Preflight Interview: Kent Rominger

The STS-100 Crew Interviews with Kent Rominger, Commander.

Q: First off, tell us - why did you want to become an astronaut?

A. I think it's because of my love of flying. From the time I was little, when I was 5 years old, I went flying with my father and absolutely loved flying. And I've always loved anything that had a lot of acceleration to it; and flying fell into that. And I wanted to become a Navy pilot. And, when I became a Navy pilot-a F-14 pilot-then I realized that I could apply my engineering background along with my flying and become an astronaut after being a test pilot. So, I kind of evolved. It really came from my love of flying that evolved into a fighter pilot, test pilot, and then an astronaut.

Give me a little detail about that career path that got you here. What about those steps? What happened?

It's pretty simple. You know, I went to school, I went to college. I majored in engineering, a technical field that I always really enjoyed math and science, and engineering was the application of that - the practical approach of it, which really appealed to me. But, the fact is: I didn't want to fly a desk. I really wanted to fly. And so, I joined the Navy to fly fighters. Absolutely loved being a fighter pilot. But, after a fighter pilot tour, I decided that being a test pilot looked very attractive to get to combine the flying aspects along with the engineering background. I did that. I loved doing the flying. I was fortunate enough to get to test the new Tomcat, the re-engined one, with new avionics when it came out. Did that flying. And then, it was at about that point just before being a test pilot that I realized many astronauts had previously been test pilots. So, that became a goal at that point.

What was it about the space program that attracted your attention? What led you to go that way?

I'd always been, from the time I was a kid, I'd always been infatuated with space travel. And obviously, I remember the landing on the Moon. I remember Alan Shepard launching in as well. He was a Navy pilot, the first American to fly in space. So, I'd always been infatuated with it, but I never thought it was a realistic goal until I was at the fighter pilot stage in the Navy.

Was there anyone in particular who influenced you along the way, that got you to where you are?

You know, I'd have to say my parents. Both, my father's the one that took me flying when I was young. But, my mother was always the one that encouraged me, to let me know that if there was anything I really wanted to do, if I was willing to work hard enough, I could do it. So, the combination of them I think really gave me the right attitude to pursue the goals that I wanted.

Let's talk about the goals of this flight, of STS-100. What is the significance of the new robot arm you're taking up to the space station?

Yes. It's an aggressive flight we've got planned. It's very important in the build sequence. And then, we're taking up the space station robotic arm. And, they really need it from our mission on to go ahead and continue with the build sequence of the space station. As a matter of fact, the next flight that comes up brings up the airlock. But, the airlock is mounted on the Node in a position that the shuttle robotic arm can't get to it. So, they're reliant on the very next flight - on this robotic arm that we're taking up - to be able to install the airlock on the station.

Tell me about this robot arm. What's it capable of doing?

It's an interesting robot arm. Unlike the shuttle arm, which is kind of built just like a human arm on the shuttle arm-it has a shoulder; it has an elbow; and then it has a wrist with different joints-so, it operates very similar to a human arm; the station arm is different in that it's got two wrists and hands. So, it's like if you thought of your arm and you put another hand on it, now you can walk like an inchworm. So, either end of the arm can grapple on to a fixture. The other end can then be released and it can do work. So as an inchworm, you know, the other one can grapple on to another position on station and maneuver around. So, the arm can translate itself. And, it's a very, it gets a lot of flexibility to the different tasks we need to do on station.

Before you install this impressive piece of hardware, you have to rendezvous and dock with the space station. Tell me about the process of docking on this flight.

