out sourcing this stuff. we tend to loose a sense of the expert he's if you don't have hands on. where's the value in out sourcing all of this. that's my question this morning. host: scott? guest: the government alone can't do everything. you want the government to be a smart buyer. the way the science community has been smart, they always try to have at least one space craft being built in-house. at least one will be in-house making sure there's expert he's inside the government. the same could be done with the human space flight program. the bulk of the work could be done outside. you want to have a little bit of the development work. the question is what's that balance. how much should be kept out. what are the core skills you

want the government to be able to do. when administration talks about nasa being primarily a technology organization. i worry you loose some of the hands on skills to be a buyer. host: 11:26 lift off. we'll continue taking your calls then. let me put some statistics back on the screen we started with. six shuttles all together. 134 missions. $450 million permission. cost from 1971 to 2010, $113.7 billion. total flight time, 13316 days,

20958 or bits of earth. back to phone calls in illinois on the republican line. caller: i would love to be able to travel into space. i believe as long as that access is restricted to government owned and launched vehicles, that will never happen. so why not instead of funding a program which has sometimes referred to as the senate launch system, take those resources and aggressively support the cuts to buildup our private and commercial cape abilities. thank you. host: what about private individuals flying into space?

guest: the caller is right. manufacture us likely won't make it into space. he and i would probably have to hit the lottery not once but twice in order to have the money to pay for private space travel. there have been some space tours over the years but it is only been a handful. there had been a push by some companies to open up space to space tourism. one of the folks leading the charge here is robert bigelo who has this concept of creating inflatable space station that's you would launch into space, blowup like a balloon and bring people up there and have them float around for a while. they are going to say they are trying to offer an opportunity for other international space

powers. there is a push for that. some things but again, buy a couple lottery tickets and you might have a better chance. host: are you a fan of space tourism? guest: i think it would be beneficial for the country. the question is should u.s. taxpayer dollars be used to cry and create this space tourism? it's like do we spend tax dollars to create a cruise tourism industry? the immediate task the systems have in front of them to justify public monies is supporting the

international space station. that's roughly $150 billion facility. the reason this final shuttle mission is going is because there were delayed in commercial cargo systems. one of the things that this mission is critical for is stockpiling and resupplying 9 station with enough spare parts and instruments such that while we are in the gap between the end thf program and whatever comes next that the station will have whatever parts and components. because of the slowness, this mission is absolutely necessary. >> this woman writes on facebook this statement. i'll ask you about women and space careers during this

program guest: nasa has played p rolls o not only women but minorities. they opened up rolls to minority engineers in the deep south in the 1960's, both minorities and women. this is a crucial way that more people had an opportunity to contribute to this country. there are lots of women involved in leadership roles in nasa today and in the scientific community. there's a conference of the number of women involved in the mars program. i'm not sure why that is. it seems to be popular. host: that's it for our time

today. we used a lot of facebook comments. our facebook page is still open. go to facebook.com/c-span. let me say thank you to our two guests dr. scott pace from george washington university here in the district. mark matthews cover washington mark matthews cover washington

>> the as they shuttle atlantis lifted off at 11:29 a.m. eastern with a final flight of the thirty-year shuttle program. the 12 day mission to the international space station. following the takeoff mass officials including the nasa space shuttle launch director mike leinbach briefed reporters on the final mission. this is 50 minutes.

>> good afternoon everybody and welcome to a very joyous day. the sts-135 post-launch news conference after the successful launch of space shuttle atlantis today. before a near record crowds in this -- space coast area. believe we have 1535 news media here in attendance and it looks like we crammed as many of you folks in the room as we possibly could today. thank you very much for coming. we would like to begin things with by introducing members of our panel and then we will have a opening comments and be happy to take your questions. to my immediate left is mr. william gerstenmaier nasa associate administrator for space operations. robert cabana kennedy space center director. mike moses, space shuttle program launch integration manager and the chairman of the free lunch mission management team. and mike moses -- mike leinbach

