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 Still's First Mission |
Shuttle pilot got a chance to see the Peach State from space during the seventh day of her mission Monday, according to e-mail to family
Web posted July 8, 1997
By Amy Joyner
The space shuttle Columbia passed over Georgia on its seventh day in orbit, giving Lt. Cmdr. Still a faraway view of home. Lt. Cmdr. Still, who was raised in Augusta, is piloting the shuttle for the 16-day microgravity science laboratory mission.
``We've turned the shuttle around and are now flying forward instead of backwards,'' Lt. Cmdr. Still wrote in an electronic mail message to her father. ``Since we're also in a funny roll ... we now get to see every thing that is north of our (flight) track instead of south.
``So, I should be able to see Georgia today.''
During her week in space, Lt. Cmdr. Still has kept in touch with her family through the Internet. Whenever she has a free moment, she sends them brief messages about the science experiments she's conducting and the sights she sees from space.
``It's very nice, good to hear from her,'' said Dr. Joseph Still, the astronaut's father. ``She's doing well, her spirits are good.''
In turn, Lt. Cmdr. Still's family tells her what is happening back on Earth.
``She asks about it,'' said Gena Carpenter, the astronaut's sister. ``In our family, it's never mundane. There's always something of interest.''
In her two messages to her father, Lt. Cmdr. Still implored him to write to her.
``Say hi to everyone for me and write and let me know what's new. Love, Susan,'' she wrote in the first message.
``You know, you can write back,'' she wrote in the first message.
But Dr. Still has returned to work at the burn center at Columbia Augusta Regional Medical Center hasn't had time to write to his daughter in space, he said.
``I don't do that,'' he said.
Father and daughter will have a brief 10 minutes to chat by satellite Wednesday morning during an interview with WRDW-TV (Channel 12) and The Augusta Chronicle.
``I'll just ask her about her trip and what she was the most interested in and how their experiments went,'' Dr. Still said.
Sandwiched between the high profile Mars Pathfinder mission and the dramatic troubles aboard the Mir space station, Lt. Cmdr. Still's science mission has been pushed out of the spotlight.
``That's definitely stole some of their glory,'' said Barbara Derrick, Dr. Still's secretary.
Still, the astronaut's family keeps their televisions tuned to NASA-TV, hoping to hear Lt. Cmdr. Still's communicating with mission control or see her working on science experiments in the shuttle laboratory.
``We're all real excited for her,'' Ms. Carpenter said. ``This is her long-time dream.
``This is a real exciting time for NASA to have (all) this going on at the same time. It's still real impressive.''
Though they're busy with their own mission, the astronauts are interested in the discoveries being made on Mars, crew member Mike Gernhardt said.
``It turns out that Pathfinder and several robotic spacecraft that are planned behind it will document the conditions on Mars, in terms of the atmosphere and the planet surface,'' Mr. Gernhardt, flight engineer, said. ``And that information will help us design a spacecraft system that can carry humans to Mars in the future to help colonize Mars and other planets.''
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