TOM JONES

ASTRONAUT SPEAKER

“Space Was a Spiritual Experience” — Arlington Catholic Herald

November 24, 2020 By TOM JONES 1 Comment

For Veteran Astronaut and Catholic Tom Jones, Space Was a Spiritual Experience

Leslie Miller was kind enough to prepare a brief write-up of the importance of my spiritual life to my work and success in space. I speak about the all-important help God and the saints provided, not least the sense of giving up my worries and anxieties to the Lord, which let me focus on the intense and demanding work ahead of me from launch through landing. You can imagine I had one of the most meaningful Thanksgivings I’ve ever experienced when thanking God from orbit on STS-80. The food? Not great. But the sense of peace? Unmatched.

Take a few minutes and enjoy. https://www.catholicherald.com/News/Local_News/For_veteran_astronaut_and_Catholic_Tom_Jones,_space_was_a_spiritual_experience/#main_carousel

Sunrise seen from Columbia, STS-80

Check out my speaking and book links at my website: www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: History, Media, Space

Exploring the Letter “V”– for Voyager

October 28, 2020 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

….With the Association of Space Explorers. I present the history of the Voyager probes launched in 1977 and now in interstellar space. Tune in to the Voyager discoveries here:

Voyager spacecraft full-scale model at National Air & Space Museum (NASM)

Filed Under: History, Space

Talking New Discoveries of Lunar Water with Neil Cavuto: Oct. 27, 2020

October 27, 2020 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Watch my interview with Fox Business’s Neil Cavuto, discussing the latest discovery of water molecules in the moon’s sunny regions. This newfound water resource on the moon may accelerate the establishment of a research and fuel production outpost on the moon. Watch:

https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6205035272001/#sp=show-clips

Filed Under: Space

Join Space Rendezvous Online with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation: Nov. 2-8, 2020.

October 27, 2020 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

https://astronautscholarship.org/sr.html

I will be giving a book talk on my memoir, Sky Walking, on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 4 pm EST. Supporting the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, I will rocket you through liftoff, loft you to orbit, visit a space station, and return you, exhilarated, to Earth. The ticket price includes a signed copy of Sky Walking. Purchase tickets for the entire week of Space Rendezvous at the link above. See you online next week!

Filed Under: History, Space

Returning to Orbit via “Spacechams” Podcast: October 19, 2020

October 22, 2020 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

My interview with Spacechams host Jim Murphy, an enthusiastic and curious supporter of space exploration of all kinds, is available for listening on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Jim took me through my four shuttle missions, some highlights from those flights, current events in asteroid exploration (like the OSIRIS-REx successful sampling of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday), and our rationale for sending humans to the planets.

Listen in to Jim’s space show. If you have more questions for me, contact me via: http://astronauttomjones.com/contact/.

Many thanks to Jim and good luck to the Spacechams endeavor.

Tom with Atlantis, his crew’s spaceship for STS-98, at Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Peter W. Cross)

Filed Under: History, Space

Resurrecting a Combat-Vet Marauder

October 20, 2020 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

After effective service as a rugged, accurate medium bomber flying mainly in WWII’s European theater, few Martin B-26 Marauders survived the Army Air Forces’ rapid demobilization at the end of the war. Nearly all Marauders were flown to European collection depots, then dynamited into scrap to help revive broken economies on the continent. In the end, just a handful of B-26s outlasted the wreckers so we can see them today.

B-26B “Flak Bait” attacks a V-1 launch site in France, 1944.

The pieces of one combat-veteran Marauder are now being reassembled to add to the 6 preserved aircraft at museums in the U.S. and France. This B-26, the 10th off Martin’s Middle River, Maryland assembly line, was built as serial number 40-1370. Assigned in 1941 to the 73rd Bomb Squadron, the plane went to Alaska and flew out of Elmendorf Army Air Field in Anchorage, made frequent patrols down the Aleutian chain, and fought the Japanese during their June 1942 raid on Dutch Harbor.

Perhaps presciently, its wartime crews nicknamed the aircraft “Basket Case.” On August 16, 1942, the ship returned from patrol in bad weather to Naknek Field in western Alaska, skidded off the runway, and was wrecked beyond repair. Ssgt William Chapman, bombardier of 1370, was killed in the crash.

Maintenance crews stripped the damaged airframe for parts and shoved the hulk into a gully, where it sat with another damaged Marauder until 2000.

Hill Air Force Base’s museum salvaged the B-26 components and brought them to Utah, but little work was done on the aircraft until 2015, when it was purchased by Aircraft Restoration Services in Murietta, California. Pat Rodgers at ARS directs the Marauder project and hopes to restore the completed B-26 to display standards within the next couple of years.

Aircraft Restoration Services earlier this year added the center bomb bay section to its 40-1370 rebuild project. (ARS photo)

Aircraft Restoration Services

Rodgers says he has about 80 percent of 40-1370’s fuselage, and will add the 25-35 percent of the other wrecked Naknek Marauder, 40-1381, most importantly the center, bomb bay section. About 30 percent of the wings will be original, but major sections were cut up in Alaska nearly 80 years ago and will need to be rebuilt. When finished, the Marauder will represent an original “short wing” B-26.

