On July 26, NASA launched the shuttle Discovery, the first manned space mission since the Columbia disaster in January 2003. The Discovery’s mission was to deliver supplies to the orbiting International Space Station as well as test new equipment and procedures. But during the 15 days in space a problem was discovered with the shuttle. “Gap filler”—a kind of foam insulation—had come loose on the bottom of the craft and had to be removed and replaced before re-entry. So in addition to the planned spacewalks, astronaut Steve Robinson was selected to go out on a robotic arm and complete the repair, all by his lonesome.
The fix went off without a hitch. And after successfully landing with the rest of the crew on August 9, Robinson sat down with reporter Melinda Welsh to discuss what it feels like to go solo in space, the future of the space program and whether or not there’s intelligent life out there. An edited transcript of the interview follows.
Melinda Welsh: So, what’ve you been doing since you got back to Earth?
Steve Robinson: It’s been very busy. When you go and fly a mission into space, you go with the purpose of learning things. So, when you get back, it’s your job to sort of transmit all the stuff that you’ve learned to the people on the ground getting the next missions prepared. It involves writing reports, debriefing with many groups…
I was sort of surprised—from launch to landing—to have felt really nervous about it all, I mean for your safety. Were you nervous for yourself or the crew of the Discovery?
No, I was honestly more concerned with my family feeling nervous. I think the Columbia accident was on people’s minds. But it really wasn’t on ours. When you set out to do something like this, you sort of have to come to peace with the level of risk. Especially if you’ve been in aviation your whole life, you sort of come to grips with the fact that what you’re doing is important…. You feel that the risk is worth it.
So, you put the danger out of your mind?
Yeah, you put it out of your mind. But it’s not just avoidance—it’s confidence. I went out to the pad with a lot of confidence. I think we all did. We were anxious to fly. We were happy to be there. We believed in the mission. We felt very privileged to be there.
What was it like out there on that robotic arm?
I wish I could describe it fully to you. It’s so unlike any other experience I’ve ever had…. Analogies don’t work very well. I kept feeling like I was trying to put a wide-angle lens on my whole brain to try to take it in. You’re just a dot in the universe. And the universe is vast. And it’s dynamic, and everything is moving. And the shadows…the sun goes up or down every 45 minutes. So, the shadows were going by rapidly underneath. There were lots of spectacular views and surprising sensations. It was a really huge experience for me.
I’ve read the words of other astronauts who come back and try to articulate this really profound sense of what it feels like to look back at the Earth.
Well, we’re not a very articulate bunch to begin with! We’re not immune to the feelings, but we’re not so good at expressing them; that’s for sure. That’s why I was glad to have a camera.
Mission Commander Eileen Collins came back and said she could see erosion and deforestation on Earth from outer space. I thought it was nice to have her talking a bit about that and the responsibility we all have to take care of the planet.
On my first mission, one of my crewmates, astronaut Robert Kirby, came back and said something that I think speaks for us all. He said, “No matter what you thought before you flew in space, after you’ve flown in space you become a conservationist.” I think especially people who have flown airplanes all their lives have always thought of the atmosphere as being virtually endless, much bigger than we are. But, from the vantage point of orbit, it’s anything but endless. It’s very limited. It’s almost minimal. And you can see just this thin, blue haze wrapped around this huge planet. It’s almost shocking how thin it is. It was the opposite of what I’d always sensed—that there was this limitless sky. That’s not what it is at all.
What do you say to people who say we should solve problems on the Earth before we go into space?
Going into space makes a significant contribution to solving the problems here on Earth. There’s no doubt. Some of them are explicit contributions that help the human race develop technology that we use to make not only our lives better and more efficient, but also help so that our existence doesn’t make such an impact on the Earth. Technology is wonderful for that. And the other way we do it…well, this is a rather inspirational business for a lot of people. It sets a high watermark for human achievement. Children growing up today, they know that it’s possible to go to the moon, to live in space. Just knowing that, I think, can motivate people to greater heights than they would have gone before. Just knowing what human beings really can accomplish.
It’s all a very ambitious and almost audacious thing to do. You realize this when you are sitting on the launch pad, and the rocket engines light, and you’re riding this barely controlled explosion and blasting up into the sky, and you’re thinking, Whatever gave us the confidence to try this? But here we’ve done it over and over. And I think that I’m one of the people who believe that doing it gives us a healthier confidence that we can solve difficult problems back here on Earth.
I’ve heard you say that exploration is written into our genetic code.
I don’t think we can help it! That is the nature of human intelligence. We want to know what we don’t yet know.
