Out There: The In-Depth Story of the Astronaut Love Triangle Case that Shocked America by Diane Fanning

Author:Diane Fanning
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2007-10-30T07:00:00+00:00

John Augustus Shedd, Salt From My Attic

Chapter Twenty-Four

At 8:30 in the morning of Independence Day, the astronauts sat down for breakfast. In minutes, they learned of a problem—the back-up circuit breaker controlling the primary heaters in the solid rocket boosters failed. Within an hour, though, everything was back on track—NASA’s engineers determined that the failure was not critical. The launch was a go.

In honor of the special day, each member of the crew emerged from the building housing the crew quarters with a small American flag held high. As they rode to the launch pad, they waved them at the employees they encountered along their route.

One by one, burdened by parachutes and communications gear, crew members crawled through the hatch. With the shuttle in a vertical position, getting into their seats was a difficult maneuver requiring the assistance of the ground crew known as the Caped Crusaders. Although they were necessary, their added presence inside the cramped orbiter made any movement even more difficult.

At 11:42 A.M., all the astronauts were strapped inside—Steven Lindsey, Mark Kelly, Lisa Nowak and Mike Fossum on the top deck; Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter on mid-deck. Mike, the first Aggie in space, packed his personal preference kit with a Texas A&M University flag and a Corps of Cadets flag. He’d also packed A&M T-shirts to wear during their time in space. He joked that he’d have to keep a close eye on them, since Stephanie, a graduate of archrival University of Texas, would also be on board. Stephanie, equally loaded up with UT paraphernalia, playfully threatened to do all in her power to prevent Aggie items from making it into any of the photos shot during the mission. Mike also worried that she’d slap a UT Longhorn sticker on his forehead as she helped him suit up for spacewalks—that would be something he would never live down with his fellow Aggies. Piers Sellers took a flag along from his alma mater, the University of Leeds, and Mark Kelly had one from the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Steve Lindsey packed an iPod loaded by his son with music. Thomas Reiter had little room in his personal preference kit because most of his space was filled with a surprise packet from his family that he would open in orbit.

Lisa brought mementoes on the flight, too: an owl figurine for the school mascot of Luxmanor Elementary, a coozie from Tilden Middle School, a banner from C. W. Woodward High School and a United States Naval Academy Class of 1985 flag. The most treasured item accompanying Lisa on her flight was her grandmother’s engagement ring, left to her a few years ago when the family matriarch passed away.

In addition to the items in the astronauts’ personal kits, there were more mementoes in the Official Flight Kit: 625 mission patches and 600 small United States flags, three complete sets of flags from all the states and territories and all the member nations of the United Nations. The

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