Table of Contents

Daily Reports

DAY 1
April 17, 1998

Message from Dave

Ascent was incredible! The view from the flight-eck was very impressive as we completed the roll program and progressed to Shuttle Rocket Boosters (SRB) separation. Before SRB sep, there was a lot of vibration but the ride quickly became very smooth as we climbed to our final orbital altitude. Opening the payload bay doors provided us with a panoramic view that is the most amazing that I have ever witnessed. Our experiments are keeping us very busy and we are loving every minute of the flight.

Dave Williams, MD
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
MS3 STS-90
Neurolab

DAY 2
April 18, 1998

Science Update

The launch delay caused some worries, but fortunately word came early enough that we hadn't started work for the day. The delay does affect some of the human experiments though, as it is more difficult to extend the mission an extra day. All the animals on-board continue to eat while they are waiting, so food and water will become an important factor if the mission goes to 17 days. The other big concern was that the next launch attempt might not happen until next weekend. While that would allow some time for rest, all 150 of us are pumped and ready to go.

The crew looked like they were ready to work when they entered the Spacelab. The Visual Coordination Facility (VCF) experiment was scheduled for the first day of the mission and everyone was holding their breath that it would be a success. The crew was running about 40 minutes behind schedule when they got to the experiment, but due to excellent training, the VCF experiment went flawlessly and we ended the day on schedule. We won't know the results until the computer disks return with the crew, but the whole team was elated to have successfully collected data on the first day. This was the most important day for the VCF experiment and everyone will sleep better tonight.

The next excitement for Canadian scientists will happen on Monday when the Visual Cues team will hopefully get their chance to celebrate as well.

Alan Mortimer, PhD
Program Scientist
Life Sciences
Canadian Space Agency

DAY 3
April 19, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

I am writing this at 05:00 Sunday morning, and the crew on orbit is due to wake up in 2 and a half hours. All is quiet.

Here in Mission Control, we are the Planning shift, working nights to prepare the Plan of the Day for STS-90. For tomorrow, Flight Day 3, we have added several small things including: a maintenance procedure for a broken air pump on a Japanese experiment (VFEU), a contingency procedure for an Animal Enclosure Module (capping an air port), and changing the orbiter's attitude to keep some thruster jets from getting too cold in the shade, etc.

Columbia is very healthy so things are nice and easy for us. The only problems are a leaky valve in the nitrogen system of the right Orbital Maneuvering Engine, a water spray boiler that froze up, a broken VCR, and a bad pressure gauge on one of the nose wheel tires. Not bad for the oldest ship in the fleet!

We'll send today's Execute Package to the printer on board Columbia just after the crew wakes up at 08:39 Eastern. We have 11 messages to send, totaling about 30 pages. After they receive them, the crew will cut and paste the pages into their checklists using scissors and tape. We've spent the night writing all the messages and reviewing them for errors and crew-friendliness. Ideally, we'll have them all approved and ready to go on time, though we may have to wait a few minutes for a good satellite link.

Yesterday, I woke up the crew with the song "Think", by Aretha Franklin (since it's Neurolab, I went with the brain theme). Today, they'll hear "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", sung badly by Harry Carey, the late great Chicago Cubs announcer. It's for Scott Altman, an Illinois native, who's doing a PAO event with Chicago radio today.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 4
April 20, 1998

Message from Dave

After many years of training, it is now time for STS-90, Neurolab, my first spaceflight. I have been looking forward to this day for so long and it is amazing how quickly things have gone by in the past few weeks. It is an exciting mission, representing the best in Canadian neuroscience with two of the twenty-six experiments involving Canadian investigators. The VCF hardware, built by Bristol Aerospace, has performed flawlessly during training and I am confident that we will get excellent data on orbit.