Rodgers says his team has removed “a lot of Alaska dirt” from the fuselage, revealing many examples of wartime graffiti adorning the aluminum skin inside and out. When completed, he’ll still have enough original airplane to perhaps complete a nose section restoration on #1381.

“The coolest thing,” says Rodgers, is that his team is in touch with the daughter of one of Basket Case’s pilots, Capt. Benjamin Shoenfeld, who survived the Alaska crash landing but perished on Christmas Eve 1944 in an A-26, flying home to see his family. Schoenfeld’s operational records and letters will join his restored B-26 to illuminate the history of the uncertain early days of the Pacific war.

Nose section of B-26 Marauder 40-1370. Note dedication to SSgt W. Chapman, who died in the airplane’s 1942 crash landing. (ARS photo)

Thank you to Pat Rodgers of Aircraft Restoration Services for his telephone interview and the use of Marauder project photos from the ARS Facebook page.

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: History

Biking Missouri’s Katy Trail

May 25, 2019 By TOM JONES 4 Comments

I joined 6 friends from Virginia on May 7, 2019, to bike the 240-mile Katy Trail in central Missouri. Once the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, the abandoned line is now a Missouri state park stretching from near St. Louis in the east to the rolling hills of western central Missouri in the west.

The trail is surfaced with crushed limestone, which when rolled and tamped is a smooth, forgiving surface. When it’s wet, it’s a bit like wet sand: not a pleasant surface to push a bike across.

Mac, Jeanine, Bob, and Tom getting ready to ride

Our ride began at the eastern terminus, the tiny farm junction of Machens off Rt. 94, east of St. Charles, MO. Bob, Mac, and I unloaded our bikes with the help of friend Jeanine, and set off west with the sun at our back and the flood-stage Missouri River off to our left a mile or so.

Here are my notes from our first day’s trail log:

Tuesday, 5/7/19
Started at Machens, about 0945. Mile Marker (MM) 26.9. 
• Rough, loose gravel trail. Detour at MM 34 for 2 miles to MO Rt. 94. Easy ride on 94 to St. Charles and a return to the Katy. Courteous drivers on -94 gave us a wide berth.
• We took a break and met our four Richmond friends who would be cycling the trail with us at the Bike Stop Café in St. Charles on the Katy. What a friendly place for coffee or a bike tool or accessory. I should have stocked up on spare inner tubes.  
• Stopped in Defiance, MO on the Katy for lunch at the Defiance Road House. Friendly people, good food, and great service at our outdoor tables from Jen.
• Near end of day, detoured through Klondike sand quarry park from about MM 64. Long climb up the bluffs, past a water-filled quarry, and then a big downhill to the Katy again.
• Rolled into Augusta at 3:45 pm and found, up a steep hill from the river, the Lindenhof Bed and Breakfast. Kathy Murphy was the masterful proprietor. Over at the the Red Brick Inn, we met Chris Cassidy and Peggy, his girlfriend. Another astronaut on the Katy? Small world!

Tom at the Augusta stopover at start of day 2, 5/8/19

Wed., 5/8/19

  • Augusta to Rhineland, after a fantastic breakfast in Augusta on Wed. morning at the Lindenhof: shirred eggs with cheese and spinach and sausage. Cinnamon roll with icing. Baked plums and yogurt, coffee, and OJ. Wow! I hope the day’s ride worked off the calories.

Breakfast at Lindenhof B&B in Augusta–Kathy, proprietor

  • Stopped in Treloar for lunch at the Treloar Bar and Grill. Photo by the giant corn cob. Steak sandwich with friendly service and great prices.
  • Visited Daniel Boone’s gravesite outside town off Boone Monument Road.
  • Pedaled into McKittrick after 35 miles, and said so long to Drums and Pentersons as they rode across the Missouri into Hermann. We rode on another 4.5 miles in a steady drizzle to Rhineland, pushing hard into the wind and making only 9 mph. Got in to the Doll House B&B just in time, ahead of steady rain. I was thoroughly damp, but not soaked. Ken and Melissa, owners, provided private rooms and bath within their cozy old farmhouse. Most of the town had moved up the bluff after the 1993 flood. 
  • Dinner was at The Corner Café, a tidy bar and grill with good BBQ sandwiches. Clean and friendly.

Ready to roll again on the Katy, midway through Day 2 headed into Rhineland, 5/8/19.

Daniel Boone grave site

The pioneer and warrior died nearby and was originally buried here with wife Rebecca. Most evidence indicates  the pair were moved to Kentucky later in the 1800s. This grave site and cemetery are about a quarter mile from the Katy Trail. 

Day 3, Rhineland to Hartsburg, MO: 

It had rained most of the evening before, but the day was dry at the start as we prepared to leave Rhineland after a good breakfast at The Doll House. Outside, I found I had a flat rear tire. First of three that day. But I got a new tube in and pumped the tire up with Ken’s compressor to get ready. Our four friends staying in Hermann rolled up about 9:30 am after a 6-mile warm-up. Then we were ready for our own 50-miler into Hartsburg that day. 

My log entries for Day 3, Thursday, 5/9/19:

  • I had a flat on the back tire to begin the day, and replaced the tube and pumped up tire with Ken’s shop compressor. Started from Rhineland when our party rode up from Hermann at 0930.

Mac and Tom at Rhineland on a damp morning, after flat #1.

