STEVE INSKEEP, host:
On a Friday morning it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
The astronauts are strapped in for the final launch of a space shuttle. Atlantis and its crew of four are scheduled to blast off just over an hour from now, to be exact 11:26 Eastern Time, weather permitting, to go on a 12-day mission that will end the shuttle program.
As NASA employees helped him into an orange spacesuit this morning, the mission commander, Chris Ferguson, pointed at the camera and mouthed some words, which may have been, I love you. Then he stepped through the hatch and into Atlantis.
MONTAGNE: We go now to NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce at the Kennedy Space Center. She has a view of the launch pad and an eye on the sky. Nell, what are you looking at now?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's right. Everybody's watching the skies wondering what the weather's going to give us at launch time. I can see the shuttle right now on the pad. There's some sort of high, flat layer of clouds, but the forecasters here are still predicting only a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions for a launch.
So, NASA officials say they're not working any technical glitches with the vehicle. The main concern now is the weather. And they're just going to keep pushing forward as long as it seems like there's a chance they could get the shuttle to fly.
MONTAGNE: Well, as best as we can make out, the weather is a whole lot better than it was earlier in the day and last night. What - you know, what is wrong with the weather that keeps this at a 30 percent chance?
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, NASA has very strict weather launch constraints, and not just over the launch pad but in the area, in the case of some kind of need for an emergency return. So, you know, even if right here at the launch pad things seems to look good and everyone's saying, well, why don't they just launch, they might actually, you know, have some constraints, technical constraints that aren't apparent to people just standing here in the grass by the countdown clock.
I want to mention that, of course, NASA has cameras a little bit closer to the shuttle than you're able to be. And we're looking right now at a TV image from outside the shuttle, looking at the hatch through which the four astronauts climbed. And you see a yellow arrow on that hatch pointing to a particular spot and saying the word rescue, a reminder of the drama and of the danger even of these missions that in some ways have become routine.
And I'd like to ask you, Nell Greenfieldboyce, because you've covered so many of them, this being the last one, how does it feel, how does it feel different, even though many of the parts of the routine would be the same?
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, I would say space flight is never routine, but this one is particularly not routine. You can tell that just in terms of the attention here. I mean, there are so many people swarming around the press site, so many cameras pointed at the launch pad, waiting for Atlantis to take off, if that's possible.
There's also a lot of people here who have been with the space shuttle program for decades, you know, old people who had worked with the program and now they've come back to see the final launch, the end of an era.
INSKEEP: And I believe you've been talking with some of them.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's right. Sitting here with me in the NPR tent is someone who knows a little bit about the feelings that go along with a final flight. We have astronaut Mike Fink is here with me. He was on a space shuttle mission that returned to Earth just last month. That was the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour. Mike Fink is a very experienced space traveler whose total time in space adds up to more than a year. And I believe that is the record for an American, for the most time in space. Is that correct?
Mr. MIKE FINK (Astronaut): Yes, that's correct.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He's done nine space walks, as well as flying on the shuttle. He's launched up to the space station twice on the Russian Soyuz capsule for long duration missions.
MONTAGNE: And Mike Fink, on behalf of Steve and I, welcome.
Mr. FINK: Well, thank you. It's great to be on National Public Radio, and MORNING EDITION in particular.
MONTAGNE: Well, great. Good morning. So tell us how you felt as you were waiting in the space shuttle to blast off, as these astronauts are right now.
Mr. FINK: I actually remember this day for our mission, launch day and launch morning, and we were all strapped in, and we were worried about the weather too. We ended up with a low cloud deck. And so all four of our crew members -this is kind of unique - all four of our crew members on the shuttle actually have window seats, so they're looking out right now and they can see the clouds coming over, and I bet you they're wondering about the weather too.
INSKEEP: This has got to add to the suspense and anticipation and even the stress, if that's the word, not really knowing if you're going to go or not until the last, last second even.
Mr. FINK: Well, there's - I guess there's a prayer out there for St. Francis, give me control - or let me know what I have control over and the things I don't have control over, don't worry about them. I'm not sure that's exactly how it goes, but that's how I remember it, so we were actually pretty calm, cool and collected, 'cause at that point there's...
INSKEEP: God, grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change. That's the prayer you're talking about...
Mr. FINK: And I think that's a good one for launch day.
