Table of Contents

Transcript

Space exploration, 40 years later...

I remember sitting in my primary school gym and watching TV, with the little kids, and we'd see the astronauts put on their space suit, get on the rocket. The rocket takes off! And then we'd see them walking on the moon, or driving that lunar Jeep. I remember being in that gym and thinking, ''This is so cool! I'd love to do that!''. It didn't matter if this looked like something I could never reach; this is what I wanted to do. So, the impact of the Apollo mission on me has been immense, and that's why I'm here today.

The International Space Station

On my first mission, STS-96, we were the first team to manually fly a shuttle - the commander - to dock manually to the International Space Station. It was unbelievable, and it was so big! Compared to what it is today, it is really small, what I saw ten years ago. Now, it's the size of two football fields. It is going to be absolutely extraordinary to dock to the International Space Station this time around.

The importance of team work

I feel very lucky, but I know very well, that I would never go anywhere if it weren't for the fact that I'm part of a team. And that team is very large, and most of them work on the ground to make sure that missions happen, that we build and explore in space, and that our vehicles are well prepared and safe. Maybe a good analogy is the astronauts are just the tip of the iceberg of this incredible operation. It's amazing!

Mission STS-127 from Julie Payette's point of view

STS-127 is one of the last major construction missions of the International Space Station. Two years from now, it will be all complete and fully utilized as a scientific laboratory in space. So 127 is a heavy-duty construction mission. We will be operating at least one arm, if not sometimes three, the same day, fifteen days out of a sixteen-day mission! So it's a very heavy crane-operation, or space crane-operation mission.

Operating Canadarm2

Another thing I really look forward is the opportunity to fly Canadarm2, ''the big arm'', like we call it. The arms are quite different; the Shuttle arm operates differently than the Canadarm2. They're not exactly made mechanically the same, they don't operate the same. So I'm really looking forward to see the difference. This will be particularly fun, of course, because I'm Canadian, and this is our big contribution to the International Space Station. So I look forward to coming back on the ground and talking about it.

The Earth seen from space

I'm curious about a couple of things. I'm curious about how my body, if it will remember how to adapt to weightlessness or not. I'm looking forward to see the Earth from above again. This is such an extraordinary privilege. It's magnificent, us seeing it from space. I look forward to experiencing weightlessness again. I look forward to dock to this immense Space Station as it will come into view from the Space Shuttle.

In the heart of the action

I'm the flight engineer and robotics operator for mission STS-127. One of the great things about being the flight engineer is that you have one of the best views from the cockpit. I will be seated between the commander and pilot, on the space shuttle's main flight deck. I will be able to see all the displays in the main cockpit, and my job will be to help the captain and the pilot with spacecraft manoeuvres. It's a great honour for me to be in this seat.