Documents - Mir Mission Interviews

Mir-22 Mission Interviews

Following are links to interviews that took place during Mir-22

Shannon Lucid, NASA-2 Mir Resident - 9/6/96
Elena Kondakova, Cosmonaut, former Mir Resident - 9/6/96
John Blaha, NASA-3 Mir Resident - 10/11/96
Bill Shepherd, Astronaut, ISS Expedition 1 Resident - 10/11/96
Jeff Cardenas, Co-chair, Mir Operations and Integration WG -10/18/96
Mir-22 Crew News Conference - 10/25/96
Tom Akers, Mission Specialist, STS-79 -11/1/96
Mir-22 Crew News Conference - 12/20/96

Interview with Shannon Lucid - Week of September 6, 1996

Shannon Lucid spoke with an interviewer at WISH-TV in Indianapolis September 5. The following are excerpts from that interview.

On her reaction to STS-79 launch delays:
As long as Atlantis is in good shape, then I'm in good shape and when they get here, they get here.
I have had the opportunity to work with the people down at KSC many times over the years and I know that they'll make a conservative, right judgment call, and I have full confidence in what they decide. Whenever they're ready, then they'll come get me.
I think that I am the first person that's had their flight delayed by two hurricanes, so maybe that is a record.
On how she expects to adapt physically to gravity upon her return to Earth:
Well, I've talked a lot with Yuri because he had been up in space and gone back to the Earth after six months before, and now I've been talking to [Alexander Kaleri] a little bit and I've talked to some other people, some other cosmonauts in Star City, and it's going to be a little while before you get feeling back like you were before you went into space and it will just take time for your body to readapt back to gravity."
Well, I think, for six months I haven't used a lot of the muscles you normally use every single day and so it will just take time for these muscles to start working again and want to work without hurting. So that's what will take a little bit of time."
On communicating with her family:
It's been working out pretty good. I've been able to have a video conference from with my family from JSC, Houston up to the station Mir roughly about every other week and then I've had a telephone call from home every other week, so that's worked out real well. They've been sending me email messages, too, so that's worked out real well. I have been able to stay in pretty good contact with them.
On what she wants to do when she gets home:
I think the first thing I want to do when I get back, of course, I want to be with my family and just talk with them for a long while and I just want to sit in a big chair in the den and read my magazines and read my books and, you know, just sorta not do anything.
It is a family tradition that we have pizza every Friday night, mainly because by the end of the week I'm certainly in no mood to fix anything, so for years and years we've had pizza every Friday night. I'm certainly looking forward to having that again and I'm just looking forward to going to restaurants with my friends and just doing the normal things that you do and take for granted on a daily basis.
On getting along with fellow crew members:
From my perspective, we got along really well. I couldn't have been more pleased with the way that we got along and I think the reason it happened is because everybody wanted to get along. Everybody's main goal was to have a very successful flight and so everyone was working at getting along and it just worked.
Looking back, I find it amazing that we spent the better part of five months together and we never really got upset with each other. Maybe it's because I don't know the right words in Russian to get upset. But we got along just fine and there is just no way that I could have wished for a better crew or a better way of getting along with anybody.
On the best personality type for long duration missions:
I think anybody who enjoys working in a lab, who enjoys flying in space. A lot of times you're sort of working on your own and you have to make decisions on your own because you don't have the luxury of being able to talk to the ground very often. And so you have to enjoy doing that. And, frankly, the reason that I found that the time went very well is because I like to read and I was very fortunate to have a lot of books. So I think a person who likes to read and can entertain themselves will do fine.
On how she fills her time:
Most of the time we are working, believe it or not. Most of the time we have things that have to get done and things that we have to do. And, of course, one of the big things that everyone really likes to do is look out of the window and look at the Earth. And one of the really neat things about having a long flight is that I've been able to see the seasons' changes over the earth. The sort of flights I've been on before on the shuttle, I was only up for a week or two weeks and didn't really get to see how the Earth changed over a period of time.
I was just thinking today that, when I launched in March, when I looked out at the northern part of our Earth, it was covered with snow and ice and I got to see the ice in all the lakes break up and then I got to see the Earth green. It was a very neat experience.
Read more about Shannon Lucid and NASA-2

Read Shannon Lucid's Oral History (PDF)

Read Shannon Lucid's Letters Home

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Interview with Elena Kondakova - Week of September 6, 1996

Elena Kondakova is a Russian cosmonaut with RSA Energia. She lived aboard Mir six months in 1994-95 and currently is in training for a shuttle mission to the space station in 1997. During a recent interview, she responded to questions about her experience and training, among other subjects.