launch director. good afternoon everybody. >> mr. gerstenmaier. >> wouldn't truly awesome day today. we got to witness something really really special and something really amazing. and you may think that sometimes i talk about the hardware but i am really talking about the teams in the people that supported the launch that just occurred. what you saw is the finest launch team and shuttle preparation teams in the world they got this vehicle ready to go flying. ute we got to see the teams perform everything we have asked them to perform over these years. the vehicle had a tremendous launch. the teams worked flawlessly even the last minute hold at 31 seconds. they worked through that with tremendous professionalism and got this launch off today such as congratulations to the ksc team. i can't thank you enough for everything you have done for us, everything i've asked this team to do here at ksc they have done and done a superbly and beyond my highest expectations so thank

you to the ksc team. the jay-z tim and the iss team still have to get busy as well as the crew on orbit. the docking will be on sunday. is a pretty busy mission. you will see that activity on orbit and we will go through. we are going to try to extend the mission probably an extra day and they will work that for the mission management team as things go on but i urge you to follow the mission watch what is going on with iss and really take in and spend a little extra time to understand the research and the activities happening on the iss. then we look forward to landing here at ksc so again still a lot of work in front of us but what an awesome and great start to the mission today. again thank you and i look forward to your questions later. >> thanks, bill. first off i want to thank till gerstenmaier for the leadership he has provided from nasa headquarters. he is truly done an outstanding job in john chan is not here today but john i can't think of a finer program manager for the

shuttle program to close it out and see us get this last vehicle in orbit or golf course last but not least i want to thank the two mics here. they did a truly excellent job leading the team through this last launch and got a little dicey there a couple of times but we found her way through it. i will let them talk about that. it truly was an awesome spectacular launch and in my opinion the only way it could've been better is if i would have found a way to stow away on their somehow but unfortunately that didn't work out. i want to share with you when i what i shared with the launch team after the launch. bill kind of said it, but words can express the gratitude i have for this team and the pride that i have in them. they are truly the most professional, the best most outstanding technicians and engineers anywhere, and we owe them a great debt of thanks. they have done a truly outstanding job in service to our country and they have

provided us with one heck of a ride for the last 30 years on the united states shuttle program. they really need recognition. we are going to be going through a tough time. change is hard and we will have more folks walking out the door in a few weeks. they were and are performing their jobs absolutely flawlessly right up to the end and that says a lot for them. it speaks to their professionalism. change is difficult, but you can't do something else. you can't do something better unless you go through change. all this talk about nasa is adrift and we don't have a plan, we do have a plan. wewe are enabling commercial spe and the commercial crew program here kennedy supported by the johnson space center in houston. we have more folks under contract trying to build a vehicle that will take americans to space supporting international space station that is still up there until at least 2020 with americans on board, human spaceflight program and yes we have to rely on rides on

russian rockets for a while but we are implementing those plans to get a commercial u.s. capability to get our folks there. and we are working very hard on a heavy lift program that will allow us again to explore beyond our own planet. if you look out to -- you see a shuttle structure on pad a but let me tell you pad the mac isn't about that are shaped and even though you see stuff coming down on the top of the pad we don't see is what is inside, all new fiber optics and digital control systems and a new lightning protection system that helps us clear the shuttle down on pad a for the lightning strikes we have had. state-of-the-art. so a lot of progress is being made to prepare for this multiuser capability, a multiuser launch complex where we can have a heavy lift program that allows us to explore and commercial programs also. we announce the mpcv is all right and to go on that big

rocket, and the hardware starts arriving this year or the first test article. soon we will have an announcement on the exact architecture for the rocket to go along with that so we are making progress. we are doing all that we need to do to help move us forward. so you know the shuttle program has been truly phenomenal and i take great pride in this team and thank them for all they have done. we have still got a lot to do before it is over and they are going to be doing a lot of work on orbit and then we will bring it home safe and i'm looking forward to that landing back here at the cape and shaking their hands after great mission. thanks for your support and we are going to get through this and we are going to do well. an awesome lunch today. >> thanks bob. after years of training they tell me to do things in the right order. i will start my remarks by telling you that mike tells you a lot and i will include that team back in houston and they are truly the best. it is an honor for this to serve with you, mike. the judgment they should did in

