Orbit of Discovery: The All-Ohio Space Shuttle Mission

Chapter Four: Discovery to Orbit

141 Chapter Four Discovery to Orbit Launch Day for the STS-70 crew dawned, well, dark. That’s because our scheduled wake-up time—driven by our launch time of 9:41 a.m.—was at 4:46 a.m. I set my alarm for a few minutes earlier than that and already was up when they knocked on my bedroom door to make sure I didn’t oversleep—like that was even a possibility. As with my first launch a year earlier, the butterflies in my stomach were quite active. The sensation was similar to the feeling I got before any big exam or job interview. My symptoms were the same whatever the stressful situation—stomach a bit knotted, frequent use of the bathroom (every fifteen minutes or so), and gagging while brushing my teeth. In the back of my head was an awareness of the possibility that this could be my last day of life. Images of the Challenger accident were still in the back of my mind, as they probably were for every family member. I knew there was a small probability that something like that could happen on any shuttle mission. Maybe on my mission. 142 ORBIT OF DISCOVERY For years I thought long and hard about the risks. I fully accepted them. I was ready and anxious to get our flight underway. The strict NASA schedule allotted us thirty minutes to shower and get dressed for breakfast. So after enjoying my last hot shower for what I hoped would be the next eight days or so, I shaved, brushed my teeth accompanied by the aforementioned gag reflex, and got dressed in the standard astronaut launch-day attire—a pair of casual khaki pants and our gray STS-70 crew polo shirt. I checked my crew notebook as well as some items I would carry with me aboard Discovery and then headed down the hall past the suit-up room and the Astronaut Crew Quarters’ staff offices to the dining room. It was 5:16 a.m.—and still dark outside. My crew mates and I took our seats at the table where the traditional launch day cake, bearing the STS-70 mission patch, was on display. We wouldn’t eat any of it that morning. Instead, it would be frozen so we could enjoy it after we landed. We posed for a NASA still photographer as well as some live video that was broadcast on NASA TV. While a minor inconvenience, I thought it was good for our families to see us sitting down for breakfast before launch. Then the cameras left and we had twenty-seven minutes to enjoy our breakfast. Using my STS-65 experience as a guide, I ate only a bit of the cereal—the kind I normally eat at home—along with some fresh strawberries. I had a few small sips of fresh-squeezed orange juice. That was it. Those butterflies weren’t helping my appetite much. Besides, I didn’t want to eat too much in the unlikely event that I would see the food again on my way to, or after, reaching space. I also learned from STS-65 that it was pretty difficult to go to the bathroom in the launch pad’s 195-foot level toilet before climbing into the shuttle, so I tried to restrict my fluid intake as much as possible . Less in, less out, I figured. There was some joking around as we ate—another way to vent nervous energy. Soon it was time to move on. Precisely at 5:46 a.m., Tom, Kevin, and Nancy received a final weather briefing. 143 Discovery to Orbit We found ourselves with the normal weather forecast for Florida in mid-July—a chance of thunderstorms sometime during the day. We had a two hour, forty minute launch window and hoped the weather would not impact our ability to get off the ground. Despite the crew’s strong desire to launch, some of our nine children—Kevin had four, Tom three, and Nancy and I one each—were hoping for delays so they could enjoy more time in Florida and possibly get in a trip to Disney World. Kai, being only five months old, didn’t seem to care much one way or the other. I went back to my room to begin the suiting-up process. I brushed my teeth once more (still...