On Shannon Lucid breaking the woman-in-space record:
I will only be happy for Shannon Lucid that she will stay in space for a longer time and the only thing that makes it sad of course is that it was not intentionally but because the shuttle was delayed for more than one and half months. But again, it proves that women can work in space as long as men."
For our Russian space program, we are not talking about records anymore because, for the last 20 years, the duration of any flight is approximately six months or so and in this particular case it is just work on orbit. I understand that, for the American side, it is a record of course because it is just the second long duration flight of an American astronaut and especially a woman onboard of the space station. And I would like for both scientists and medics to have enough data to research such data that we will obtain in addition on Lucid's flight.
What it's like living in orbit for six months:
In principle, it is the same life as here on Earth, and the only difference is that, unlike working on the Earth, you have to fly. This is the main meaning of transportation. The life is the same, we have an eight hour working day and we have time for personal rest, we have time when we can watch movies and what is going on on Earth and life is easier onboard because you don't have to do laundry there, you don't have to cook there. So I think that, for a woman, being in space is kind of a vacation from home work.
About the age and durability of Mir:
You have to understand that when the station was launched initially, we had planned to fly the station for only three years. Of course, like any mechanical system, device, or machine, it has its own resource which should be extended at some point. Periodically, we have to replace devices and elements and conduct unplanned activities, but it proves one more time that our technology has great achievement; we had planned to fly it for three years and it has been in flight for 11 and we plan to extend this flight even more.
On how much longer Mir can continue to operate:
It all depends all how you take care of it. You know, it's like a car. If you take care of the car it can serve you a long time. If you forget about it, it can break very soon. It depends on how we treat it.
How she felt when she learned she would be one of the few cosmonauts who would fly on the space shuttle:
First of all, I was very happy because, when we were on orbit in February, STS-63 approached the station with Jim Wetherbee, but they only approached us to a distance of ten meters. We wanted so badly for them to dock to our station and visit us and we were so certain that we could just see them but we didn't have an opportunity to work together. And Charlie Precourt, who is my commander now, was a member of the first crew which docked to the Mir station and when they brought two Russian cosmonauts, Solovyev and Budarin, and I am very happy that I will be working and that I will be a part of such a wonderful crew because we have a few people who have flown already. We have a great crew and a wonderful commander.
Specifically, my program is in development at this time and during our flight, we will test new equipment for rendezvous with the Mir station and I will also play a certain role in this program and, when we're closer to the flight, I will understand what specifically I am going to do and I am very happy that I am going to participate in such a wonderful flight.

Interview with John Blaha - Week of October 11, 1996

Earlier this week Blaha conducted an interview with anchor Bob Edwards of National Public Radio. The veteran astronaut began by providing an outline of his typical day on orbit.

Well, I've been very busy. Typical day: get up at 7 a.m., start working at 8, and stop around 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and maybe get to bed by 1 or 2 a.m. And then in the middle of that day, about an hour to an hour and half, twice a day, of physical exercise--once on the treadmill, and once on the bicycle, and in between using expanders to work with the muscles. And when I'm not eating and doing those types of things, we're conducting an awful lot of experiments - both human physiology experiments, life science and microbiology, and materials science experiments... quite a number of them.
Is that your mission, to conduct experiments, or are you the experiment?
That's an interesting question. No, I think our primary mission is our relationship with the Russians, so working with my two crewmates is the primary mission. The next one of course is my own health and well-being, because that's something to pay attention to on a long duration spaceflight. And after that, of course, to conduct the experiments that we've been trained to conduct up here.
You trained with one crew, but are with a different crew now. How is that working out now?
It's working out just fine. As it turns out, I trained with two crews I trained with the Mir-23 crew in Star City for about a year, and then I trained with the Mir-22 crew in Star City for about six months, and, of course, now I'm flying with what used to be the Mir-24 crew, flying the Mir-22 mission.
Are there any advantages to working with Russian cosmonauts as opposed to U.S. astronauts?
I don't know how to answer that. I can tell you this, since they have an awful lot of experience in long duration space flight, which they have, there's a lot we can learn from them and I'm trying to absorb it all so that we can apply it to our work with our International Space Station we're trying to build with them, the Japanese and the Europeans.
Do you feel like a guest there, in a Russian space station?
No, they've made me feel very much a part of the crew. And in fact, anytime I try to say something, "Boy, I don't know very much, and you guys are teaching me a lot," they always tell me, "No, that's not right, John. You're part of our crew and we're three people trying to get a joint mission done," and so I feel very a part of that group.
Shannon Lucid said that keeping busy was the key to keeping sane; is there enough there to keep you busy?
I tell you what: I've been so busy since I arrived. To tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to some free time so I can observe the planets more, observe the starfield, and absorb the absolutely incredible view you have when you look out the window on a spaceflight.
I heard you took a lot of video tapes with you.
I have an awful lot of videos with me. I've watched a number of them, I've watched Star Trek I the last two nights. I actually use movies as a little bit of a therapy to help me wind down to get a good night's sleep.
What about contact from your family and getting news from home?
I get all sorts of news from home. I've had about four calls from different members of my family, my sister, brother and mother once, my wife twice, and my son Steven once, my son Jim and his family once, and my grandson, I talked with him. So I've had quite a bit of family contact and I get quite a bit of news from all the amateur radio operators all across the United States. So every early morning that I get up, which is 8 Moscow time, a little after midnight your time, I get on the net and get a lot of news from those amateur radio operators as I pass over the U.S.
What is the atmosphere, the condition within Mir itself, since it has been up there for over ten years now. It's got to be getting a little close, a little crowded, a little messy maybe.
Actually, if I could describe the environment, I was surprised. There was a lot empty space. It may be five times the size of the volume of empty space as we have in the shuttle, so I was surprised by that. The environment is actually very good, the air is very healthy, it's not dry, it's not humid. Nothing smells. Two of the modules are very new inside. The other four modules look a bit used, as you could imagine something looking after people have lived in something in orbit for 10 to 11 years without having the advantage of bringing the vehicle home and letting it be cleaned up on the ground.
Read more about John Blaha and NASA-3

