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.

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.

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)

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.

Early in 1992 I was assigned to my first space shuttle mission, which would carry the first Space Radar Laboratory payload into orbit. In all I trained over 27 months for this specific mission, and of course another year of basic astronaut training up front. Here I’ll post some training situations experienced by our STS-59 crew. At first we were assigned to shuttle Atlantis, but as the schedule matured, our orbiters were switched and we knew by early 1993 that we would fly on shuttle orbiter Endeavour.

Linda Godwin was the payload commander for SRL-1, and worked for several years with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on early planning for the next round of shuttleborne radar, SIR-C (the NASA/JPL C- and L-band radar instruments). I joined her on the crew manifest in January 1992, and we spent the next couple of years learning more about the Earth science studies planned for the mission. These visits to the far-flung investigators of the SRL science team took Linda, me, and the rest of the crew to several of our “supersites,” where multidisciplinary field teams would obtain ground-truth measurements to compare with the orbital radar results.

One of them was Death Valley National Monument, California. In April 1992, Linda and I visited Death Valley with the JPL SIR-C (Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C…the third and most advanced version to fly) team to learn about alluvial fans, dune fields, sand sheets, and wind/sand interactions.

Tom Jones (L), Tom Farr from JPL, Linda Godwin, and Ellen Stofan of JPL visit salt flats at Badwater, Death Valley, April 1992.

Tom Farr (JPL) talks with Tom Jones (R) about the geological context of Death Valley.

Death Valley was not too uncomfortable in April, but it helped that our group stayed overnight at Furnace Creek Inn, sitting on a hot spring above the valley floor. While at Death Valley, we visited dune fields, flash-flood-carved canyons, volcanic craters, salt flats, and sites instrumented so the Radar Lab’s orbital data could be compared with ground truth gathered by the science team.

Linda Godwin and Tom Jones at the Devil’s Golf Course (salt hummocks) in Death Valley, April 1992.

Rich, Jay, Sid, and Kevin visit Death Valley supersite for geology training on a separate visit.

We had another Earth science investigation at Mammoth Mountain, California, where at about 11,000 feet a hydrology team ran a snow lab, aimed at measuring the water content of snow pack using space-based radar. The snow pack water content is a vitally important measurement for states like California, which rely on spring snowmelt to fill reservoirs supplying farmers and urban residents with water. Linda and I, with our JPL science team,  descended beneath the snow cover to visit the lab and see theory put into practice.

Tom descending into the snow lab on Mammoth Mountain, California,  April 1992.

From cold to hot–I trained on Space Radar Lab’s volcanic science targets by visiting Hawaii’s active volcano, Kilauea, with volcanologists Peter Mouginis-Mark and Scott Rowland. In May 1993, we hiked beyond the public parking area to the ocean entry point for Pu’u O’s lava flow. Later that night, we climbed the pali to find open lava skylights. Here I am with a 2000-deg F flow running beneath our feet on its way to the Pacific, building new land.

Tom at a lava tube skylight on Kilauea — May 1993.

Tom trains for bailout from the orbiter hatch, sliding down the orbiter escape pole and plunging into the water in the WETF. 6-93. (s93-43108)

Another example of our Earth science training was when Linda and I joined members of the Italian science team at the volcanology supersite at Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples. We ascended the slopes of the volcano, visited the Italian observatory on the mountain flanks, toured the active crater called Solfatara, and got a look at the ruined Roman city of Pompeii.

Ellen Stofan (JPL), Linda Godwin and Tom Jones (STS-59 crew), and JPL’s Steve Wall at Pompeii, Italy in Nov. 1993.

Remarkably, in the 25 years since these visits, Vesuvius has not yet blown its top. But it will soon!

In Solfatara Crater’s active vent field, Linda Godwin and I learned about the subsurface rumbles  and hot gas emissions within the caldera underlying the Bay of Naples.

The Phlegraean Fields are the cluster of active and dormant craters and cones on the shores of the Bay of Naples. The region has been more active of late and have threatened an eruption in the latter half of the 2010s. Monitoring this active region is one of the jobs of a permanent, spaceborne radar observatory, which can detect surface inflation and deflation as magma enters or leaves the chamber deep beneath the Bay of Naples.

Tom unwisely sniffs the hot, sulfur-rich steam within one of Solfatara’s few remaining structures. The gas vents have been used since Roman times for medicinal purposes.

Radar reflectors on the floor of Solfatara Crater on the Bay of Naples, 11-93. (author photo)

The Bay of Naples volcanic field was one of our science sites for volcanology, and Italian scientists had instrumented Solfatara to help Space Radar Lab 1 study the Phlegraean Fields region. This cluster of volcanic craters within the Bay of Naples caldera has been violently active within the past 1000 years, and along with Vesuvius, presents one of the greatest threats to the Napolitan population. Linda Godwin is at upper right in the photo, heading toward another sulfur vent.

Tom Jones aboard the Dornier airborne radar lab operated by the German space agency at the Oberpfaffenhofen lab, north of Munich. November 1993.

On the German leg of our trip, Linda and I took a flight over the instrumented radar test range at Oberpfaffenhofen, north of Munich. This site would be used during SRL-1 for radar calibration, beam width and polarization measurements, and comparison with airborne radar images. We would later take so many radar images of Oberpfaffenhofen that our crew termed it “Over-Flown-Too-Often.”

Not that Linda and I hogged all the good field trips (although we did take the majority, as science reps on the mission). Our entire crew sans Chili headed for the geological wonderland around Flagstaff, Arizona in May 1993. The U.S. Geological Survey staff there, involved in several SRL-1 radar investigations, guided us through volcanic fields, desert terrain, sand dunes, and dry canyons. The USGS scientists and our JPL science team together provided an excellent geological context for many similar landforms we would observe around the globe.

The STS-59 crew at the Sunset Crater volcanic field near Flagstaff, AZ. May 1993. From left: Clifford, Jones, Gutierrez, Godwin, and Apt.

Note the cinder cone at upper right, serving as our backdrop on this day in the field.

I take in the view from atop the Moenkopi Plateau, near Flagstaff.

Contrasting with the desert terrain around Flagstaff was our supersite near Chickasha, Oklahoma, outside Oklahoma City. This largely flat agricultural region was the focus of an intensive program of soil moisture investigations, with the goal of using space- or airborne radar to extract soil moisture measurements, and convey them to the area farmers. This information would save money by only applying irrigation when and where necessary. During our visit, Linda and I flew on a NASA C-130 transport equipped with a microwave soil moisture sensor. Good, solid, B-52-like low level flying: I liked it!

In June 1992, I joined Linda Godwin in the soybean fields of Chickasha, Oklahoma to learn the fundamentals of soil moisture measurements using space-based radar.

One of the emergencies we practiced for our STS-59 mission was a gliding bailout scenario, exiting the orbiter if our ship could not make it back to a runway. In that dire case, we would bail out from the orbiter, descend by parachute, then stay alive while awaiting an ocean pickup. Just before Christmas in 1993, the crew reported to the WETF in Bldg. 29 for a refresher on water survival training. We practiced with most of our survival gear on the deck surrounding the 25-foot-deep pool, then “graduated” by dropping from a hoist into the water, simulating a parachute descent into the ocean. We then scrambled into our raft, baled out the water, and closed the spray shield to ride out the swells while we waited for a helicopter rescue (which, in the WETF, never showed).

Kevin Chilton bails out his life raft in the WETF (s93-50705); 12-22-93

Sid Gutierrez hangs out for water entry and survival training (s93-50718). 12-22-93

One of our most familiar training facilities was the fixed base simulator, in Building 5 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The “fixed base” didn’t move, but it had a very realistic and functional flight deck for shuttle orbit training. The downstairs (or middeck) was less high-fidelity, but it still had working switches and circuit breakers, a functional galley, storage lockers, and next door, a working space shuttle toilet (practice makes perfect). In the photo above, Jay and our crew are rehearsing our launch and post-insertion procedures for the critical couple of hours after liftoff. During post-insertion, we got out of our suits and transformed our rocket ship into an orbiting laboratory.

Jay Apt in the fixed base simulator practicing our ascent and post-insertion procedures, early 1994. That’s Rich Clifford’s helmet to the left.

Kevin Chilton practices his piloting duties during post-insertion training on the flight deck of the fixed base simulator.

We also had many orbit training sessions in the flight deck of the Guidance and Navigation Simulator training facility (“the GNS”) across the street from Building 5. This simulator had been upgraded to supply good visuals out the simulator windows, and helped handle the heavy load of crew training in simulation sessions for our flight and other crews training in parallel.

Kevin Chilton training for post-insertion; he’s already removed his helmet after reaching orbit in the fixed base.

We were often given several cameras to train with during these simulator sessions, to build equipment familiarity and practice good in-cabin photography techniques. These snapshots were a result of this training with a Nikon camera body and flash.

Linda Godwin on the middeck of the fixed base simulator, using one of our chem-light sticks from the arms of our pressure suits.

Behind Linda is the functioning galley of the space shuttle’s middeck. In front of her seat are the forward storage lockers; the labels read “Menu Food,” as we usually prepared and ate some space food during these sessions. Her parachute is on the seat as we practice post-insertion routines for stowing our suits and parachutes.

Out the door to her left was the shuttle toilet trainer: we weren’t weightless, but other than that the commode worked just like the real one. It even had a “seating simulator” so you could use a TV camera aimed “up the chute” at one’s bottom, giving one the right “feel” for correct body positioning on the commode. We were assured the closed-circuit TV picture could not be broadcast out of the waste control system simulator room.

Rich Clifford, STS-59’s flight engineer and Mission Specialist No. 2, works with Sid Gutierrez, Kevin Chilton, and Jay Apt on the flight deck during post-insertion training.

Our STS-59 crew practices photography techniques in the Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT) in Building 9 at Johnson Space Center. (probably early 1994)

Our training took us all over the space center to the various shuttle training facilities. The FFT pictured above is now on display in Seattle at its Museum of Flight. Its shuttle crew cabin was fairly accurate (although it was not a simulator; most switches did not work), and we used it to practice stowage of our gear (where stuff goes), photography, TV camera techniques, galley operations, and habitability (how you live in a spaceship).

Ya gotta eat, right? And the same is true in space. In the shot below, Vickie Kloeris, at left rear, and her colleague, dietitian Gloria Mongan, go over menu choices and nutrition advice with (from left) Kevin Chilton, Rich Clifford, and (across table at right) Tom Jones and Linda Godwin. We had already visited the JSC food lab to try nearly everything on NASA’s space food menu in a marathon lunch session. Now we are reviewing our draft menus with Vickie. By the way, Vickie is still running NASA’s space station food operation at Johnson Space Center, ensuring the menu selections (nearly 200 items) continue to expand and get even more appetizing. I think that’s my office desk at center rear, because my USAF Academy diploma is on the wall to the left of the Mars image.

