|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Astronauts enjoy 'great start' aboard shuttle
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia said Saturday that their mission is a success so far, and the first Israeli to fly in space described it as a "great start" for his nation and its neighbors. Four astronauts -- mission commander Rick Husband, and specialists Kulpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon -- were interviewed as the craft orbited over the Pacific Ocean. Husband said the team was "having a great time." "We've all got our space legs, and things are up and running," he said. The astronauts have been aloft since Thursday morning. "I think it's a great start," said Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, when asked about his flight's significance for his country. "It's an opening for great science from our nation and hopefully for our neighbors in the Middle East." Ramon responded similarly to an e-mail question asking how he might have felt if he had flown with an Arab astronaut. "As you probably know, an Arab man already flew in the '80s, so I'm not the first one from there," he said. "And I feel like I represent, first of all, of course, the state of Israel and the Jews, but I represent also all of our neighbors, and I hope I will contribute to the whole world and especially to our Middle East neighbors." Ramon said he was "pretty excited" during his first view of Israel from the space shuttle, but "it went too fast. It was cloudy or mostly cloudy, so I couldn't see much of Israel." "Pretty exciting" was also how Ramon described the launch. "Yeah, lots of noise, shaking, but after about a minute or so, I got used to it, and it went pretty smoothly." While the four astronauts spoke, three of their crewmates -- pilot Rick McCool, and specialists Mike Anderson and Dave Brown -- slept. The astronauts are working in alternating 12-hour shifts during the mission, which is scheduled to last 16 days. The astronauts plan to conduct more than 80 scientific experiments, about half of them sponsored by private businesses and the rest described by NASA as "pure science."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
