As far as waiting or going, you can't wait on the ground for something else to happen. It looks like the situation is stable. |
I believe this hardware is the foundation for what will put humanity into space forever. There will always be people off the face of the planet. |
I guess you saw that we're looking at a smoke alarm...but don't see any evidence of anything. |
I'm looking forward to a hot shower and some fresh air and some fresh food -- ice cream, salads, things we don't have on the station. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends. |
It affected us over several days, and every morning when I opened the mail (e-mail), there would be some new piece of information that would hit me pretty hard. |
It is an excellent chance to go back up and see the hardware, see how it's been performing, work on a few components that need a little bit of attention and, of course, begin to transfer a large amount of hardware into the station that the crew will use in the future for living and working up there. |
It's a long corridor, basically, that doesn't have a lot of features from one end to the other. |
It's interesting that at the very end of the program, after such a smooth (flight) for Andy, that we had this problem occur with the motion-control system. It's frustrating to a certain extent, but, hey, maybe it's our signature. It certainly adds some drama to it. |
Okay, I'll double check that. |
They're incredibly organized and it's going to be a lot easier for us than it might have been if they had not taken the time that they have and spent the time showing us things. |
We got information gradually as the details came out and people understood what had happened and how it was affecting the country and the rest of the world. |
We're here today to wish the international space station some greetings itself because today is the one-thousandth day that the first component of the station has been on orbit . |
We've completed the transfer into the Soyuz and the leak checks. |
You expect somebody to come pick you up and then they call and say, well, they're having second thoughts. That's what a person in that situation would probably think. He's just waiting for the next shoe to fall. But we're going to go get him. |
Yury, Jim, Susan, I know it's a tough day. I know it's hard to say good-bye. |