Read John Blaha's Oral History (PDF)

Interview with Bill Shepherd - Week of October 11, 1996

The Shuttle-Mir program is preparing the United States, Russia, and nearly a dozen other countries for the assembly and occupancy of the International Space Station. The first component of that station is to be launched into orbit in November of next year, and the first crew to live on the station is scheduled to launch in May 1998. U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd is part of that three-man crew, which will include veteran Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Krikalev. This week, as he prepared to leave for Russia for training for that mission, Shepherd talked about the goals of the expedition and his thoughts about taking this next step into space.

The flight is scheduled for the spring of 1998. You will be only the second American to be launched into space in a Russian Soyuz rocket, and you'll link up with International Space Station components already in orbit. What does flight 2R consist of, and its context in the overall phase of space station assembly?
2R will be the third launch from Russia, which will be a Soyuz capsule bringing the crew up. We'll have three other vehicles up there already - the Functional Cargo Block, which is our fuel tank; the U.S. node that will come up with the shuttle; and the service module, which is a Russian vehicle very similar to the Base Block on Mir. 2R will be a crew of three coming aboard that complex. Our main job is to start operations, bring habitable systems up and make them operational.
Any space walks during the mission?
We have one scheduled. We're going to move a docking port on the service module from one location to another. It should be fairly straightforward, something the Russians have done before.
Bill, you served as the Deputy Manager for the International Space Station here at the Johnson Space Center before being assigned to the flight. What insight did that role give you into the complexity of this undertaking and the global complexion of this endeavor?
It was an unusual experience to be allowed to participate in the management aspects of space station. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of bringing Russia into the space station partnership. I think the most interesting and difficult thing about it is to try and merge the technical, operational, and political cultures for the 13 different countries that are involved. That continues to be something we're working real hard on, and we're making great progress but it has not been straightforward.
After years of hardware development and redesign, now it's almost time to start assembling this complex. What are your thoughts about the road space station has taken up to this point, and the road it now will take as we move from design to assembly?
I think that since the last and final redesign the progress of the program has been good. We are on schedule and we're going to meet our other commitments, but clearly this is a program of such magnitude that it takes more than a decade to go from concept to reality. We forget that technical developments take this long, and we need to do these things in a consistent fashion, with good technical, managerial, and political support. That's been the biggest issue.
You've been chosen as the expedition manager for flight 2R. You'll be the first commander of the occupancy of the International Space Station. As such, what will you be responsible for, and how will the work be distributed between yourself and your crewmates onboard?
The role of the commander will be no different than what we have right now on the space shuttle and many ships and airplanes that operate in the civil or military environment. The commander is generally responsible for those aspects of the mission that have been agreed to between ground control and onboard control. He or she is also the person responsible for safety of the vehicle and the crew aboard. I don't think the Russians see this role any different, and the question is not which country the commander comes from, but that the job and the responsibilities make sense.
Russia is now embarking on a new era of human space flight with its transition over the next few years from operations on the Mir Space Station to joint operations on the International Space Station. What is your view of where Russia stands today with its space program and the prognosis for its involvement in human space flight in the future?
Clearly, Russia still has tremendous capability to launch and operate vehicles and other equipment. Fundamentally I think they approach things from almost any aspect in a different way than we do. Their engineers are very capable, they have good design. I think it remains to be seen for the future of Russia as to what the complexion of their space program is going to be. We would hope that International Space Station is sort of a flagship to show that there is benefit for both of these nations, the United States and Russia, to work together. Collectively, our two programs can achieve things that perhaps either one of us couldn't do independently. I think that will prove to be the case, and hopefully that will bring Russian space efforts and aerospace industry into a position where they're more communicative and cooperative with what's going on in the West.