  • Passing Portland I fixed another flat with a patch on the rear tire. I had no cell signal and couldn’t get through to those up front, so I got the patch going and was about to pump up the tire when Mac rode up; he had come back to help. He rode 4 extra miles as a result.
  • Got third flat on front tire 1 mile east of Mokane. Used my hand pump to get myself into Mokane and lunch at the general store. Had a tuna sandwich and some marshmallow-and-cake snowballs (I deserved them) there while we fixed the flat with Mac’s tube. Bought air from gas station compressor across street.
  • Had to make 2 detours onto Rt. 94 around a rockslide and water on the trail.

Tom at the rockslide. After Mac reconnoitered it, we detoured on Rt. 94 for a mile or so around the blocked trail.

  • A few miles out from Hartsburg, our partners peeled off to go into Jefferson City for the night. We rolled on and found Mile Marker 147, the halfway mark on our ride, about an hour short of finishing on Day 3 in Hartsburg. 

  • Cloudy in low 60s. Rode on to Hartsburg for total of 52 miles that day to Eber Haus B&B. Dinner at 35th on Main, a friendly cafe. Split a burger with Mac and Bob. 

Looking back along the Katy at the halfway point. A blustery day with rain threatening.

The quiet of this state park gave us an opportunity to ride up on a pair of bald eagles. 

Bald eagle next to the Katy. Amazing glimpse of the pair in the flooded fields next to the trail.

Day 4: Friday, May 10, 2019.

We spent the night at the Eber Haus Inn in Hartsburg, a very small river town (the river is a good mile away across its flood plain, but it used to flow at the front door.). It was chilly enough overnight to run the gas heater in our bunk room, but a great breakfast of egg, cheese,  and ham frittata warmed us up. Thanks to Sarah over at the Inn. Our friends from Richmond were staying overnight in Jefferson City, so they began the day a good 9 miles behind us as we set out for Boonville on the south side of the Missouri, where the Katy diverges at last from the Missouri River.  On the route for the day was Rocheport, where a tunnel took the railroad under the riverside bluffs; we hoped to be there for lunch. 

Eber Haus Inn in Hartsburg, MO. Our overnight stop after Day 3.

Here’s my trail log for Day 4: 

  • Left after a good breakfast in our 5-bed, 1 bath inn. Had a ham and cheese frittata along with muffins and fruit.
  • Dry and sunny and cool, in 50s with a bit of wind. Jacket and pants on in morning to stay warm. 35.5 miles to Boonville. No flats! Saw Lewis and Clark cave.

IMG_3130  (Movie of Lewis and Clark Cave)

Lewis and Clark Cave, visited on June 7, 1804. The creek is now known as Torbett Spring.

 

  • Made it to Rocheport for lunch at Merriweather’s café and bike shop. Had a gyro sandwich and replenished my CO2 cartridge supplies at bike shop. Our friends from Jefferson City caught up with us as we were leaving Rocheport after lunch.

Native American pictographs (red paintings) above the Lewis and Clark Cave, seen by the explorers.

  • Sunny, partly cloudy, cool in upper 50s in afternoon. 
  • After lunch, made it to the Rocheport tunnel just west of town, blessedly without a detour. The crews were just opening the trail through the tunnel after crews cleared a rock slide. We were the first to go through that day.

Tom emerged with Bob and Mac through the Rocheport tunnel’s west end, walking our bikes through the freshly graded mud.

  • 12 more miles from there on into Boonville. Crossed big Boone’s Lick Bridge over the Missouri as we left Franklin to cross to the south bank. Met Linda Godwin (my STS-59 crewmate) at 3 pm at the Boonville depot. Left our bikes overnight with the chamber of commerce ladies in the depot, next to the Champion Bicycle shop.

Tom, Mac, and Bob on the bridge into Boonville, looking upstream. Last time we’d see the river on the Katy.

 

Linda and Tom, STS-59 crewmates at the Boonville depot.

Day 5: Boonville to Sedalia, MO. Saturday, May 11, 2019

Our weary cyclists spent the night at Linda’s home in nearby Columbia, enjoying a spicy Thai dinner and some great ice cream around the corner at Sparky’s ice cream parlor downtown. Don’t miss the eclectic art covering every inch of the walls. 

The forecast called for a wet Saturday morning. It was raining at 7 am, so we waited at Linda’s house for dry weather to catch up with us. After making us a lazy, delicious breakfast, Linda drove us over to Boonville to meet up with our Richmond friends–Cathy, Bob, Jim, and Nanci–and our bikes. Andy at Champion Cycles sold us T-shirts and lent us a bike pump from his shop, which impressed us as friendly and capable shop.

Setting off from Boonville, from left, Bob, Mac, Nanci, Jim, Cathy, Robert, Linda and Tom. Saturday May 11, 2019. Photo by Andy at Champion Cycles.

  • We rolled out at 1115 am, after the rain stopped, heading up the long slope to Pilot Grove. Locals called this portion of the railway “Lard Hill,” because the story goes that after a trackside woman’s pig was killed by a train, and the Katy turned her claim down, she began greasing the rails nearby with pig fat. Enough locomotives became stuck on the uphill that the railroad finally settled. We found the uphill steady and endless, making only 8 mph on the grade. 

