TOM JONES

ASTRONAUT SPEAKER

Inverness and Loch Ness, Scotland from Endeavour, STS-59

April 8, 2016 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Inverness, Loch Ness, and northern Scotland from Endeavour, STS-59. April 10, 1994. Hasselblad 100mm. (NASA STS059-76-077)

Inverness, Loch Ness, and northern Scotland from Endeavour, STS-59. April 10, 1994. Hasselblad 100mm. (NASA STS059-76-077)

Inverness, in northern Scotland, is known as “The Capital of the Highlands.” The city derives its name from the Scots’ Gaelic term “Inbhir Nis” which translates as “mouth of the Ness.” It officially became a city in 2001 after competing with other locations to be awarded the status of “city.”

In this image, Inverness is centrally located and is split by the River Ness at the deep indentation into the northeast Scottish coast. Loch Ness is the dagger-like, cloud-free lake pointing to the lower left of this photo.

In early April, snow still covered the Scottish highlands as my Space Radar Lab crew coasted over on Endeavour, STS-59. Still on my bucket list to visit!

www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

Filed Under: History, Space

Mt. Ararat from Endeavour, STS-59

April 8, 2016 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Mt. Ararat far right) in far eastern Turkey on the Armenian border. Shot from STS-59 Endeavour on April 4, 1994 with a 100mm Hasselblad. NASA STS059-201-094)

Mt. Ararat far right) in far eastern Turkey on the Armenian border. Shot from STS-59 Endeavour on April 4, 1994 with a 100mm Hasselblad. NASA STS059-201-094)

 

Early spring shows lingering snows on the mountains of far eastern Turkey and its border region with Armenia. Mt. Aragats, a dormant volcano in Armenia, is at top in this photo, at 13,419 feet. North is to the upper left. At far right center is the twin-volcano plateau of Mt. Ararat, which last erupted in 1840. The river angling from lower left to upper right is the border between Turkey and Armenia, the Aras, flowing east toward the Kura and the Caspian Sea. The frozen, volcanic lake in the mountains at lower center is Balik Gulu, or Fish Lake. The Armenian capital, Yerevan, is located just east of a line between Ararat and Aragats, between the river and the center/top/right of the photo (I can’t see it very well).

Ararat is 5,137 m (16,854 ft) tall, and is the traditional resting place of Noah’s Ark. This entire eastern region of Turkey and Armenia is full of volcanoes, rugged mountains, and tectonic faults that generate massive quakes. Our crew on Space Radar Lab 1 mapped such tectonic faults across the entire sweep of the continents. STS-59 flew from April 9 to April 20, 1994. These photos keep my memories of that mission crisp.

www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: History, Space

Launching an Annual Asteroid Day

March 2, 2016 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

In late February, the Association of Space Explorers, working with the United Nations in Vienna, proposed that the UN declare that Asteroid Day be held as an annual, global event. Asteroid Day, first held in 2015, heightens public awareness of the asteroid impact hazard, educates society on what we humans can do with space technology to prevent a future disaster, and calls for stepping up the discovery rate of possibly hazardous asteroids. 

 

08_Vienna-STS-COPUOS-session-NEO_D-Prunariu_17Feb2016_.JPG

Association of Space Explorers member (and Romanian cosmonaut) Dorin Prunariu delivers the ASE statement on Asteroid Day to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Feb. 2016.(credit Dorin Prunariu)

At the Vienna session of the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (through its Science and Technical Subcommittee), our ASE representative Dorin Prunariu delivered our statement on the importance of Asteroid Day as a global, UN-recognized event. His presentation to the member state delegates was well-received. The Association of Space Explorers submitted a Conference Room Paper to the member state delegates calling for recognition of Asteroid Day, and it’s posted here. 

Here is one excerpt from our Paper:

In view of the successful results of last year’s Asteroid Day, and the goals and
plans for Asteroid Day 2016 and beyond, the Association of Space Explorers asks
the member States of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to support
Asteroid Day’s goals, and to propose that the United Nations General Assembly at
its 71st session in 2016 declare the International Asteroid Day as [an] annual global
observance. The purpose of such an Asteroid Day declaration is to promote and
raise each year at the international level the awareness of NEO hazards, the
potential for space science and technology to protect humanity against future
damaging impacts, and the need to act together to end the threat of an asteroid
collision with Earth. Because 30 June was the date of the largest impact of an
asteroid on Earth in historical times, we propose that the United Nations General
Assembly resolve that the International Asteroid Day be celebrated and promoted
annually on that date.