Interview with Jeff Cardenas - Week of October 18, 1996

Jeff Cardenas, as Operations and Training Manager of the NASA/Mir program, is in frequent contact with guest cosmonaut-researcher John Blaha. During an interview today, he talked about Blaha's mission and his progress so far.

For the first few days he was onboard the Mir, Blaha got daily briefings from Shannon Lucid and now he's been there alone with his two cosmonaut colleagues for four weeks; how has he settled in to life on the station and acclimated himself to the pace of activities?
He's getting along very well, from what we've been able to learn from our limited conversations with him. It's been very beneficial for him that while Shannon Lucid was up there he could talk to her, get her feelings and impressions of life aboard the Mir, working in that environment. It's a different way of doing business, a different system, a different culture.
Because of the extension of her tour, Lucid began some of the experiments originally scheduled for Blaha, including cultivation of dwarf wheat in the greenhouse experiment; describe the goals of this investigation and talk about the work Blaha has been doing there this week.
The greenhouse experiment uses Russian equipment called the 'Svet,' which is the Russian word for 'flower nursery.' Using that facility they're growing dwarf wheat under varying water conditions, both controlled and under varying parameters. They're controlling lighting, temperature, humidity, and they actually have a computer hooked up to the facility to monitor that equipment and to generate the data to the ground. There are two sessions, a 100-day harvesting and also a 30-day harvesting. Shannon Lucid started the 100-day harvesting, and that's what John Blaha has been monitoring through this time. Approximately four to five weeks before his return on STS-81 in January, he will start the second harvesting, the 30-day interval, and those samples will both be returned on STS-81.
A major area of investigation for the Shuttle-Mir program is microgravity science, and this week Blaha has been working with the D-CAM, or Diffusion-Controlled Crystallization Apparatus for microgravity; describe what he's been doing there this week, and what this experiment is designed to learn.
This experiment is part of the microgravity discipline and there are several experiments of this nature both for microgravity and advanced technology. The DCAM, the crewmember starts the activity and records it at about 30-day intervals with photographs and video analysis of the materials being processed. It's growing protein crystals for later analysis on the ground, so he's mapping the development of these crystals as they're being processed in microgravity.
There are several other experiments of this nature. Another is called the Commercial Bioprocessing Apparatus, which is a commercial endeavor under the advanced technology discipline. That's a research effort supporting several different things such as life sciences investigation with regard to proteins and biological cells and specimens. It also could do some materials processing, so it can process both organic and inorganic matter.
These missions of Americans to the Mir are also designed to learn about how the human body responds to long periods without gravity, and earlier this week all three crewmembers were engaged with an exercise program using the metabolic gas analyzer system; tell us what they're doing here, and how it will help scientists on the ground learn about people who spend long periods in space?
The MGAS is a derivation of a piece of hardware that has flown several times on the shuttle during some of the Spacelab life science missions. The MGAS apparatus actually supports several investigations in the human life sciences discipline. It analyzes the inspired and expired air from a crew member, under both normal conditions and when he's under stress. When he's on the bicycle ergometer his EKG is also being monitored, so it's part of several investigations with regard to protein metabolism and skeletal muscle performance.
There are several investigators, so especially with regard to the human life science investigations they try to pool their resources so they can limit the number of data takes they have to do on the crew member.
Read more about John Blaha and NASA-3

Read Jeff Cardenas' Oral History (PDF)

Mir-22 Crew News Conference - Week of October 25, 1996

Yesterday the Mir-22 crew fielded news media questions about their mission.

