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8:38 a.m.: Hobaugh: "And don't forget about the stuff on page 3-44"
Husband: "We're checking that. We've got the flight controller power on and we're working through the rest of it as well. Thanks."
Hobaugh: "Sounds good."
Clark: "I'm wondering if I should put on my helmet first."
McCool: "probably a good idea."
Clark: "I'll do that. the recorder is on."
Husband: "and KC I see you're asking for the cards."
Chawla: "Yep."
(horn) - a warning horn sounds in the crew cabin.
Husband: "SM alert, download to RHC. That must have been me, go to auto." (Husband tapped his RHC (Rotational Hand Controller) by accident, which told the computer that he's taking control. He reset it on automatic.)
Husband: "Laurel I don't think it's going to be a good idea for me to drink it. I think I'll just finish the third one." (Husband is discussing his drink bag for entry fluid loading.)
Clark: "KC, can you put that in here."
Husband: "I might be able to slide it down here."
Clark: "Give it to me I think that's safer."
Husband: "Will you be able to get to it if I need it?"
Clark: "You think you're going to drink it?"
Husband: "Let's keep it here for a little while just in case."
Husband: "I'll keep it right here for the time being."
McCool: "Two minutes to E.I. minus 5 - ops 304" (Ops 304 is the software for the shuttle landing.)
(garble)
Chawla: "Not right now Laurel"
Clark: "I'm going to get rid of it then"
(garble)
Hobaugh: "Columbia Houston for Rick, we'll take another Item 27 please." (Item 27 resets the shuttle's attitude.)
Husband: "Oh Shoot." (Husband realized when he reset the RHC he forgot to input the Item 27.)
Chawla: "Looks good. Where did we miss that?" (KC wondering if they missed entering Item 27 at the specified time in the flight plan.)
Husband: "I went back to auto and I didn't do an Item 27." (Husband explains what happened.)
Chawla: "Oh Oh Oh."
Husband: "We'll give you another item 27, we bumped the stick earlier."
Hobaugh: "Not a problem Rick."
Husband: "I forgot. I thought the needles weren't really down where they needed to be, so ..."
(garble)
Chawla: "You want to cue up Rick if you like, Ops 304?"
Husband: "Sure, get the card turned over. Check. LVLH attitude, we come back to LVLH. That's looking good. (garble)" (LVLH - Local Vertical Local Horizontal - the values which determine the shuttle's orientation.)
Chawla: "Looking good"
Husband: "And Houston, we'll get to 304 at 5 minutes."
Hobaugh: "Rick, we're ready for Ops 304."
Husband: "Here it comes"
Chawla: "looks good"
Husband: "304"
McCool: "304"
Husband: "and she comes to life." (Husband's been training for land the shuttle for the past two years, now he's getting the opportunity to do it.)
McCool: "KC will you put this on the back of your seat?"
Chawla: "Yes, I've got it."
Husband: "Here's one for the trash bag."
Chawla: "Just float it back slightly. gently. And float that back gently too. Thank you."
Chawla: "Okay, so now we're looking for a Q-Bar of 1. 22/10:16 is when we seek items box."
Husband: "Roger that."
Chawla: "We have ten minutes to get gloves on. Laurel do you need help?"
Clark: "I've got them on almost."
Chawla: "Okay."
Chawla: "Can I give this to you?"
Clark: "I don't have that bag anymore. I can gray tape it up here if you want."
Chawla: "That's a good idea."
McCool: "Are you ready for the camera Laurel?" The camcorder which is mounted next to McCool's window.
Clark: "One minute."
McCool: "No rush, we've got plenty of time"
McCool: "KC, another thing to populate your (trash bag)"
Chawla: "Okay, I've got it Willie."
McCool: "Do you want the whole thing or just the camera?"
Clark: "Whatever's easier for you. I think we talked about the whole thing. Let me see, wait a minute. The whole thing because I'm going to give it back to you."
McCool: "No you're not. You're going to plug it in back there"
Clark: "I'm sorry."
8:41 a.m.: Husband: "Two minutes to entry interface."
Clark: "I know about the line cable, Willie, I didn't understand your question. You don't want the camera back, right?"
McCool: "I do not want the camera back.
Husband: "He's got one mounted in his HUD (Head's up display) already."
Clark: OK. Yep, yep, yep. Yep, Replug."
McCool: Replug that's all you gotta do.
McCool: When do we start to move our head around Rick, when we get some G's?
Husband: Yeah, some Gs, yeah."
8:42 a.m.: Clark: (operating a video camera): "K.C., can you look at the camera a second? Look at me."
Chawla: "Me?"
Clark: " Yep. Yeah. What K.C.?"
Chawla: "Oh, I just turn towards you, I see what you have there."
Clark: "Yeah." (laughter)
Chawla: "OK, Laurel."