Day 5 — some of the scenery while cycling from Boonville to Sedalia, after rain has ended

  • I had two flats before Pilot Grove on the Katy, both on the front tire. Had another after lunch on the way into Clifton City.

Katarina’s Homestyle Cafe in Pilot Grove — Recommended: great BBQ sandwiches for very reasonable prices.

 

Tom in the drizzle enroute to Sedalia

  • The latter half of the ride–still uphill–was damp and cool. Perhaps the temp topped 60, but not by much. 

Bob and Mac crossing the through truss bridge short of Sedalia, while I fix flat #3.

  • Because the Katy is closed off in eastern side of town, we took a road detour into Sedalia of 2-3 miles on pavement. A relief, actually, to be off the soggy crushed limestone. By the time we reached town, those three flats had me ready for new tires. Cathy phone around for a bike shop and worked a miracle: Ebby at Pro-Velo Cycles in downtown Sedalia sold me two new tires and installed them expertly, even after his normal shop hours. Great work. 
  • We rode another couple of miles to the hotel, and arrived at the Comfort Inn around 6:50 pm.

Tired but finally dry, here’s our group at Sedalia’s Comfort Inn.

  • Dinner at LeMaire’s Cajun Seafood, which served up some good gumbo and fried okra. Bought light gloves at Lowes, anticipating the cold ride the next morning. There’s also a Walmart about a quarter mile off. Mac grabbed some extra gloves for me, as I’d not bought enough for everyone. They were a finger-saver the next morning. On to our final day and the run into Clinton on the Katy’s western end. 

**

Day 6 on the Katy Trail: Sunday, May 12, 2019

Temps had dropped into the low 50s with a trace of drizzle as we departed the Comfort Inn (Sedalia Station) on the west side of Sedalia. I was wearing rain pants, two jackets, and gloves. Here we are toasting our final launch. Bob Gleich surprised us with a bottle of champagne he’d carried over five days of the Katy Trail in his panniers. 

Toasting the trail with Mimosas, using Bob’s well-traveled champagne.

  • The ride from Sedalia to Clinton was about 36 miles. With the road detours leaving the hotel that morning (2+ miles uphill to the Katy), it was closing in on 40 miles.
  • Set off in 50 degree cold with a sprinkle. I rode in rain pants, two jackets, and light gloves (thanks to Mac for buying them).

Our group of 7 at the Katy high point.

  • Ride was mostly up hill despite cresting the highest point of 955’ MSL just east of Windsor. Even then the trail seemed at best, level, and often up hill, making only 8 mph of headway due to wind and soft trail surface.
  • Stopped for coffee in Windsor at the Sidetrack café. Cup of coffee, $1. Service? You get what you pay for. They were swamped. We lit out for the trail after warming up with coffee. 

Sidetrack Cafe….SLOW!

  • MM 229.1 at start, and then 264.6 at Clinton, at end.
  • New tires did the trick: no flats! I rode at the rear most of the way; my tires felt too soft at 60 psi.

Here we are at the trail map at the Clinton western terminus!

  • At 1:15 pm, all 7 of us rolled into Clinton to the trail’s end, and there was Dave Browning waiting for us with his pickup. We loaded our bikes in his truck bed, and our 4 Richmond friends left on a van shuttle back to St. Charles for the night. We conquered the Katy!

Our group at the Clinton finish under glowering skies. Began to rain again shortly after! From left: Tom, Robert, Mac, Nanci, Bob, Jim, and Cathy. Photo by Dave Browning, my old B-52 nav.

We’d easily ridden 250 miles in 6 days. Only a couple of hours of steady drizzle hit us on the trail in all that time. But we had some chilly winds in our face, six flat tires for me, all outweighed by the beautiful scenery of Missouri, the rich history of the region, and the good company along the trail. See you down the road on two wheels. 

Filed Under: History, Recreation

Earth Views from STS-98, Atlantis: Feb. 7-20, 2001

March 2, 2019 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

On Feb. 19, 2001, my Atlantis crewmates and I obtained this image of the summit caldera of Mauna Loa volcano, called Mokuaweoweo Caldera. NASA writes that “Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on our planet—the summit elevation is 4,170 m (over 13,600 ft), but the volcano’s summit rises 9 km above the sea floor. The sharp features of the summit caldera and lava flows that drain outward from the summit are tribute to the fact that Mauna Loa is one of the Earth’s most active volcanoes. The most recent eruption was in 1984. The straight line the cuts through the center of the crater from top to bottom is a rift zone—an area that pulls apart as magma reaches the surface.”

We found ourselves looking down the throat of Mauna Loa on a winter day, after a recent snow dusted the summit in white. To the left of the summit crater is the volcano’s Southwest Rift Zone; the 1984 eruption occurred on the right side, on the eastern slopes of the mountain above Hilo. The caldera and its solidified lava floor is very similar to the mammoth volcanic summit of Olympus Mons on Mars.

Later in 2001, after all of our post-mission tasks, I spent a good 10 days with my family in Hawaii, one of my favorite spots on Earth. I still plan to make it to the summit we glimpsed from 220 nautical miles up–it’s on my list! 

