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Hello my name is Tamika Lowe with Forest Lake
and Carolina School for Inquiry and this is NASA Now.
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Hey, I'm Kristin and this is NASA Now.
There you are on the launch pad at t-minus 10 and counting.
How did you get there and what are you thinking right
at that moment?
Well today, we are going to hear how one astronaut went
from the cockpit to the launch pad.
That's ahead, first here's what's happening at NASA Now.
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NASA's Curiosity rover continues to make important discoveries.
Just recently Curiosity sent back images
from the Martian surface that indicate evidence of a stream
that once ran vigorously across the area in Gale crater
where the rover is now traveling.
Photos from Curiosity's mast-cam show stones cemented
into a layer of conglomerate rock.
The size and the shape of the stones offers clues to the speed
and distance of the ancient stream's flow.
The images show two areas "Hottah" and "Link" both
of which look like jack hammered pieces of concrete.
But in fact scientist believe these rock outcroppings are
blocks of ancient stream bed.
This discovery brings scientists ever-closer to determining
if Mars was once a habitable environment for life.
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To become an astronaut you have to have the "right stuff"
like our special guest retired Air Force pilot Colonel Gregory
Johnson from the Johnson Space Flight Center.
Colonel Johnson piloted two Space Shuttle missions STS-123 &
STS-134 to the International Space Station.
He joined us earlier this year to share his firsthand accounts
of the missions he flew and also gave us the background
on how he joined the ranks of the talented men and women
who have orbited our planet.
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Everyone has a career prior to being an astronaut.
I went through the Fighter Pilot program.
I became a test pilot, flew all kinds of different airplanes,
and then put my name in the hat to become an astronaut.
There's a selection process, it's highly competitive.
It'd been a dream of mine since I was 7 years old
when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon
"that's one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind"
Once you become an astronaut, you train for a couple of years,
you specialize in your particular area, in my case,
it was operating the space shuttle,
learning to land the space shuttle,
rendezvous to different objects including the space station
and operating the robotic arms both on the space station
and the space shuttle.
And then eventually, you get selected for a flight.
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As a pilot, I'm kind of in charge of the ship.
If you will-- my duties are like Scotty on Star Trek.
The pilots are responsible for the main engines,
the shuttle's main engines, and also the smaller engines,
the orbital maneuvering system, the ohms engines
which adjust our orbits.
We also have reaction control system jets
which are the smaller jets
that change the orientation of the space shuttle.
The pilot's also responsible
for the APUs the auxiliary power units
which give us hydraulic power for many of the systems onboard.
The pilot's also are responsible
for just the day-to-day operations of the space shuttle,
the wet trash, the dry trash, keeping the filters clean,
vacuuming the space toilet, working the galley
and those sorts of things.
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I remember the very first shuttle flight,
we had four rookies on STS-123 back in 2008.
When the main engines lit, there was a light in the cockpit.
But when the solids lit, it was orange illumination all over,
vibration, sound, light,
it illuminated the entire Florida Coast,
we had an overcast deck, we leaped off the ground
like a wild animal and pierced through the clouds above us.
It was like driving through a ball of fire.
It was absolutely incredible.
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When you get to orbit, I think most astronauts will tell you,
it's an exciting adventure
but it's also a spiritual reflection.
I'd spend a lot of time in the Cupola.
And you see our planet.
You see how fragile the atmosphere looks.
You see the beauty of all the different parts of planet.
The deserts are beautiful.
The reservoirs, the glaciers, the mountains,
you see the Middle East, you don't see borders.
You look down at our earth
and you wonder why people have quarrels
about seemingly insignificant things to you at the moment.
And so, I think most astronauts, when they come back
to the earth, they have a--
maybe a broader perspective of what's really important in life.
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Do you have what it takes to pilot a spacecraft?
Here's an exercise that is actually used
to test Astronauts.
Teachers you and your students can work on measuring
and monitoring reaction speeds and retention in "The Speed
of Light" Look for the link
on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.
Well that's it for NASA NOW.
Be sure to visit our Facebook page and leave a comment.
We'll see you next time on NASA NOW!
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NASA NOW comes to you from the Virtual Campus
at NASA Explorer schools.