the leadership they showed today was absolutely amazing so let me get back on track for a lucid. i will talk about technical stuff as i'm good at that. [laughter] you saw these guys really perform. it started yesterday and not even know what time i was getting ready to take a nap in the called up and said we took a lightning strike pretty much on the pad and his team have that cleared within four hours. we knew we were good to go and press on with account. we had a to do data review and had to got some ice and crossing t.'s. two years ago and i first started we had a lightning strike about the same timeframe and made a delay of 24 hours. two years before that we had a lightning strike with a delay of today today so it shows you how well the team takes the challenge of recognizing there is something we are not the best at and will become the best ads and they really show that with a lightning strike. the decision today in the face of the weather forecast with the odds we had against us all day

and for the weekend i thought was unbelievable leadership as well to take us down that path and let us try today. it really did pay off. mike's team worked a couple of good technical issues. a lot tom acting up a little bit and then just to make it really exciting at 31 seconds the spin arm. that was a great example of how well the team prepared ahead of time. we ended up coming right down to the wire. the range weather hung right in there and was pretty good all day long. we really have advantage of having the weather recon aircraft up there to slice up the crust to find out how thick they were and where they were in looking up where showers were popping up and not and when he came down to it we ended up against our rtos ring shower which says we don't want rain showers within 20 nautical miles of the landing site, the sof, the shuttle landing facility and on this day we had a few showers that were so popping up in that circle so we were at the time observed as no go but that is

okay because it when it wouldn't be for 35 minutes after launch. we were also going to be forecasting a no go and that is where we need to talk about taking a little bit of an exception beyond what is printed in the rules to say we understand the situation a little better because the situation is not one we wrote down ahead of time. that is what we did. the team did a thorough evaluation. the team led by richard jones back in houston and our weather recon aircraft with the team that supports them did an amazing job of really talking about what conditions we were truly facing. we knew we had some showers that might pop up but they would be limited in scope to only affect one end of the runway. we had good energy profiles of the flesland on either of the runway so we could redesignate around a ring shower fitted pop-up. when you are flying to rain showers you were worried about losing your energy and renew through calculations we had a margin that would be okay even if we did happen to catch a rain shower at a bad time but really what made us go today was the

radar forecast, the radar maps that forecast the observations by the fda pilot that showed there was really nothing developing down the quadrant that the blowup over the pad. so we knew we might have a tiny risk of a chance of a shower. we knew well that was not going to be a thunderstorm and that allowed us to be comfortable to go beyond the printed ruined that exception at the end and launched today. i kept an eye on the radar maps as we were flying a pill through our tears landing time and it was and never shower that popped up in a circle and it was a good decision by the team today. had no problem endorsing that one. on the way up till we got a alarm which is a delta pressure over till the time basically a change in pressure. the cabin pressure dropped off a tiny little bit. future be that to cabin stretching and if you think about it as we are lifting up the captain froze because of the g. forces on it and it -- the pressure was stable after that so no worries but it's praying alarm on the way a pill to give

the crew get more excitement on this last mission. they got in orbit. olmsted was perfect and they were doing a good job. we are looking forward to a great mission. as bill said this is a very critical mission for station resupply. we will do our best to stretch out an extra day to help get some stowage on the station cleaned up in a good shape and this is really going to posture the space station to be done for the future so i think the shuttle program is ending exactly as it should. to build the international space station and stocking up for the future and ready to hand it off and we finished a really strong. that said we are not ready to look back or forward. we will stay focused on the mission at hand, and a 12 hopefully 13 day mission in front of us will be jam packed and we are handing it off to the team in easton to get the executed. with that i will hand it over to mike and say i can express again how proud i am to be sitting up here after a good successful launch today.