Yes. The docking on this flight is a profile that's going to be used for years and years to come. However, we're only the second shuttle that's going to actually do this type of profile. But, it's interesting in that, on my last flight, we came up from below the station and then flew around to the top and came down from the top and docked. This one is similar in that we come up from below initially into about 500 feet, and then we fly the space shuttle around a 90-degree arc and then come in along the velocity arc. The arc that the station is traveling along and we're both going over 17,000 miles an hour. And, now we close along, right along that velocity vector. The things that are different about it [are] due to orbital mechanics. Because we're closing along the velocity vector of the station, we don't really have any natural braking. So, it's a little more critical down at this point where we initiate this maneuver to come up that we hit these parameters right. If we don't, then we can be too fast coming in; and which is not a real big problem other than that we have to brake. And, because we don't want to fire our thrusters at the space station and damage some of the arrays, we have a mode where the thrusters fly mostly up, fire mostly up and down but it's pretty inefficient. It costs almost 10 times as much fuel to brake that way as it does the normal way. But, that's what we have to do so we don't damage it. So, we try to avoid that type of braking. And, that's the trickier part. We can do it. If we have to do too much braking, it takes a lot of fuel and then we may lose something like a reboost that, you know, we wouldn't have the fuel for a later task.

Do you feel any more pressure on this docking with the more complicated space station you're docking to?

No, I don't. I probably actually feel a little less pressure. The fact I've been through it once on the last flight, which was the first docking; it was all new hardware. I was and it was new for me, too - my first time. So, I had many concerns. One of them was: How was everything going to be on orbit? The other one was: Is the hardware going to work, this new set of hardware? This hardware, this hardware now has been exercised. So, I guess I would say I'm still concerned, but not quite as concerned as I was.

Once the docking is complete, you're going to have a few hours there before any real work begins. What happens in these first few hours? Anything you're transferring over or just saying "Hello" or anything at all?

Initially, we were going to open the hatches and say "Hello." But, now where we've evolved to is after we dock, we can go ahead and transfer equipment through kind of a, we call it a shuffle through the Pressurized Mating Adapter. But, there will already be equipment in the Mating Adapter for us that is stowed. The station crew is sending over a, it's, they call it a Pistol-Grip Tool. But, really what it is, is a pretty sophisticated power drill tool that operates on batteries and our space walkers are going to use it. We'll open the hatch and pull that stuff out. Then we'll send back to them some of their Flight Data Files, some of their checklist books that are updated and that they're going to need on this flight, some water, along with a few other logistics maybe some perishable food.

You'll be the first crew to see the Expedition Two crew on orbit. Are you going to bring them anything special at all?

We are. You know, we're still sorting that out. And some of it we want to be a surprise when we show up. So, there will be a few items that are special to them along with some last minute items that they have sent e-mail down asking us to bring.

The day after docking, the shuttle's robot arm is used to install a robot arm on the space station and the first space walk of the flight begins. Talk us through the steps of what happens on that seemingly very complicated day.

It is a complicated day. You know, on this day after we dock, we have, the first thing we have to do is - the shuttle, or the station's robot arm is folded up. It's folded up, and then there are joints in it that will never be adjoined again once we have bolted them together. But, it's placed on to a pallet. And, this pallet itself weighs about 3,000 pounds and it's down berthed in the payload bay. So, we take the shuttle robotic arm, grab the pallet, and now with the pallet we come around and it's a fairly tricky position to get the pallet mounted up on station. Because it goes to a place that's up over the nose of the space shuttle. And when the space shuttle was designed, we didn't think we'd be doing that much robotic work up there. Consequently, we don't really have lights. We don't have cameras to view it. So, it's a little bit tricky for arm operators. But, we worked out ways that we think we can confidently do it. And, we take this pallet that has the arm folded up on it and then we install it up on the Lab. And, there's a special fixture on the Lab that'll go ahead and grapple the pallet and hold it. So, we can then release the shuttle arm. Once we've done that, after it's installed, the space walkers are waiting then in the airlock. They will egress. They will come out. We'll take the shuttle arm back down to pick one of them up, and then we start to install the arm. And, the first thing we have to do is get power to it, because it's actually going to walk itself off. So one space walker's hooking up to the power to it; the other one is up on it unbolting it. They have to then unfold it. And then, once they unfold it, these joints that I'd mentioned earlier, they have to bolt them back together. It had to be folded up. It's just too long otherwise to bring up in our bay, the way it's set up. They have power to it and then they actually go ahead and walk it off. And, they bring the other arm off and actually start flying the arm from the station side, even though it's still hooked up to this pallet that we brought it up to on the shuttle.