A menu planning session in January 1994 with NASA space food scientists Vickie Kloeris and Gloria Mongan, at rear. Chilton and Clifford face Jones and Godwin across the table.

Tom in his STS-59 office, Building 4, 3rd floor.

Classroom Earth Observation training for STS-59. Seated are Kevin, Rich, Jay, Rich, Linda, and me. Geologist Justin Wilkinson is at left. Oceanographer Sue Runco is in yellow at rear, with a NASA camera crew.

Because of our intensive science photography goals for the mission, we worked with JSC’s Earth Observation specialists to learn our many Earth science objectives and to become familiar with our ground science targets. These sessions amounted, I think, to earning a master’s degree in geography and Earth science.

To help bring all of our training into context, Sid planned a camping trip for the crew at nearby Brazos Bend State Park, TX. We camped out from Thursday morning until Saturday evening, with Thursday and Friday devoted to discussing our flight plan and our various responsibilities on the mission. Sleeping in tents and sleeping bags was a foretaste of the “space camp out” we would all soon undertake. It was our first chance to see each other in the morning, unshowered and grubby from a night’s sleep in the great outdoors. After cleaning up, we launched into mission planning, photography training, and long conversations about how best to get our work done during the intense operations planned for SRL-1. A nice surprise was that each of us took on responsibility for one meal, and so shared everyone’s favorite foods and culinary skills. I remember Jay made a great seafood paella. On Saturday our families came out for an entire day visiting us, sharing a big crew dinner before we all headed home. The campout was a real team-builder.

STS-59 crew on camping trip Brazos Bend 10-23-93. From L, Apt, Gutierrez, Chilton, Clifford, Godwin, Jones. Note the Gutierrez kids and Sid’s wife, Marianne, at left.

Heading for Ames Research Center in California via T-38, for our crew’s orbiter landing training session in the Vertical Motion Simulator. Here, over the Grand Canyon.

For rookie fliers like me, a mandatory training exercise was exposure to the shuttle’s launch g-profile. I was to experience the launch accelerations in the Brooks Air Force Base centrifuge, near San Antonio, TX. I did several 8.5-minute runs in the centrifuge cab equipped with a shuttle seat and wearing the full Launch and Entry Suit (LES). Here, Al Rochford, who started out helping strap in Mercury astronauts for NASA, helps me don my gloves just before the runs commence. I’d experienced as many as 7 g’s in T-38 aerobatics, but a sustained 3 g’s during the final minute of the shuttle’s ascent was a different animal. It’s hard to breathe and to raise an arm accurately to flip a switch.

The Brooks AFB centrifuge. I rode in the cab at left.

Al Rochford briefs Tom for his centrifuge run at Brooks AFB — 12-3-93

Tom straps into the Brooks AFB centrifuge, 12-3-93. The helmet is the last item to don before we “go”.

Linda Godwin and I were designated as the EVA (spacewalk) repair crew for Endeavour on STS-59. We studied our spacesuit systems, emergency procedures for dealing with suit failures, and the various mechanical repair tasks we might have to undertake to fix Endeavour in orbit. Some examples of these repairs included winching closed the payload bay doors, installing mechanical latches to clamp the doors to the fuselage or knit the centerline edges of the doors together, and cutting jammed pushrods that might prevent a door from motoring closed. We practiced in four underwater sessions lasting 4 to 6 hours each, descending into the blue depths of the Weightless Environment Training Facility in our old centrifuge building, Building 29.

Tom entering the WETF with Linda for contingency EVA training. Early winter 1994.

Closer to launch, in early 1994, our entire crew practiced orbiter bailout and ground egress procedures in JSC’s Building 9, using the Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT). The FFT was a mockup orbiter fuselage (no wings) with an accurate physical representation of the crew cabin, though only a few of the systems actually worked. It was not a simulator, but instead a trainer for emergency procedures, galley operations, photo and TV training, stowage operations (where everything was packed), and so on.

Let’s say the orbiter ran off the runway on landing and we had to get out quickly. We used ropes: the Sky Genie rope slide attached to our suit’s parachute harness and enabled us to get out the side hatch and slither to the ground.

Tom slides down from the side hatch of the FFT using the Sky Genie.

That was only about 10 feet. But if the side hatch was jammed shut, or fire made it unwise to get out on that side, we could jettison the top left window in the cabin ceiling and go all the way over to the starboard side for our egress path.

Tom emerges from orbiter top left hatch (jettisoned window 8) and eases over the plywood side of the ship.

This was fun stuff, but also a little intimidating. The top of the orbiter is a good 25 feet in the air, and sliding off the side in a heavy launch and entry suit on a single rope and carabiner took some trust in our trainers and suit technicians. None of us fell too far.

The final act was using the escape slide from the orbiter hatch. Again, off the runway and a need to get out of the cabin in a hurry, we could deploy the escape slide for a quick exit. Here we are practicing using the Cockpit Configuration Trainer, or CCT, which is just the nose of the orbiter. The CCT could be tilted into the vertical for launch strap-in and launch pad egress training. I think the CCT is now at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.

To get out, one opened the hatch and then triggered the airline-style escape slide using a T-handle just inside the hatch. Now the slide is out, and we just have to skid down its surface.

Tom stands up after shooting down the escape slide from the CCT hatch.

Training for one of her missions, Rhea Seddon caught an ankle at the bottom and broke it. She was able to heal in time for launch, but it sure put some of her training dates in doubt. Our techs were very careful to help us land squarely on both feet.

Tom cheats death again, completing this phase of orbiter egress training.

Imagine the adrenaline pumping as you returned from space and then had to escape the cabin and hustle away from a potentially explosive or toxic propellant release. It would be a race between adrenaline and free-fall deconditioning. I like to think we’d remember how to run–or at least hobble–if the situation demanded it.

The final exercise was clipping my harness onto the escape pole for a high-altitude bailout from the orbiter. Below, we practice the procedures to clip into the pole and then roll out of the hatch. Later, in the Weightless Environment Training Facility, we would roll out the hatch, down the pole, and drop ten feet into the water — leaving out the static-line parachute opening and the long descent down to the ocean. Here, we just fall off the pole and drop 6 inches onto the mat.

Tom practices using escape pole to bail out from orbiter CCT onto a thick mat.

As launch day approached, we spent more time in the mission simulators: the motion base for ascent and entry training, the fixed base in building 5 for orbit operations, and the GNS (guidance and navigation simulator) in building 37, also for orbit operations. I can’t tell which one we’re in in the photo below, but I suspect it’s the Fixed Base in Building 5.

Tom practices orbit operations on the aft flight deck with the crew in the shuttle “Fixed Base” mission simulator in Building 5.

The camera at upper right is the Linhof mapping camera, with its 4×5-inch negative. The Linhof lived on that window bracket so we could tilt it to aim at our ground target. On the switch panel behind me are orbit maps and a copy of the science timeline that governed all our observations in the 24/7 SRL operations. The IBM Thinkpad laptop at left had a major improvement over shuttle laptops–a color display.

We continued to take classes on all the skills needed for any emergency we might encounter in orbit. Two of us were trained as emergency medical technicians for physical problems we might encounter. Here, veteran NASA instructor Mike Fox teaches me how to refine my cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills. Mike’s experience in physiology and diving went back to the Apollo program–we miss you, Mike.

Mike Fox teaches Tom Jones– CPR class

Tom and Rich Clifford discuss the finer points of CPR technique.

Eventually, the training flow narrows and all classes point directly toward launch day. At the end of February 1994, our crew flew to Kennedy Space Center and spent two days in an intensive inspection and familiarization tour of Endeavour in the Orbiter Processing Facility. This was the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT), one of the few chances we would have to get inside the orbiter, check out all its nooks and crannies, and familiarize ourselves with our future home in space.

Kevin Chilton (R) and Tom Jones with VITT engineer (rear)  inside Endeavour during CEIT. We are sitting just outside the airlock hatch on the middeck as we check out the cycle ergometer, foreground. 2-25-94.

A couple of miles away in the O&C building, the Space Radar Lab underwent its electrical and system checks in a simulated orbiter payload bay. We visited our payload just before it was moved to the orbiter hangar for installation. 2-94.

Sitting on the cycle ergometer in the middeck, I was giddy to spend the day inside an actual space shuttle orbiter during CEIT. We would be headed for space in just about five weeks. 2-25-94.

Our final training session at the Cape was in late March, 1994, when our crew participated in our countdown dress rehearsal, the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. See my photo album for that exercise: STS-59 Endeavour Countdown Rehearsal: Mar. 23-24, 1994

Finally, after a week in quarantine, it was time to go. Here is our spaceship the night before our April 8 launch attempt. Our families met us to take a look at Endeavour bathed in xenon searchlights. Night viewing is a spectacular sight, and an emotional experience for crew and families.

Night viewing of Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A, 4-7-94.

Read the whole story of STS-59 in my memoir, Sky Walking, available online and at my website, www.AstronautTomJones.com.

During March 22-24, 1994, our STS-59 crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center for our Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). We were just over two weeks from launch on STS-59, Space Radar Lab 1, aboard shuttle Endeavour. This being my first flight, arriving for a dress rehearsal of our launch countdown was a galvanizing milestone for me. Our ship was nearly ready, as were we. TCDT was the last major milestone we faced in our flight training for the mission. Here are some photos from our 3-day experience.

From the press site, Kennedy Space Center personnel watched shuttle Endeavour roll out of the Vehicle Assembly Building and head for launch complex 39A. Endeavour would fly mission STS-59 in April 1994.

Endeavour on MLP during rollout for STS-59

Endeavour, its external tank, and boosters ride the Mobile Launch Platform toward launch pad 39A.

STS-59 crew at Pad 39A with Endeavour stack: left to right, Clifford, Chilton, Gutierrez, Godwin, Jones, and Apt. 3-23-94. (KSC-94PC-468)

The most thrilling activity we undertook during our safety briefings and exercises was the chance to drive NASA’s M-113 armored personnel carrier. Should we have to escape from the launch pad and shelter in the blast bunker, we might have to evacuate an injured crewmember, using the M-113, to a helipad clear of the danger zone. Yeah, it’s fun to drive a “tank”. (Soon after, NASA painted its APC’s a highly visible yellow-green.)

Tom drives the M-113 armored personnel carrier under fire department direction on 3-23-94. (NASA)

Kevin Chilton and Tom Jones on the access arm for Endeavour’s external tank. Tom displays his hopes for a few weeks hence. 3-23-94

Tom on Pad 39A with Endeavour stack at rear. White Room is one level below him. (KSC-395-1160)

Tom Jones stands beneath the exhaust nozzle of one of Endeavour’s three Space Shuttle Main Engines. Burning oxygen and hydrogen, each one puts out about 1 million pounds of rocket thrust at liftoff. 3-23-94 (NASA)

The shot below gives you some idea of the scale of a space shuttle ready for launch. The external tank and orbiter will be accelerated by those boosters and the main engines (above) will be accelerated to 25,000 feet per second in just 8.5 minutes, pinning an astronaut to his or her seat under a 3-g load. Looking at that stack, it’s almost incomprehensible to imagine yourself as a physical participant of such a process.

