Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Susan Helms
Aired March 09, 2002 - 09:46 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: He Hubble space telescope is back in orbit after a week of repairs by the crew of the shuttle Columbia. My colleague and award-winning space communicator -- we're going to talk about that award that Miles O'Brien, he's one of the best seats on earth for the waning days of the mission and all things space.
He joins us now from Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Great to see you, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Kyra.
I guess I'm a certified space communicator now. I did get -- gosh, that space communicator, that really sounds official, doesn't it?
PHILLIPS: Isn't that neat? Hey...
O'BRIEN: I have to...
PHILLIPS: Well, Walter Cronkite's the last one to get this award, now you. We've got to brag about how prestigious this is now.
O'BRIEN: I'll tell you what I'd like to do, I'll like to try out that title, space communicator, from space sometime.
PHILLIPS: Hey, I'm waiting for you...
O'BRIEN: Stay tuned for that.
PHILLIPS: ... to get up to space, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, I'm working on it, I'm working on it.
Think of this as an edition of "This Old Space House," and me as Bob Vila with a spacesuit on. I am standing between the U.S. and Russian sections of the space station mockup here at the Johnson Space Center Building Nine.
Before we go into the U.S. section and meet our special guest, who's a year ago yesterday launched to the space station, she spent almost six months up there, let's take a look down here. This is the Russian section. That long corridor there is what's called the FGB, it's a Russian acronym which I won't bother you with. But it's essentially a storage facility and a space tug. It was the first piece of the space station launched way back in November of '98.
And beyond it, you can barely see the Russian-built service module, which is the primary living quarters for the crew on board the space station now.
Now, let's turn around and come in and say hi to Susan, check out the U.S. side of things. This spot is called Unity. It's a node, and it's kind of like that wheel in Tinker Toys, you know, where you stick the sticks in. It's kind of a connecting thing.
Susan, good to have you with us.
SUSAN HELMS, ASTRONAUT: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: And welcome back, little bit belated, but nevertheless, year ago yesterday she launched, six months in space, and she's going to give us just a little tour.
Now, this is sort of high fidelity, as they say, it's -- you have a few things missing.
HELMS: There's a little bit missing.
O'BRIEN: What -- what -- this room, aside from being, you know, spaces -- space is at a premium in space, when -- This, despite the fact that it's just a connector, which, you know, the lab is this way and the service module's that way, this is a room you use for some other things too, right?
HELMS: That's right. When the shuttle came up and brought some logistics supplies, they would attach a module to this part of the Tinker Toy node down here, and there would be a lot of activity going in and out of this area in order to transfer the food and clothing for the oncoming crews.
O'BRIEN: Sort of need a traffic light here at those times, yes.
HELMS: That's right. This was a very busy, congested area during those times. Of course, there's the airlock is over there, the new airlock that we installed. Future location of the cupola (ph), solar arrays are up there, we have a little bit of stowage in here, but probably the most important piece of equipment in here for the crew was the weight training center, which was on the ceiling here.
It's not here today, but it's on the real station...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: ... weights, we're talking isometrics here, right?
HELMS: Right...
O'BRIEN: ... the bungees.
HELMS: ... it's a pulley system.
O'BRIEN: Yes, pulleys, essentially.
HELMS: To simulate weight training.
O'BRIEN: How did that work? Was it -- did you stay in pretty good shape?
HELMS: I -- we have the anecdotal data from our flight, and we all think it worked extremely well. I think the data looks really good.
O'BRIEN: Did you feel bad after six months, or did you feel weak at all? What...
HELMS: Well, you -- every shuttle crew member, even on a short flight, does feel some effect of being in weightlessness for some period of time. But I would say that being in space for six months, those effects were quite a bit stronger than a quick three-week shuttle flight.
O'BRIEN: You know what I noticed here too, if you look on the walls here -- I don't know if you can get this -- there's very distinct markings, "To the airlock," "To the... " Over here, it says, "To the cupola, to the hab -- to the lab."
HELMS: Right.
O'BRIEN: Do you get disoriented?
HELMS: Well, you probably need those markings when you have a completely clean module, but in reality, this module is filled with all kinds of identifying equipment where you get all kinds of cues about which way is up and down. We have computers in certain areas, we have the weight training center, and you can use those as better cues than reading a label.
So in reality, these labels really don't apply.
O'BRIEN: So you get used to there being no up or down...
HELMS: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: And also, this is the home theater, right?
HELMS: This is the area that we watched movies in on an occasional Saturday night, because this was the quietest module. We could darken the lights. Yuri, Jim, and I sat -- well, we floated in this pit down here, and we set up our little portable DVD player right there. We probably did this only about six times in six months. But this was by far the most effective home theater.
O'BRIEN: And the favorite movie in space?
HELMS: "Braveheart."
O'BRIEN: "Braveheart," all right.