I would like to take a moment to thank all the employees at the Canadian Space Agency. Each and every one of you has played a key role in preparing for the mission. Without your hard work, motivation, and dedication to excellence it would have been much harder to prepare for the mission and ensure the success of the Canadian experiments. You are a great team and I am proud to have been able to work with you! Please accept my thanks for a job well done. I am looking forward to sharing the results of the mission and my experiences on orbit with you when we return.

With best wishes,

Dave Williams, MD
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
MS3 STS-90
Neurolab

Word from the CAPCOM

I am writing this at 07:00 Monday morning, and the crew on orbit is due to wake up in 20 minutes. All is very quiet.

Yesterday, Dave and the crew really got down to Neurolab business, working on all types of experiments. They overachieved, and completed as much as 110% of the desired scientific experiments.

Columbia is in excellent health, and we are using slightly less hydrogen and oxygen than predicted, so the 17th day has a good chance of being granted. That decision should come on Flight Day 10.

The crew successfully fixed the toadfish air pump yesterday. The NASDA experiment is now back up and running, with no science lost.

In addition to a very full plate of science activities, today there is a Public Affairs (PAO) event with CNN, including Jacques Cousteau's son, Jean-Michel. We are also planning a waste water dump; venting the collected urine and humidity condensate to evaporate into space. The Pilot and Commander are scheduled to practice Entry and Landing with a flight simulator on board.

The wake-up music today will be "Doctor My Eyes", keeping with the Neurolab theme.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

Science Update

Monday was a very interesting day. It was the first day for Ian Howard and the Visual Cues team to get some data. It was also the first day for the Escher Staircase experiment; a crowd favorite with the science operations teams. (Did you know that Escher lived the latter part of his life in Canada and that the original "Escher Staircase" drawing is in the National Gallery?).

There has been a quiet confidence among the Visual Cues team. The Virtual Environment Generator used for their experiment is one of the new pieces of hardware, and was completed by NASA very late in preparation for the mission. The system has been working well in recent training, and with a little more time the team will have 100% confidence in the hardware. The Canadian part of the team can breathe a little easier as they have a backup for most of their experiments using one of the general purpose laptop computers on-board.

We received some excellent downlinked data during the experiment as well as some photos of the crew performing the experiment. This can be a tense time because of the anxiety we all feel about receiving a message from the Spacelab that something isn't working. Fortunately, the experiment has been completed successfully. The information received on the ground looks as though our perception in space is altered. The analysis, which will start tomorrow, will let us know the details of these changes in perception.

The first use of any piece of electronic equipment is always the most difficult. The Visual Cues team, however, can breathe a little easier for the next couple of days. Tuesday is an easy day as the crew has the afternoon off. Most of us will try to get a little rest as well.

Alan Mortimer, PhD
Program Scientist
Life Sciences
Canadian Space Agency

DAY 5
April 21, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

It is now Tuesday morning, and the crew's wake-up time is 20 minutes earlier every day-so it happens sooner in my shift. I woke them up with "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood, but some of the crew were already up and getting ready for the day.

Just before bed, last night, one of the shuttle's cooling systems froze up. It works by flush-evaporating excess water into the vacuum of space. If, however, there's too much demand it can sometimes overload and form internal ice. The crew worked a procedure to heat and flush it, which worked fine. Now we will try and avoid shuttle attitudes that max-out the cooling to prevent this from happening again.

We had a problem yesterday with an inverter in the Spacelab. It makes AC electricity out of the DC power the Shuttle provides, and when it was powering the Glovebox, it over-volted slightly. We investigated the problem in detail on the ground and when we considered the age of the inverters and the exact electrical load, the cause of the over-voltage was explained. To solve the problem we just uplinked new, slightly higher crew alert thresholds, and then let the crew know our decision.

Yesterday, I played a home video for the crew of their immediate families at Kennedy Space Center, before and after the launch. Our videoconference link is such that I can see the crew's faces while they watch the tape; I could also see that they loved it! Dave was all smiles to see his wife Cathy with his children Evan and Olivia. This gave the whole crew a nice boost as they settled into another long day of work in orbit.