Tom on deck of mobile launch platform with Endeavour stack, Pad 39A. 3-23-94.

The crew fields questions during the STS-59 TCDT press conference.

We flew to the Cape in our T-38 Talon training jets, landing at the shuttle landing facility (SLF) near the VAB. Endeavour had rolled out some weeks before, as shown in these photos. On March 23, we conducted some fire fighting exercises and safety classes, enjoyed crew quarters meals, and toured the launch pad and the crew escape systems, like the slide-wire baskets, we would practice with the following day. Our concluding event that day was a press conference held near the blast bunker and slide-wire basket landing area near the perimeter of Pad 39A.

The STS-59 crew (Gutierrez, Chilton, Apt, Godwin, Clifford, and Jones conduct their TCDT press conference at Pad 39A (rear). We were standing in the sand pit where our escape slide baskets would deposit us enroute to the blast-proof bunker behind the photographer. I think that’s reporter Beth Dickey in foreground. (NASA)

Jay Apt, Linda Godwin, Rich Clifford, and Tom Jones take questions from the press during our STS-59 TCDT, March 23, 1994. Shuttle Endeavour is behind the pad structure at rear.

Rich Clifford speaks to the press during the STS-59 TCDT press conference.

Rich and Tom answering questions. The government loaned me that Casio G-Shock watch on my left wrist; I returned it after the mission. On later flights, I brought my own along.

Tom speaks to reporters about Space Radar Lab at the TCDT press conference.

We finished our press conference work and returned to crew quarters, all of us headed for an early bedtime the night before the terminal count demo test with our launch controllers. We enjoyed some final suit checks before turning in.

During our stay at crew quarters, Tom tested the pressure garment that underlay my Launch and Entry Suit. I would wear the ensemble during our STS-59 TCDT countdown test the next day.

Aiming at a T-minus-Zero at around 10 am that day, we rode to the launch pad early in the morning on March 24. Crawling into the orbiter for the first time in the vertical position was an eerie, yet thrilling experience. Our crew climbed into our seats with the help of our technicians, and our Astronaut Support Person, for this mission, our fellow astronaut Andy Thomas. After the countdown reached zero, launch controllers declared a pad abort and ordered a crew egress exercise, practice for a rapid escape from Endeavour to the slide-wire baskets across the gantry.

Tom dons his parachute harness and survival gear in the White Room during TCDT. Endeavour’s side hatch is at rear. Thanks to our suit technicians who made sure we put every piece of gear on correctly. (NASA)

Tom strapped in as MS-4 on middeck during TCDT for STS-59. 3-24-94 (KSC-94PC-471)

In the photo above I’m nearly finished strapping in with the help of our suit techs and ASP Andy Thomas. My parachute is still not attached to the harness (see left chute strap dangling at lower right), and my oxygen line on my left thigh is still not mated. My helmet is the practice version; just a clear visor. On launch day it will have the full dark visor as well as the clear one. Sleep bunks are to my right. My kneeboard and Radio Shack timer sits on the airlock hatch cover just off my left elbow. Activated at liftoff, the timer tells me our ascent milestones, such as staging, 3-g throttling, and time to MECO.

We concluded our dress rehearsal with a simulated countdown to T-minus-Zero, when Launch Control declared a pad abort and an emergency egress from the shuttle cabin (a Mode 1 egress). Linda Godwin swung open Endeavour’s hatch, and I followed her out into the White Room and across the swing arm and gantry to these escape baskets. Unfortunately, when I smacked the release paddle just out of view to the left, we didn’t go anywhere: the basket was chained firmly to the service structure of the pad. No zipline ride for us!

Our real STS-59  launch would come just over two weeks later.

Tom Jones (l) and Linda Godwin in the slidewire escape basket at the 195-foot level of Pad 39A. 3-24-18. (NASA)

Whenever I speak here at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, hosting “Astronaut Encounter,” I always pay a visit to the tallest rocket standing in the Rocket Garden, the Martin Marietta company’s Gemini-Titan II.

Gemini Titan II at KSC Visitor Center, May 2018  (photo by author)

I remember it well because it was the first real rocket I ever saw. Growing up in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, I lived just a couple of miles from Martin’s Titan II assembly building. There, from 1964 through 1966 the company was stacking and testing these rockets to carry the Gemini astronauts into space. The Titan II was an Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to carry a 9-megaton nuclear warhead to the other side of the world. NASA chose this powerful booster to propel the Gemini spacecraft into orbit, and my town was, for a little while, one of the key locations in the Space Race of the 1960s. Gemini would be how NASA learned the techniques in orbit it would need to go to the moon by 1970.

Gemini-Titan IIs in final assembly at the Martin Marietta factory in Middle River, Maryland, 1965-66. (Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum)

As a 10-year-old Cub Scout in 1965, my Cub Pack took a field trip to the Martin Marietta factory during an open house. I stood there on the factory floor, awed at the sight of these 100-foot-tall rockets being built to carry our astronauts into space. The rockets I saw were built to carry Gemini 7 and 8 into space, in late 1965 and early 1966.

Gemini 8 launches on its Gemini-Titan II from Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral. Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott would conduct the first docking in space on March 16, 1966. (NASA)

Those Titan IIs made an indelible impression on me, and from that moment on I read everything I could about the job of being an astronaut, what qualifications were required by NASA, and how the astronauts would fly to and land on the moon. It’s safe to say the Titan II launched me on my career path toward becoming an astronaut.

Here at the KSC Visitor Complex, you can see the Titan II, get close to and peer inside the Gemini 9 spacecraft, and learn the stories of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. Of course, you can see the ship that I flew, the space shuttle Atlantis, and get almost close enough to touch her. I lived on Atlantis for 13 days in 2001, helping build the International Space Station while leading three spacewalks.

On your visit to the Visitor Complex, look up at some awesome history, be inspired, learn how we’ll return to the moon, and tackle the challenges of exploring Mars. We’ve got an amazing story to tell, and we’re looking for explorers who want to play an exciting role in our nation’s future.

Gemini 9A spacecraft  at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, in the “Heroes and Legends” exhibit. (credit KSC Visitor Complex and HrAtsuo)

Tom Jones flew four space shuttle missions, the last on Atlantis to the International Space Station. He speaks frequently at the KSC Visitor Complex. His website is www.AstronautTomJones.com.

Sundown at the Rocket Garden on 11-13-17 (T.Jones)

I spent last week speaking at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex, meeting guests from all over our home planet, from Australia to Lithuania and everywhere in-between. One beautiful evening produced this sunset over the Rocket Garden. The tallest rocket is the Martin Marietta Titan II, which launched the Gemini astronauts; a dozen of these boosters were built for NASA at the factory a mile from my boyhood home in Middle River, MD. The silvery rocket at far left is a replica of the Mercury-Atlas, the type that launched John Glenn and the other Mercury astronaut into orbit in 1962-63. At far right on its side is the NASA Saturn IB, built by Chrysler and McDonnell-Douglas. Saturn IBs (developed by Wernher von Braun’s team at Marshall Spaceflight Center in AL) launched the Apollo 7 mission (first Apollo piloted flight in 1968), the three Skylab crews, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight in 1975. Rockets and temps in the low 70s–a combo hard to beat. Looking forward to my next speaking trip there.

www.AstronautTomJones.com

I’m compiling here a few of my favorite Earth images from my second mission, STS-68, flown on Endeavour, carrying Space Radar Lab 2. This Earth-imaging radar sensor package, combined with a carbon monoxide pollution sensor, was a joint project of NASA and the German and Italian space agencies.

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Added 11/1/19

The Bay of Naples, Italy.  Oct. 10, 1994: We’re on Endeavour (STS-68) over the Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Italy, looking down on the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. That’s Isla Ischia on the left, and Capri, the smaller island, on the lower right. Naples and its 3 million people lie on the left of the bay, to the northwest of Vesuvius. Herculaneum is almost directly below Vesuvius on the coast (where the town was buried by a pyroclastic flow in AD 79). Pompeii lies farther along the bay shore to the right. The circular depressions to the far left of the bay, near the sea, are the Phlegrean Fields, part of the caldera that makes up the bay region, near the town of Pozzuoli. All of the Bay of Naples is part of this half-drowned caldera; Vesuvius is just one active region on the rim. On the peninsula to the right, in the circular bay, is Sorrento (full of lemon trees!). Sorrento has superb views of Vesuvius and the Bay.
Naples is built on layers of history, and the towns buried by Vesuvius are a treasure trove of ancient Roman life. Take the Circumvesuviano commuter rail from Naples over to Herculaneum and Pompeii–it’s a memorable visit.

Mt. Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples on Italy’s west coast. (NASA STS068-259-055)

And here is our complementary radar view of Vesuvius and Naples:

Radar image of the Bay of Naples from SRL-1, April 1994. (NASA JPL P-45742)

Mt. Vesuvius, one of the best known volcanoes in the world primarily for the eruption that buried the Roman city of Pompeii, is shown in the lower center of this radar image. North is to the left. The central cone of Vesuvius is the dark purple feature in the center of the volcano. This cone is surrounded on the northern and eastern sides by the old crater rim, called Mt. Somma. Recent lava flows are the pale yellow areas on the southern and western sides of the cone. Vesuvius is part of a large volcanic zone which includes the Phalagrean Fields, the cluster of craters seen along the lower left center of the image. The Bay of Naples, on the bottom of the image, is separated from the Gulf of Salerno, in the lower right, by the Sorrento Peninsula. Dense urban settlement can be seen around the volcano. The city of Naples is below and to the left of Vesuvius; the seaport of the city can be seen in the north half of the bay. Pompeii is located just to the right of the volcano on this image. The rapid eruption in 79 A.D. buried the victims and buildings of Pompeii under several meters of debris and killed more than 2,000 people. Due to the violent eruptive style and proximity to populated areas, Vesuvius has been named by the international scientific community as one of fifteen Decade Volcanoes which are being intensively studied during the 1990s. The image is centered at 40.83 degrees North latitude, 14.53 degrees East longitude. It shows an area 100 kilometers by 55 kilometers (62 miles by 34 miles.) This image was acquired on April 15, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA’s
P-45742 July 13, 1995

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added 10/30/19

Endeavour and her STS-68 crew were 118 nautical miles above the Sahara, looking north, when we took this image of the Tifernine dune field on Oct. 3, 1994, using a 40mm lens on a Hasselblad film camera. Except for a few too many clouds, you’d think we were over the ruddy sands of Mars. The orange, arrowhead-shaped Tifernine dunes are one of the major Sahara landmarks visible to orbiting astronauts.