We anticipate that the full Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, meeting in June, will adopt the report of its Committee. If so, October’s gathering of the General Assembly in New York should see the approval of the document, and thus UN recognition of Asteroid Day as an annual, global event. 

The Association of Space Explorers Committee on Near-Earth Objects thanks Dorin (celebrating the 35th anniversary of the first Romanian space mission (his) this year) and the Asteroid Day organizers Grig Richter and Danica Remy for making the work in Vienna possible. So this June 30, check with AsteroidDay.org to see and attend the closest Asteroid Day event, or better yet, plan to organize and hold one of your own. We’re sure to continue our ASE support of this year’s events with astronauts attending many of the Asteroid Day gatherings. See you on June 30. 

Filed Under: History, Space

#Apollo45: Moon Memories

December 14, 2015 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

July 2014 marked the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the first time astronauts visited and walked on another celestial body. I recorded my memories of that event, and the inspiration it brought to me, at the #Apollo45 YouTube channel.

Here is my video link.

What do you remember seeing–and feeling–on July 20, 1969?

www.AstronautTomJones.com

apollo 11 crew NASM 7-19-09

The Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 2009, at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Aldrin (left), Armstrong, and Collins. (NASM)

 

Filed Under: History, Space, Uncategorized

Four Hairballs Head for Space–STS-68

September 11, 2015 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Since July 1990, the 23 members of Astronaut Group XIII had studied and trained together for their ultimate challenge in space. Although all of us wanted to be the first in our class to fly, we knew it would take a couple of years to get every Hairball into orbit, flying a couple of us rookies at most with every shuttle mission. Bernard Harris and Charlie Precourt were the first in the group to get to space, flying in April 1993 on STS-55. It was almost a year later before I got my chance on STS-59.

Just six months earlier, in October, I was floored to learn I’d be joined on STS-68, flying the SRL-2 radar imaging payload, by THREE of my Hairball classmates: Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch. We’d spent a year together in “astronaut school” at Johnson Space Center, and flown everything from the simulators to T-38 jets together. We knew each others’ personalities well, and I was reassured that I was flying with good friends and strong, capable crewmates. Jeff and Dan had flown in the previous year as mission specialists, and Terry would be our crew’s pilot. The way we split up our orbit team for round-the-clock radar operations, Dan and I would work the “night” shift together–the Blue Shift–, along with Steve Smith, and Terry and Jeff would take up the Red Shift–daytime back in Houston–with commander Mike Baker.

Today, Terry is the safety and mission assurance chief at NASA, Jeff is principal associate director of the National Ignition Facility (“lasers”), and Dan is a senior project engineer at the Aerospace Corporation. They’ve taught me so much, both on space and on Earth.

Here we are, just after suiting up down the hall from astronaut crew quarters in the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. From here it was just a few short steps to the elevator down to the Astrovan, and our ride to the pad for the launch of STS-68,

Read more about the STS-68 mission in “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir,” and at my website, www.AstronautTomJones.com.

Filed Under: History, Space

Food for Thought…Just Before Liftoff

September 10, 2015 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Launch Morning Breakfast, STS-68: Aug. 18, 1994 (NASA)

Launch Morning Breakfast, STS-68: Aug. 18, 1994 (NASA)

In a tradition dating back to Alan Shepard’s first U.S. spaceflight in 1961, astronauts are served a favorite meal before suiting up and heading to the launch pad–and space. On STS-68, scheduled for an Aug. 18, 1994 launch, I asked the dietitians at the NASA Astronaut Crew Quarters at Kennedy Space Center (my favorite was Dotti Kunde) to prepare a mushroom and cheese omelet with bacon, toast, fresh fruit, coffee, and orange juice. My crew gathered in the dining room of crew quarters for a ceremonial photo and a wave at the TV cameras, and a formal acceptance of our “mission cake,” a giant sheet cake with our SRL-2/STS-68 patch decorating the top. After the photos, the cake immediately went into the freezer and was delivered to Houston. We’d eat the cake when–and if–we actually returned from a successful mission.

