Table of Contents

Julie Payette's Journal

Launch -9 days Kennedy Space Center –
Florida June 4, 2009

It's time for the full countdown launch rehearsal this morning. The crew got up very early, just as we will on June 13. We ate breakfast together and after a weather brief, we put on our orange launch-and-entry suits and left the quarantined astronaut crew quarters to head for the launch pad. Once there, the crew squeezed into a small elevator and went up to Level 195 where the access ramp to the Shuttle is located.

Then one at a time, in a specific order, we climbed aboard Endeavour. We can't all go in at once - it takes about 15-20 minutes to strap an astronaut in his seat and this is not easy to do considering we are in a vertical position. Since I'm seated in the center of the cockpit, I am the last to climb aboard. While the technicians strap in my colleagues I wait outside on the ramp, 200 feet above ground, savouring the magnificent views of the Kennedy Space Centre, the beach and the ocean below. I am steps away from Endeavour's hatch, its solid rockets and external fuel tank. Since today is only a dress rehearsal, the external tank is empty and the rockets secured, but on launch day this spaceship will be alive, humming and hissing and spewing smoke. It will be very impressive.

They call my name. It's my turn now. I enter the White Room that surrounds the hatch, put on my parachute harness, my comm. cap, say goodbye to the camera and crawl aboard on hands and feet. This is not a very gracious scene – I'm carrying 100 pounds of spacesuit with pockets full of survival equipment (in case we have to bailout) but I manage to make it in. I inch my way to my seat, lie on my back and become a “vegetable,” meaning I no longer move unless I am asked to by the technician who is strapping me into my seat. Before you know it, I'm lying down, facing the sky, ready to launch. I look at the countdown clock. It says minus 1 hour and 53 minutes. That means we still have two hours to go before launch! I am NEVER this early for anything. But you can't be late for the Space Shuttle!

NOTE: Only 7 people are allowed on the Launch Pad other than the crew, once the tank has been loaded with fuel, about 8 hours prior to launch. These 7 people, called the close-out crew, are specialised in the art of sealing a crew inside a space vehicle. They wear white suits with numbers 1 to 7 on their backs. They leave the Launch Pad once the astronauts are strapped in and the hatch is closed, about an hour before T-0, and wait about 4 km away. The Astronauts are then completely alone aboard the vehicle until launch. In the event of a major problem during countdown, we are on our own, and if needed, we must get out by ourselves. That's why the emergency evacuation training we went through was so thorough, including how to operate the evacuation tank.