Today they will work all morning, and then they have the afternoon off. Hopefully Dave will have the time to write us a message!

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 6
April 22, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

It was a nice, quiet night in space with the morning stillness broken abruptly by "Bad Case of Lovin' You" by Robert Palmer. That woke them up.

Columbia is in excellent shape. The only new problem was in a small system power supply in the Lab that is a bit out of specification. It is still O.K. for the rest of the flight, however.

This morning when the crew got up, the Lab was pretty frigid at 65 degrees Fahrenheit. To resolve this situation we're having them adjust the water cooling loops and heat exchangers to get to a more comfortable working temperature. The VFEU toadfish water tank will also chill down, so we're adjusting its setpoint to where its heaters will activate.

Here in Mission Control, we have a bright orange Nerf brain, visible on NASA TV, in keeping with the Neurolab theme. Whoever makes a good or clever call during the shift gets the dubious honour of keeping the brain on their console.

And finally, I also had the pleasure of reminding the crew to begin urine collection today.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 7
April 23, 1998

Message from Dave

From the flight-deck of STS-90

Dave was in a good Public Affairs TV downlink yesterday, and he also wrote a quick note to all at the CSA:

Well it is now "Flight Day 6". We are continuing to work hard and have fun. The experiments are going very well and we hope that we are getting all of the Principal Investigator's (PI's) a lot of data. Sorry I don't have a chance to write much. The schedule keeps us hopping!

Dave Williams, MD
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
MS3 STS-90
Neurolab

Word from the CAPCOM

Columbia and the crew of STS-90 had a very quiet night after an extremely busy day of science. The crew is really settling in to the work pattern now, and sends us down notes to suggest how to be more efficient. We're trying to respond by not tasking them during pre- and post-sleep, and by giving them as much autonomy as possible.

Another of the VFEU fish tank (Japanese experiment) air pumps is making bad noises, and seems destined to fail in the same way as the first. We re-wrote the In-Flight Maintenance procedure, and sent it up as part of this morning's Execute Package. Also, after yesterday's cooling loop adjustments, the Lab is now a balmy 80 degrees. No complaints from the crew, so I think they like working in shorts.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

Science Update

Today is a day to study the cardiovascular system. The large part of the day focussed on the autonomic team. They are studying the way the nervous system controls blood pressure. On Earth, when we stand up, we also lift about two jugs full of blood which wants to head toward our feet. The nervous system quickly adjusts and keeps the blood flowing to the brain. In spaceflight there is no gravity so the body doesn't need to balance blood flow in the same way. On return, there is, once again a need for these reflexes, however many astronauts do feel dizzy. The issue for spaceflight is that if the nerves actually changes, the measures we take in space will be very different from those if the problem were due solely to fluid shifts or muscle loss. The experiment uses a large barrel like bag in which the pressure is reduced to pull blood back towards the feet. The nerve responses are measured to help understand the changes in control of blood vessels in space.

Did you know that there are at least half a million people in North America who develop dizziness and fainting as a result of the type of problem being studied today? I didn't. Half of them are around thirty and these experiments will help doctors on Earth select among appropriate treatments, something that is a problem today. I like this experiment because I started out my career in heart transplant research, but also because it has lots of wires and hoses and looks complicated!

At the end of the day we will get the second run of Visuo-Motor Coordination Facility (VCF). Things went so well the first time that the team is quite relaxed and hopeful expecting another smooth run. I'll let you know tomorrow how the experiment went.

Alan Mortimer, PhD
Program Scientist
Life Sciences
Canadian Space Agency

DAY 8
April24, 1998

Message from Dave

Well, it is now Flight Day 8 and we are having a great time. The experiments are keeping us very busy and I am pleased to report that the Visual Coordination Facility (VCF) continues to perform flawlessly. It was very interesting when we did the experiment today in comparison to when we did it on Flight Day 1. Now it seems that our limbs don't respond with quite the same accuracy when we are not looking at what they are doing.

