November 9, 2007

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell goes way up in Beaumont

By Timothy Smith
Record Gazette

Endeavour Astronaut Dr. Tracy Caldwell started her whirlwind tour of Beaumont at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31. She made PowerPoint presentations at four Beaumont Unified School District schools and visited the district offices. District Superintendent Dr. Barry Kayrell was her escort. Caldwell graduated from Beaumont high School in 1987.

In the afternoon the STS-118 Space Shuttle mission specialist visited the Beaumont Cherry Valley Recreation and Park District office at Noble Creek Park to make a presentation for her mother, Mary Ellen Caldwell, and the pre-school and daycare children she directs. After the performance at the park district she conducted some press interviews before calling it a day.

I told Caldwell that I had been very nervous about the heat-protective tile damage to Endeavour on lift-off. Every media picture that showed the gouge appeared to get deeper and deeper. I asked her if she had been worried about re-entry due to the damage. Caldwell said she was not concerned about the tile damage because it was fully investigated and computer modeled by NASA scientists. “I trusted the NASA leadership that asked the scientist's the tough questions,” the mission specialist said.

Caldwell told the kids at Sundance Elementary school on Thursday morning that “I didn't get to see the lift-off, I got to feel it.” She told the kids that the astronauts call the orange space suits they wear the pumpkin suit, which garnered laughter from the children.

It took the crew only 81/2 minutes to reach outer space after lift-off, Caldwell said. Her first assignment was to video tape the 15-story orange fuel tank as it released from the shuttle and fell back to earth. She said she had to rapidly remove her seatbelt and get in position to view the falling tank. The video footage would be analyzed by NASA to look for any problems with the fuel tank separation from the shuttle.

Caldwell described the overall size of the International Space Station (ISS) as the size of two football fields side by side, goal post to goal post, or about 120 yards long and about 100 yards wide. The living area inside the craft is roughly the size of six school buses, laid end to end, Caldwell explained to the young students.

The truss that supports the large solar array panels that provide electric energy for the station has a railroad track on it. The mobile transporter train works in conjunction with cranes to move new parts into place and help Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) spacewalking astronauts install them on the growing ISS. The STS 118 crew conducted four EVAs while in orbit. Caldwell said she was an IVA since she remained on the interior of the spacecraft.

The PowerPoint photos of the crew showed the astronauts in odd positions since there is no up or down in space. “You can eat your food upside down,” Caldwell exclaimed to children. Her hair became a filter in the Space Shuttle cabin when not tied down; it stood straight up and caught chunks of food that was floating in the cabin. She had to vacuum her hair to clean it.

A crew member floated a brownie to her with a flashlight for a candle on her, August 14, 38th birthday in space.

She told the elementary children that they can view the ISS from earth from one to five minutes at a time if they look at the right time and place. She suggested looking just above the horizon in either a SSW or SSE direction during the morning just before sunrise.

On Thursday Caldwell visited four more schools before attending a luncheon at The Lodge at the Four Seasons 55-plus home development. The lunch was hosted by the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the city of Beaumont, Cherry Valley Nursery and K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons at Beaumont. It was a lavish, well done affair.

Caldwell's former high school teacher Gary Hakala spoke fondly of his former student. He called her “the fastest woman who ever lived,” traveling 17,500 mph while docked to the ISS. Hakala went on to say that “she is the prettiest astronaut in the world.”

When Caldwell went to the podium she said, “It's great to be home. While going to school and running track I never, never, thought I'd be a Ph.D.”

On the 13-day mission it was easy for Caldwell to get used to weightlessness. She said she only had one brief experience with becoming disoriented in space. She moved from one side to the other real quick and she temporarily lost hear bearings. “You have to move slowly when you're in orbit.” I asked her if she saw any goo-goo dolls, that's what jet pilots call light flashes and things they see and can't explain. Caldwell said she did get cosmic ray flashes twice in her eyes during the mission. On the little free time she had in space, she spent it looking out the window and marveling at the panoramic view of earth and the stars.

When she returned to earth it took about five or six hours to feel almost normal. She still couldn't drive though. For two days she said she felt a tremendous heaviness and that her legs felt like bricks. Fatigue was a problem for about two weeks. She said she would fall asleep very easily just sitting and talking with family.

I asked Caldwell if she will go on another Space Shuttle mission and she said, “I hope so,” with enthusiasm.

The current shuttle fleet will be in operation until 2010. After that, the next generation of space vehicles will be part of the new “Constellation” program, Caldwell said.

Thursday finished with an invitation only dinner at Applebee's Restaurant. California 37th District Senate Candidate Russ Bogh said the dinner was fun and relaxing for Caldwell and friends.

Friday had Caldwell making one more middle school presentation and then taking a helicopter tour of the city before riding in an afternoon Beaumont parade, in her honor, along Beaumont Avenue and Sixth Street, to city hall.

She rode in a vintage-red Pontiac GTO convertible with Mayor Jeff Fox. Two fire ladder trucks extended their ladders in front of city hall and had a large American flag flying over Sixth Street in the moderate Santa Ana winds. The Beaumont High band played and marched along with the San Gorgonio Middle School band.

Beaumont Rotary member Bruce Murrill called the action for the fans in front of city hall from the P.A. system. Beaumont High cheerleaders rode on one of the many fire fighting vehicles to negotiate the parade route. Miss Beaumont, Nabila Jamal, and her court waved at the crowd as they made their way through Beaumont. Beaumont Cherry Valley Recreation and Park District Board President Dan Hughes and his sons along with Secretary Donna Franco and Councilwoman Martie Killough enjoyed convertible rides along the parade route, also. It was a fun finale for all to Caldwell's homecoming.

The astronaut made one final Space Shuttle presentation for the public at the civic center after the parade. Fox and Banning Mayor Brenda Salas both gave the mission specialist city proclamations for her amazing endeavor. Fox also gave her a medallion from the city and people of Beaumont for her exciting work in space.

Friday finished up with Caldwell making the coin toss to open a Beaumont High football game against Citrus Hill High in Perris. Her escorts for the game were former class mates Bogh and BCVRPD General Manager Mickey Valdivia. The Cougars unfortunately lost the game 49 to 22.

Bogh said that Caldwell was a real trooper throughout the entire whirlwind tour of Beaumont, making the most of each engagement during her triumphant return home.

Caldwell was born August 14, 1969 in Arcadia, Calif. Her recreational interests include running, weight training, hiking, softball, basketball, and auto repair and maintenance. As an undergraduate, she competed in intercollegiate athletics on California State University Fullerton's (CSUF) track team as both a sprinter and long jumper.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the CSUF in 1993 and a Doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California at Davis in 1997. Wikipedia lists her occupation as physicist.

STS-118, August 8-21, 2007, was the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the ISS, and the 20th flight for Endeavour. During the mission Endeavour's crew successfully added another truss segment, a new gyroscope and external spare parts platform to the International Space Station.

A new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was activated successfully. A total of four spacewalks, EVAs, were performed by three crew members. Endeavour carried some 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and returned to earth with some 4,000 pounds of hardware and no longer needed equipment. Traveling 5.3 million miles in space, the STS-118 mission was completed in 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds.

Her crew members for the STS-118 mission were Commander Scott Kelly with Pilot Charles Hobaugh at the controls, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams of the Canadian Space Agency, Barbara R. Morgan and Alvin Drew.