Kudos All Around
I’ve been watching more live NASA TV coverage this morning and enjoying it immensely, as per usual. Since the mission is beginning its closeouts to stow things and prepare for landing on Monday morning, the words of thanks between the STS-114 crew, the International Space Station current crew of two (Expedition 12: Valery Tokarev and William McArthur), and Mission Control are flowing. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and House Majority Leader Tom Delay are on the horn with Commander Eileen Collins sharing words of encouragement and support — thankfully, much more articulately than President Bush did earlier in the week.
Something I’ve wanted to share earlier in my NASA TV viewing, but hadn’t located information to share, follows:
The CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) officer in Mission Control is critical to the successful execution of every space mission. CAPCOM is the voice of Earth to our astronauts in space — it’s how they get guidance, information, status, clarification, and even morale. The primary CAPCOM officer for this Shuttle mission is Julie Payette; she has continually impressed me in her poise, good humor and knowledge. That, and I’m totally in love with her accent and classy looks — a geek with fashion and poise, go figure! It’s fun to listen to the banter between her and the astronauts in space; it’s evident all the astronauts enjoy her “company” during the mission, and they afford her the same respect as they would a crewmate.
Knowing that NASA continues to put a great emphasis on having CAPCOM officers that are astronauts, and thus have a broader appreciation for what the astronauts in space are going through (mentally, physicially and spiritually), I started poking around NASA’s site for information on STS-114’s Canadian CAPCOM officer. I found that info today, using Google instead of NASA’s somewhat backwards internal search functionality and then remembering to visit Wikipedia, as well.
* Backgrounder — Importance of CAPCOM officer
* Astronaut Bio – Julie Payette
Some highlights of Julie’s expertise:
- Julie had been a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut since 1992, hand-picked as one of 4 astronauts out of a field of 5,330 applicants. Continued her astronaut training and career with NASA beginning in 1996.
- Flew on Space Shuttle Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999 as part of the crew of STS-96. Ms. Payette became the first Canadian to participate in an International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission and to board the Space Station.
- Technical advisor for the advanced robotics system onboard the ISS. Chief Astronaut of the Canadian Space Agency.
- Holds a multi-engine commercial pilot license with instrument and float [plane] ratings with more than 900 hours of flight time, including 450 hours in high performance jet aircraft. She’s also a certified deep sea diver.
[For perspective, Justin mentioned he has just over 300 flight hours in about 7 types of aircraft.] - Fluent in French and English, and conversational in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German [!!]
- Bachelors in Electrical Engineering, Masters in Computer Engineering.
- Research Work & Interests: computer systems, natural language processing, automatic speech recognition and the application of interactive technologies to space.
Whew! Think she’s qualified to be the voice of Earth to the astronauts in space? 
I just noticed — Julie’s Shuttle flight, STS-96, was with then-Pilot Rick Husband — the Shuttle Commander who perished aboard Columbia in February 2003 aboard STS-107. So her connection to why this mission’s safety is critical is doubly acute — as an astronaut herself, and as the co-worker and friend of a fallen astronaut.
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