Breakfast was served between five and six hours before liftoff, so there was no possibility that any of this delicious food was going to still be in my stomach when I arrived in free fall. Hence, I needn’t worry about seeing any of it if I experienced a bout of space sickness on arrival in orbit. (Besides, I took anti-nausea meds on the launch pad, eliminating any possibility of “space adaptation syndrome” that might require me to deploy my space sickness bag.)

Of course, this was just the first launch morning breakfast I’d enjoy on STS-68. I came back six weeks later for another one, following our pad abort on August 18 and Endeavour’s return to the pad for our next attempt. But that’s another story….

Thank you, Dot and friends, for a delicious breakfast. It was plenty tasty enough to make one intent on returning to Earth.

Read more about STS-68 in “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir.”

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: human spaceflight program, shuttle, space history

STS-68 Preflight: Getting Ready for Space Radar Lab 2

September 8, 2014 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

The STS-68 crew in the JSC photo studio: Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, and Bursch. (NASA sts-6814-1994)

The STS-68 crew in the JSC photo studio:
Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, and Bursch. (NASA sts-6814-1994)

The crew of STS-68, Space Radar Lab 2, on 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.

Our indispensable training team poses with our crew in front of the Full Fuselage Trainer at JSC in Houston. (s94-037719).

Our indispensable training team poses with our crew in front of the Full Fuselage Trainer at JSC in Houston. (s94-037719).

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.

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.

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

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)

Tom Jones arrives at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal. Aug. 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-936)

Tom Jones arrives at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal. Aug. 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-936)

Smith, Bursch, and Jones inspect the release for the slide wire basket at the blast bunker. (STS-68-3)

Smith, Bursch, and Jones inspect the release for the slide wire basket at the blast bunker. (STS-68-3)

We all had a chance to drive the M113 APC, below, just in case we had to evacuate an injured crewmember from the blast bunker and get him to a nearby helipad.

The crew inspects the rear ramp into the M113 armored personnel carrier. (NASA STS-68-1)

The crew inspects the rear ramp into the M113 armored personnel carrier. (NASA STS-68-1)

Our crew posed on the launch pad next to Endeavour during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. This swingarm carries flammable, gaseous hydrogen away from the external tank during launch preparations. It’s amazing to get so close to this massive machinery, even more startling to realize you’re going to ride it off the planet.

The STS-68 crew on the ET umbilical swing arm during TCDT, Aug. 1994.

The STS-68 crew on the ET umbilical swing arm during TCDT, Aug. 1994.

The AstroVan (below) is now on display near Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Will it roll again? Here we’re loose and joking, but the atmosphere’s a little more tense on the day of the real ride to the launch pad.

Inside the AstroVan on the way to the launch pad during TCDT, August 1994. L to R: Wisoff, Bursch, Wilcutt, Baker, Jones, and Smith. (NASA)

Inside the AstroVan on the way to the launch pad during TCDT, August 1994. L to R: Wisoff, Bursch, Wilcutt, Baker, Jones, and Smith. (NASA)

As we waited for our strap-in and countdown rehearsal aboard Endeavour, we took some photos atop the launch pad.

Tom Jones, Steve Smith, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch wait atop Pad 39A's 195-foot-level, at the entrance to the swing arm and White Room. 8-1-1994. (NASA)

Tom Jones, Steve Smith, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch wait atop Pad 39A’s 195-foot-level, at the entrance to the swing arm and White Room. 8-1-1994. (NASA)

Smith and Jones wait their turns to strap in aboard Endeavour, Aug. 1, 1994. (NASA)

Smith and Jones wait their turns to strap in aboard Endeavour, Aug. 1, 1994. (NASA)

Steve and I would work on the Blue Shift together with Dan Bursch while in orbit. Steve rode uphill in the MS-1 position on the flight deck, next to flight engineer and MS-2 Dan Bursch.

Our countdown rehearsal ended with a mock pad abort and an emergency egress from the crew module to the escape slide baskets on the western, or far side of the 195-foot level.