Do you have any particular responsibilities during the space walk?

As the Commander, I'm kind of the oversight of everything going on. I'll be helping out with some of the recorders. I'll be helping out the arm operator some. And, really my job is to make sure they've got everything they need, which probably will include fixing their meals and making sure they're fed. Because we're going to be basically not ever really stopping to eat, but just kind of eating on the fly.

Is that robot arm going to be fully functional at the end of that space walk?

Well, it is fully functional at the end of that space walk. However, it's still attached to the pallet that we brought up. So, the real intent for it to be fully functional is the end that's free at this point will then later be, it'll later grapple on to a fixture on the space station, on the Laboratory that just went up. And once it's grappled on to the Laboratory, then it will release the pallet and they'll do some checkout work with the arm and they'll fly the pallet around with this 3,000-pound payload on the end of it and check out the arm to make sure it works like it's supposed to. Because the very next flight, they're going to have a fairly, a large object - the airlock - coming up that they're going to check out. So, they want to check it out. And, once, in order to do that, though, we have to take the power away from the end where the pallet was and reconnect it to the end where the Laboratory is, to that fixture. Because it can receive power at either end, but it's not set up for both. So, we've got to again do some rewiring, undo what we did to give it wiring at the pallet, and then let it do some work with that pallet to check itself off. And, at that point now, it's almost fully functional. And, I guess they'll know the full functionality once the Spacelab Pallet has been released and they can use that end to grapple a fixture on the space station to make sure that grapple fixture fully works like it's supposed to.

And, while the space walkers are outside hooking up this big, important piece of hardware, they're also going to be moving a UHF antenna, hooking that up. What goes on with that and what kind of communications are going to be possible after that antenna is hooked up?

Yes, this antenna [will] be a lot of help for us because the antenna has a UHF radio and we've got the same radio on the shuttle, and it's the same radio that the space walkers have. And, it's a digital networked radio; but we can have up to five users at a time on it. So, the station hasn't had that capability yet. Once that antenna is installed, hopefully it'll all be working after our first space walk, now we can use the UHF radio on the station. And, we have a temporary VHF radio that we have set up to communicate with the station from the space shuttle before that. And, during the space walk our communications config is different because they don't have that radio. Once they have that now on all the space walks, it'll be very convenient for the station to talk to the EVA'ers who can talk to the shuttle, and the ground is involved in this loop as well.

The day after the first space walk, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is going to be lifted up out of the shuttle's cargo bay and attached to the space station; what is this Logistics Module and why are you bringing it up on this flight?

The Logistics Module-the MPLM, is the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, the acronym we use for it-but it looks a lot like the U.S. Laboratory that went up, except it's about six to eight feet shorter. But, other than that it's almost an identical shell version of the U.S. Laboratory. But, what it really is, is this is the way that we're going to continue to outfit and resupply this outpost in space. And, it's back in our payload bay along with the Spacelab Pallet that we took the arm up on. And it's kind of ingenious that we can just pick it up out of the payload bay. It's got power to it. We go ahead and berth it to the space station at the Node. And, the advantage that gives us is, it's a very large opening. It's about a 4-foot, 4-foot-square opening. So, very large items, even full racks, can go in and out of this module. In fact, we are taking up a couple of experiment racks to continue outfitting the U.S. Lab. It can be unloaded. It's right there at the Node. It's close, so you don't have to translate much from the Node to the Lab to unload the gear that we take up. And, there in general, it'll weigh about 20,000 pounds when we get there. And, I would say probably 12,000 pounds worth of cargo is what's in it.