Mauna Loa Caldera from Atlantis. (NASA STS098-366-030)

(posted 1/24/20)

**

From Atlantis on STS-98 our crew looked back toward sunset over the Mediterranean on Feb. 13, 2001. In the foreground is the Albanian coast, with the island of Corfu partly under clouds at lower left. Across the Otranto Strait at lower right is the heel of the boot of the Italian peninsula. Beyond it lies the Gulf of Taranto, and then the toe of the boot, the Calabria region. Just visible under a sheet of high clouds, across the Strait of Messina, is Sicily, lapped on the left by the golden waters of the Ionian Sea. The Romans called the waters in this view Mare Nostrum, “Our Sea.” From our ship, we could only marvel at Earth’s beauty.  

I often use this view in one of my talks, “Seeing Earth in a New Way.” 

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Italy, Sicily, and Albania in sunglint from Atlantis, 4-13-01 (NASA STS098-708-13)

(posted April 8, 2019)

**

Everest, shot from Atlantis on 2/19/01, with 400mm lens. (NASA STS098-310-011)

I put this shot of Everest in my list of photo highlights from STS-98. We used a long, 400mm telephoto lens on a Nikon 35mm camera to capture this straight-down, or nadir, view of the world’s highest mountain (the summit is 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level). Mark Polansky and I woke up in the middle of our sleep period to find Everest and view the majestic Himalayas. North is to upper left, and the summit at center (the apex of three ridges) straddles the Nepalese and Tibetan border, claimed by China. The north face is the triangular, dark slope opening to the upper left from the summit. Strong winds carry blowing snow off the summit to the upper right. The usual climbing route is up the Khumbu glacier on the southwest flank, then up the south ridge to the summit. However, the way to see Everest is like this: in your shirt sleeves, gazing down serenely from 200 nm (370 km). 

(posted 4/3/19)

**

Halfway through our mission to the International Space Station aboard Atlantis, we captured this westward view of the toe of Italy’s boot and volcanic Sicily floating on a sunlit Mediterranean. The dark summit of active Mt. Etna, 10,912 feet above sea level, peeps through the broken cloud deck over the island of Sicily. Those are the Aeolian Islands “float” on the golden sea north of Sicily; continually erupting Stromboli is the island at lower right in that chain. The Straits of Messina glow in sun glint between mainland Italy and Sicily. Views like this one make the space journey a wonder. 

Oblique view of Italy and Sicily (STS098-713-011)

STS098-713-011 (15 February 2001) — An oblique, westerly-looking view over the Strait of Messini (center), which runs between Italy’s “boot” (bottom) and the heavily cloud-covered Sicily (top). The image was recorded with a handheld 70mm camera by one of the STS-98 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis. Parts of the Tyrrhenian Sea (right center), Ionian Sea (lower right) and the Mediterranean Sea (left) are covered in the picture.

**

Space shuttle Atlantis carried my astronaut crew to the International Space Station on mission STS-98, from Feb. 7-20, 2001. With our suite of cameras, the five of us spent every minute we could crowding the orbiter’s windows to drink in the view of our home planet. Here are some examples:

Grand Canyon view, looking south from Utah, from Atlantis STS-98 (STS098-714A-049)

Here is our sweeping shot of one of America’s magnificent national parks, the Grand Canyon. As we looked south from over Utah, we viewed the north rim nearest us (center left with long, snow-covered meadow) and the snow-dusted south rim with its visitor center directly across the wide canyon. The San Francisco volcanic field near Flagstaff is at top left. Lake Meade is at the far right center edge of the photo, while Lake Powell, upstream, is at the left center edge. 

NASA’s caption states: Demonstrating the power of water erosion, this orbital view photographed by the crew of Atlantis during STS-98 on February 16, 2001, as the spacecraft orbited the earth at an altitude of 173 nautical miles (320 kilometers), shows Lake Powell at the headwaters of the Colorado River in southwestern Utah. The river over eons has carved out Arizona’s mile deep and 270 mile long Grand Canyon. Prominent in this scene is the Kaibab Plateau at the head of the canyon where the big bend of the Colorado River has eroded the plateau into a peninsula. This plateau, directly across the canyon from the South Rim Visitor’s Center, is at the widest part of the canyon, about 12 miles. The Kaibab Indian Reservation and the Kaibab National Forest are visible in the picture. (STS098-714A-049 — 16 February 2001)

I’ve taken a couple of raft trips down the Canyon, and they have to be a couple of the best camping trips of my life. Though only six million years old, the Canyon is a stupendous place to hike, camp, raft the white water, and drink in the view of a vividly painted geological laboratory. 

**

Molokai, Lanai, and Maui seen from STS-98 (NASA STS098-714A-078). This image of three of my favorite Hawaiian islands is from a frame of IMAX film, shot for the movie “Space Station 3D”. You get a rough idea of what our 50th state looks like from the space station altitude of roughly 240 nautical miles. 

Maui, on the right, is composed of two volcanoes joined in the middle. Heavily eroded West Maui volcano looks across Lahaina Roads to Molokai, and the dormant Haleakala (last eruption a couple of hundred years ago) dominates the island’s east flank, with the summit at 10,023 feet. 

Maui and Molokai 70mm STS098-714A-078

Filed Under: History, Media, Space

Training for STS-80 Columbia

September 28, 2018 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Brought together in late 1995, the NASA and United Space Alliance training team for STS-80 is shown below, along with our space shuttle crew. We are posing in front of the Full Fuselage Trainer, a full-scale mockup of the shuttle orbiter’s fuselage and payload bay (it didn’t have wings). Made mostly of wood, the FFT is now at the Seattle Museum of Flight, showcased in an impressive space gallery enclosed in a giant wall of glass.