How has the mission measured up so far? How productive do you feel, and how have you acclimated physically and psychologically to this point?
It's beyond my expectations. I'd heard a lot about the Mir, I'd heard a lot of talk during meetings about the space station. This is an incredible space station. I am very impressed with it, I'm very impressed with Valery and Sasha, the work they do here. I wish I could keep up with them. The view out of the space station is incredible. The longer I am here the more I'm able to observe both on the experiments and in looking at the Earth, the stars, and the planets.
I never knew before that you need to be in orbit for a longer time to really become more effective. When the Russian cosmonauts told me that a couple of years ago, I thought they were just saying that, but I'm very impressed. It's beyond my expectations, and I'm having a great time here.
What has surprised you most so far, what do you miss the most, and do you miss having gravity?
What has surprised me the most is how fantastic this space station is. Space station Mir is an incredible laboratory and workshop. You can observe astronomy with it, you can observe the Earth, you can observe the environment, you can conduct experiments. It has a tremendous amount of volume with all the modules, a lot of privacy. It's just an incredible space station. I'm very impressed with it, and I'm very impressed with Valery and Sasha; they're incredible cosmonauts.
In light of the recent discovery of possible life on Mars, what do you think about when you look out the window at the stars and planets?
Once a day I take some time to go on a dark pass to look at the planets. I've seen Mars, Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, Jupiter, and Venus, and every time I look at Mars I say 'we ought to go, we ought to go.' Without a doubt, that kind of program is good for mankind, good for all the countries on the Earth to work together. I think we ought to go - I wish we were on our way right now, but I guess that will have to be younger people in the future.
Are you able to vote in the upcoming elections? What is your message to the public in the upcoming elections?
I don't think I'll be able to vote, but I think two things. I think President Clinton has done a great job in the last four years. I'll be very honest, I didn't vote for him four years ago, but I think he's done a great job and I'm all for him. I also think Bob Dole did a great job in the U.S. Senate, so both men are doing very well. I hope we'll keep the spirit of everybody together and work to try to improve America and not worry about the politics of Republican and Democratic parties so much.
Is NASA working on letting you vote? What kind of U.S. news are you getting? Are you getting World Series updates?
I'm getting all sorts of updates on the World Series. The box scores of the ballgames, about 48 hours after the games. Steve Vanhorn in Houston puts those together for me and I love looking at them. I get updates on the ballgames from ham radio operators all over the world as soon as the games are over, as well as the opinion of my son Steven, who lets me know what he thinks. I'm really excited because the Yankees are doing better than I thought against the Braves' great pitching staff.
Do you have a sense of time in space? Do you feel like you've been in space a month? Can you look ahead to the day when you might look forward to coming home?
I can't believe how the time has flown here, and I'm starting to worry that it's flying too fast. Every now and then I think, "Golly, January will be here in a couple of days." I'm worried about that because I really enjoy it here. I enjoy the work and I enjoy watching and learning how to work on a space station from these two great cosmonauts.
I do miss my wife and family, and I only wish I could beam them up here and show them some of the fantastic views of the cosmos and of the planet. Yesterday I had an incredible view late in our time, midnight, but about 3 pm Houston time. I had a pass where we came over Los Angeles, and I could see L.A., San Diego and Edwards Air Force Base, and they looked like they were right next to each other. About a minute later I saw Las Vegas and could see Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely beautiful because there weren't any clouds. Then I could see Denver and Salt Lake City. All that happened in the space of about three minutes, so this space station is really trucking along.
How do the three of you spend your nonworking hours? What kinds of things do you do to relax?
We work about a 16-hour day, Sasha and Valery for certain. I'm a little older, so after about 14 hours I need to settle down a little bit and look at the stars or the Earth. I watch movies, and both Valery and Sasha join me every now and then and look at them. Last night we were looking at 'Texas,' and they were both interested in the history of Texas.
The best time we can communicate is when we're eating around the table, either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and we usually knock off for about an hour and do that each day for those three meals.
What touches of home do you have on Mir? Do you have any traditions there?
I don't think so. I've joined the regime of Valery and Sasha, probably the regime Shannon was living with them. I haven't really done anything to change it other than bring the movies along - Shannon didn't have the movies. I guess my one change was bringing the movies. I thank the people in Houston who put that great system together for me that's allowed me to settle down in the evening. As a result, I get a fantastic night's sleep and I eat real well and enjoy the exercise. The movies have been helpful; they're like medicine to me.
How is the wheat experiment growing? Does it help you psychologically to have something living growing aboard Mir with you?
No it doesn't help me psychologically, but it is a fantastic experiment. It's going very well - there are so many seeds I can't believe it. In fact, I think it's progressed well beyond what I thought on the ground it was going to do. Some fantastic scientists in Moscow at their biological institute as well as people at our Ames Research Center have been working on it. Sasha really knows about that part of the mission. The bottom line is that we're harvesting it, collecting samples to bring back to the planet so they can analyze it. The greenhouse experiment is going very well growing that wheat.
How long does it take to get from Mir to the ground, and how does it feel to ride on the Soyuz?
(Valeri Korzun responds) In case of emergency, we can return to Earth in two hours. Our return takes quite a bit of time for closing the locks, and then we can be back on the ground in six to eight hours, normally. We say goodbye to the new crew, close the locks and make sure there are no leaks. Then we undock from the station and we are in autonomous flight. In the next three hours we descend to Earth, where we are met by experts and doctors, and after that we go home.
To Valeri Korzun: How well is John Blaha performing?
He is an excellent person, a good specialist, an outstanding astronaut, a wonderful investigator, so we have no problems with our crew, neither with the Russian or American sides.
What is the most difficult part of what you're experiencing now? What can we just not get about being there?
Two things: from a human viewpoint, the incredible view of our planet, where our planet is in the universe, and the fact that our planet is one of the most beautiful places in the universe. That's one thing that you just can't get on the Earth, even looking at IMAX movies, as you can get from here.
From a scientific viewpoint, when you see crystals growing here in microgravity, it's just incredible. I think it's a shame we can't beam up lots of smart people who understand physics, chemistry, fluid dynamics so they can rapidly expand their knowledge of those particular physical and chemical processes. Of course that's what all the science research is about on material science. As they do that on the planet and as they expand their knowledge, they produce better products for people all over the world and improve the productivity of food production, improve how we study the environment. When you're here, you can see it, and seeing the detail of it is incredible and you can't see it on the planet.
You're not going to vote?
I don't know of a way. If somebody would let my wife vote for me, and I would give her the authority to do that, that's how I could get my vote in. I think that's the simplest way to do that, so if someone could arrange it, we could do it. If we can't arrange it, I guess that's just the way that would turn out. Either man, Bill Clinton or Bob Dole, would be a great result, so whether I get to vote or not isn't really that important.
Is there anything you forgot to pack, or wish you had?
The one thing I wish I had is my wife Brenda. I miss her. We have a very good relationship. I miss talking with her and seeing her. Of course pictures help a little bit, and every once in awhile I have conversations with her and that's very good. That's the Number One thing I miss here on the Mir Space Station. Other than that I don't miss a thing. I wish she were here with me. If she were here with me I'd stay here for four or five years.