I have heard that there is a lot of interest in the mission in Canada! That is great news! I hope the educational outreach initiatives and the website are getting attention as well.

Please extend my best wishes for a Happy Secretary's Day to everyone at the CSA. I really appreciate all of the hard work and support from everyone.

Dave Williams, MD
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
MS3 STS-90
Neurolab

Science Update

More Than We Asked For!

We finished off the second of three Visuo-Motor Coordination Facility (VCF) runs late yesterday afternoon. The hardware once again worked flawlessly. Good work from Bristol Aerospace! The crew was able to complete the experiment well within the allotted time and in fact we had one further subject. The Commander Rick Searfoss made time in his schedule to participate in the experiment. This gives Dr Bock and Dr Fowler one more subject to improve the accuracy of their study. Needless to say, everyone on console was elated. The VCF experiment carries on the 15-year tradition of life science experiments. In that time we have never had a significant problem with flight hardware.

The VCF team will take a little rest today, only a limited number of people need to be on console. At the same time, the Visual Cues team is working on the data received from the first session. There is a lot of data to work through, but from the first impressions some interesting results can be expected.

Today is another day for the cardiovascular team. The experiment is so complex that there are lots of people working when the experiment is going on. Dave today is involved in some of the studies on how rats learn. It is expected that not having gravity as an orientation will change the way their brain identifies its surrounding. I find the studies of how we learn extremely fascinating. Look at toddlers learning to walk! No two seem to learn the same way. Some fall forward, some teeter to the side, and some look as stiff as a board, but in the end they all pretty much end up walking the same way: one foot in front of the other. How this process takes place is the subject of these experiments. Neat!

Alan Mortimer, PhD
Program Scientist
Life Sciences
Canadian Space Agency

DAY 10
April 26, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

I have been more fortunate than the crew as I had a day and a half off to swap from the night shift to the day shift. It was a welcome break, but as a result I have missed 2 days' worth of reporting. Sorry.

On board Columbia, they had one important system failure that threatened the duration of the mission. It was the device that absorbs Carbon Dioxide from the air, and then dumps it out into space. It had 2 different failures, but the Commander got out the tool kit, and, in fact, fixed the problem with duct tape! Now there are no obstacles to a full-duration mission, set to land May 3, around lunch time.

The crew had this afternoon off, and a chance to speak privately with their families. They have been working extremely well, but hard, and often late into the night to get the maximum amount of science back from the flight. Dave is doing all Canadians proud.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 11
April 27, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

With Columbia continuing to be very healthy here on Flight Day 10, Dave and the Neurolab crew have had an excellent chance to perform science work. Today they did:

VVIS (Vestibular and Visual Investigation System);
PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests);

DEX NEO (Dexterity of Neonates);
Autonomic (human experiments using the lower body negative pressure apparatus); and
RAHF (Rodent Animal Holding Facility) maintenance, and sleep studies usingmelatonin.

Busy day in the Lab!

The whole crew also had a Press Conference that spanned Texas, Florida, Washington DC, Poland, CBC Newsworld, and Canada AM. Dave starred in the Canadian events, and did an excellent job.

The flight-deck crew (Commander, Pilot, and Mission Specialist 2) performed an orbit adjust thruster firing sequence. It modified Columbia's path around the Earth very slightly to ensure that she will be in the correct position for deorbit on Flight Day 16, 17, or 18.

On Wednesday, the Mission Management Team here in Houston will discuss the possibility of extending STS-90 to a 17th day. The factors are: science remaining to be done, Columbia's health, remaining consumables (oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, food, etc), and predicted landing weather.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 12
April 28, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

It is now the evening of Flight Day 11. Columbia has been around the world about 180 times, and continues to provide Neurolab with a superb platform for studying space science. She's the oldest, heaviest ship in the fleet, and it is a testament to the NASA ground crews that Columbia is working so well considering it is a 20-year old vehicle.