McCool: "Trash bag, K.C., if you've got any." (McCool just finished drinking another container of liquid as part of the fluid loading and wants to toss away the empty bag.)
Chawla: "We are gray taping, you can just give it to us." (She's telling Willie that she's just using duct tape to put the litter in an out-of-the-way location.)
McCool: "That's six and a half bags."
Chawla: "OK, I'm going to have to give this to Laurel when she is done."
8:43 a.m.: Chawla: "I'm going to gray tape it behind, I mean I'll tape it behind the seat, I think this is light enough that it will stay."
McCool: "Laurel, you see lots of jets firing?" (the maneuvering thrusters)
Clark: "I'm getting the jets firing, I'm trying to see if I can get an overhead window view yet."
Husband: "OK. That's all I can do is three and a half bags out of four. So that'll work. If I can pass that back to you?" (Husband's reached his personal limit for how much fluid he can force himself to swallow.)
Chawla: "Rick, if you could wait just one second, I want to get to my gloves before Gs build, I don't want to get..."
Husband: "Certainly."
Chawla: "...two up."
Husband: "Certainly."
Chawla: "Here comes E.I."
Husband: "OK. We're just past E.I." (Entry interface)
Clark: "Ok."
Chawla: "I have both gloves."
Clark: "Is that jets firing on the DAP, I guess." (DAP = Digital Autopilot)
Chawla: "And Rick, I'll take your bag. And float it aft gently, I've got it."
McCool: "That might be some plasma now."
Clark: "Think so, already?"
McCool: "Yeah, the jets are not firing right now."
Clark: "All right, it was quite a bit, actually."
McCool: "We see it out the front, also."
Husband: "That's some plasma."
8:44 a.m.: Clark: "Copy, and there's some good stuff outside. I'm filming overhead right now."
McCool: "It's kind of dull."
Husband: "Oh, it'll be obvious when the time comes."
Clark: "Well, Willie, I guess I could give you the camera to put out the front window."
Husband: "No, let's don't do that."
Clark: "OK."
Husband: "Let's go ahead and make sure you check your suit pressure integrity, too."
Clark: "All right."
Husband: "And comm check on intercom. Put the visors down. CDR."
McCool: "PLT."
Clark: "PS1." (She suddenly realized that she gave Ilan Ramon's designation and laughed and corrected herself based on her seat location) "MS1."
Chawla: "I don't have my gloves on yet. MS2."
Husband: "All right, good enough."
8:45 a.m.: Clark: "And we're going to leave visors down, though."
Husband: "Oh, no. I'm just saying just check your suit's ..."
Clark: "OK."
Husband: "... pressure."
Clark: "And then I'm going to go back off. Yeah."
Husband: "Yeah."
Husband: "That's good enough for (GARBLE), I'm going to check one other thing."
McCool: "Starting to glow a little bit more now, Laurel."
Husband: "Yeah... OK, all that's worked."
Husband: "It's noisy in there, isn't it?
McCool: "Do see it over my shoulder now, Laurel?"
Clark: "I was filming, it doesn't show up nearly as much as the back."
McCool: "It's going pretty good, now. It's really neat, just a bright orange yellow out over the nose, all around the nose."
8:46 a.m.: Husband: "Wait until you start seeing the swirl patterns out your left and right windows."
McCool: "Wow!"
Husband: "Looks like a blast furnace."
Husband: "Let's see here... look at that." as he dropped a checklist and for the first time in almost 17 days it fell down instead of floating in place.
McCool: "Yep, we're getting some Gs."
Husband: "Yeah."
McCool: "I let go of a card, and it falls."
McCool: I got a bit flip here on the accel now." (a display indicates that gravity's starting to return.)
Husband: "Yep. Alright, we're at, uh, hundredth of a G."
McCool: "This is amazing, it's really getting, uh, fairly bright out there."
Husband: "Yep. Yeah, you definitely don't want to be outside now."
8:47 a.m.: Chawla: "What, like we did before? (laughter)
McCool: "How's it look out the back, Laurel?"
Husband (replying to K.C.'s joke): "Good point."
Clark: "Uh..."
Clark: "Willie, I can see you in your mirror."
McCool: "Not yet?"
Clark: "Not, not, yeah, now I can.
McCool: "Now I can see your camera."
Husband: "O.K." (with a strong tone to get McCool and Clark's attention focused on their tasks.)
Clark: "Stop playing."
Chawla: "I see 22/10. 10:52 is what we were looking for, for...
Husband: "OK. 10:16, right? I've got 16 written here."
McCool: "Yeah, 22 10 16." (22 days 10 hours 16 minutes mission elapsed time)
Chawla: "Yeah, 22 10 16, that's correct. Sorry."
The tape breaks up at this point