Let's move on into the lab. Now, the lab was -- is a U.S. contribution, where a lot of the scientific activities will be undertaken throughout the course of the space station. But it was also where you lived while you were here.
HELMS: That's right. This is the area that, of course, is the workhorse for the American segment. It is the U.S. laboratory. Not only does it have all the experiments that are so important for the utilization mission, but it also has one of my favorite pieces, the robotic workstation.
And in addition to that, because there are only two sleep stations in the Russian service module, we built and designed a sleep station for me to sleep in here in the lab. And I made up my own little cubbyhole and thoroughly enjoyed it.
O'BRIEN: All right. We'll talk about cubbyholes and robotic arms and the lab, and, for that matter, the space station in general after we take a break. More CNN SATURDAY MORNING coming, and send us your e-mails and phone calls, 404-221-1855 is the number. If you have a question for Susan, feel free to dial in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Live from Mission Control once again, our Miles O'Brien and Susan Helms there inside, where Susan actually used to live.
We've got lots of e-mails, e-mails and phone calls, Miles, already coming in. We're going to go straight to a phone call.
Mark from Las Vegas...
O'BRIEN: OK, great.
PHILLIPS: ... has a question for you guys. Mark, go ahead.
CALLER: Hey, how are you today? It's a pleasure being on with one of the heroes from the space program. I need to ask a question as far as communication. How does it work with the Russians? And are they learning English, or are you learning Russian? And how does that work?
O'BRIEN: Good question.
HELMS: You have asked an excellent question, because it continues to be a topic of discussion for all of the oncoming crews as far as it impacts their training. Increment two basically became bilingual. Yuri learned how to speak English and Jim and I learned how to speak Russian, because all three of us wanted to have the ability to speak with both control centers, the one that's in Houston and also the one that's in Moscow.
I know that just by working together, a whole lot of people are learning a lot about each other's languages. But you can't pick these things up in a day, and it's going to take a lot of time before we have bilingual communicators on the ground as well.
So I would say that for some period of time, we will see crews that need to at least learn the other person's language to -- quite a bit.
O'BRIEN: And that's one of the hardest things, isn't it? I mean...
HELMS: It is, learning the language, to me, was the hardest thing about learning to fly in space.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Yes, we're going to go straight to the e-mail. I love how you guys pointed to each other when you talked about space heroes, by the way.
Randy from Kansas has this question. "How has NASA budget cuts affected building progress on the International Space Station? What modules will be installed on the station this year?"
O'BRIEN: Good question.
HELMS: Yes...
O'BRIEN: Boy, that's a big problem right now for NASA.
HELMS: Ye, the budget is clearly one of the challenges that NASA's facing right now. It's obviously one thing that's being discussed. I think up till now, we've done a tremendous job of doing what we intended to do pretty much on schedule, and doing it with incredible technical expertise and incredible safety.
And now that we have gotten to the goal of getting the airlock on, I know that NASA has continuing goals of things they want to continue to attach to the space station, as do the Russians. But we also need to take into account the budget realities of how the budget has been affected, not only by what's coming up in the future, but also by the surprise of September 11, because we know that that's going to have some impact, to some degree on what's happening with the NASA budget.
O'BRIEN: And the bottom line is, I think you'll agree with me, Susan, until the space station is big enough to support a bigger crew...
HELMS: Right.
O'BRIEN: ... the scientific capabilities of it will be limited. I mean, it's a lot just to keep it going, right?
HELMS: I think there are ways we can carve out some science, though, if we get really creative. I think there is some to that.
O'BRIEN: All right -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, I think we're hitting the top of the hour, so Susan, thank you so much for being with us. I'm going to let you guys wrap it up from there.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I'll tell you what, I've got to ask you, six months in space, did you -- were you anxious to get back, or was this, like, the best six months of your life?
HELMS: This was the best six months of my life. I've been telling everybody that. And I think people were thinking I'd be anxious to get back, but it's a open secret that I actually was very sad to leave the station.
O'BRIEN: Really.
HELMS: It came home, it really did.
O'BRIEN: And being back, has it been hard, physically, mentally, to adjust to being back?
HELMS: It has been a little bit tough to get used to all the noise of life. We didn't have that on the space station.
O'BRIEN: It's quiet up there.
HELMS: Yes, very quiet.
O'BRIEN: No meetings, no phones.
HELMS: No CNN.
O'BRIEN: No CNN. How did you get by? Susan Helms, great to see you, thank you for...
HELMS: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: ... showing us your home, or at least a simulated version of that. There's still a crew up there, they have been up there, and they're enjoying life and enjoying no phones and no meetings now.
HELMS: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Well, we've had fun here, Kyra. We hope you have enjoyed a little tour of what it's like in the place where the astronauts train.
And we're going to take a break, we'll be back with more CNN SATURDAY MORNING in just a moment.
PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thanks so much, Miles, as usual, it was terrific. And Susan Helms, thanks so much, and for the plug of CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