A news station in Sacramento once did a program on you. I think it was after your trip up with John Glenn, and they had you interviewed by a bunch of kids. One of the kids asked if you thought there was life on other planets. And you didn’t say no. You said, “Probably.”
If you just think of the statistics of the universe, I think it’s perfectly possible that there might be some form of life somewhere out there. But it’s also very likely that we’ll never know it because of the distances involved. If it takes light an entire year to get halfway to the nearest star, the sun, why then it’s very unlikely that there’ll be communication between any two forms of life. So, it’s sort of a good-news, bad-news sort of thing.
Do you get tired of having to be the “Right Stuff” all the time? People have an expectation of astronauts that they’re sort of perfect, brilliant, good sense of humor, kind to animals… That must be hard to live up to.
Not for me, ‘cause I’m not that way! Because all I know for sure is who I am. I’ve never changed at all. The only thing I’ve ever done in life is be Steve Robinson. I’m still trying to be better at that. Let me tell you why. I have the best job in the world—I’m pretty convinced of that. But it is my job; it’s not who I am. It’s important not to tangle up my own personal identity with this wonderful job.
I know you’ve gotten very close to the crew of Discovery. How much are you gonna miss that family?
Oh, it’s terrible. We’re looking down the road at breaking up the family and flying off down the road, and it’s awful. We were absolutely welded together. We could finish each other’s sentences. We knew each other’s jokes. A couple of us could just look at each other and communicate.
I read that once you got back to Earth, you said you actually wished you’d been able to stay up in space. And I knew for years you’ve been saying that you hope to go up and live on the space station…
Well I’m one of those people who really enjoys being in space. I have to admit I was not ready to come home after just two weeks up there. It’s such a fascinating environment. You don’t even want to sleep while you’re up there. So, yes, I want to go into space again, if somebody lets me do it. But that’s really not up to me. There are lots of people waiting for that very first flight. And I want them to get that first flight. So, we’ll see what happens.
What’s the future for NASA and the space station and the shuttle program?
Well it’s an exciting time to be here. We are seriously getting ready to go back to the moon and to have a moon base there. That’s truly exciting. That’s a big step. If we learn how to do that, that’ll generate a bunch of new technology that’ll help things here on the Earth. It happens every time. But right now, the real question is: Can we make the shuttle safe enough to finish its job and then safely retire it to museums? That’s the question we’re dealing with right now. The space station definitely needs more parts for it to be useful. So, we feel like it’s really important to solve these problems with the shuttle. We have to get to the point where we feel safe enough to go fly again.
After the moon base, it’s on to Mars, right? Will you be involved at that point?
Well, I’m not thinking about Mars personally. That’s well into the future. But I think the moon base is kinda right around the corner. I probably won’t be one that goes to the moon, but I wish I were.
This article was originally published in the Sacramento News & Review. It is republished here with permission.
An idiot’s guide to the galaxy
Mercury
With a surface that’s similar to the moon and nearly as old, this planet is the closest to the sun. It’s also the fastest moving, and (go figure) the hottest!
Venus
Sometimes called the “evening star” because it’s the brightest of the bunch, it’s probably better known to most astrology mongers as the “lady planet” and Earth’s solar sister. While it may be named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love, don’t be fooled: Its atmosphere is clouded with several layers of sulfuric acid.
Earth
While we all know that we occupy the third planet from the sun—the only one with shopping malls and worthless wars—did you know it’s also the densest major body in the solar system and the only known planet where water can exist in liquid form? Note: The other eight planets aren’t as hospitable as ours; let’s try to take care of it.
Mars
If the brightest and most lovely planet is feminine, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that masculinity is represented by this red, warlike planet. According to scientists it has the most intriguing and cratered terrain; and as you’re reading this, folks at NASA are still trying to find ways to colonize it. Any guesses on who should go back?
Jupiter
Known as one of the first Jovian planets, which means it’s made of mostly gases like helium and hydrogen, it’s also the largest known planet—more than twice as massive as all the rest. Its size probably explains why it has 67 moons, including four large Galilean moons.
Saturn
The-second largest planet in the solar system may not “twinkle” as bright as the other planets, but it’s best known for its prominent rings, which are actually visible to the unaided eye… on a clear night, of course. But at the end of the day, we’re still trying to figure out why they named a car after it…
Uranus
Another Jovian planet (not pronounced “your-anus” or “urine-us,” but “yoor-a-nus”), there’s something cool about this oft-forgotten planet: All of its 21 moons have names that are inspired by Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
Neptune
Many folks don’t know that because of Pluto’s eccentric orbit, every few years or so, Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun. Along with Pluto it’s also considered a modern planet, since they were both discovered in the past 200 years.