Following lunch back at crew quarters, we headed back to the pad for an afternoon press conference near the blast bunker on the pad perimeter road.

Dan Bursch, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Baker, and Tom Jones at the post-TCDT press conference. (NASA)

Dan Bursch, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Baker, and Tom Jones at the post-TCDT press conference. (NASA)

On the shot below, the slide wires for the escape baskets are visible, reaching back to the 195-foot level at Pad 39A. It was a hot August day on the Florida Space Coast.

The STS-68 crew l to r, Baker, Jones, Wilcutt, Bursch, Wisoff, Smith, at Pad 39A with Endeavour. (NASA sts-68-2_3)

The STS-68 crew l to r, Baker, Jones, Wilcutt, Bursch, Wisoff, Smith, at Pad 39A with Endeavour. (NASA sts-68-2_3)

Tom Jones and Terry Wilcutt listen to questions from the press after TCDT. (NASA STS-68-2)

Tom Jones and Terry Wilcutt listen to questions from the press after TCDT. (NASA STS-68-2)

Two days before launch, 20 years ago, for STS-68. The crew arrives at the Cape beach house for BBQ with family members. Left to right: Steve Smith, Mike Baker, Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch. NASA had rented us some nifty Chrysler LeBaron convertibles. (below, NASA 9-28-94)

48 hours before launch, the STS-68 crew visits family members at the beach house on Kennedy Space Center. (NASA, 9-28-94)

48 hours before launch, the STS-68 crew visits family members at the beach house on Kennedy Space Center. (NASA, 9-28-94)

The day before launch, our food technicians start loading the contents of the fresh food locker: Wheat Thins in ziplocs, tortillas into dark green packages, squeezable cheese spread, picante sauce packets, peanut butter, empty water pouches, my TastyKake chocolate cupcakes and butterscotch krimpets, and (ahem) white packets of high-fiber cookies.

Loading Endeavour's fresh food locker for flight, STS-68, ~Sep. 29, 1994. (NASA)

Loading Endeavour’s fresh food locker for flight, STS-68, ~Sep. 29, 1994. Andrea Hurd (l), and Michael D. (r) with Tom Jones (standing). (NASA)

After our pad abort on August 18, we were all eager to go. Here are the four “Hairballs” from the 1990 astronaut group flying on STS-68: Jones, Wilcutt, Wisoff, and Bursch. In the background of the suit room, we see Hoot Gibson (chief astronaut) in the blue flight suit, with tan-suited Dave Leestma (chief of Flight Crew Operations) on the right. We would shortly walk to the Astrovan for our ride to Pad 39A.

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Tom and LIz Jones tour Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A a couple of days before launch of STS-68. (photo by Rich Clifford, NASA)

Tom and LIz Jones tour Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A a couple of days before launch of STS-68. (photo by Rich Clifford, NASA)

In the photo above, LIz and I posed in front of Endeavour as part of our spouse’s tour before heading to night viewing with our friends and family. We were able to see the ship from top to bottom, from the White Room down to the flame trench beneath the mobile launch platform on Pad 39A. Likely taken Aug. 17, 1994. For more info on STS-68, see: www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: History, Space

Did UFOs Visit STS-80 Columbia?

September 8, 2014 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Uncategorized

July 1, 2014 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

FROM AIAA Daily Launch, July 1, 2014:

ARM Promoted As Fruitful First Step Toward Mars. In an article for the Space Review (6/30), Louis Friedman, Executive Director-Emeritus of the Planetary Society, and Thomas Jones, veteran astronaut and senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, wrote about why NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) is the “affordable and logical first step” for NASA to send people to Mars despite what the recent National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Human Spaceflight report claimed. With the Apollo and ISS programs the only “successful examples of government support for human space exploration initiatives,” the authors believe that ARM can build the “sustainable momentum” needed at a time there is no “strong geopolitical rationale” for missions to Mars. ARM also would get astronauts into deep space “much sooner, and at much lower cost” than a lunar mission, although the authors do not rule out missions to the moon. Just by examining the NRC report’s recommendations, ARM was an “attractive first step” toward Mars.