Read more about Mir-22 and NASA-3

Interview with Tom Akers - Week of November 1, 1996

Astronaut Tom Akers oversaw the transfer of supplies between Atlantis and Mir during STS-79 in September. Today in an interview he talked about the complexities of this task and the lessons learned that can be applied to future shuttle/Mir missions and ultimately to the International Space Station.

After all the months of training that you and your STS-79 crewmates went through on the logistics transfer portion of your mission, did the work on-orbit play out pretty much as you'd expected it to?
It really did. We worked very hard ahead of time with our ground team. Of course, they had a lot of experience from the previous three Mir flights. When we got up there we found very few surprises.
As you prepared for your mission, what lessons from the transfers on the previous Mir docking flights were instituted into your plans, and your schedule?
I think the biggest thing that was incorporated was handling packages rather than small items. On STS-76 was the first time this was attempted, where they tried to package all these hundreds of small items into what we call collapsible transfer bags. These are just locker-size cloth bags, like cardboard boxes if you were moving out of your house. So instead of handling 50 small items in a locker and trying to keep track of them on each side, shuttle and Mir, you had one package, just like Federal Express or UPS would do if they were delivering something.
We went to that completely on our mission; STS-76 had a few of those packages. It really cuts down on the time and it also makes it easier to inventory and keep track of where things are. So that was the big plus that helped us keep things going as smoothly as they did.
Now that you've had a few weeks to let it all sink in, what lessons are there from your experience in transferring supplies with the Mir that will improve or streamline the process for STS-81?
I think that one of the things - and we knew this ahead of time so it wasn't a surprise - that when we launched we didn't really know what our down stowage plan was going to be because that was contingent on knowing how Shannon had packed all of her return items. We didn't get that information until a couple of days before launch because of communication problems. Shannon had done a great job of packing, had everything ready, but the communication of finding out exactly where everything was so we knew how heavy each package was, which determines how the loads are done, that's one thing we want to do different.
A second thing we learned is that you need a place to temporarily stow things. We had a plan where we had a hole on the orbiter for everything coming across from Mir. We emptied that hole first, but it turns out in real life that you have to be flexible with any plan. We knew that; that wasn't a surprise. We had a plan for how to temporarily stow things.
Two large items weighed over a hundred pounds apiece. They came over a day earlier than we had planned, so we didn't really have a hole for those. [Putting them in temporary stow] was something other missions had done and we had thought about and kind of had a place for, but I think we're really going to have to plan for that on the International Space Station. It makes things go more efficiently if you can temp-stow things in a loading dock and not have to put everything in its final spot until later.