Tifernine Dune field of the Sahara, in southern Algeria. (NASA STS068-228-081)

NASA writes: The Tifernine Dune Field is located at the southernmost tip of the Grand Erg Oriental, a “dune sea” that occupies a large portion of the Sahara Desert in eastern Algeria. This astronaut photograph illustrates the interface between the yellow-orange sand dunes of the field and dark brown consolidated rocks of the Tinrhert Plateau to the south and east. The Tifernine at the center of this image is about 800 miles south-southeast of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The dunes are in excess of 1,000 feet in height.

The oldest landform is represented by the rocks of the Tinrhert Plateau, where numerous channels incise the bedrock; these channels were eroded during a wet and cool climate period, most probably by glacial meltwater streams. As the dry and hot climate that characterizes the Sahara today became established, water ceased to flow in these channels. Winds eroded and moved large amounts of drying sediment (sand, silt, and clay), which piled up in large, linear dunes that roughly parallel the direction of the prevailing winds of the time (image center).

The present climate is still hot and dry, but current wind directions are more variable. The variable winds are modifying the older, linear dunes, creating star dunes, recognizable by a starfish-like pattern when seen from above.

See more Earth views from STS-68 as I add to my blog, at www.AstronautTomJones.com.

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added 9/20/19

The Front Range of the Rockies from orbit. Here’s the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, and Denver, seen from STS-68 Endeavour on Oct. 10, 1994. My crew was over the Colorado plains east of Denver when we looked south (toward upper left) and grabbed this shot. Denver is at lower right, with both the old Stapleton International Airport (near town) and the new Denver International airport runways visible at bottom right. Colorado Springs is just to the east of the white blaze of Pikes Peak at center left. The dark green comma east of the Front Range is the Black Forest, and if you look closely you can see the cadet area at USAFA, as well as Falcon Stadium in this 250mm Hasselblad shot (70mm film). The runways at Peterson Field (AFB) are easily visible east of C. Springs. The Arkansas River runs west to east from Canon City to Pueblo, to the left of Pikes Peak. I learned to fly in 1974 at the Academy airfield, barely visible near Falcon Stadium. This area’s population growth has greatly expanded both Colorado Springs and Denver.

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added 9/5/19

Flying over Hawaii was always a highlight, as the island chain is an oasis in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Because of their volcanic origins, the Hawaiian landscapes are dramatic, beautiful, and dynamic–the volcanoes on Hawaii Island are still building those mountains ever higher above the sea.

In this radar image from our SIR-C instrument of the Space Radar Lab, between Hickam AFB (the Honolulu Airport) at lower left, and Diamond Head at lower right is Waikiki. The crater above Waikiki at the foot of the mountains is Punchbowl, now the National Cemetery of the Pacific, with superb views of Honolulu and the graves of so many servicemen and women.

Kaneohe Bay is at top, a Marine Corps air station (see the dark blue runways on the left of the Kaneohe peninsula). Runway traces of Bellows Field, one of the WWII airfields attacked in the Pearl Harbor raid, are on the coast at upper right. Pearl Harbor is just out of view on the left, west of Hickam. Having worked on the Big Island for my asteroid telescope observations back in the 1980s, I have a long-standing affinity for our 50th state. Looking forward to our next visit to welcoming Hawaii.

Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Oct. 6, 1994. (JPL NASA: PIA01842)

JPL caption: This spaceborne radar image shows the city of Honolulu, Hawaii and adjacent areas on the island of Oahu. Honolulu lies on the south shore of the island, along the bottom of this image. Diamond Head, an extinct volcanic crater, is seen in the lower right. The bright white strip left of Diamond Head is the Waikiki Beach area. Further west are the downtown area and harbor. Runways of the airport can be seen in the lower left. The Koolau mountain range runs through the center of the image. The steep cliffs on the north side of the range are thought to be remnants of massive landslides that ripped apart the volcanic mountains that built the island thousands of years ago. On the north shore of the island are the Mokapu peninsula and Kaneohe Bay. Densely vegetated areas appear green in this radar image, while urban areas generally appear orange, red or white. Images such as this can be used by land use planners to monitor urban development and its effect on the tropical environment. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 6, 1994.

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added 9/3/19

Here’s another STS-68 favorite as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Space Radar Lab 2 mission. We’re over Russia somewhere, early morning there, Oct. 2, 1994, looking down from Endeavour. From the aft flight deck we spotted these mountain peaks riding above a low cloud deck. Earth is such a varied and beautiful world. The location is in the Vitim Highlands, in far eastern Russia. Of course, our radar images cut right through these clouds to capture the terrain and biosphere data below, but radar cannot capture the ever-changing beauty of our home planet.

Russian mountain ridges penetrate a low, morning cloud deck on Oct. 2, 1994. (NASA STS068-227-077)

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added 8/27/19

Detroit and Lake St. Clair from STS-68 (NASA STS068-232-22)

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added 8/26/19

NASA: From the wetlands in Maryland to the nation’s capital and onto Baltimore, this 70mm photograph from the Space Shuttle Endeavour shows some details of the historic Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River area. With the rather low altitude of Endeavour at 115 nautical miles, features as small as Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and Andrews Air Force Base are clearly seen.

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added 8/21/19

On the third day of the STS-68 mission, 10/2/94, our crew looked down from Endeavour on Indonesia and captured a rare, nearly clear view of the Tambora volcano, on the island of Sumbawa. North is to the top of our image.

Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. (NASA STS068-151-128)

NASA: On April 10, 1815, the Tambora Volcano produced the largest eruption in recorded history. An estimated 150 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of tephra—exploded rock and ash—resulted, with ash from the eruption recognized at least 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) away to the northwest. While the April 10 eruption was catastrophic, historical records and geological analysis of eruption deposits indicate that the volcano had been active between 1812 and 1815. Enough ash was put into the atmosphere from the April 10 eruption to reduce incident sunlight on the Earth’s surface, causing global cooling, which resulted in the 1816 “year without a summer.”

The huge caldera—6 kilometers (3.7 miles) in diameter and 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) deep—formed when Tambora’s estimated 4,000-meter- (13,123-foot) high peak was removed, and the magma chamber below emptied during the April 10 eruption. Today the crater floor is occupied by an ephemeral freshwater lake, recent sedimentary deposits, and minor lava flows and domes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Active fumaroles, or steam vents, still exist in the caldera.

In 2004, scientists discovered the remains of a village, and two adults buried under approximately 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) of ash in a gully on Tambora’s flank—remnants of the former Kingdom of Tambora preserved by the 1815 eruption that destroyed it. The similarity of the Tambora remains to those associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has led to the Tambora site’s description as “the Pompeii of the East.”

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added 8/20/19

NASA: Kliuchevskoi Volcano’s major eruption began September 30, 1994 (launch day) for STS-68. It got almost immediate coverage by the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The eruption cloud reached 60,000 feet above sea level, and the winds carried ash as far as 640 miles southeast from the volcano into the North Pacific air routes. This picture was made with a large format Linhof camera. While astronauts used handheld camera’s to keep up with the Kamchatka event, instruments in the cargo bay of Endeavour recorded data to support the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2) mission.

Kliuchevskoi volcano erupting on 9/30/94. (NASA STS068-150-045)

Our wide-angle 90mm lens on the Linhof camera captured the view above. The Linhof produced a 4×5-inch film negative, with incredible detail. Each magazine held 100 frames, and we refilled magazines with fresh film inside a light-tight bag, stowing the exposed film in canisters and manually spooling a new roll into the magazine. The film reloading was part of our nightly housekeeping routine. But it was hard to tear ourselves away from the windows!

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Our Space Radar Lab 2 image of Mt. Rainier, Washington (NASA JPL P-44703)

Mt. Rainier, Washington (NASA caption)

This is a radar image of Mount Rainier in Washington state. The volcano last erupted about 150 years ago and numerous large floods and debris flows have originated on its slopes during the last century. Today the volcano is heavily mantled with glaciers and snowfields. More than 100,000 people live on young volcanic mudflows less than 10,000 years old and, consequently, are within the range of future, devastating mudslides. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 20th orbit on October 1, 1994. The area shown in the image is approximately 59 kilometers by 60 kilometers (36.5 miles by 37 miles). North is toward the top left of the image, which was composed by assigning red and green colors to the L-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically, and the L- band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. Blue indicates the C-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. In addition to highlighting topographic slopes facing the space shuttle, SIR-C records rugged areas as brighter and smooth areas as darker. The scene was illuminated by the shuttle’s radar from the northwest so that northwest-facing slopes are brighter and southeast-facing slopes are dark. Forested regions are pale green in color; clear cuts and bare ground are bluish or purple; ice is dark green and white. The round cone at the center of the image is the 14,435-foot (4,399- meter) active volcano, Mount Rainier. On the lower slopes is a zone of rock ridges and rubble (purple to reddish) above coniferous forests (in yellow/green). The western boundary of Mount Rainier National Park is seen as a transition from protected, old-growth forest to heavily logged private land, a mosaic of recent clear cuts (bright purple/blue) and partially regrown timber plantations (pale blue). The prominent river seen curving away from the mountain at the top of the image (to the northwest) is the White River, and the river leaving the mountain at the bottom right of the image (south) is the Nisqually River, which flows out of the Nisqually glacier on the mountain. The river leaving to the left of the mountain is the Carbon River, leading west and north toward heavily populated regions near Tacoma. The dark patch at the top right of the image is Bumping Lake. Other dark areas seen to the right of ridges throughout the image are radar shadow zones. Radar images can be used to study the volcanic structure and the surrounding regions with linear rock boundaries and faults. In addition, the recovery of forested lands from natural disasters and the success of reforestation programs can also be monitored. Ultimately this data may be used to study the advance and retreat of glaciers and other forces of global change. (P-44703 October 3, 1994)

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added Aug. 20, 2019

Aurora Australis seen from STS-68 Endeavour (NASA sts068-008-029)

My Endeavour crew was awed by our night-time flights through the shifting curtains of the Aurora Australis, off the southern coasts of Australia and New Zealand. We felt like we were riding on the tip of a needle, piercing the vertical curtains of glowing green light. Our low altitude of 120 nm meant the auroral curtains rose high above us as we soared through one after another. NASA: This time exposure of the Southern Lights was photographed with a 35mm camera from 115 nautical miles above Earth by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the Space Radar Laboratory 2 (SRL-2) mission. Due to the long exposure time, stars in the background appear smeared or elongated.

**

For more of my mission information, see www.AstronautTomJones.com

This month is the 23rd anniversary of the Space Radar Lab 2 mission, STS-68. I was the payload commander, flying with my crewmates Mike Baker (CDR), Dan Bursch (MS2), Steve Smith (MS1), Terry Wilcutt (PLT), and Jeff Wisoff (MS3). An ambitious follow up to the successful STS-59, Space Radar Lab 1, SRL-2 was aimed at flying the multi-frequency, multi-polarized Shuttle Imaging Radar-C, X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar, and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites sensors in the northern hemisphere late summer, to compare SRL-1’s spring mapping results to those from a contrasting season of the year. STS-68 would also test radar interferometry, a technique to create highly accurate, three-dimensional maps of Earth’s topography. (More info at www.AstronautTomJones.com)

The STS-68 crew patch. (NASA STS068-s-001)

My crewmates and I rehearsed our countdown procedures at Kennedy Space Center on August 1, 1994.