>> thanks mike. thanks for the opening remarks. that was very nice and on behalf of the entire launch team expect those remarks. mike talked about the decision to go take today and he made it sound like it was a tough decision. let me say how that really came down. we met in my office before the end and team meeting and we flipped a coin. [laughter] that is how we really make decisions. there is a big dartboard. now that the program is over we can divulge some of our secrets. thee before the meeting and we went over some strategy and then the forecast was such that you know we had a decent shot at it. as we said before we have tanked with worse predictions than that. so we went with it today and we got lucky. we got lucky is the way you can put it. from a launch whether prospective our launch large weather are large weather are pretty dated and sound -- outstanding job. joel and mike an outstanding job. guys thank you very much.

the forecast for launch perspective was right on the money and we got the clearing we needed him so from eisbruck.-- perspective from the launch site it was pretty easy. richard jones the flight director wrestling with the rtos that was a bit more challenging and he worked his way through that and did an outstanding job. so we got through all that in the tanking went fine. a little bit of an issue with our locks pump, the major combat was the liquid oxygen into the external tank. a little bit of a chill down on that pump so we opted to sort of voluntarily switch to the pump before we got into trouble on that one. that went -- never uncovered the eco-sensors are the depletion sensors in the tank at all so we were good they are too. so the locks did a great job. coming down to the cameras that we were in the clear until 31 seconds with a spin on gave us a little trouble and all that was when we track the gba we didn't get one of the indicators that

was back in locks and we have procedures in place to verify officially that it is back. indeed it was in there is enough ayatollah pressure in that system that we were not concerned at all with the coming back out during main engine ignition so no issue there. the team went through it very very well. i think we lost more than 50 seconds left in the window this time which is an eternity lately. [laughter] so that worked out really well for us, and just on behalf of the launch team and all the thousands of people i'm just very proud that we finish up strong from the lunch perspective as we did. again the mission ahead of the slanting ahead of us and then we will be able to look back and celebrate. today was a great day. i hope you don't ask too many questions. with that. >> just one real quick before we take questions. i think you'll know rick was flying the weather aircraft and i was listening on the live. lieu. instead of using technical beta

neurological terms he put it in marine terms like i am so we could all understand. he said it is a really really big hole. [laughter] >> we will take questions. these gentlemen have been working since around midnight and their day is not done so we do want to let them get out of here by 2:00 of the latest. we have about 30 minutes worth of questions unless they nudge me and say they have to go center. to try to make sure everybody gets covered, please ask one question and a follow-up. please make sure you wait for the microphone. tell us your name and affiliation and addressing your question and we will start in the front row with seth. >> can you describe sort of the mood after launch in the launch control? did it take longer for people to file out since it is always the last one. how was it different than after other launches?

can you just describe what was going on there? >> you hit on a very good subject. to take a while to leave the control room. we have to talk -- take some pictures of the team. the entire team at once and individually or group of pictures or whatever we chose to do. a lot of us walked around and shook everybody's hand. it seems like we didn't want to leave. it was like the end of the party and we just don't want to go. you just want to hang around a little bit longer and relish our friends and what we have accomplished and so it was very special. a lot of pats on on the back today. >> just a follow-up, either mike. you talked about all of the tiny technical problems you overcame. in the end are you kind of glad that it was sort of a completely clean crown which i know is easier? is it more sweet that you had to overcome all these things and yet still launch or would you just have seen has had a nice easier clean launch? >> anytime we get to t. zero and

we get to orbit safely is good by me so it was fine. it challenge the team a little bit at the end but we practice that scenario numerous times and so we were ready to go with it. in fact, we had written a special procedure because in some of the testing of the spin armor over the last month we didn't get that retract indicator so we put together a little procedure and they put the procedure together figuring if we do that they will never get that failure. of course, of course we got the failure so we had it knocked today. that was no big deal. >> just a question about the rtos waiver. would you have done this if the shuttle was going to fly another mission? the reason i ask being that it was always my understanding that one of the concerns was that if he flew through precipitation that it would damage the tiles. i am just wondering, regis making the calculation that hey

we are not flying it again and it doesn't matter or have i completely misunderstood? >> actually that last mission type thing was not part of the consideration today but you are right. it will damage the tile. the rule is not written so you damage tile and it is a turnaround maintenance issue. damaging the tie literally sticking energy out of your profile. remember the shuttles coming in as a glider without engines. every last bit of energy is managed to make sure you make the runway. we knew with a profile of the wind we had the headwinds in the crosswinds and the brake energy we would see that we weren't going to have any energy problem so losing a little bit of energy by flanker rainstorm would be okay into a situation. just like you see with the forecast and we were talking pre-launch no single forecast is the same, 70% no go one day is not the same as a 70% no go the next day for different reasons. those exceptional rows of the same thing. they written for certain cases but not every case that we look at each one every time ago is