Mir-22 Crew News Conference - Week of December 20, 1996

This week the Mir-22 crew fielded news media questions about their mission.

What plans do you have for celebrating the holidays in space?

Blaha: That's a yuleka, a Christmas tree. It's been here on the Mir for a number of years. Certainly we have a number of things we will do on Christmas. I personally have a number of Christmas presents from people on the ground that came up on the Progress and I have one or two for Sasha and Valeri and we'll have a special meal that day.

Korzun: Maybe we could go for another spacewalk and get another new Christmas tree for Christmas this year!

To Blaha: What is your expectation for returning to Earth next month? Will you be back as scheduled or are you concerned about a delay of the next shuttle mission?

Blaha: I'm not following it, as far as whether it gets here on time or not. I'm preparing for it to get here on time, but if it's delayed, it's delayed and it when it gets here it gets here.

To Korzun: What equipment have you repaired recently, and what would have happened if you could not have repaired them?

Korzun: We periodically perform preventive maintenance to replace individual units. The remaining systems that we periodically maintain are the SRBU, the system for regeneration of water from urine, and the SBKU. That's basically our toilet facility. If we were not able to repair these systems, they would cause an off-nominal, or they would require us to operate in a different configuration and we would be affected by the convenience of using these systems and would have to reconfigure them in order to continue to operate.

We also had to change out some electrical cables for scientific equipment, and if we hadn't changed them out we would not have performed some part of our scientific program.

To Blaha: Could you describe your exercise regime each day, and what is your expectation at this point of how you will be when you return? Do you think you will be as fit as you expected?

Blaha: I do an exercise regime here daily that the Russians have been doing on this space station for now 11 years. That is, we have a treadmill here [in the Base Block] and a treadmill in the Kristall module. You set a particular load on there and run for a certain period at different paces, you walk, you run... In between you use expanders for different muscle groups in your legs, neck, arms, shoulders, and waist. It's a program they have developed over the years. It's a very good program. That's one exercise, and it takes about an hour to accomplish.

Another thing we do on the same day, about six hours later we ride on the bicycle. We do that for our cardiovascular systems. We ride a different schedule of times and loads and we do that for a period of about 45 minutes and that also is very good. So one of the exercises is for muscles and the other is for cardiovascular health.

I might say, I think it's an excellent program and I highly recommend that we start with that program on the [International] Space Station. As to how I think I will feel when I return to Earth, I don't know. That's a very individual thing and different people have different reactions to returning to Earth. That's why we continue to do [cardiovascular] experiments, to try to understand why there are differences in different people when the come back to Earth. In the past on shuttle flights I haven't had a problem, but I may have a vestibular problem when I return this time. I don't know; we'll have to wait and find out.

What will you miss about Christmas while you are there, and how did you do your last-minute Christmas shopping?

I didn't really have to worry about Christmas presents. I remember I said to Brenda a couple of days before launch, I asked her to run down and get me a couple of Christmas presents so I could put them on for Valeri and Sasha. She did that, and that's how I got my Christmas presents that I'm going to give here. Other than that, this year I haven't had to worry about getting Christmas presents for anyone down on the planet; I just sent some email messages saying 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,' so it was easier. Actually I didn't have the time to do it, but it turned out to be easier. As to spending Christmas here and not with the family, I don't know how that's going to work yet I guess that day I can answer that question. We've been busy enough here I haven't had time to really think how I'm going to feel on Christmas Day.

Korzun: At a store we have presents. We will get the presents from the store and give them to each other. John Blaha hasn't said what we really miss, which is a Christmas pie.

To Blaha: Your mission is intended to set the stage for a future International Space Station. It's been besieged by problems with money, the first occupancy has been delayed. What is you perspective on this issue?

Blaha: I have heard and read the news reports about it. Of course I have messages sent up to me daily that tell me the news that's going on on the planet. So that's how I've kept up on that. As to the reality of it, and the real facts, I'm not involved in that at all and don't really know. I know there are people at NASA Headquarters who are handling that with the Congress, so the're really the right people to talk to about that.