How long does it take to unload and then reload what you're taking back with you?

That's a good question. You know what? We're still working all that out. And, the timeliners are trying to figure out how long it really is going to take. Right now we think, you know, it's on the order of 9 hours, probably around 30 man-hours, which sounds like a lot, to get it unloaded. The reloading can take long, too, because when you're packing to come back home coming back into the entry, we want to make sure everything is secured properly and we want to know kind of where the weight and the center of gravity fall. So, it's not nearly as quick as you may think. It's not like at home, when you're done moving and you're getting ready to take the truck back and all you have to do is load up the blankets and the gear and throw it in and you're on your way. That's not the case. Actually, if we get into a bind, it'll probably be more efficient to unload it. Because if we had to, we could get everything out of it and just stage it in the station. It wouldn't be pretty, but it would be like you know, at your house - unloading the truck into the garage and then driving off and not taking the time to put it all in each room and in its proper place. But, we could get the MPLM emptied out so we could at least detach it to put it back in the bay if we had to come home early.

Talk me through the process of attaching it to the station. How does that happen?

When we attach it to the station, it's a common mechanism now that's being [used], it's been used before and it's going to continue to be used through the station build. But, it's called a Common Berthing Mechanism. And, the station, we fly the MPLM with our, the shuttle robotic arm - although in later missions, it can easily be done with the station robotic arm - we fly it on to the Node and we align it very carefully. We have a centerline camera on the station that is fed to back to us as operators on the shuttle that looks up a target on the MPLM. We also have other tools that will give us alignment cues as well: the Space Vision System, for one. And, we fly it, and we align it very, very precisely and take it on in. And, then we get feedback from microswitches that tell us it's in place. Once it's in place now, there are a series of powered bolts that start driving in a different manner to go ahead and secure this module. Because it's got to be a pressure seal, obviously, for us to go on in. And, those bolts so far, early on they were sophisticated, pretty elaborate piece of equipment so there was some doubt a couple of years ago about how well they would perform. And knock on wood. The program's been very excited and pleased to see that they've been working extremely well. So, we're optimistic that'll go as planned.

The day after you get this attached to the station Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski go outside again for a second space walk. What happens during that second space walk?

Yes. On the second space walk you know, this is where ideally we'd like to leave the station arm fully functional. We go ahead and do some rewiring. We unpower the end, the arm has been powered at this point on the Spacelab Pallet, and we reconnect the cabling to a fixture on the Laboratory the arm is now grappled to. At that point, we can release the Spacelab Pallet from, not from the arm but from the Laboratory so they can do some checkout with this pallet. And the day after then, they will be handing the pallet back off to the shuttle arm so we can reberth it.

And, you mentioned this earlier - the checking out of the arm after that second space walk. What's going to be happening during that time?

Yes. When they're checking out the arm, the station crew is going to be flying this arm and then we've got this pallet, which is about a 3,000-pound payload on the end of it. And, they're basically going through a functional test since this is the first time the arm has flown on orbit or been used on orbit. And they're trying to do some tasks that will give them some confidence in the task that they've got to do in about six weeks from that point, when the airlock comes up. Because the station arm is critical to getting the airlock berthed to the space station.

Your schedule also has a tentative third space walk in there. Why is there a tentative third space walk?

I guess, when you look at our first two space walks the timeline we thought initially was pretty aggressive. What was going to have to, everything was going to have to happen just perfectly for us to get everything done. And, it's critical that [we] do get everything done. So, a third EVA or space walk was added early on in the program to relieve, give us any relief if something didn't go exactly as timelined. One of the other items on there is we're transferring a direct current switching unit. But, it's basically a big power component as a spare that'll be used probably in later flows for helping transfer some of the power from the big solar arrays.

If the decision is made that you do not need that third space walk, what will you do with that day?