one of the reasons that people making these rules are not a computer voting retrograde to go or no go. it did not come into consideration today at all. speech. >> jim siegel celebration independent independent newspaper question for bob cabana. you mentioned bob, some of the work being done on pad dirty 9b. so looking forward now, when would you anticipate that work is going to be completed? what missions do you think are upcoming for that pad, and what about a? is that going to stay where it is for a while for budget reasons for what? >> well we are obviously preparing to be able to launch a heavy lift rocket off the pattison is possible with their goal being 2016. how things work out in the budget process we will have to see. it doesn't look feasible right now but we want the pet to be ready to go so we will progress it had to have it ready as soon as we possibly can for accommodating nasa rocket

launches off of it. 39a, you are right, we don't have funding right now to move with it so we are going to put it in a caretaker status. eventually as we explore beyond our home planet there are scenarios where we need to big launch pads to support too big rockets to do some the things we want to do so down the road we do see a need for that pad. in the meantime, we will make sure that it is not in such a condition that we can't bring it back up when we need it. >> over here. >> can kramer from spaceflight magazine. mike leinbach and all of you i want to say congratulations and thank you. ..

we understand the tough environment and we will work with that and watch the process goes through and be prepared to execute with what we get when we finally get an answer from congress. >> obviously i don't ask fielding questions but this time i would like to in particular i it like to get the perspective of the whole panel that the two mikes. in my view there's no other place where you see the flight control teams and a launch teams when they are on their game there's nothing like that to see them perform whether it is the

launch, and i would like you to reflect on the fact no matter what follow-on program you get, this amol is never going to exist before. this is the last time you're going to see that execution in the district faults on that? >> we've grown into a very cohesive team throughout the whole program not just the flight control team but all the processing team, the designers of the mission, the payroll folks, it's a very cohesive group. i'm not sure we would never see it again. we have grown into a very good organization and it's taken years to do that but it doesn't say it can't be done again. in fact it will be done again. it has to be done again. what we've learned in the shuttle program is how to work between centers and split the work up.

certain organizations are responsible for certain things and we respect that and you go about your business and work together as a team and it seems very natural for me to work this way, and so i'm sure it will happen again. there is no doubt in my mind. >> for me i will see a quote from machine who calls the control center in leadership laboratory and it trains people to be critical decision makers, communicators and the leaders, and so while we aren't going to be turning out from the laboratory for a little bit, we have a bunch of folks that are going to go out and see the commercial industry and private industry on the team and go push the envelope and take what they've learned and the skills the know how to do now and keep moving to the future and future goals so from that standpoint i feel good we are going to take the team excellent on what they do and go out there and save the world so to speak. and we will be able to rebuild

when the time comes and we need that again but in the short term i know what you mean. you recognize that it's in the short term it's going to be something best, a chance to do that every day. >> randy c. cool for mike clay and back. mike, you got the sash from endeavor and from discovery. you got the one from atlantis and did you say anything special to the team after it was all over, realizing the finality of where we are at? >> it's almost like we plan to do in the audience. [laughter] >> what i said to the team today -- there's been a tradition in the flight that the farewell, the astronauts farewell launched traditionally with good luck and

godspeed, and the definition of a god speed that i liked the best is have a prosperous journey, and so at the end of my speech i wish them from the bottom of my heart good luck and godspeed. >> thank you. i have a line of follow-up. i know that during the launch you are fairly busy and only get a few seconds to get to look at the actual ascent. i'm just wondering when you did get a peak and it did it shine brighter or last longer? was their anything different that set it apart as it was happening and as you were looking? >> you put the words in my mouth. it looked like it was off in slow motion. i failed to apologize the last time we didn't give a big enough view before it hit the cloud but to me it definitely hit slow motion a good ten seconds and it was just very moving and