Dave and the crew have been working doubly hard due to higher than expected mortality rates of the young rats. This has needed a lot of extra care for the surviving rats to ensure their good health, and the unbudgeted time has kept the crew busy through their pre and post sleep periods. Today we lightened their workload, and allowed extra time for the animal husbandry. It appears to have helped, and hopefully the crew had time for meals and exercise today!

Rick Searfoss (the Commander) and Dave had a good Press Conference with Réal D'Amour, Hana Gartner, and Discovery Channel today in both English and French. It is nice to hear an American with such good skills in French - Rick studied a year of university in France, and even I could detect the difference in accent between the two of them.

On NASA TV, you may see that flowers have arrived here in Mission Control. This is a tradition of a family in Pennsylvania; part-way through every shuttle mission, they send flowers and a note for the crew. It is a touching demonstration of support that we all appreciate.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 13
April 29, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

Mission Control in Houston has been supporting spaceflights since the mid-60s. We have evolved from the old, pale green rooms that supported the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and the first 75 shuttle missions, into the new, blue, Flight Control Room that has been in operation since the summer of 1995. It is significantly upgraded with computer and communications power. When I flew in space in November 1995, I spoke to Dave Wolf who sat here as our CAPCOM. When we brought him back from Mir in January, I had the reverse honour to do the same for him. It is an historic place, full of subdued, expert, competent, confident people. STS 90 is the 16th flight I have worked on as a CAPCOM, and I learn and enjoy the experience more with each flight.

Today, after a 1-hour handover with the off-going CAPCOM (Bill McArthur), we had a VIP press conference with the Deputy Prime Minister (the Honourable Herb Gray) and hundreds of school kids talking with Dave and the Pilot. Questions came from Ottawa and across Canada via Internet including Rankin Inlet, and were then relayed through Houston, White Sands, New Mexico, and a geostationary satellite, to the flight-deck of Columbia. It went smooth as silk, just as if it were easy.

Communication is normally relayed via two NASA-launched satellites, however, we also have back-up satellites, as well as ground stations. Right now the shuttle is over the USA and we are communicating via antennas in Dryden (California), Mila (Florida), and Wallops (Virginia). Sometimes, we also use these sites to communicate with Mir, to talk with Andy Thomas, or to provide a relay for the Russian Mission Control (called TSUP, and pronounced "tsoop").

Tonight, just as the crew was getting into pre-sleep, we did a water dump. We vent water directly from Columbia's holding tanks into the vacuum, where it evaporates and dissociates. A problem developed, and it looks like our waste dump nozzle got partially blocked. We tried leaving the heaters on an extra while to bake it out, but there was no change. We're considering a maintenance procedure to purge the water from the line which would keep it from boiling if trapped. We also have a back up capability to store waste water in large lined bags.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 14
April 30, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

Today has been very busy on the ground. The Mission Management Team decided to end the mission as planned, after 16 days, to ensure the maximum return of science from the animal experiments. We are now involved with the end-of-mission work, starting and planning to turn Columbia from a space shuttle back into an airplane.

More importantly, the water dump that failed last night has become more of a problem. It may well have frozen or plugged at the nozzle, despite the heaters, and we can't risk a lump of ice building up on the side that flies off and strikes the aft structure during Entry. Not being able to dump water means we have to find other ways to get rid of it. One way is to put the water into white, duffel-bag-sized contingency bags, but we only have two, and it is a lot of extra work for the crew. Another is to run the supply water through the cooling evaporation system, but it malfunctioned early in the flight, and we're concerned it may freeze up again. A third option would be to carry the bags into the Spacelab and dump water through the Lab's vacuum vent line. This last method, however, would require the most work of all.

We had the crew run a hose bypass on board to see if we could clear and blow-out the blockage that way: - no luck. We've run the nozzle heaters through cycles today to tell if they have ice or other build-up on them: - inconclusive. Tomorrow we'll plan to try the evaporators in hope that they will work OK. And we're planning not to dump any more waste water-we'll just store it in the waste tank until it is full, and then use a contingency bag.