An Orion astronaut samples the ancient surface of the ARM asteroid in lunar orbit. (NASA)

An Orion astronaut samples the ancient surface of the ARM asteroid in lunar orbit. (NASA)

See my latest speeches, articles and images at www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

http://astronauttomjones.com/2014/07/01/817/

Filed Under: Space

Endeavour Rollout to Launch Pad 39A, Aug. 8, 1995

March 20, 2014 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on its STS-69 mission on September 7, 1995. The orbiter and stack had rolled back to the VAB on Aug. 1 to avoid the effets of Hurricane Erin. I was one of the capcoms (astronaut communicator working in Mission Control) for the mission, and I had never seen a space shuttle stack move out to the launch pad. So I took advantage of an invitation from the STS-69 crew (Dave Walker, Ken Cockrell, Jim Voss, Mike Gernhardt, and Jim Newman) to join them for the rollout. Our pair of T-38s headed from Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center for the Cape on the afternoon of Aug. 7, 1995.

NASA 907 off the wing of NASA 902, flown by Cockrell/Jones. (Jones photo)

NASA 907 off the wing of NASA 902, flown by Cockrell/Jones. 8/7/95 (Jones photo)

After spending the night at astronaut crew quarters, we were up the next morning to join Endeavour on her roll to the pad, which had begun in darkness at 1:55 am. We drove out to the crawlerway, once the route of Saturn V moon rockets to the pad, catching a heart-stopping view of the shuttle stack about two-thirds of the way to Launch Pad 39A. We parked along the road to step aboard the Mobile Launch Platform and get up close to the orbiter I’d flown twice in the previous year (STS-59 and STS-68).

The STS-69 Endeavour stack plods toward Launch Pad 39A on 8/8/95. (Jones photo)

The STS-69 Endeavour stack plods toward Launch Pad 39A on 8/8/95. (Jones photo)

I had never boarded the MLP while in motion, but it was easy to jump aboard the gangway at its 1 mph pace along the crushed river stone of the crawlerway and climb to the deck. Here I was within touching distance of the Endeavour stack, this time unprotected from any pad structure, as on my prelaunch visits to my ship in 1994. Endeavour was independent and self-supported, gliding toward its appointment with orbit, oblivious of the human gnats buzzing around her with a Nikon draped around their necks.

An early morning  view of Endeavour's main and OMS engines from the mobile launcher deck. (Jones photo)

An early morning view of Endeavour’s main and OMS engines from the mobile launcher deck. (Jones photo)

I think the focus on the above shot is a bit soft, due to the early morning light at the Cape–we got their shortly after dawn. The two tab-shaped gray structures on either side of the orbiter’s tail also belonged to the MLP. They housed the T-minus-zero umbilicals (“T-zero umbilicals” was how we said it), those clusters of gas, power, and propellant lines that fed into the ship on either side, just below the OMS pods. Through these umbilicals the external tank received its propellants, the orbiter received commands and electrical power and sent back telemetry, and its plumbing was furnished with gaseous nitrogen for purging the payload bay and engine compartment. At zero in the count, the umbilical panel was yanked away by a falling counterweight, retracted into the gray structure, and protected from the fierce exhaust blast by armored doors that slammed down over the now-recessed umbilical plate.

The "T-Zero" umbilical panels retract into these twin, armored gray towers flanking either side of Endeavour's engine compartment. (Jones photo)

The “T-Zero” umbilical panels retract into these twin, armored gray towers flanking either side of Endeavour’s engine compartment. (Jones photo)

While pacing the MLP and craning my neck back to look up at Endeavour (as close as I’d been since my landing at Edwards on STS-68 the previous October), I had to get myself in the picture. I’d lived aboard this ship in space for three weeks in 1994, yet it was still hard to wrap my head around that reality. How is it possible that we could have hurled this entire machine into space at five miles per second, with six humans aboard, and brought it back safely to Earth? We have deliberately chosen to walk away from this national capability. Today, if we don’t choose to use these machines any longer, we must quickly–very quickly–develop an alternative national means to send our people to space. Not accelerating this development is sheer negligence on a national scale.

Tom Jones, who flew twice on Endeavour, stands beside the machine he can't quite fully believe took him to space. (Jones photo)

Tom Jones, who flew twice on Endeavour, stands beside the machine he can’t quite fully believe took him to space. (Jones photo)

We dropped back to Earth again, stepping onto the crawlerway for a few more photos as the mobile launcher neared the incline to the top of Pad 39A. These views just kept me grinning and shaking my head in awe. I will be similarly amazed when a mobile launcher carries the first Space Launch System booster to its pad.

