Defying Limits by Dave Williams

Author:Dave Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

A little while later, there was a flurry of activity back at the beach house, and Rick called to us again. “We have to go back to crew quarters. The president wants to speak to us about the mission.” We all leapt to our feet, grabbed our flip-flops, and ran to our convertibles. I had barely climbed into the back with Jay when Scooter took off, with Jim riding shotgun.

“You better slow down. We’re still on the air force side of the Cape, and the MPs might give us a ticket,” I yelled to Scooter.

“Not today they won’t,” he yelled back. “I have the perfect excuse: the commander in chief wants to talk to us.”

Ten minutes later, we were in our blue flight suits in the crew quarters briefing room. Rick S., Scott, and Kay were seated at the table in front of us with Rick L., Jay, Jim, and me in a row behind them. We waited expectantly, looking at a video camera that would connect us to the president, who was touring the simulator building at JSC with Senator John Glenn and Peggy Wilhide, the head of public affairs at NASA headquarters. Peggy was excited about the Neurolab experiments and hoped we’d be able to brief the president on the research we would be doing.

“I hope you find out a lot of things about the nervous system,” President Clinton said when he appeared on-screen, “because I’m getting to those years where I might need them.”

“Thank you, Mr. President, we’ll take that as one of the challenges we try to meet,” commander Rick joked.

“What experiments will you be doing on Neurolab?” President Clinton asked. Clearly, Peggy had been able to capture the president’s interest in the research.

Rick, Scooter, and Kay did their best to describe the science of the mission, but somehow they didn’t quite capture it. When they got to the experiment on blood pressure regulation, Jim, who was the crew expert on it, looked as though he wanted to vault over them to answer it properly. After the interview, Peggy called, “Hey, great job, you guys, but you could have talked more about the experiments.” I caught Jim’s eye across the table and we both smiled.

The night before you lift off to go into space is tough. You’re thinking about the mission and everything you will be doing, but you also find yourself wondering, Is this my last night on Earth? What’s going to happen? What if I don’t come back? Of course, you try not to dwell on those thoughts, but it’s not easy. Most people don’t get the world’s best sleep the night before liftoff.

The day of the launch itself was scheduled down to the minute, with little time to spare. The last chance I had to talk with Cathy and the kids was the night before. I called their hotel. All the families were staying in nearby Cocoa Beach, ready to board buses that would bring them to the Cape to watch the launch the next morning.

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