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: We're looking at the abort history of the shuttle missions here. There were a couple of shuttles that at T-minus three, three seconds to go, were aborted. There was one at 1.9 seconds to go that was aborted. So we know that we have to just hang on and wait all morning long here, don't we.
Mr. FINK: Yes, indeed. It's all computer-controlled at that point. However, once we start the solid rocket boosters, those are the two long skinny ones on the side, there's no stopping the shuttle, at least for a while. We'd have to come back to launch site or trans-oceanic abort if we needed to. But once those solid rocket motors start, you've very committed.
MONTAGNE: You know, wondering - this is, of course, the end of the shuttle program, but NASA has said it wants to get back into deep space exploration, maybe go to an asteroid. Would you volunteer for a mission like that?
Mr. FINK: Yes, absolutely. I've really enjoyed my time in space, over a year looking at our beautiful planet Earth. But the International Space Station is, no matter how incredible it is, and a testimonial to human beings working together constructively, it's still only 300 miles up. And there's some more interesting things in space beyond 300 miles. We can, you know, go to high Earth orbit where all the communications satellites are. We can go to asteroids, we can go back to the moon.
And that's what I'm really excited about, and I'm planning on sticking around here at NASA to see the new excitement that's coming down the pike. It's going to be a wait, it's going to be a while. I remember in the '70s when we waited between Apollo and the space shuttle, and this is going to be a similar period in time. And it's going to be frustrating, but I think it's going to be worth the wait.
MONTAGNE: Well, shuttle astronaut Mike Fink, thank you very much for talking with us and for - Nell Greenfieldboyce for bringing you to the phone.
Let's bring in another voice into the conversation. NPR's Greg Allen is in Titusville, Florida, where he's found a prime spot to view the show, if you want to call this a show. Good morning. What are you seeing there?
GREG ALLEN: It certainly is. Good morning, Renee. It's - it's a carnival here. We've got a lot of people here who come from all around the country to see the last shuttle launch, and people are doing everything but selling funnel cake here. It's like that.
One of the people I'm standing with and talking to this morning is John Haydn(ph). He's from Boston. He was here for the first shuttle launch and now he's here for the last one. I'll hand him the microphone here.
INSKEEP: Mr. Haydn, you must be excited to - you must be excited to have -well, the closest thing there is to a front row seat.
Mr. JOHN HAYDN: Yeah, it's terribly exciting for us and our family. My wife and I, as was said, saw the first one go off. It's the loudest thing you can imagine in your life, a shuttle launch. And so we wouldn't want to miss the last one.
INSKEEP: You wouldn't want to miss hearing the loudest thing you can ever have in your life again, I guess.
Mr. HAYDN: Indeed.
MONTAGNE: Funny, you know, in some way you never think of - I don't so much think of the noise myself. I hate to say it, as a radio person, but there's sort of a lot of visuals involved in this, the big blast-off. So...
Mr. HAYDN: It's less audio and more tectonic.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. HAYDN: It's less audio and more tectonic.
INSKEEP: I want to just ask very briefly, have you marked your lives, in a sense, because you went to the first one 30 years ago - have you marked phases in your lives by various moments in the shuttle program?
Mr. HAYDN: We really have. You know, my wife and I, we were in college 30 years ago. And think about how different the world was 30 years ago, all the changes in international cooperation that have been made possible during this period of time, and it's reflected in the way the space program that NASA has run has evolved, with the International Space Station culminating it all.
MONTAGNE: John Haydn, thank you very much for speaking with us. You're one of many, many people there to watch this last shuttle launch of the Atlantis. Would you like to hand the phone back to our own Greg Allen?
Mr. HAYDN: You bet. Okay, thanks very much. Here goes.
ALLEN: Hi.
INSKEEP: Greg, I guess people just have to wait.
ALLEN: Oh yeah. And you know, it's looking good. I mean, you stay out here all night long, you start to get optimistic, because you know, it's not been raining for several hours now. We're seeing some blue up there. And I think everybody here thinks it's going to go off today.
INSKEEP: Okay. All right. Greg, thanks very much.
ALLEN: My pleasure.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Greg Allen in Titusville, Florida, preparing for the final launch of the shuttle Atlantis, which may happen today. It's scheduled to happen a little more than an hour from now, at 11:26 a.m. Eastern Time. We're waiting to see if the weather will permit that.
And as the hours and moments count down, members of the crew have been standing in front of the camera at NASA TV holding up placards which have said - on behalf of all who designed and built these space vehicles, thank you for 30 years. God bless America.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.