Tom Jones in his middeck seat for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal, termed TCDT. (NASA KSC94PC-966)

Seated on the far right of Endeavour’s middeck during our mock countdown on Aug. 1, 1994, my crewmember designation was MS-4. (NASA ksc-94pc-966)

Jeff Wisoff was seated to my left, close to the galley and side hatch. Note my clear helmet visor, indicating a “practice” helmet. We kept the dark visors for the real launch day, to avoid scratching them during our practice sessions like this one.

Our launch was planned on August 18, 1994, but at dawn on that date, when Endeavour’s main engines (SSMEs) ignited, the #3 engine violated a redline constraint, and the GPCs ordered an abort and engine shutdown. They automatically called for a shutdown when the discharge temperature on MPSSSME Main Engine #3 High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump (HPOT) exceeded its redline value. The HPOT typically operates at 28,120 rpm and boosts the liquid oxygen pressure from 422 psia to 4,300 psia. There are 2 sensor channels measuring temperature on the HPOT. The B channel indicated a redline condition while the other was near redline conditions. The temperature at shutdown was at 1563 degrees R. while a normal HPOT discharge temperature is around 1403 degrees R. The redline limit to initiate a shutdown is at 1560 degrees R. This limit increases to 1760 degrees R. at T-1.3 sec (5.3 sec after Main Engine Start). Main Engine #3 (SN 2032) has been used on 2 previous flights with 2,412 seconds of hot-fire time and a total of 8 starts. This was the first flight for the HPOT on Main Engine (SSME) #3.

Endeavour runs up her three main engines just before her computers declared a pad abort and engine shutdown, Aug. 18, 1994.
(NASA STS-68-KSC-94PC-1026)

What all of this meant to me on the middeck (sitting next to Jeff Wisoff), was that as I felt the SSMEs rumble to life, I began mentally counting down the six seconds til booster ignition at T-minus-zero. Braced against the massive jolt of those SRBs exploding into life, I instead felt the engine vibration die away just as Terry Wilcutt shouted “Right engine down!”, accompanied by the blare of the master alarm. This meant serious trouble.

Out the hatch window to my left, I noted the gantry structure seeming to sway left and right under the vanished shove from Endeavour’s main engines–that was US swaying back and forth. Jeff and I hurriedly threw off our parachute straps and prepared to scoot across the middeck to open the hatch; we might all have to make a beeline to the escape slides on the far side of the gantry’s 190 foot level. We stayed on intercom, waiting for the word to egress.

Tom Jones strapped into Endeavour’s middeck MS-4 seat, during countdown rehearsal in early August, 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-967)

Within the first minute, Launch Control had our pilots executing the pad abort checklist, entering computer commands that would stop the backup flight software from jettisoning our solid rocket boosters at T+2 minutes (embarrassing and deadly). As Jeff and I cleared our seats in the middeck and stood by to open the hatch, we heard reassuring words from Launch Director Bob Sieck’s team that the computers had executed an orderly shutdown, and no fire or explosion risk was evident.

“Damn! We’re scrubbed!” Jeff opined that we’d be set back at least three weeks by the necessary engine changeout. In fact it would take six weeks for our rollback, engine change, and rollout. STS-64 would slip ahead of us and fly in early September with its LITE laser sensor payload. Our new launch date would be Sept. 30, 1994.

The launch team did a superb job on our abort–the last pad abort in the space shuttle program, and the one that came hair-raisingly close to leaping off the pad with one engine down. That would have meant an immediate scramble to perform a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) abort, flying backward through our Mach 5 exhaust plume to attempt a dicey landing back on Merritt Island. If anyone could pull it off, it would have been Bakes, Terry, Dan, and Steve. Assuredly, no one wanted to be the first to try an RTLS.

The STS-68 crew: (L to R) Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, Bursch (NASA sts068-s-002)

September 30 was set as our new launch date. STS-64 in the meantime had flown its successful LITE Earth-science mission, with the additional milestone of Mark Lee and Carl Meade test-flying the SAFER EVA jetpack. Our crew had taken a week-long vacation, then got back into simulations and recurring training to polish our space radar abilities. I thought we used the extra time to good effect, and we proceeded to the Cape even better prepared than we were in August. We were certainly more rested than on our first attempt.

One piece of bad luck befell us: on the day we entered quarantine, five of us came down with cold symptoms. We suffered through four days in Houston of runny noses, aches and pains, and sore throats, but with constant flight surgeon attention we slowly improved. Our flight to the Cape was on the Shuttle Training Aircraft, the Gulfstream jet, to spare our sinuses the drastic cabin altitude changes experienced in a T-38.

When we arrived at the Cape, Dan Bursch stepped off the jet in his Groucho Marx disguise, telling reporters that our chances of avoiding a launch abort were better if Endeavour didn’t know he was in the launch area. Our spirits were certainly on the upswing as our three days in Florida at crew quarters drew to a close.

Endeavour rockets off Pad 39A at 7:16:00:068 a.m on Sept. 30, 1994, to begin the STS-68 mission. (NASA STS068-s-037)

Our launch was timed for dawn on September 30, with Endeavour taking us into a 57-degree inclination, circular orbit, about 120 nm up. At that altitude our orbit would drift west at such a rate that we could image each of our science targets three times each day, from slightly different radar incidence angles.

Endeavour and the SRL-2 crew leave Earth on a pillar of fire, Sept. 30, 1994

The liftoff was exhilarating–this time I knew what to expect! I occupied the same seat as on SRL-1, with Jeff Wisoff to my left. No abort this time–the boosters came alive with a punch to the gut and we soared aloft. Much of the cabin dialogue we exchanged during launch is in my book, Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir. I’d asked that the side hatch window cover again be removed, so I had a terrific view of the gantry turning from gray, to red, to white-hot as the boosters lit. The following eight and a half minutes were punctuated by pyros firing to sever the boosters at two minutes, and then the attention-getting 3 g’s during the final minute of the ascent. During those final seconds I truly experienced the power of the space shuttle’s three main engines, just hurling our 100-ton orbiter toward the injection altitude and velocity. A miracle of technology and physics.

Dawn launch of STS-68, Endeavour, Sept. 30, 1994.

Below, another beautiful view of our dawn liftoff, as Endeavour jolts off the pad. During my second ascent to orbit, I was able to enjoy the physical and mental impressions a bit more methodically, recording my comments on a microcassette recorder during the eight-and-a-half minute climb to our 120 nm mapping orbit.

STS-68 lifts off in the dawn twilight. (Karl Ronstrom)

After MECO, it was off to the races, with Steve Smith and I teaming up on video and still photography of the external tank as it drifted away, below us. Then Jeff and I threw ourselves into converting the middeck into its orbit configuration, and getting the rest of the crew out of their suits and on into their orbital jobs. We had only about 5 hours until my bedtime; the Blue Shift of Steve, Dan and I were due for our first sleep period while Jeff, Mike, and Terry activated SRL-2.

Our external tank, built by Lockheed Martin, drifts clear after MECO. The tank burned up over the Indian Ocean while our OMS engines propelled us into our final orbit. (NASA STS068-01-008)

Before launch, our crew had a chance to examine the Space Radar Lab and its SIR-C/X-SAR radars up close, nestled in Endeavour’s payload bay. C-band panels line the left edge, and the larger L-band panels cover most of the 12-m-long antenna. Along the port edge, next to the robot Canadarm, the German/Italian X-SAR antenna is folded downward toward the sill of the payload bay.

In the orbiter processing facility bay 1, the Space Radar Laboratory 2 (SRL-2) is being transferred from the payload canister transporter into the payload bay of Endeavour. (NASA KSC-94PC-877)

Below, SRL-2 is in orbit. Space Radar Lab 2 had some new wrinkles, added since our April flight of SRL-1. The JPL folks had added a gold decal that matched one the Germans and Italians had placed on the X-band antenna. And the Langley Research Center also added a label to their Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) instrument, positioned right in front of the radar antennae. It all made for a spectacular view out the back windows of the cabin:

Space Radar Lab 2, in Endeavour’s cargo bay, 120 nm above the Mongolian “Valley of the Lakes”, in southwestern Mongolia between the Khangai and Gobi Altai mountains. (NASA STS068-225-013)

We also had about 160 radar imagery recording cassettes aboard, up from the hundred or so we took aloft on SRL-1. The radar imaging schedule was even more ambitious than in April–and I’d thought that was intense!

I had thought I was over my cold, but upon arrival in orbit and a night’s sleep, I ran into its aftereffects. My sinuses were clogged, and without gravity, NOTHING was coming “down” out of my nose. My head felt like a balloon, and my face was reddened as if by a sunburn. I took to the medical locker to find the decongestants, and over a week or so, I slowly improved. The rest of my crewmates also dealt with the congestion lingering from our colds, and the natural stuffiness from the fluid shift headward, caused by our transition to free fall.

Jeff Wisoff, assisted by the pilots and coordinating with Mission Control (MCC), got SRL-2 up and running on his long first shift in orbit. When I woke from my quick 6 hours of sleep and talked to Jeff, I found he’d been “running” flat out with the activation for his entire shift, barely having time to grab a drink or a quick snack. I got cleaned up in a hurry and took over with Dan and Steve as quickly as we could, to spell the Red Shift from their labors. Having been up more than 18 hours, they were understandably tired. We tucked them into bed and ran with our Science Timeline, our program of observations.

Pilot Terry Wilcutt checks off flight plan tasks from the commander’s seat on Endeavour. Terry and Mike Baker maneuvered Endeavour, oversaw orbiter systems, took on science photography, and assisted Jeff Wisoff with SRL science operations on the Red Shift. (NASA STS068-74-021)

The damaged right OMS pod tile, shattered by a tile that broke loose during ascent from the rim of the left overhead window. (NASA STS068-067-013)

We discovered the tile damage on the first day of the flight, after opening the payload bay doors and inspecting the cargo bay. MCC determined that the heat loads on the upper half of the OMS pod were mild enough that the tile damage would not be dangerous. That greatly eased our minds. It was several days later that we discovered the source of the damage, looking up through the window and noticing a missing piece of tile just outside the outer pane. The tile tore loose during ascent and flew back to strike the OMS pod.

Our STS-68 Blue Shift team: Dan (top), Steve (middle) and Tom (bottom). I slept on the ceiling of the lower bunk. (NASA STS068-033-027)

The radar imagery returned resulted in wonderful images, like the one below, all across the disciplines of the Earth sciences. As we woke for our first work shift, Jeff, Terry, and Bakes called us upstairs to see a spectacular volcanic eruption in Kamchatka. Everyone grabbed a camera to capture images out the windows, while the radar lab obtained thousands of detailed images, revealing details obscured by the eruption plume.