With that day then we'd talked about transfer time earlier. And, I think what we'll do is instead of just [unloading] the Logistics Module into the garage type of thing, now that'll give us more time to really help and get things put away and leave the station probably in a lot better manner than if not.

Before you leave the station, you've got to move the MPLM back into the payload bay of the shuttle. Talk me through that process. How does that happen?

Yes. It's kind of the reverse of exactly what happened. We'll have it all loaded up and closed down. The same thing…it'll be unberthed from the station with the shuttle robotic arm and then just placed right back down in the shuttle bay and berthed where we've got some grapple fixtures that just go ahead and clamp down on it and hold it securely in the bay just like when it came up.

What sort of remaining work is there before you say goodbye to the Expedition Two crew?

Let's see. I guess some of it is doing somewhat of an inventory and making sure we've left them everything we brought for them to leave as well as, there are some powered payloads that we're bringing up in the inside [of] the shuttle that'll be powered on our middeck. Make sure we've left them everything we're supposed to. Make sure we've collected everything we were supposed to return. And haven't left anything as well. So, I think that's really it.

Okay. Then you're ready to undock from the space station. Talk me through that process. What happens and what are you doing?

Yes, the undocking is kind of fascinating in our case. And, part of it's driven by…because we have a three-dimensional IMAX camera mounted in the payload bay. So, during the undocking, the Pilot, Jeff Ashby, is back at the aft station. And, he's the one actually doing the flying away. As the Commander, I'll be up in the forward station. And, I'm kind of the drum beater. I'm kind of choreographing the whole sequence and making sure. Because whenever, just like during the rendezvous and docking, there's a team of four to five of us that are all very active. Jeff is the one back at the controls in this case. But, we have four of us, others, that are participating, running the sensors, giving him the data he needs to do the manual flying. And we'll back on out to about 400 feet. And then, we begin to fly around. And, the fly-around's a little different than most. Most of the time when we fly around the station, we maintain a center vector from the space shuttle pointed right at the station, more so we can see out right overhead windows right down at it. Well, because the IMAX camera in the payload bay is not pointed out that axis - it's pointed about 26 degrees back towards the nose and actually back in towards the centerline some - when we get to the top of the station in the profile, we maneuver to an attitude that the camera now will be able to see the station. And then, we kind of go hands-off and float out away from the station, wait till the station comes in the view of the camera, and then hopefully get some beautiful IMAX footage of the station with the Earth limb in the background. We'll complete that fly-around. And, we go about three-quarters of the way around the station. And then, we'll do a separation burn to go ahead and separate from station.

This is your third flight with a Canadian on board. And this crew also has, obviously, Americans, a Russian, and an Italian as well as a Canadian. And, you're taking up some hardware developed by the Italians and the Canadians. What do you think this demonstrates about the growing role of international cooperation in space?

Yes. You know, it's great. I think it demonstrates exactly where we're heading. And, it demonstrates the intent of the whole International Space Station when we started. I can tell you that having international crewmembers on a crew really adds a whole new dimension. And, it really does make you think more globally. The fact that this very elaborate robotic arm was built in Canada is going up. The Logistics Module was built in Italy and Umberto is on board from Italy as well and he knows the insides and outs of it very well. You know, we're docking to the space station where there are many Russian components: the Service Module, the FGB, obviously. And I have Yuri on board, who is a Russian cosmonaut. So, it helps us keep the truly global picture. That we're not trying to do something just for ourselves. It's not selfish. This is truly a global endeavor. And it's amazing to me how well it works out. And I've been really impressed as a Commander with whether I have an American, whether I have an Italian, whether I have a Russian, whether I have a Canadian on my crew, everybody has the same goals. Everybody, as an astronaut or cosmonaut, has the, really the same goals of wanting to be the best astronaut they can. They want to see the job get done. They want to see the job get done right. And there's very little selfishness involved in all of this. Everybody's very giving. So, as a Commander, it's really great to sit back and just see all this happen like it's supposed to.