Shuttle Discovery Launch Weblog by Dr. Michael Freeman

Safely home! How sweet those words are!

shuttle_sidebarI was up early this morning only to once again immediately realize from the scene in the JSC control room on NASA TV that Discovery was not going to land in Florida today. It was a welcome decision to learn that they went ahead and chose to land at Edwards AFB at 7:12 a.m. CDT. Unfortunately for me, I was unable to view it in real time as I had to depart my house at 6:25 a.m. to drive up to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville to work here Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I was able to listen to it on NPR on my car radio.

When I heard that they were back in contact with the ground after passing through the re-entry phase where they briefly lose communication with the ground because of the high level of ionized gases surrounding the spacecraft, I breathed a great sigh of relief (along with thousands, maybe millions, of others!). As commander, Eileen Collins had primary responsibility for flying Discovery this morning but she did give Jim Kelly some stick time also. When I heard that they were safely on the ground, I confess that I teared up briefly, grateful that the crew had returned to Earth safely and immensely proud of the fact that my friend Vegas Kelly had been a part of this important Return to Flight mission.

On a very personal note, back in the summer of 2002, Jim had contacted me (and a few other friends, of course) to offer to take a piece of jewelry for my wife on his upcoming mission (at that time scheduled for March 2003). Each astronaut is allowed a small volume of space in which they are permitted to take personal items. I am greatly honored that Jim offered to do that for me. For three years now, I have carried around this secret that Jim was taking this jewelry into orbit for my wife. Only a very few people knew about it–Dean Chuck Karr from UA (Jim carried up a piece for his wife also), my daughter, Jessica, and maybe half a dozen very close friends whom I could trust to not let my wife know about it. After they had landed this morning, I called Nancy and told her about it; I had held that secret as long as I could! My life is good and made better because of good friends like Vegas.

Now the question of the day is when will the next Shuttle mission take place? The issue of the ET shedding foam must be resolved before they fly again, and it will be. Also, in order to fly in September, NASA must not only have an engineering solution for the ET foam, but will also have to turn Discovery around very quickly since it will be the backup vehicle for the next mission, whenever it is, as the third Orbiter is undergoing substantial maintenance and not available to serve as backup. Those are major challenges.

We will be working to get Jim on campus as soon as his schedule permits. After a mission the crew always goes on tour, making a visit to each of the NASA centers. Perhaps we can get him to come to campus for a day when the crew makes its visit to Marshall Space Flight Center. We’ll see. I’ll be working on it.

I’ve enjoyed writing this blog – hope that you’ve learned something and enjoyed the reading.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Michael Freeman is an Associate Professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at The University of Alabama. He is attending this week’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery, and will publish daily accounts of the events surrounding the shuttle’s “return to flight” launch. UA graduate James Kelly is the pilot of STS-114, NASA’s first space flight in over two years. Dr. Freeman may be reached by e-mail at michael.freeman@ua.edu.