beautiful. >> it was special. i remember standing there after the vehicle went into the cloud deck you can see the smoke from the outside breeze and it seemed like a cloud plume was growing and hovering and slowly drifting north and a good friend of mine, the payroll launch manager we might want to put our arms around each other and will get it and say we will never see that again. it was a special moment. >> i just have one more follow-up for bill. you mentioned the same message the administrator did in his recording about big u.s. not pulling out of the space flight. there has been a lot of talk in the public about that perception because of the lack of the vehicle like the space shuttle and life was just wondering how you perceive the challenge to kind of combat that perception

in the months and years ahead before the gap is complete. >> one piece that we forget is we created this unbelievable facility in space, this 900,000-pound research facility in space, and we've got to maximize the way we talk about that and the way we use that facility. we've got a chance to do in the legal research in a facility we've never been able to do. this is a unique period and lives to get that done so we need to do our best to take that advantage of that and then when you talk about the flight teams there is a flight team on the iiss managing 17 launches for the vehicle every year juggling the cargo manifest and research manifests and we are looking at the establishment of a profit organization to look at the iiss, so we are still in space and moving forward, you're seeing commercial cargo come on later this fall and next spring and crew come after that, so we are ready to keep going and

spurring bordoff with the shuttle has done and move the next 50 years to make them as bright as the last 30 have been. >> greg dobbs duraid your the to spend time or not the shuttle. it's a technical question, but did you choke up? [laughter] >> yet. most definitely. >> yes. >> you open it to follow-up. [laughter] >> elaborate on why you choke up. your engineers are always just analyzing things at every stage. >> to be honest i choked up at every lunch. this one before which was an unusual thing for me, but again as an engineer is what ever i can see how anybody who comes year and he didn't come here doesn't choke up and swell with

pride it just does it to you every time. >> did the commercial guidance want them -- doesn't get an uplift or get bulldozed? >> i think there are folks to what should be if i thought about doing anything other than refurbishing it. our plan is to refurbish to get a multi user spaceport and that includes utilizing the other facilities that are out there. we are partnering with sestak based florida and commercial companies whose space act agreements to try to bring commercial work, but we definitely need that for the heavy lift rocket that we are going to build to support launches out of the complex 39 that take us beyond earth so absolutely, we are going to continue to make it a viable part of the future and that

includes refurbishment so making the down time transition between the programs fortunately we only needed one shuttle pattison we were able to get a jumpstart to start transitioning it to the future and we need a little bit of down time to make the modifications and transitions from one program to the next and that's what we are doing right now. >> i would ask how much it's going to cost, but will the government have to bear those costs will lose be shared with the commercial sector? >> companies are going to use it and have to pay to use it. >> for anybody to would care to take this. there was a eligibility far more complicated and labor-intensive to work on and one of the shuttle program didn't meet was the low-cost reusable high reliability. i guess i'm just wondering why

it took 30 years for the shuttle program to get to the point it would stand down and give perhaps another operator commercial or another version of government in opportunity to develop something that would actually meet one of those goals the program was sold on. >> is that for me? [laughter] >> the shuttle program, we could not have built the space station without the space shuttle and, you know, it is a phenomenal achievement on orbit right now. so, let that will get with the shuttle has done in 30 years. the hubble space telescope, ulysses, galileo, the show will open up space. when you look back on the apollo and look at the makeup of the astronaut corps today look at the diversity within the

astronaut corps and the multi nations that have fallen to space on the space shuttle and what it's done i don't think it in the early and i think it truly fulfilled what it was meant to do. did did deliver on the cost some people said? know. did it achieve something that wasn't achievable by any other country or vehicle? absolutely so i think it's done a phenomenal job. ischemic to feed the commercial companies what an easier time developing vehicles that astronauts can find a and this is what i was kind of reloading to with a simple design. >> yes but they are not going to be the to do with the shuttle did, to carry the large payload and large crew to stand a couple to serve as vehicles in space. capsules designed to drop somebody off and bring them home, and is a capsule easier to build? absolutely. that's why we built the mercury

