Oh Wow!

Florida Today reporter Chris Kridler asked each of the astronauts to describe their favorite 'oh wow' moment. Each of the crew gave excellent answers, some listing multiple 'oh wows.'

Dave Brown - "At the time I had no idea [I had discovered an ELVE], it was early in the mission, I [just] ran the video recorders, the cameras in the payload bay. It was the ground that actually discovered this very brief phenomenon. It's not something we've been able to see with our eyes - at least I haven't. So the ‘oh wow’ time came a couple of days later when we got a message from the ground and a picture showing this thing that we had filmed, and I was very fortunate enough to be the camera operator. So that was the ‘oh wow’ moment, getting out of bed and going to the printer and seeing this picture that the ground had processed and sent up, and that was one of the real highlights on the flight for me."

Mike Anderson - "I'd have to say with the Mist experiment after spending two hard days working on it, it was a really a big ‘oh wow’ when we saw the first Mist flame go down the flame tube. For me that was a really exciting time, the people who had worked on the experiment on the ground had so much time and energy tied up into it I just could not imagine having a failure with that experiment. After working on it for two days and finally getting it to work, that was a real a big ‘oh wow.’"

Willie McCool - "A big part of my time is spent on the flight deck maneuvering the vehicle to support the experiments that have pointing requirements. So the ‘oh wow’ for me is oh wow I've had the opportunity to be on the flight deck more than most of my crewmates to look outside and really soak up the sunrises and sunsets and the moonrises and moonsets, the views of the Himalayas, Australia, all of the continents except for [North America]. So the ‘oh wow’ for me is just as a rookie astronaut being thankful that my job is maneuvering the vehicle so I can be up there and look outside."

Ilan Ramon - "Looking out the window is a big ‘oh wow.’ This morning is also a big wow for me, being able to conduct a press conference from up in space as the first Israeli astronaut. Looking at the U.S. and Israeli flag behind us I think it's a big ‘oh wow’ at least for Israel and a big start of scientific international collaboration. As you know, we have a international involvement in all of our experiments, including Arab scientists, and that's a big wow for me."

Laurel Clark talked about watching a sunset from space, "The first time I got to see the orbiter as the Sun set or rose. There's a flash - the whole payload bay turns this rosy pink. It only lasts about 15 seconds and then it's gone. It's very ethereal and extremely beautiful and unexpected, I hadn't heard about that before." Clark added, "Anybody who knows me knows how much I love plants and animals. One day we took the video camera and hooked it up in order to do some sampling. There were roses in there. They had been buds; they had opened up to bloom. It was so magical to have roses growing in our laboratory in space." Clark also talked about the silkworm experiment saying, "One of the silkworm cocoons had just recently hatched. There was a moth in there, and it still had its wings crumpled up and it was just starting to pump its wings up so it would be able to fly. Life continues in lots of places and life is a magical thing."

Kalpana Chawla - "Early in the mission we were very fortunate, we had the full Moon when we launched. The orbiter moved from one attitude to another if you were looking at the tail the whole spaceship was glowing in silver light from the Moon. The attitude was changing and you really felt the spaceship was headed somewhere." She added, "We've been able to get some magnificent views of the Milky Way. The very first time I saw the Milky Way almost close to the horizon it looked like a silver dust cloud." She called several of her crewmates and they discussed what it could be, but it took a few days before the Moon dimmed enough for them to realize that what they were looking at was the Milky Way. K.C. said, "It really sort of overpowered the rest of the sky because it's very very dark."

Chawla then gave the most poetic description for what she saw - seeing the Earth reflected in her own eye. She said, "One day I was in the flight deck looking outside. It was starting to get dim so you got to see your own reflection [in the shuttle's windows]. The Earth limb is outside and you can still see the Earth's surface and the dark side. I could see my reflection in the window and in the retina of my eye, the whole Earth and the sky could be seen reflected, so I called all the crew members one by one, and they saw it, and everybody said, ‘Oh, wow!’"

Rick Husband concluded, "From my perspective as the commander - my ‘oh wow’ is watching everybody perform as a team. One of the big aspects of that is when we hit Main Engine cutoff how everybody kicked into gear in orbit. The crew has performed just marvelously, I really love seeing the team come together."

Recognizing the contributions by Mission Control and the others who made STS-107 possible, Husband continued, "The bigger team which makes this possible is the team on the ground."

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