The Flight Controller that has the most pivotal role in supporting the flight is traditionally the one chosen by the Flight Director to hang the permanent plaque on the wall in MCC. It looks like the Environmental Officer (called "EECOM") may well earn that right for STS-90.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 15
May 1, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

The mission is nearly over, and today was the last full science day. Tomorrow will be the final morning for science, and then it will be time to pack up the Lab for good. I just had a last talk with the crew about tomorrow's plan, and you could hear the determination in the Commander's voice to end payload activities on time, and to get things cleaned up.

Most people think that Mir looks messy. Yet after just two weeks in space, the inside of Columbia is as tangled-looking or even worse than I saw on Mir. This is not because it is inefficient; that's how life in Zero-G will always be. It is not necessary to put things away, or on shelves, or in cupboards when there's no gravity and no company coming by. Never believe a pristine, open mock-up or simulation; weightless space stations will always look like a yard sale.

We worked all day on what to do with the waste water problem, and finally decided to not try and vent it to space, but rather to have the crew dump it into bags. We are being extra-conservative and have traded off crew time and comfort (handling two week old concentrated urine) with a risk of freezing the nozzle. Hopefully post-flight review of the filters and waste tank will prove that we did the right thing.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 16
May 2, 1998

Word from the CAPCOM

This is the last installment of these diaries, as tomorrow is STS-90's planned Entry and Landing Day. From now on, one of the CAPCOM shifts is taken over by the Entry team, so I get relieved. We have CAPCOMs and Teams that specialize in Ascent and Entry, so it's their turn. It has been a pleasure, but 17 days was long enough-I'm glad the shuttle only has enough food, air and toilet space for 2 1/2 weeks. Space Station will be an interesting new era in Ground Support.

The crew members have spent the day cleaning up and putting away. They test-fired every thruster, and started the Auxiliary Power Units to check the hydraulic system and Flight Controls. We even maneuvered to have the belly face the sun for a while, to warm up the tires.

The only significant problem is in one of the Auxiliary Power Unit's coolers. The cooler sprays water over the hot sections, but that water sprayer didn't work during launch. We thought maybe it had just frozen up, but in today's test it didn't work either. So what we'll do is start the other two Units for Entry, and then when we get down low in the atmosphere, where the air is thick and the hydraulics have to work hard, we'll start the third Unit, without cooling. It's good for about 10 minutes before it starts to overheat, so if you listen to NASA TV you'll hear Mission Control calling to have APU 3 shut down right away after landing.

The crew had several questions today about where to stow things - if you've ever spent 2 weeks on a sailboat, or even at a cottage, you know how hard it is to get everything put permanently away. From the sound of things they did a good job, though, and I said good night to them 2 hours before bedtime.

Just before I signed off, we talked about the landing weather-it looks pretty good in Florida. The cross-wind is predicted to be near the limit, and since the shuttle is such a big, ponderous, flat-sided airplane, cross-winds affect it quite a bit. The Commander noted that his forward window has more residue and obscuring smears on it than usual, so that will help us decide whether to land facing south towards the sun, or north away from the sun. The Chief Astronaut, Ken Cockrell, will be flying approaches tomorrow in a Shuttle Training Aircraft, and he'll decide. We'll pass his comments to Rick Searfoss, so he'll know exactly what to expect. When you're flying a quarter-million pound glider that has been descending for 12,000 miles, you only get one chance.

God Speed Columbia.

Chris Hadfield
Canadian Space Agency Astronaut
CAPCOM for STS-90
Mission Control
Houston

DAY 17
May 3, 1998

Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Dr. Dave Williams and the crew of mission STS-90, abord Space Shuttle Columbia, landed successfully at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:09 central time (12:09 local time). Dave Williams and his crewmates have a doctor's appointment and a lot of resting to do. After more than two weeks in space, it takes at least one day for the body to re-adjust to gravity.