The Kliuchevskoi volcano erupted on our launch day, Sep. 30, 1994. We tracked its eruption over the next week with photography and radar images like this one. The green streaks down the side of the 15,000-foot volcano (center) are mud and lava flows. (NASA JPL p44823)

The eruption was a true serendipitous gift from nature. If we had launched in August as planned, we would have missed this rare geological event. Now we had a ringside seat.

Kliuchevskoi’s eruption as seen from STS-68, Endeavour. This shot was taken with a Hasselblad and 100mm lens. (NASA STS068_214_045)

Dan Bursch points out to me where we REALLY are, above planet Earth. Our atlas showed our orbit tracks and our 400+ science targets. JPL’s science team prepared these custom-made maps with advice from our crew. (NASA STS068-083-023

Our wide-angle 90mm lens on the Linhof camera captured the view below. The Linhof produced a 4×5-inch film negative, with incredible detail. Each magazine held 100 frames, and we refilled magazines with fresh film inside a light-tight bag, stowing the exposed film in canisters and manually spooling a new roll into the magazine. The film reloading was part of our nightly housekeeping routine. But it was hard to tear ourselves away from the windows!

Kliuchevskoi Volcano’s major eruption began September 30, 1994 (launch day) for STS-68. It got almost immediate coverage by the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The eruption cloud reached 60,000 feet above sea level, and the winds carried ash as far as 640 miles southeast from the volcano into the North Pacific air routes. This picture was made with a large format Linhof camera. While astronauts used handheld camera’s to keep up with the Kamchatka event, instruments in the cargo bay of Endeavour recorded data to support the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2) mission. (NASA STS068-150-045)

We were able to monitor Kliuchevskoi’s eruption for a solid week, using the SRL to track eruptive phases as weather fronts came and went across Kamchatka. During a TV downlink to MCC, I described how the radar beams interacted with lavas of varying roughness, using three samples from Hawaii to illustrate the viewing geometry. I had chunks of aa, pahoehoe, and andesite lava aboard–in free fall, I had to take care to not release rock dust or slivers of lava into the cabin from their ziploc bags.  The andesite sample was a more viscous, stiff lava, erupted from some of the more recent cinder cones on Mauna Kea.

Kliuchevskoi eruption viewed from Endeavour’s aft flight deck windows. (NASA sts068-153-007)

Our shift work was 12 hours on, an 8-hour sleep shift, plus 4 hours for “post-sleep” and “pre-sleep”. In those periods, we talked things over with the Red Shift guys, had breakfast, dinner, and exercise, and took care of necessary housekeeping. One of the challenges was giving Jeff, Terry, and Bakes a good night’s sleep by keeping quiet in the middeck. Even opening a locker could wake up that crew in their sleeping bags, inside their bunks, so we tried to get our lunch like church mice, then eat on the flight deck. Once I dumped a chunk of scrambled eggs that I’d insecurely anchored to a tortilla–it went flying all over the flight deck, and Dan had to help me gobble up the floating egg debris. Dan’s homemade chocolate chip cookies crumbled in their ziploc–getting them out without crumbs floating everywhere required true astronaut skill. From home, with the help of the JSC Space Food Lab, I’d brought TastyKake chocolate cupcakes and Butterscotch Krimpets, enough snacks to carry me through the 11-day mission.

Flying high — about 115 nm up on Endeavour, STS-68. I’m with Dan Bursch and Mike Baker on the flight deck, with Earth in view out the windows. I have the Linhof with 250mm lens, Dan the video camcorder (look how huge it is), and Mike has a Hasselblad 70mm body with a 250mm telephoto lens. (NASA)

Connected to biomedical sensors, astronaut Steven L. Smith, mission specialist, serves as test subject for one of the flight’s 15 Detailed Supplementary Objectives (DSO). Astronaut Michael A. Baker, mission commander, monitors the test on the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s middeck. This test deals with the visual-vestibular integration as a function of adaptation to Spaceflight. Baker and Smith were joined by four other NASA astronauts for eleven days aboard the Endeavour in Earth-orbit, in support of the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA caption, STS068-021-023).

In the test above, Steve had a laser on his headstrap, and his job was to rotate his head to put the laser dot on a series of targets about 6 feet away on the middeck lockers, forward. The sequence of pointing was random, and the package Steve was wearing recorded his eye motions as well as his response and pointing time. Looks a little like The Terminator if you ask me. Mike Baker helps with the checklist. Note the tortillas in the ziploc bag on the Middeck Equipment Rack (MER) behind Baker, with the galley to the right.

When I enlarge the photo, I see my crew notebook also velcroed to the lockers above Mike’s left shoulder. And I’m actually visible behind Mike, taking a look out the side hatch window (or scrubbing the bathroom!).

Armed with a 250mm telephoto lens on a Linhof camera aboard Endeavour, I’m ready for the next stunning Earth view on STS-68, 10-94.

Astronauts Peter J. K. “Jeff” Wisoff and Steven L. Smith, mission specialists, perform in-flight maintenance procedures on the flight deck. They are replacing a malfunctioning Payload High Rate Recorder (PHRR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Astronauts Wisoff and Smith were joined by four other NASA astronauts aboard the Endeavour in operating the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA caption, STS068-074-008)

The recorders were adapted from digital tape machines that flew in recon aircraft to record digital imagery data. One of the three on our flight deck failed about 8 days into the mission, so Jeff and Steve removed it and replaced it with a spare recorder that’d been flown up underneath our middeck floor. Pretty handy mechanics. Within 4 hours they had the new machine up and running again.

Endeavour glides in for its landing on Oct. 11, 1994, at Edwards AFB, CA. (NASA EC94-42789-1)

All too soon, our 11 days in orbit were coming to a close. We remained an extra day in orbit hoping for added science, and to await improving weather at Kennedy Space Center, but Mission Control directed us home to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Oct. 11, 1994. Commander Mike Baker, assisted by pilot Terry Wilcutt, brought Endeavour to a gentle landing on Runway 22 at Edwards. Our orbiter performed superbly from start to finish of this successful mission to Planet Earth.

Just after wheels stop on Endeavour, I was to unstrap from my middeck seat and stand up. The blood pressure measurement gear would record my response to standing erect in 1-g, once again. I knew when the equipment was working when my left arm’s pressure cuff inflated, but it never recovered after touchdown. The taped data from entry, however, were good, and so was the audio tape I made as we rode back through the atmosphere. I have to give credit to the designers for creating a rig that would work inside our pressure suits, and yet still be easy enough to don and operate. After return to Houston, I sent the investigators an apology for the verbal tirade I recorded, grousing about the troubles I had getting the batteries replaced and activating the system. My only excuse was being up for a very long day…around 18 hours by the time we landed, and we still had postflight medical tests to endure.

Drag chute DTO complete, Endeavour rolls out on Rwy. 22 at Edwards, with Baker and Wilcutt at the controls. (NASA EC94-42789-2)

STS-68 is a highlight of my speech, “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Journey” — contact me here at my speaking information page.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Mission Highlights, STS-68

September 30 – October 11, 1994

(published by National Aeronautics and Space Administration as MH – 030/11-94; reformatted by author)

Commander:                         Michael A. Baker (CPT, USN)

Pilot:                                        Terrence Wilcutt (Lt.Col., USMC)

Payload Commander:        Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialist:              Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)

Mission Specialist:              Steven L. Smith

Mission Specialist:              Peter “Jeff” J. K. Wisoff (Ph.D.)

Front row:, l to r: Bursch, Baker, Jones. Back row, l to r: Wilcutt, Smith, Wisoff. (NASA STS068-002-016)

MAJOR MISSION ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Second successful flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) payload studying the Earth’s land surface, oceans, and atmosphere as a key element in NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth.

• Successful testing of a new radar technique called “interferometry.” Endeavour obtained topographic information of unprecedented clarity by using slightly different shuttle positions to provide 3 dimensional images of the terrain.

• Gathered global air pollution data with the Measure­ment of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) instru­ment. MAPS measures atmospheric carbon monoxide, monitoring its production and transport around the globe.

• Compared radar imaging results with those from SRL-1 (STS-59, in April ’94), determining the impact of natural and human change on Earth’s ecology, hydrology, oceanography, and geology. Operating around-the-clock and unaffected by weather, SRL-2’s radar instruments mapped 9% of Earth’s surface.

• Demonstrated the ability of an advanced, multi-fre­quency, multi-polarized radar to assess the state of Earth’s surface over a full seasonal cycle, laying the groundwork for a permanent environmental monitor­ing platform.

• Scanned large areas of the Southern Ocean with an on-board radar processor to reveal important information on wave and storm dynamics in this antarctic sea.

• Conducted investigations into plant reproduction under microgravity conditions, and produced large, high-quality protein crystals for analysis of the molecular structure of alpha-interferon, a cancer­ fighting drug.

• Forged international scientific links with the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and the X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) experiments.­ The SIR-C/X-SAR science team included 49 science investigators and 3 associates repre­senting a total of thirteen nations.

• Flew the first in a new series of life sciences experi­ments, “Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC), which subjects small organisms to microgravity in search of subtle effects on reproduction and growth.

Space Radar Laboratory-2

The goal of the 65th space shuttle mission was to demonstrate again the potential of new technolo­gy in observing the home planet from space. Endeavour’s vantage point, offering near-global access and a broad view of Earth below, provided a superb test of the Space Radar Laboratory’s capabilities for surface and atmospheric monitoring. As they did on the first Radar Lab flight on STS-59 in April, SRL’s imaging radars (SIR-C/X-SAR) again made surface measure­ments without regard to darkness or the weather below, providing the kind of access necessary for permanent monitoring of the global environment. Complementing the radar experiments, Endeavour’s atmospheric pollu­tion sensor (MAPS) tracked global production and distribution of carbon monoxide, an important combustion-produced trace gas that plays a role in the chemical pathways leading to air pollution and possible global warming.

The Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) in the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s cargo bay is backdropped against the blackness of space over Earth. (NASA STS068-070-23)

Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR)

SIR-C/X-SAR is the most advanced civil radar flown in space. The system was designed and built by NASA, the German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Jet Propulsion Lab devel­oped the SIR-C (C and L-band radars) for NASA, and DARA and ASI developed the X-band system; all three helped integrate the system into a single, flexible Earth-sensing tool. Radar waves can penetrate clouds, and under certain conditions, can also see through vegeta­tion, dry snow and extremely dry sand. In many cases, radar is the only way scientists can explore inaccessible regions of Earth’s surface.

SIR-C/X-SAR transmits pulses of radio energy at three different frequencies, creating detailed images of the surface that are tailored to detect soil and rocks (geology) , ocean waves and currents (oceanography), vegetation density and type (ecology), and water in the form of soil moisture, snow, ice, and rivers and lakes (hydrology). SIR-C/X-SAR first flew on STS-59 (SRL-1) in April of 1994. Repeating the environmental  measure­ments in a different season would prove radar’s ability to serve eventually as a permanent monitor of Earth’s environment, tracking both natural and man-made changes on the planet.

Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS)

The Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) experiment flew for the fourth time aboard STS-68. MAPS operated around the clock, measuring concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) around the globe. CO plays a key role in the chemical reaction pathways of the troposphere (the lowest, weather-filled layer of the atmosphere). It combines with hydroxyl radical (OH) and forms carbon dioxide (CO2). OH has a prime role in the breakdown and removal of greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4). If increasing CO, released from combustion processes, reduces the amount of hydroxyl radical in the air, then the breakdown of greenhouse gases will also slow down.Thus measuring CO’s global abundance is important in understanding how human-caused and natural combustion sources are affecting the global warming process.

On SRL-2, MAPS again worked flawlessly, and recorded a markedly different pattern of CO abun­dance than seen on SRL-1 in April ’94.The SRL-2 results showed heavy concentrations of CO from bio­mass (vegetation) burning in the tropics, with the greatest amounts over southeast Asia and the tropics of Africa and South America. Industrial sources of CO in the northern hemisphere were still present, but at lower levels than seen in April. As on SRL-1, the crew’s reports of fires, smoke, and the storms that loft CO to high altitude were used to confirm MAPS readings, and correlate MAPS and ground measurements.

Earth Science from Space

Once the STS-68 crew was in orbit, they powered up the SRL-2 payloads and checked out the radar and MAPS systems. The ground science team began uplinking commands to begin radar observa­tions for the 11-day flight. The crew worked in two shifts around the clock to operate Endeavour as a science platform. They maneuvered Endeavour some 470 times to precisely track the radar targets, reducing uncer­tainties in the imagery caused by Earth’s rotation. They recorded the digital radar images on tape, and conducted Earth photography and ”field observations”
at the hundreds of science sites around the globe. The crew provided needed “ground truth” to prove the accuracy of the radar data by taking over 13,000 images of the Earth with 14 different cameras.

SRL-2 examined Earth at over 400 specific sites, chosen for their environmental significance. Nineteen were “supersites;’ high priority focal points for data collection, where each science discipline­ ecology, hydrology, oceanography, geology, and radar calibration-concentrated their experiments. Intensive field work occurred at these sites before, during, and after the mission.

SRL-2 joined SRL-1 in acquiring 100% of the mission’s planned science observations. In addition, the science team redirected the radars during the flight to take advantage of rapidly changing conditions on the ground. The best example of this retargeting was the reaction to the spectacular eruption of Kliuchevskoi volcano, which exploded into life just hours after STS-68’s launch on 30 September. The SIR-C/X-SAR team was able to replan upcoming passes over the Kam­chatka Peninsula to study the entire course of the week-long eruption. Not only was the crew among the first witnesses to the eruption, but they tracked its progress daily, providing the most detailed documenta­tion of a large eruption ever obtained from space.

This SRL-2 radar image of the Kliuchevskoi volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula was taken on October 5, 1994, during Endeavour’s 88th orbit. Kliuchevskoi is the left-most of the two peaks, just above the white, flat-topped mountain at right center. The volcano erupted on launch day, and the SIR-C/X-SAR radar penetrated the 18 km-high smoke and ash plume to capture the bright lava flows streaking the left side of Kliuchevskoi’s twin peaks. (NASA/JPL p44823)

The radar and MAPS data provide information about how many of Earth’s complex “systems” work together to make the planet livable. Some early results include:

• Tree classification and vegetation biomass (amount of plant material) maps of the Raco, MI, supersite.
• A map of river flooding near Manaus, Brazil–the first step toward improving models of both flooding and wetlands under dense rain forest canopies.
• Snow wetness maps (showing free liquid water content of the snow pack) of Oetztal, Austria, and accurate estimates of the amount of water stored in the snowpack there.
• Extensive wave-energy measurements over the Southern Ocean that show the dominant sea states in the stormiest ocean region on the planet.
• Detection of oil spills in the North Sea. SIR-C/X-SAR detected industrial and natural oils in spill amounts as small as 10 liters, demonstrating another advantage of environmental monitoring from space.
• Monitoring of changes in the shape and extent of glaciers in the Patagonian Andes, at the far south­ern tip of South America. These remote glaciers are among the most rapidly advancing in the world, and may serve as sensitive indicators of global climate change.

Astronaut Daniel W. Bursch (right), mission specialist, points out one of the STS-68 mission’s major observation points on a map as astronaut Thomas D. Jones, payload commander, looks on. Jones and Bursch were joined by four other NASA astronauts for eleven days aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Earth orbit in support of the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA STS068-083-023)

SRL-2 demonstrated a powerful new use of radar, called interferometry, that produces three-dimen­sional maps of Earth’s surface. Mission Control and the crew combined to perform the most precise orbital maneuvers of the shuttle program, putting Endeavour in an orbit for the first 6 days that nearly matched SRL-1’s flight path in April. At times the two orbits differed by only 10 meters. For days 7-10, the crew lowered the orbit to a height of 200 km, an altitude that put Endeavour on a path matching its previous day’s ground track. This exacting navigation (where the crew trimmed orbital velocity to an accuracy of 1 part in 2 million) produced long swaths of interferometric data. The resulting digital elevation maps can show not only the ground’s elevation, but changes in height of just a few centimeters–actual shifts in Earth’s crust. The tech­nique should prove to be a powerful tool for detecting stress building up on or under Earth’s surface, warning, for example, of imminent volcanic activity.

SRL-2’s space radar also examined several areas of cultural interest, including the mountain gorilla habitat in central Africa, the ancient trade route called the Silk Road in China’s northwestern desert, the lost city of Ubar on the Arabian Peninsula, and buried river channels under the Sahara.

Middeck Payloads

Experiments to benefit Earth took place inside the crew module as well. Commercial Protein Growth (CPCG), flown “downstairs” on Endeavour’s middeck, grew and preserved high quality protein crystals of sufficient size and purity to permit analysis of their structure back on Earth. This structural information will be put to use in the manufacture of alpha-interferon, a cancer-fighting drug. Early in the mission, the crew solved an overheating problem in the experiment by rigging a temporary cooling duct to its fan inlets, assuring the proper conditions for crystal growth.

The crew also operated the Chromosome and Plant Cell Division in Space (CMIX) experiment, inves­tigating the effects of microgravity on plant reproduc­tion. Small, rapidly growing plants called mouse-eared cress grew to maturity in their 11 days in free-fall, giv­ing insight not only into cell reproduction in space, but also into practical methods for growing plants for food and waste recycling on long-duration space missions.

In another middeck locker experiment-Biologi­cal Research in Canisters (BRIC)-hundreds of dor­mant gypsy moth larvae underwent exposure to free­ fall to see if microgravity would affect their metamor­phosis into adults. Identifying gravity’s effect on the process may lead to efficient production of sterile moths to combat this forest pest. The crew also sys­tematically measured cabin radiation levels to assess long-term hazards of living in space, and photo­graphed ships’ wakes from orbit to assess how cloud formation is affected by exhaust emissions.

The crew took on another job, serving as labo­ratory subjects in a series of space medical experi­ments. They examined how coordination of head and eye movements degrades as the brain adapts to microgravity; recorded how free-fall affects the body’s sleep-wake cycle and hormone levels; and measured the heart’s response as Endeavour returned to the full force of gravity during re-entry and landing. These investigations will help prepare for the long stays in microgravity planned aboard the Space Station.

Endeavour’s landing at Edwards AFB capped a superb mission to Planet Earth. SIR-C/X-SAR imaged 83 million square kilometers of the Earth’s surface, about 9% of the globe. The radar experiments filled 199 magnetic tape cassettes, which held over 60 ter­abits (60 trillion bits) of imagery data–the equivalent of 25,000 encyclopedia volumes. MAPS created a series of global carbon monoxide maps, tracing the path of pollutants through Earth’s dynamic atmos­phere. Endeavour’s crew brought back the largest complement of Earth photography of the Shuttle pro­gram to date, a record of Earth’s environmental changes that will aid greatly the interpretation of the radar and MAPS results. STS-68 completed the proof­ test of spaceborne radar as a tool for permanent, long-term monitoring of our planet’s health.

Connected to biomedical sensors, Mission Specialist Steven L. Smith serves as a subject for visual-vestibular integration tests. Mission Commander Michael A Baker monitors the test. (NASA STS068-21-823)

Pilot Terrence W. Wilcutt takes advantage of the weightless environment of space to juggle five cameras which are used to record the changing ecology and oceanography of Earth. (NASA STS068-055-009)

Mission Facts

Orbiter: Endeavour

Mission Dates: September 30-0ctober 11, 1994

Commander: Michael A. Baker (CPT, USN)

Pilot: Terrence Wilcutt (Lt. Col., USMC)

Payload Commander: Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialist: Steven L. Smith

Mission Specialist: Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)

Mission Specialist: Peter “Jeff” J. K. Wisoff (Ph..D.)

Mission Duration: 11 days, 5 hours, 47 minutes

Kilometers Traveled: 8,710,360 km

Orbit Inclination: 57 degrees

Orbits of Earth: 183

Orbital Altitude: 222 km

Payload Weight Up: 12,511 kg

Orbiter Landing Weight: 101,169 kg

Landed: Edwards Air Force Base, California

Payloads and Experiments:

Cargo Bay Payloads:

SRL-2 – Space Radar Laboratory-2

GAS – Get Away Special canisters

Middeck Payloads:

CPCG – Commercial Protein Crystal Growth

BRIC – Biological Research in Canisters

CREAM – Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor

CHROMEX – Chromosomes and Plant Cell Division in Space Experiment

MAST – Military Applications of Ship Tracks

Commander: Michael A. Baker (Capt., USN)
Michael Baker was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but considers Lemoore, California, to be his hometown. He received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. After completing flight training, he flew the A-7E aircraft aboard the USS Midway. He conducted A-7 aircraft-related tests on the various aircraft carriers in the Navy’s fleet. Baker served as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School before assignment as the U.S. Navy Exchange Instructor at the Empire Test Pilots’ School in Boscombe Down, England. He has logged over 4,200 hours flying time in some 50 different types of aircraft, and has completed over 300 carrier landings. He was named an astronaut in 1985, and was pilot of the STS-43 and STS-52 missions.

Pilot: Terrence W. Wilcutt (Lt. Col., USMC)
Terrence Wilcutt was born in Russellville, Kentucky. He graduated with a bach­elor of arts degree in mathematics from Western Kentucky University. Upon graduation, Wilcutt taught high school math for two years and then entered the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned his wings in 1978 and served on various assignments in Hawaii and overseas in aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom, FA- 18 Hornet, and the A-7 Corsair II. Wilcutt attended the Naval Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He has over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 different kinds of aircraft. Wilcutt was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and has served in a variety of responsibilities including Space Shuttle main engine and external tank issues and launch support. This was his first space flight.

