crew members. They are on the aft flight deck of the space shuttle Endeavour. They're at the tail end of the space shuttle mission.

Let me introduce everybody. That's the pilot, Mark Kelly. This is Vladimir Dezhurov. There's Mikhail Tyurin, he was on the space station for -- the two of them were on the space station for about four months. Frank Culbertson, their commander, and the commander of the space shuttle Endeavour, Dominic Gorie.

Dom, let's begin with you. How did the mission go?

DOMINIC GORIE, COMMANDER, SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR: Well, we started training for this mission about 11 or 12 months ago, and we never dreamed it could go as well as it did. The whole transfer process was seamless. Linda did a great job with the transfer job. We got the Expedition 4 crew up there, and the 3 crew is right here with us. Everything else -- the minor payloads and secondaries has gone superb, so we couldn't be any happier, and we're ready to come home for Christmas.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's send it over to the other commander, Frank Culbertson. You're coming back to Earth after a long stint in space. Besides the obvious things you missed, the family, the dogs, all that kind of stuff, what do you think you'll be doing on your -- among the first things you'll be doing when you get back down to the world of gravity?

FRANK CULBERTSON, NASA ASTRONAUT: Miles, I'm looking forward to a hot shower and some fresh air, and some fresh food -- ice cream, salads, things that we don't have on the station. And as you said, I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and friends. But there's a lot of nice things about the Earth that I'll be glad to be enjoying, and especially the Christmas season.

O'BRIEN: I've got a question for you before you pass the microphone off there. You watched the events of 9/11 from your perch in space, and I suspect you were a bit frustrated, and it maybe perhaps a bit of a helpless feeling that would occur as you watched that occur overhead. Did you feel as if you needed more information? Do you need more availability to news, for example, when you're on the space station? Is there an isolation that comes along with it? CULBERTSON: I guess the best analogy is that we get the news, but it comes through a small pipe. It -- we can only get a small amount at a time, not nearly as much as people were inundated with down on Earth. So we got information gradually, as the details came out and people understood what had happened and how it was affecting the country and the rest of the world.

So it -- I guess it affected us over several day,s and every morning when I'd open the mail there'd be some new piece of information that would hit me pretty hard, and so it was something that hit us, but over a period of time.

O'BRIEN: Let's send it up to either Vladimir or Mikhail, whoever would like to take this on the Expedition 3 crew, as it is called. I'm curious, when Frank had opened up those pieces of e-mail, Vladimir Dezhurov, and was sort of taken aback by them, what kind of words of encouragement did you give him? Were you able to tell him that given the difficulties that your country has endured in recent years, were you able to offer him some solace?

VLADIMIR DEZHUROV, RUSSIAN COSMONAUT: It's very -- it was very difficult time for people on the ground and for us also. And I remember (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mission control center (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for us. And a lot of Russian people put a lot of flowers near the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and also candles. And everybody -- Russians understand very well this situation, because also now already there's confrontation in the Chechnya, and we understood the situation very well in -- aboard.

O'BRIEN: We're just about -- oh, go ahead, Mikhail.

MIKHAIL TYURIN, RUSSIAN COSMONAUT: Thank you. Of course, that time we all -- our feelings were very sad, and they understood that it was very important period for all of us. And of course we tried to support each other, and especially our commander friend, because that awful event happened at his country. But we've all had the same feeling.

Of course, we had some sort of limited possibilities to share our personal impressions, our limited feeling to our friends and our relatives. That's why we tried to be closer and do more -- and to be more attentive, to be more careful to each other, to support each other psychologically.

O'BRIEN: All right, we're just about out of time. I don't want to leave the pilot out, as the pilot is often left out. Mark Kelly, in a word, how was it going to space for the first time?

MARK KELLY, PILOT: It was spectacular. Everything I've dreamed about and more. The zero gravity is just a lot of fun, and just the view of the Earth is incredible.

O'BRIEN: All right, gentlemen. Mark Kelly, Vladimir Dezhurov, Mikhail Tyurin, Frank Culbertson, Dom Gorie, thank you very much for taking some time out of your busy schedule to float on by the aft deck of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. That concludes CNN's portion of the event, in case you're still listening in Houston. It's good to see you guys.

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