The mobile launcher carries Endeavour to the base of the incline leading up to Pad 39A. (Jones photo)

The mobile launcher carries Endeavour to the base of the incline leading up to Pad 39A. (Jones photo)

Endeavour, OV-105, began its ascent of the ramp to 39A as I took up a perch on the Rotating Service Structure, seen to the left in the photo above. This was the rail-mounted “gantry” that would swing in behind the orbiter, once it was in position, and enclose most of the orbiter for protection from the weather. It would also provide clean-room access to the payload bay, enabling technicians to transfer payloads from a mobile canister from the RSS into the payload bay. For me, the top of the RSS provided a fantastic photo vantage point for me and the Nikon F4 I’d borrowed from the photo lab at JSC.

Endeavour seen from the RSS, preparing for the final climb to the pad summit. (Jones photo).

Endeavour seen from the RSS, preparing for the final climb to the pad summit. (Jones photo).

Endeavour begins its climb up the pad incline to its MLP pedestals on Pad 39A. (Jones photo)

Endeavour begins its climb up the pad incline to its MLP pedestals on Pad 39A. (Jones photo)

The MLP jacks up its rear trucks to level the deck and keep Endeavour upright as the climb continues. (Jones photo)

The MLP jacks up its rear trucks to level the deck and keep Endeavour upright as the climb continues. (Jones photo)

Closing in on the summit of Pad 39A. (Jones photos)

Closing in on the summit of Pad 39A. (Jones photos)

From atop the RSS I head the constant roar of the crawler’s diesels (in turn powering electric motors that drive the tracks) as it mounted the pad elevation.

Endeavour atop the MLP is pulling under my vantage point on the Rotating Service Structure. (Jones photo)

Endeavour atop the MLP is pulling under my vantage point on the Rotating Service Structure. (Jones photo)

If there’s anything that will bring a grin to your face, it’s the sight of a spaceship almost imperceptibly rolling up alongside of you. The orbiter seemed to say: “Comin’ through! I’m headed for orbit. Stand aside!”

A look into the flame trench as Endeavour nears its parking spot atop the pad. Note the flame deflector positioned beneath where the boosters will sit. (Jones photo)

A look into the flame trench as Endeavour nears its parking spot atop the pad. Note the rail track which will permit the RSS to swing in behind the orbiter once it’s parked. (Jones photo)

Endeavour pulls even with the pad structure as I stood, amazed, just above the orbiter White Room level on the RSS.

The crawler carrying the MLP and Endeavour reaches its final parking position. (Jones photo)

The crawler carrying the MLP and Endeavour reaches its final parking position. (Jones photo)

Here, the crawler would lower the stack onto the four massive launch platform pedestals, then drive back down the incline for its next job. Back on the MLP deck, I got a look at the base of the external tank and its structural connections to the solid rocket boosters. Each booster is held to the platform by 4 massive bolts and nuts, which shatter under explosive detonations at T-minus-zero.

Endeavour's body flap hangs below the ET, flanked by the solid rocket boosters. The gray piping dispenses the flood of sound suppression water at engine ignition. (Jones photo).

Endeavour’s body flap hangs below the ET, flanked by the solid rocket boosters. The gray piping dispenses the flood of sound suppression water at engine ignition. (Jones photo).

I flew home later that afternoon, with Ken Cockrell at the controls. I hope he’ll be able to figure out who the crew is in T-38 #907, based on the helmet colors in the photo. STS-69 launched on September 7, 1995:

Endeavour leaves Earth on September 7, 1995, for its 11-day mission. (NASA KSC-95EC-1301)

Endeavour leaves Earth on September 7, 1995, for its 11-day mission. (NASA KSC-95EC-1301)

My thanks to the STS-69 crew for allowing me to share their orbiter’s rollout, and for inviting me to work with them as a capcom on their mission. Of course, Ken Cockrell and I flew together just 14 months later on STS-80. But that’s another story. See my website here for more details:

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: History, Space

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