 And, all these things need to be coordinated; so we all need to work together, have timers going and everything so we're all coordinated and get this piece of orchestration done. |
| I had, before I went to college, I had taken a few years off after high school and really had, I guess in those days, I had no intentions of going to college. |
| Being in space, I'm really looking forward to working with this team of folks that I'm with. |
| I could do exploration in this particular career field, and it was a goal that, even if I didn't reach it, it was so high it seemed almost impossible, but even if I didn't reach it, I would still have a good time and a very satisfying career. |
| I'm looking forward to coming back, back to Earth, the landing, the views. |
| And then, when I thought about joining the Air Force, flying seemed like a natural extension of the motorcycling experience. You're going faster, higher. You're operating a machine that's a lot more powerful than you are. |
| Those folks out in the space suits are going to be getting beat up. |
| One of the jokes on our flight is that, if we have a normal entry day going, the plan is for me... to actually take the orbiter first and fly it for maybe 10 or 15 seconds and then hand it on over to Scooter. |
| Now, I've never flown in space; but the folks who have say that on landing day, you know, you've just spent maybe a week and a half, sometimes two weeks in orbit and you're used to the things happening slowly in space. |
| Well, for me it really wasn't a case of deciding to be an astronaut. |
| And, one thing I definitely enjoyed personally, from a selfish point of view, was exploration and going to places that I had never been to before and learning, you know, meeting the people and getting to know, new sights and sounds, etc. |
| So, we have to get up and get pumped up for each day. |
| I worked for some very good people who have helped me along the way and actually enabled me to have the opportunity to be selected to join the Astronaut Corps. |
| And, I was really impressed with how beautiful our country was and how friendly the people were. |
| Rendezvous day is the third day of our mission, and that's a big day for us. |
| And, that's what I truly believe that we're doing when we're advancing scientific knowledge is we're someday making the world better. Not only for our children, but for all people after that. |
| And, actually it was interesting because I had done a lot of traveling in the United States and Canada and Mexico on my motorcycle; and I was really, it was the first time I had really gotten out of the Minnesota area to speak of. |
| So, whenever Scooter was the Pilot, he never had a chance to fly the orbiter. So, the joke is: I'm going to have a chance to fly it first and hand it over to him. |
| You know, Scooter's going to do the first separation burn; I'm going to do the second separation burn. |
| There's been a tremendous amount of work that's been done that you can't see in Columbia. |
