Day 3:

As usual today began with a meeting, and I have to say I was delighted that NeurOn participant Brad Berch, who was leading the meeting called on me for an update as he worked his way around the room! It really made me feel like a part of their team as well.

Today was my day to have an escorted visit into Hangar L with one of our earliest NeurOn participants, Louis Ostrach who many of you met through his informative QuestChats. The planned time however was preempted by the visit of the KSC Center Director to whom Louis needed to give a tour of the areas in which Ames Research Center was working to be able to evaluate whether they were adequate for future planning. I know I was very impressed when it came to my tour at how efficiently the ARC team has been able to use an area obviously designed to handle much smaller missions. The sense of teamwork that has grown to be second nature to most of the Neurolab personnel was well displayed as multiple tasks that are being performed simultaneously in rather cramped quarters. Do I even see a broom over there in the corner?

While I was waiting for Louis to return, I took advantage of the Life Sciences Orientation Briefing provided by Bionetics (a contractor to Kennedy Space Center that provide facilities management). Besides the basic survival guide from the Emergency Preparedness Office of KSC, we were walked through a 51 page booklet that was specific to this Neurolab mission. It included an introduction to the different buildings that the Neurolab team is using, like Hangar L, the O&C, AE, etc. that you've read about in team members' journals. It was actually a great prelude to the tour of Hangar L, because I became more prepared for what I was able to (and what I was not able to) see.

Despite his busy schedule, Louis and I linked up in the late morning and moved to Hangar L. Let me try to describe this building! We entered a small inconspicuous door on the side. There on the wall is a display of orange badges that are marked "Visitor" in big black letters. As we passed it we exchanged one of those badges for our own, because the building is so large and, unlike the open airplane hangar I think about when I hear the word hangar, there are very few "open" areas. In the event of an emergency, it is really important to know who is in the building so that they can find you (or is that to notify your next of kin? Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that!) One of the humorous exchanges team members have is when they catch someout out of the hangar wearing that orange badge. Needless to say they can't get far!

Hangar L is a huge facility with the typical hangar doors which were opened as we arrived to prepare for a delivery. Lining the walls of the hangar is a two-story complex of PI laboratories or offices two-deep separated by a hallway. The center of the hangar is quite literally filled by laboratory facilities in which very strict sterile conditions are maintained. Natually I was not able to enter this part. The only areas not enclosed in this "behind the barrier" cleanroom facilities is a narrow passageway and a small area open for storage of deliveries and processing of materials ready for loading on the shuttle.

Much like I explained in my journal on Asceptic Procedures, the laboratory area is entered through a gender specific changing room where scientists don the "bunny suit" you've seen in pictures. All clothing, hair (including facial hair!) is covered. The delivery I mentioned was being unloaded into a portable cleanroom that is located right at the hangar door entrance, and the person pictured has just emerged from behind the barrier and crossed a small passageway, so she is removing the outside shoe covers to expose new ones before entering the protable cleanroom to receive the shipment. Sorry, I wasn't quick enough - three people sped by me stripping their shoe coverings off and entering the room, and by the time I was able to point the camera towards the action and shoot, this was all that was left of the flurry!

As we moved around the office area several of the scientist were there with their assistants (called ESS or Experiment Support Scientists, I believe). You may recognize Erin Genovese hamming it up a bit in the picture on the left with Dr. Walton Principal Investigator for Effects of Gravity on Postnatal Motor Development. On the right, is the work area for Dr. Riley, one of our newest NeurOn inductees (Dr. Riley is on the right.) All of the scientists were very gracious in greeting us even though we had planned a totally un-invasive visit. Getting in the way of progress would not be acceptable in these last critical moments before flight!

My tour of the Hangar L facility would not have been complete without yet another monitoring area, the Experiments Monitoring Area, joining the User Room (I saw in the O&C and pictured for you on Tuesday), Johnson Space Center's Payloads Science Operations Control Center, and Ames Test Monitoring area. Talk about feeling watched! Do those astronauts have ANY privacy? Actually much of the monitoring is directly of the experiments and receiving data on the "health" of the equipment, etc. Did you know that things can even be FAXed to the shuttle!

Following the visit to Hangar L, Louis took me on a drive of the Cape Canaveral area. We drove past missile launch pads past and present. We drove as far out as you can without special permission in the direction of the launchpad where Columbia stands almost ready for launch. We passed a lighthouse that was a little hard to understand since, though the Cape is bordered on the east by the Atlantic and on the West by the Banana River (must be named that for its shape), it wasn't close enough to the water's edge to serve the purpose of a lighthouse! I know I keep saying it, but this area is remarkably green and lush with birds and animals occasionally scurrying from the underbrush (kind of unexpected for an Airforce Base!)

The highpoint for me of the structures we saw on this drive was Complex 14 where a plaque reads: John Glenn, First American to travel around this planet began his three orbit flight from this launch complex in Friendship 7, 9:47 a.m. February 20, 1962. Wow! What a piece of history. The pad itself was pretty unimpressive: a small concrete mound, hollow in the center. Louis pointed out how volumes of water is sprayed while orbiters are still sitting on the pad, causing that plume of steam that you can see at launch time.

As we were rounding the bottom end of our somewhat circular tour, Louis' pager let him know that he was needed, so we headed back to the Outback. I still marvel at the willingness of these busy guys to take a few moments so I can share this experience with you! Thanks Louis!

Tomorrow's excitement: They are planning a team photo. Busses will leave the Outback at 6:00 a.m. hopefully to the pad, if not to the VAB. As of Saturday the pad area will be totally closed to anyone not direclty involved in the preparation of the shuttle for flight.