The STS-80 training team and flight crew: Front row from left: Jean Gill, Mike Jensen, Wes Penney, Michael Grabois, Jackie Prewitt, Henry Lampazzi, John Limongelli, Tori Palmer, Heidi Jennings, Kelsey Watts. Back row from left: Chris Noyes, James Tinch, Bill Preston, Kim Kennedy, [the crew of Story, Tom, Taco, Tammy, and Rommel] Alan Burge, Dave Shaw(?), Jenny Young.

It’s a truism, but we could not have flown STS-80 without the thousands of hours of classroom and simulator instruction provided by this skilled group. The team taught us in the following areas:

Chris Noyes: robot arm–the payload deployment and retrieval system (PDRS)

James Tinch: on-the-job-trainee for PDRS with Chris.

Bill Preston: payloads

Kim Kennedy: communications

Alan Burge: payloads

David [Shaw?]: training manager

Jenny Young: payloads

Jean Gill: communications and NSS (simulator facilities)

Mike Jensen: orbiter systems

Wes Penney: control and propulsion

Michael Grabois: systems on-the-job trainee

Jackie Prewitt: payloads

Henry Lampazzi: ascent procedures

John Limongelli: Team Lead

Tori Palmer: data processing system and navigation

Heidi Jennings: payloads

Kelsey Watts: on-the-job trainee for data processing system (DPS) and navigation

Thank you, training team!

 

Tom running checklist items on fixed base flight deck

Practicing for orbit operations in the fixed base simulator, I sit in the pilot seat while handling some flight plan chores. I’m entering a command into the General Purpose Computer keyboard on the pilot’s side of the flight deck. We wore headsets so we could hear mission control clearly; the simulator speaker was sometimes distorted. The white caddy at right holds checklists (called flight data file) handy during free fall. The laptop at upper left showed us our position over the globe.

Egress training: We used the Cockpit Configuration Trainer in Building 9 at Johnson for practicing emergency egress from the shuttle cabin. The CCT could rotate 90 degrees to put us in a launch position, for exercising an emergency launch pad escape from the cabin.

Here you see Story and I on the flight deck in the MS-1 and MS-2 seats, respectively, readying for an emergency egress run.

Story Musgrave and Tom Jones in CCT for egress training (launch)

Similarly, we rehearsed getting out of the shuttle cabin during reentry, either for bailout in flight or for leaving the flight deck after a crash landing. Tammy rode the MS-1 seat during entry. I stayed put in the flight engineer’s seat, MS-2. All our ACES (Advanced Crew Escape Suit) suit gear, checklists, and intercom systems were realistically outfitted for these exercises.

Tammy Jernigan and Tom Jones in CCT for reentry egress training 1996

Our egress training also included using the Sky Genie escape rope to exit the top (jettisonable) window on the port side of the orbiter aft flight deck. We watched our crewmates descend via the Sky Genie while we waited our turn.

Tammy Jernigan and Tom wait to climb to the flight deck and exit the top, aft, port window (Window 8). I am holding a cooling air hose that blows into a fitting on the torso.

 

Tom, Story, and Rommel await their turn on the Sky Genie next to the Full Fuselage Trainer.

Sitting atop the FFT after exiting from the top left window on the roof of the flight deck, the view is a bit scary: you’re up about three stories off the ground, with only one rope and the parachute harness to ensure safety. Here I am letting down from the orbiter’s starboard side, feeding the rope through the Sky Genie brake. “Hanging on for dear life” is the phrase that ran through my mind.

Tom shinnies down Sky Genie from FFT top hatch

In the photo below, I’m in front of the FFT with my Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), a full pressure suit evolved from the earlier NASA Launch and Entry Suit. I think David Clark made these suits for NASA, based on experience with the SR-71 pressure suits.

Tom in new ACES pressure suit with FFT — 1996

Our astronomical satellite, ORFEUS-SPAS, would be deployed on Flight Day 1 by Tammy Jernigan and me. We trained for remote manipulator system operations with ORFEUS SPAS in the fixed base simulator, and in Building 9 at Johnson with the Manipulator Development Facility (MDF). Here a hydraulically powered arm mimicked the behavior of the shuttle’s electric-motor-driven robot arm, using lightweight, full-scale replicas of our satellite cargoes, sometimes inflated with helium to counteract their weight on Earth. In each facility, we ran through all our release and grapple operations until we could handle the arm precisely in a variety of normal and emergency operations.

Tom handling the RMS controls at the MDF with SPAS on the end of the arm. The satellite is merely a lightweight plastic framework with fabric panels.

 

Tom (on right) handles RMS controls in the MDF aft flight deck. My instructor puts me through the wringer with SPAS, even though Tammy was the prime operator for release and grapple during the mission.

The reusable Shuttle Pallet Satellite spacecraft, retrieved on our STS-80 mission and then flown again the following year with a different telescope package (CRISTA), is now on display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

CRISTA SPAS – our reusable satellite (ORFEUS SPAS on our mission) is now on display in Munich. A project of the German space agency, it flew on four shuttle missions. 