capsule and working on the space program because that was the best way to go back and forth to have cross range to land on the runway but they needed to do it quickly and the capsule was the symbol easiest way to do that and still is. we have been going back and forth in orbit for 50 years now and we ought to be able to define the requirements for somebody to build a capsule that allows them to take people to the international space station and on just the international space station but boeing has a contract with the aerospace. there are going to be other destinations. commercial space is not just the government contract to the space station. it's got to be more than that. >> also the shuttle program takes a lot of information that is going to be tremendously valuable to the programs he merging and coming forward. a lot of the dynamics, some of the things we understand about the transition on the vehicle, how the vehicle flies, those are still important to the capsules

and how the life-support systems are designed and the docking mechanisms work. all those things we've kind of proven and refined throughout the years we can hand goes off to the companies and they can take those up and move those in another direction so there was a lot learned from the program that will become immediately evident until you look behind the hardware and the equations and physical understanding how we fly in space that actually have 100% application to this activity we are heading off to. >> so come and you have a mission in space. what is going to be a key moment up there aside from getting the astronauts safely on the ground come what's going to be sort of the main objective the you want to get down before you come home? >> first, there is a lot of logistics activity that's just

moving cargo from the multi-purpose logistics module into the space station during the this is the heaviest multipurpose logistic module we have flown so it's pact fault. there's going to be just a big kind of logistics activity moving that activity from the module and also the space station is getting crowded. there's a lot of things that need to come back. this is a unique time to bring the components bexar you will see us all the l m p up. we also have a pump module that failed after earlier than the analysis showed. we would like to know why it failed so we can improve the next generation. then we have another experiment that's going of that is a refueling experiment will sit on the outside of the station and this fall will be a will to use the canadian dextrous robot to actually surface to do a mock demonstration of servicing a satellite that was never meant to be serviced so it has on the

outside interface that looks like a satellite gse krin sorted and we designed a unique tools very much like the the hubble servicing mission but now this robot will use these unique tools and cut the blanket away and remove a panel and lot wire and then actually demonstrate the fluid transfer between the two tanks on board so it's going to take us from the space walk generation to start showing what we can do in terms of robotic activities on the board station. >> back on the other side of the room. >> thank you come gentlemen, for today. it will be to with us the rest of our lives. a question and a follow-up for bob cabana. as has been mentioned, those in the past present and future will be launched katibat are there plans to have a significant

[inaudible] and also atlantis returns home are there any special ceremonies you have up your sleeve you can't yet tell us about? [laughter] >> jolie i'm working with of the shuttle program to come up with some plaques to put in various places of the landing facility and the launch pad so we will have something to commemorate the history of those as well as the landing, and we have a couple ceremonies coming up after landing. something special for the team right here participating in the landing but we are going to have a big celebration and i can't remember the date right now that it's going to be at our visitors center and celebrity entire program and it's going to be open to easy access to all of the retirees and folks that have been a key part of this the last 30 years so we can submit the

significance of what the shuttle has accomplished. that's going to be the 13th of august. >> it seemed to like the weather gods kind of conspired to show their mettle. you guys talked about working the range stuff and i wonder if you can speak to the bigger picture on what teams met throughout the course of the program. >> he works with kathy a lot because she's the spokesman for the team but yes it does. we are talking about the future and looking ahead. it's amazing when you've worked on here how much we need the daily weather forecasts for a free operation we are outside moving back-and-forth of this cargo coming. we need weather forecasting on a daily basis and mike has a daily

whether col we tag up and see what's coming. so it's played an integral part of the program and its buildup in unbelievable capability explaining to folks the other day not too long ago we had flight rules in place that talked about triggered lightning and we learned that from partners on the air force side that took out an atlas and a bunch of new rules came in place to talk about what the limits are and we have on the ground measure voltages from lightning and tell whether you're going to get trigger lightning or independent strike but we didn't know what was happening in altitude of accommodation with the weather service from the air force, nasa we flew a project to basically fly airborne field mills and we used to have a rule in the attached cloud could have lightning in it if it was attached it would be a no go so it could stretch over the coast of mexico with lightning out near the middle of mexico and we would be a no go and we learned from rules it is probably about

and i can't run for the numbers it 20 to 30-mile radius and so in the state of the art it really paid off and i think we got that because we have a dedicated team focused on dedicated weather in certain areas of the country. you learn so much when you look at whether in one spot that closely. so i hope that seated itself through oberst country in the weather forecasting and service not just for the shuttle program but it's an unbelievable team we cannot do what we do without them. >> i agree 100%. the daily weather call with the officer and as mike said, she's spoken for large burba of people. different things come into play in the processing and when we talk about tropical systems and we work closely with the national hurricane center when we have a tropical system threatening us. we've had criteria to rolph ed schultz the launch pad to protect it. we've done that in the past.

