>> All right well Fergie, I know you grew up in Philadelphia, I know you're a Phillies fan
in fact when I was growing up in New York we had a team called the Mets and we had this show
after each game where Ralph Kiner [phonetic] would have this TV show he was
on of the commentators and he would...it was called Kiner's Corner.
So you're going to be the first guest ever in history in cupola corner.
>> Cupola corner.
Okay.
>> So I'm with Captain Chris Ferguson the Commander of the last space shuttle flight
of Atlantis which I don't think you can see, it's behind us, I think it's too bright to see
but we're in the cupola, we have the earth above us, so we're kind of upside
down with Atlantis docks for the last time at the international space station.
So Chris I just want to ask you know what this means to you,
what do you think about the last flight and the legacy of the space shuttle.
>> You know first of all it's sad to see the shuttle go away,
it really is this is just a beautiful vehicle and I'm sure you're having probably a hard time
with the exposure behind this but it's just been a fantastic tool for the United States
to really set up a permanent like presence in low earth orbit,
you know we deployed great observatories, we learned how to do space walks,
we built the better part of the International Space Station I think 37 shuttle flights were
devoted towards building this and as we kind of swim around the halls here we noticed
that it's a lot wider than what the Russian segment and if it wasn't
for the space shuttle this space station might be a skinny set of tubes kind
of like the Russian segment is so it's enabled us
to build a space station that's robust and large.
So we're going to miss this, we really are, I think one of the things we're going
to miss the most is our ability to bring things back.
What you may not be able to see behind us is a failed pump that broke
on this space station probably about nine months ago and we repaired it with a spare that was
on board abut we're going to bring the failed one home and we're going to do a post mortem
on it, we're going to find out what made it fail so we could make if better
and make things last a long, long time.
So we're going to miss our ability to bring things back from low earth orbit.
So you know if you talk about the shuttle's legacy I talk about it in terms
of things we won't have when it's gone.
Now we're going to build new rockets and we're going to have the ability
to bring things back again some day but never the kind of down mass we call it
that the space shuttle has given us.
>> Thanks [inaudible] and one more...when we're done talking we will bring the camera over there
and I think it will expose it right and we'll be able to see it
and another question I wanted to...the last question I wanted to ask you is one
of the purposes of [inaudible] is to use the orbital perspective to inspire people
to make a difference [inaudible] and I just wanted to ask you what that means to you,
when you look at the earth and you know how can we communicate what we see in a way
that would inspire people and make a difference?
>> Yeah, I'm looking up because the view is actually breathtaking,
I mean you have to pinch yourself from time to time
to really understand exactly what it is, you know where you are.
I mean this is incredible to be 220 miles over the earth looking down watching the earth go
by at 5 miles per second and as you do you look down you realize
that you know you really can't see country boundaries, you see evidence of human life
but really you see a beautiful planet with contours and clouds and the ocean,
it's an ocean of clouds that has different perspectives to it
and it's just absolutely beautiful but you do realize how fragile it is as a result
of you know the thin little atmosphere that we look at it's just a wafer thin atmosphere,
this large ocean of space that we're in and how kindly we need to treat it.
Or perhaps it won't be treating us very kindly for generations to come.
>> No, thanks [inaudible] I appreciate that and we will end this with a view out the window.
[ Background noise ]
>> See little smoke trails where fires are.
>> Oh yeah.
>> See how they just...they add...you know that whole cloudiness right there is really due
to smoke and it's not a cloud and you can tell,
in these little ways you can tell how mankind is having an impact on our environment.
>> There's your space craft out there.
>> Beautiful isn't it.
>> There, there you go, yeah.
>> Absolutely gorgeous, I never thought I'd have this perspective of space shuttle before
and we're so fortunate because so very few have had this perspective.
Let see this has been here now for...came up on 130, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
six shuttle crews have been fortunate enough to be able to view their shuttle in just this way,
I consider myself blessed to have done it.
>> All right, thanks [inaudible] God's speed, good landing.