 

Getting close: the mission billboard at entrance to Johnson Space Center

For the full story, read the STS-80 chapters in “Sky Walking”. Book links can be found at www.AstronautTomJones.com.

 

Filed Under: History, Space

Training for STS-68, Space Radar Lab 2 (Flown Sept. 30- Oct. 11, 1994)

July 31, 2018 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Our indispensable training team poses with our crew in front of the Full Fuselage Trainer at JSC in Houston. (s94-037719). Left to right: Steve Smith (MS-1), Mark Sonata, ???, Jeff Wisoff (MS-3), Dawn Thomas, Christine Turpin, Terr Wilcutt (pilot), Maria Martinez, Matt Lindsey, Tom Jones (MS-4), Mark Veile, Wyatt Smith (Training Team Lead), Dan Bursch (MS-2), Jeff Fitch, Mark Powell, Mike Baker (commander), Erich Staniak, and Betty Cain.

The crew of STS-68, Space Radar Lab 2, flying Endeavour. Throughout our training syllabus, we were guided through the frantic schedule of classes and simulator sessions by our training team. Without their expertise, we would never have been ready in time for our planned Aug. 18 launch date.

The FFT trainer, once in Bldg. 9, is now at the Seattle Museum of Flight, still bearing the scuff marks from the boots of dozens of crews sliding down the exterior using their “Sky Genie” escape ropes. Egress training usually took half a day or so as we ran through all the orbiter escape modes: on the launch pad, on the landing runway at a remote site, in a crash landing, and exiting quickly from the overhead windows after discovering a jammed side hatch.

STS-68 crew in Bldg 9 for egress training, May 1994. Left to right: Mike Baker, Steve Smith, Dan Bursch, Tom Jones, and Terry Wilcutt standing. Jeff Wisoff is up there rappelling down the orbiter mockup, out of view.

 

Here I descend from an overhead crane rigged to let us practice using the Sky Genie to lower ourselves safely.

The first exercise is to use the Sky Genie to descend from the orbiter side hatch, a scenario that might take place in a forced landing at a remote airport with no ground support crew available to help us escape the cabin.

Tom begins descent from orbiter side hatch. May 1994,

 

Tom descends side of the FFT during egress training for STS-68. Believe me, from the top of the orbiter, it sure looks a long way down.

Tom slides down orbiter starboard side on Sky Genie. One of my crewmates critiques my rappelling skills.

 

Tom raises helmet visor after descent from orbiter. With the visor closed, I breathed through an emergency oxygen supply bottle in the parachute harness, activated by that “green apple” knob on my right side.

 

Jeff Wisoff (center) with Tom Jones and instructor during egress training. We are waiting for our turn at the Sky Genie exercises.

 

Bryce and Annie look at Tom inside the FFT middeck as Tom waits for the next egress exercise.

 

Annie and Bryce with Tom in Building 9. That’s the FFT at left. Steve Smith is at right.

 

Liz was there, of course, giving Bryce and Annie a chance to watch their dad’s egress training (May 1994).

This egress session was just a month after I’d returned from STS-59. The quick turnaround for another flight left our family’s heads spinning. The twin flight assignments seemed like a great opportunity at the time.

We spent dozens of hours training for orbital operations of Space Radar Lab 2 in the Fixed Base shuttle simulator in Building 5 at JSC. Here we are on the middeck during a long orbital simulation. The middeck of the fixed base was not high fidelity, but it had all the necessary pieces of the orbiter’s lower compartment required for normal and emergency procedures training. The galley worked, so we could sample space food during our longer exercises.

Tom and Jeff Wisoff on middeck of fixed base simulator.

Jeff and Tom train for SRL-2 operations on the flight deck of the fixed base sim.

The cartoon dialogue in the photo above refers to the fact that I was training simultaneously for my STS-59 mission–my first–and STS-68 with Jeff and company–my second. Jeff and the rest of the crew never missed a chance to zing me on the fact that I was skipping many of their training sessions in favor of my imminent launch on STS-59, Space Radar Lab 1. If all went according to plan, I would fly on STS-68 just 4.5 months after launching on STS-59–a space shuttle record. But it was not to be….

Story Musgrave dropped by the simulator to visit our crew and see first-hand what our operations setup was for Space Radar Lab 2. That’s the big barrel of the Linhof camera behind us, pointing at Earth overhead. Story was our lead capcom for the SRL-2 mission; I would later fly with Story on STS-80 in 1996.

 

STS-68 training with Dan Bursch, Tom Jones on Fixed Base simulator flight deck

For SRL-2 training we used both the Fixed Base sim in Building 5 and the GNS simulator in Building 35. I can’t tell from these photos which one we’re in, but perhaps some of our sharp-eyed instructor team can tell the difference. In the shot above, you can see a map over my shoulder of our SRL data takes (radar on and off), and the big Linhof camera in the overhead window for our science photography. Dan would be our shift commander and orbiter systems ace (he served as MS-2, the flight engineer, during launch and landing). I was the payload commander, working with fellow scientist Jeff Wisoff on the Red Shift. The aft flight deck would be our office for the 11-day mission, running the SRL-2 payload.

Dan, Steve, & Tom train on Blue Shift in the middeck of the Fixed Base simulator.