Payload Commander: Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)
Thomas David Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a bachelor of science degree in basic sciences from the U. S. Air Force Academy and a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona. As an Air Force offi­cer, he served as a B-52 strategic bomber pilot and aircraft commander, accu­mulating over 2,000 hours of flight experience.After leaving the Air Force, Jones worked toward his doctorate, using remote sensing to investigate the composition of asteroids and meteorites, and researching the utility of asteroid resources in space exploration. He was a program management engineer for the CIA’s Office of Development and Engineering and later a senior scientist at Science Applications International Corporation, analyzing future missions to Mars, asteroids, and the outer solar system. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1990. Jones flew in space on the STS-59 mission; this was his second flight on Endeavour.

Mission Specialist: Steven L. Smith
Steven Smith was born in Phoenix, Arizona, but considers San Jose, California, to be his hometown. Smith received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, master of science degree in electrical engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration, all from Stanford University.He worked for IBM in the Large Scale Integration (semiconductor) Technology Group as a technical group lead. Smith joined NASA in 1989 in the Payload Operation Branch, Mission Operations Directorate. As a payload officer, his duties included payload integration and mission support. He was selected as an astronaut in 1992 and has provided Space Shuttle support in the areas of main engines, solid rocket boosters, and the external tank. This was his first space flight.

Mission Specialist: Peter J. K. “Jeff”Wisoff (Ph.D.)
Peter J. K. Wisoff was born in Norfolk,Virginia. He received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the University of Virginia and a master of science degree and doctorate in applied physics from Stanford University. Upon gradu­ation, he joined the faculty of .Rice University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research focused on the development of new vacuum ultraviolet and high intensity laser sources. He also worked with researchers from regional Texas medical centers on the use of lasers in rebuilding damaged nerves. Wisoff has contributed numerous papers at tech­nical conferences and in journals in the areas of lasers and laser applications. He was named an astronaut in 1990 and was a mission specialist aboard STS-57 as well as STS-68.

Mission Specialist: Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)
Daniel Bursch was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, but considers Vestal, New York, his hometown. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from the U.S. Naval Academy, and a master of science degree in engineering science from the Naval Postgraduate School. After training as an A-6E Intruder bombardier/navigator, he served aboard the USS John F. Kennedy and USS America. After working as a project test flight officer for the A-6 Intruder, he served as a flight instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Bursch worked as Strike Operations Officer for Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1, making deployments to the Indian Ocean aboard the USS Long Beach and USS Midway. He has over 2,100 flight hours in more than 35 different aircraft. Bursch was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and flew as a mission specialist aboard STS-51 and STS-68.

Exploration of Earth from space is the focus of the design of the insignia, the second flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2). SRL-2 is part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) project. The world’s land masses and oceans dominate the center field, with the Space Shuttle Endeavour circling the globe. The SRL-2 letters span the width and breadth of planet Earth, symbolizing worldwide coverage of the two prime experiments of STS-68–The Shuttle Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) instruments, and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) sensor. The red, blue and black colors of the insignia represent the three operating wavelengths of SIR-C/X-SAR, and the gold band surrounding the globe symbolizes the atmospheric envelope examined by MAPS. The flags of international partners Germany and Italy are shown opposite Endeavour. The relationship of the Orbiter to Earth highlights the usefulness of human space flight in understanding Earth’s environment, and monitoring its changing surface and atmosphere. In the words of the crewmembers, “the soaring Orbiter also typifies the excellence of the NASA team in exploring our own world, using the tools which the Space Program developed to explore the other planets in the solar system.” The STS-68 patch was designed by artist Sean Collins. (NASA STS068-s-001)

**End**

Read about the STS-68 mission and its highlights in my memoir, “Sky Walking,” available at this website, www.AstronautTomJones.com.  To book a speech about these and my other spaceflight experiences, please contact the WorldWide Speakers Group, here.

The Sun’s Corona seen from Lake Simtustus, OR. (credit T. Jones; 1/60 s f6.8 ISO 400)

The Great American Total Solar Eclipse turned out to be well worth the journey, and my family enjoyed this spectacular demonstration of the solar system in operation from Oregon’s central desert near the small town of Madras, just east of the Deschutes River gorge. Understanding the space requires training from a young age, here are 4 Ways To Introduce Toddlers To Tech And Science. We were blessed with clear skies (a bare trace of forest fire smoke) for this awe-inspiring event. I’ll post a series of photos of our eclipse experience here.

The scene of the eclipse at Lake Simtustus, a dammed portion of the Deschutes River. (T. Jones)

We were guests of our friend, Rhonda Coleman, an “umbraphile,” or seeker of total eclipses. Her RV group graciously invited us to share with us their eclipse observing location. Sunrise occurred at 0731, with the Sun peeking over the basalt lava rim of the surrounding plateau.

Sunrise at Lake Simtustus at 0731 am, shot through a solar filter. (T. Jones)

Using a solar filter, I watched the sun rise above, as the solar disc cleared the canyon rim. Eclipse start was just 90 minutes or so away.

The Moon takes its first bite and the eclipse begins. This shot was taken at 0912 am PDT. (T. Jones)

High cirrus clouds and some wisps of forest fire smoke moved off to the east during the morning, and we had clear skies throughout the eclipse. Our setting was in a scattered pine grove in desert terrain carved out of hundreds of feet of ancient basalt lava flows, incised by the Deschutes River. Cool morning air, low humidity, and the solar spectacle warming us comfortably.

Projected image of the moon’s passage across the sun, using one of the amateur astronomers’ reflecting telescope and a motor oil funnel clamped to the eyepiece. (T. Jones)

Many of the observers were experts with their personal telescopes, and I believe Brian Bellis used his scope and the funnel to cleverly project the Sun’s image, above.

Projected image from our makeshift pinhole projector, a fitting message for our hiking group. (T. Jones)

Our hiking group from Virginia was the core of our group headed to Oregon for the eclipse, so this message was a natural when I drilled out our thin section of wood for our pinhole projector. Note the mini-eclipses projected from each 1/8″ hole.

The moon has covered more of the Sun, heading for totality. This shot came at 10:01 am. (T. Jones)

Excitement built among the 300-or-so observers at Lake Simtustus as the moon drove steadily across the Sun’s face. Still, at this point we could see no noticeable drop in brightness outdoors, above.

Totality approaches at 10:08 am. (T. Jones).

For the above shot, I was still shooting zoomed in through a solar filter over the optics of the Canon digital (SX280 HS), using its “auto” setting to meter for proper exposure. (T. Jones).

Sun just before totality, at 1017 am. Through solar filter on “auto” setting. (T. Jones)

When I took the above shot, two minutes before totality, the ambient light was dropping rapidly, bathing the desert landscape in a weak, watery, orange-yellow illumination. Everyone noticed this, murmuring about the unfamiliar, weird light levels of the scene. By this point I was getting my settings ready for totality, but there was almost too much going on with the waning Sun to focus on camera set-up.

A juniper tree acted as a pinhole projector, throwing crescent solar discs across the ground and onto our whiteboard. (T. Jones)

The waning light is obvious in the above photo, both on the ground and in those hundreds of thin solar crescents. Our daughter Annie noticed the ground crescents and grabbed our white poster board to best see these mini-eclipses.

Just after totality, prominences appear on the Sun’s limb with its inner corona. (T. Jones, 1/1250 s f6.8 ISO 400)

Wow! Didn’t see the prominences until looking at the photos, but some in our group with binoculars spotted these immense arcs of incandescent gas above the Sun’s limb. The fine structure of the inner corona also impressed.

Visible are brilliant prominences and the inner corona. (T. Jones, 1/640 s f6.8 ISO 400)

As my exposure time increased, we started to capture more of the corona stretching above those amazing prominences (above). Temperature along the lake front dropped noticeably. One friend, Dan Adamo in Salem, OR, recorded a drop of over 6 degrees F during totality.

More of the corona appears. (T. Jones, f6.8 1/320 s ISO 400)

Longer exposure time gets more of the structure of the corona. I was whirling through the shutter speed dial, and using a 2-second delay on the shutter timer to damp vibration on the tripod. And the clock was ticking on me observing the eclipse with my own eyeballs. (I did take long glimpses between these shots).

The middle corona emerges, captured at 1/125 s f6.8 ISO 400 (T. Jones).

The photo above appears much like the scene we saw of the moon and Sun during the last minute of totality. How incredibly lovely.

Nearing totality’s end, the corona is edged by the chromosphere at upper right. (T. Jones, 1/50 s f6.8 ISO 400)

Totality was almost over. The crowd’s murmur rose noticeably as we all anticipated the Sun’s reappearance; emotions ran from exultant to sadness that this vision was about to end. But we were all eager to see what the Sun would show us at eclipse conclusion.

My final glimpse of the corona at 1/40 s, f6.8, ISO 400. (T. Jones)

The Sun is just about to emerge from behind the Moon, outshining the chromosphere here (above). Good-bye to the corona, perhaps until 2024.

The diamond ring emerges, ending totality at 1021 am. (T. Jones, 1/30 s f6.8 ISO 400)

Whoops and cheers swelled as the Sun emerged from eclipse, exhibiting this blazing diamond ring above the Oregon desert. On go the solar glasses again!

The exuberant Blackout Rally crowd just after totality–emotionally drained, but exuberant! (T. Jones)

The Sun drenches the viewing area, and out come the eclipse glasses and the cold drinks.

Miniatures of the waning eclipse cast by our pinhole projector. (T. Jones)

With the totality tension gone, all of us could catch up on the eclipse experiences we missed on the way in to blackout. Above are the miniatures of the waning eclipse cast by our pinhole projector onto the poster board.

View of the waning eclipse at 1054 am. (T. Jones)

Most of us enjoyed a cold swallow of our iced Coronas at this point, talking excitedly with friends and family about what we’d witnessed.

Gathering of the Sun Chasers, post-totality. (T. Jones)

What a success this was for all involved. Note all the telescopes brought by the Blackout Ralliers in background.

The Moon moves off-stage at about 1122 am. (T. Jones)

Sunspots make their reappearance as the Moon exits the Sun’s neighborhood. We followed the eclipse’s finish with a picnic lunch, and plotted plans to avoid the traffic heading south out of Madras. I enjoyed giving a talk under the big tent, and met with eclipse-goers at a book signing under the shade of our big juniper at the viewing area, autographing Ask the Astronaut and Sky Walking.

Tom Jones speaks at Blackout Rally, post-eclipse. (Rhonda Coleman)

Tom signs copies of his books, under the blessed shade of the big juniper. (Sean Wilson)

We’ll close this eclipse album out with a view of the Moon’s shadow, seen from the International Space Station. For the U.S., so long to totality until 2024. See you in the umbra!

Lunar shadow as seen from ISS. 8-21-17 (NASA)

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