But I might add that an International Space Station like this, and this is one that is now 11 years old, is absolutely an incredible research facility and it's certainly a way to bring people like ourselves - Valeri, Sasha, and myself, and all the team on the ground of Russians and Americans who have worked on this mission. The French are involved with this mission and the Germans will be shortly, in a month and a half come up with a new Soyuz, so I can tell you that an International Space Station like this - and we need a new one because this one is starting to get old, it's 11 years old - really plays a vital role in world peace and helping people throughout our planet understand each [other] better than we currently do, and of course the value of the research and results. I think we need to press forward, and if additional funding for whatever reason is necessary I think it certainly is the right thing to do. We have a huge budget in our country and we certainly can afford an International Space Station to help world peace.

To Blaha: What have you planned for your Christmas dinner? Do you plan to sing Christmas carols? Will you have a chance to talk to your family that day?

Blaha: I'm going to let Valeri answer the question about what our menu will be, because he knows. He's the commander, so he's in charge of all the special foods and things. There will be a two-way video teleconference with my family on Christmas. Brenda will be there with my son Jim and my daughter-in-law and my grandson, and my daughter Caroline and my son Steven. I think my mother is going to be there as well. So we will have that, and it will be a nice and very exciting Christmas Day, I think, for me.

Korzun: We're going to have an outstanding menu, a menu that will include both Russian and American products. We will have traditional cakes and other dishes, lamb, pork, and a wonderful dessert, as well as Italian food - macaroni and cheese, and other things.

Blaha: In six days we're going to have quite a feast! I'm happy, this is the first time I've heard about that. I don't know these kinds of things.

Will you be making any New Year's resolutions this year? If so, what will they be?

Blaha: I haven't thought about that, but you ask me the question so I'll do my best to answer. I think any New Year's resolution I would make is that I hope the space program and this space station and a replacement for it, which we call the International Space Station, we continue to build. It's certainly the right thing to do. Space plays a vital role in our society, so my New Year's resolution would be that I wish we continue pressing forward with this.

From a personal note, I've learned a lot up here. Maybe when I return to Earth I'll try to apply some of it to try and be a nicer human being.

To Blaha: Could you describe the spacewalk that your colleagues did a few weeks ago? Tell us about the isolation you might have felt while you were inside the station and the feeling of watching your colleagues outside.

First of all, I didn't feel isolated at all. Valeri and Sasha spent whatever free time they had a couple of weeks leading up to the flight showing me a number of things I needed to be able to do. I felt very comfortable during the spacewalks and never even had a thought of being isolated. I was very busy the entire time they were out there.

As to what they were doing, they went out on the Kvant-2 module which sticks straight up in one direction and they transferred down this long pole they call the Strella, and they took some electrical power cables from a new solar array and hooked them into the space station where some older electrical cables were hooked in with an old solar array that's on the Base Block. That's one thing they accomplished.

They also went out to the Kristall module and they installed a very new antenna there, and that antenna will allow both Progress vehicles and Soyuz vehicles to perform a rendezvous with this space station and do a docking without the station having to rotate into a particular attitude which isn't necessarily very efficient for this station for solar energy They also connected a cable we needed for an antenna to a ham radio we use to communicate to people all over the world. That's a fantastic instrument. I might add, they both did a great job. They worked very hard. I've never seen anybody work so hard as they did on that spacewalk, on both of them, and I kind of felt badly for them! I wished I could have helped them. They were working very hard and I couldn't help.

To Korzun: Can you talk about the spacewalk, what it took to hook up the antenna?

Korzun: This is the glove that Sasha worked in. The work was interesting in the sense that they [the EVAs] were long-duration, and from the point of view of using various auxiliary systems for moving about the station. We used the cargo strella and were able to move on this device, and it was very interesting from the point of view of our new impressions. In addition, the work was very interesting, unusual for an EVA. Very fine work to make connections and lay new cable. In particular we worked in very hard-to-reach areas. In addition, the essential results of our work is that we were able to connect part of the cooperative solar array, the American array on the Kvant into our general electrical systems, so now we have a significantly larger supply of electricity and this will permit us to perform experiments with fewer constraints.

Kaleri: Valeri has explained it thoroughly. There was a lot of work to do. We worked in a new spacesuit, in distinction from previous EVAs. We have to be thinking about some new factors all the time, which was not the case for previous EVAs. It was very interesting work and it was complex and unusual, which gave us quite a bit of pleasure. Of course there were some difficulties; we were very happy that we were able to perform these operations and it was sad to see it come to an end.

Read more about Mir-22 and NASA-3