The Blue Shift–Dan, Steve, and I–train on the simulator middeck in the above photo, with the doorway out to “port” behind us; it led to the functional space toilet trainer across the hallway. It was useful to use that trainer during every simulator session, so the system operation was second nature by the time you got to orbit and experienced the call of nature.

Tom and JPL’s JoBea Way during an SRL-2 sim in FB simulator.

JoBea Way (now Holt) was one of our Jet Propulsion Lab scientists for SRL-2, specializing in the boreal, or northern forests spread across the northern hemisphere’s high latitudes (think Alaska, Siberia and Canada). JoBea also served as one of our payload operations control center (POCC) communicators, taking an 8-hour shift each day in Houston while we were in orbit as the link between the flight crew and the science and experiment operations team. In the shot above on the aft flight deck, JoBea came over from Mission Control’s Building 30 to visit us in the sim and get a sense of our spacecraft routine during science operations. We astronauts did the same in reverse; when our shift was over, we’d pay a visit to the POCC to see how the team there handled operations.

Our crew of six included two EVA-qualified astronauts: Jeff Wisoff and Steve Smith. They trained for an unexpected spacewalk on STS-68, if needed for repairs or emergency closure of the payload bay doors or latches. As Jeff and Steve worked through their syllabus, including four underwater sessions covering most orbiter repair tasks, I visited to refresh my memory on their tools and to take some photos of them as they prepared to plunge into the 25-foot-deep pool. I’d trained for this same job on STS-59, a few months earlier. Here, Jeff is fully suited, on the donning stand, and ready to begin his training class. Steve Smith is on the other side of the stand. Crewmate and Endeavour pilot Terry Wilcutt took the photo.

Tom Jones with EV1 crewmember Jeff Wisoff, at NASA’s WETF, 1994. (NASA s94-40119)

 

Steve Smith suits up for WETF run with Tom lending moral support. Terry Wilcutt was the Intravehicular Activity crewperson, helping the pair suit up, and then coordinating the EVA from inside the cabin.

Terry and I discussed Steve and Jeff’s work poolside at the Weightless Environment Training Facility in Bldg. 29 at Johnson Space Center. This building had once housed the Apollo-era centrifuge, but with the advent of the shuttle, the centrifuge gave way to the new WETF swimming pool for EVA training. The building also housed control consoles, life support systems, tool storage, a medical office, and diver and astronaut locker facilities. An ambulance was always parked at the WETF entrance during suited runs underwater.

Terry Wilcutt (L), STS-68 pilot, discusses contingency EVA plans with payload commander Tom Jones. (NASA S94-40116)

Terry Wilcutt (L), STS-68 pilot, discusses contingency EVA plans with payload commander Tom Jones. (NASA S94-40116)

Nearing our launch date in July and early August, we did a series of simulations, some lasting 36 hours, which helped get us ready with Mission Control for launch, orbit operations, and reentry.

Tom, Dan, and Steve during Blue Shift operations on aft flight deck.

During one long sim, the Red Shift team of Bakes, Terry, and Jeff went off duty for some shut-eye, leaving our Blue Shift (the night shift in Houston) on duty for 12 hours. Here I’m with Dan and Steve on the flight deck. About every 45 minutes, we’d punch a new set of attitude coordinates into the flight computer to keep us aimed accurately at our upcoming targets and reduce the radar echo distortion due to the Earth’s rotation. Here Dan has the ATL, the attitude timeline, in hand to enter the next set of coordinates. Steve is busy with videotaping our science targets, and I’m hovering over Dan’s inputs — we always double-checked them lest we miss or botch a maneuver (more than 400 during the mission, a shuttle record).

Tom preparing for reentry in a deorbit prep sim on middeck of the fixed base simulator.

What’s going on above is that our crew is readying for reentry in a simulation running through “deorbit preparation,” or Deorbit Prep. I’d be on the middeck for reentry with Steve Smith. You can see one of our suits on the floor, ready for donning. Steve’s seat is behind me next to the galley, with a mesh bag containing his helmet, gloves, and kneeboard. The lockers at right are the forward storage lockers, containing our food. clothing, checklists, camera gear and film, and several science experiments. I’m wearing my Patagonia long-johns while I wait to suit up, meanwhile running through the checklist that prepares the middeck for reentry. On my left shoulder is the electrical lead for the EKG sensors I’ve got glued to my chest, to monitor my cardiac response during reentry. We’re not weightless, and the simulator middeck is a bit roomier than the real shuttle’s, and not all of the lockers and switch panels are in the right place, but we can practice all our steps here, including suiting up, strapping in, and reentry and landing. This training was very effective: in the real spaceship, I knew where every piece of gear was and where to find every switch and circuit breaker.

Check out the shuttle drink bag just to the left of my head; it would ordinarily be velcroed to the wall.

Steve, I think, took the shot below, with me pondering my next switch throw on the overhead communications panel on the middeck. I’m holding the Deorbit Prep checklist–my bible for this phase of flight.

Tom checks switch settings on middeck of Fixed Base sim.

Nearing our deorbit burn, all six of us were suited for the entry phase of the simulation. Here I am in the Fixed Base middeck with my Launch and Entry Suit (LES) on.

Tom ready for deorbit sim portion of the sim, seated in the MS-4 seat in the middeck.

Read more about STS-68 in Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir, by Tom Jones.

Filed Under: History, Space

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