Pluto
This poor paltry planet barely made the cut. Not only is it the smallest planet—it’s smaller than seven of the solar system’s moons… including Earth’s.
—Compiled by Marcie Dickson
Aliens we love
We here at C-VILLE certainly believe in intelligent life on other planets (we’re pretty sure some of our interns come from them). In fact, we have proof—extraterrestrials have been on our TVs and movie screens for years. Some of them suck, like those face-huggers from Alien (nightmares!) or those bastards from Independence Day. But we’ve had some nice visitors over the years, too. Here’s a list of some out-of-towners who can probe us anytime.—Eric Rezsnyak
Superman
Krypton’s loss was our gain. It’s easy to forget that Kal-El comes from a distant, doomed planet. But then you remember that whole faster-than-a-speeding-bullet/ able-to-leap-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound thing, so he clearly ain’t human. Plus, he threw Lois Lane off his trail by only wearing glasses. (Lois: least observant journalist ever.) Is there no end to this man’s powers?
My Favorite Martian
For the record, we’re talking about the campy 1960s TV show, not the odious 1999 film version starring Christopher Lloyd and Jeff Daniels. Ray Walston played Exigus Twelve and Half, a Martian who crash-landed on Earth only to be rescued by Timothy O’Hara (a pre-Eddie, pre-Hulk Bill Bixby), who passed him off as his Uncle Martin (clever, Tim!). Uncle Martin had retractable antennae that made him invisible and had other powers, and was something of a wiseass.
Marvin the Martian
True, he tried to blow up the Earth—repeatedly—to get a better view of Venus. But because he never succeeded, he’s a loser you can’t help but love. Old Bowling-Ball Head is sure nicer than those bastard Martians from War of the Worlds, I can tell you that.
Spock
Vulcan death grip. Mind meld. Pixie cut. Spock is totally badass. He’s also undoubtedly the coolest alien to ever crew the Enterprise (but much love to Warf). That whole cold and analytical thing prevented him from getting as much alien tail as Kirk, but Trekkies forever hold him in their hearts for making pointy ears cool—giving them an affordable way to express their colossal geekiness.
Mork
Extraterrestrial origin surely explains star Robin Williams’ insane, manic episodes. Well, that and copious amounts of drugs. When the quirky “Mork & Mindy” premiered in 1978, America fell in love with Ork’s nuttiest furball. The show’s odd couple premise pretty much fizzled once the titular duo married. And then we were forced to endure Jonathan Winters wearing a diaper, and pretty much nobody loved that.
Chewbacca
Yoda gets all the hot CGI lightsaber action. But my man Chewie remains Wookie of the Year. Tall, strong, musky—he’s everything you want in a sidekick, as Han Solo would attest. In his downtime he’s also a heck of a comedian, as demonstrated by this joke: “Reeeeeoow wonk wonk grrrr cackacackaka tack oooooorrr!” Oh, Chewie. You’ll slay us all.
E.T.
He warmed our hearts, he taught us how to believe in ourselves and he introduced us to Drew Barrymore and the term “penisbreath.” There are many reasons to love li’l E.T.—even though he traumatized young viewers (like this writer) with that part where he’s all pale and dying and the government spooks crawl through the house in HazMat suits. And then the weeping at the ending. Come to think of it, I hate E.T. Thanks, Spielberg. You jerk.
Alf
TV’s coolest puppet since Topo Gigio. “Alf” actually stands for “alien life form,” which sounds better than his actual name, Gordon. Alf was a refugee from the planet Melmac whose ship landed in the Tanner family’s garage. His Earth-bound adventures were chronicled in the 1986-1990 NBC sitcom and pretty much every backpack, Trapper Keeper or lunchbox of every grade-school kid in the ‘80s.
Kang and Kodos
It’s not Halloween with “The Simpsons” unless these tentacled, slobbering sibs from Rigel 4 stop by. Their most memorable visit occurred during the 1992 presidential election, when they kidnapped candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and impersonated them on the campaign trail. Even after Homer exposed the two as bloodthirsty frauds, the American populace still voted for Kang because, hey, it’s a two-party system.
Frank the Pug
Of all the disguised aliens in Men In Black, Frank is undoubtedly the cutest. Some strange visitor decided to inhabit the body of a pensive-looking pug. The choice didn’t score him many chicks, but it gave him license to 1) dish out foul-mouthed lines while still looking cute and 2) lick his privates. Everybody wins!
Cher
If we could turn back time, we’d watch her get younger through the years just like Mork. Hmmm…..