the weather here in central florida the lightning capital of the world there is a group of people the lightning criteria group is a gerber of ph.d. s together over 25 years and through those years and the studies they've done we've been able to relax their work rules but still perfectly safe, and so we are constantly challenging folks because we have an operation to perform but we need to do it safely so it's a balance between those two competing interests. the weather in central florida is a very, very interesting phenomenon few could have turned sour and we wouldn't be talking to you right now. so a little bit of luck never hurts. but the relationship with the 45th and all the other folks that support them is just outstanding.

>> we have time for unfortunately only three more questions. one here and then tom emmerson and the l.a. times. >> for the times of london to read the last couple of years until last week we have seen a certain criticisms spelled out by pretty heavy weight of veterans. how -- how do you think nasa will move forward to convince the public that it's an agency that knows where it's going and what it's doing and what it's left doing? >> i will start and i'm going to let the head of the human space flight and a little bit more to it, but i think as it becomes clear and we announce the specific design of the rocket we are building and how we are going to use it and why we chose

the design and to help tremendously in educating and helping folks understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. >> i think there's a lot of detailed plans building a strong strategy of how we go forward, and they captured a vision of mass of that was in the past with a different set of teams and they haven't had the privilege of being brought in and understanding the details they are working on on a day-to-day basis, so we will make sure we get the briefings to them and they can understand what they're doing, we will listen to opinions and see if we missed something. when i grew up under those folks you mentioned, those are my teachers and mentors, i lived in houston with them and consider them my mentors, so i think i've incorporated everything they bring to us in terms of concern, but i think we owe it to them to show what we've done and how we are prepared to address these

issues and after they see that they will come to the understanding of where we are heading. the man not particularly like it because they may amount to push it further direction. they know what team is capable. they want us to do more. so they are pushing as hard as they can on the outsides a piece of that is healthy, too, to have a debate we can keep pushing and try to do more, and this team is ready to execute what the for the nation wants this team to do select on halvorson for build. at the end of the shuttle program and may be more specifically the assembly, i'm wondering if any of you see this in space walk?

>> i don't see it as an end, it is hit as a transition. sometimes we can't do. we say we can multitask but sometimes we can't multitask as well as we think we can you feel like you're multitasking but as you are as efficient as you were were doing three things that take longer than if you were to do than individually? so in a way we had to quit assembling to get focused on this research page and get this activity started and we got in - nine year window where we can really concentrate on the research and then that shows there is potential in economic markets and commercial law application for space that's not the government driven so when there's a unique window it's not only governments pushing us into space that can spring for us and move us in the directions so i don't see this necessarily as an

end but as a transition to another era and the same time we are going to be doing the research we are going to be doing the heavy launch vehicle, the capsule we talked about, the mp3 cd that will allow us to get the program to push the boundaries to really challenge us as a human race to go out and explore with humans to new destinations, so i don't see this as an end of the golden era. i see this as a chance we can leverage off what we have now and push new directions and it's us to the cut out to us to make sure we explain as best we can to the broader community why we are doing what we're doing, why we've dedicated our lives to this, why are we doing all the activities we done? we need to convey the excitement in this small windows of they can get excited with us and move with us into the next phase of space flight. >> the last question, a lot of

federal agency had gone through the very technically sophisticated programs and were read about the loss and atrophied of the know-how and knowledge and they've gone through processes of document in that technology and i'm just wondering now at the end of the era with their you're concerned about preserving and being able to tap all the knowledge to manufacture and operational knowledge you bring to the table and how you doing and whether you are concerned about it. thank you. >> a pretty extensive lessons learned program we try to document exactly what we've done. we do it through video archives and have a database that searchable and all kind of multimedia activities to capture the knowledge but then another effective way to transfer that knowledge is moved some of the people from one activity to the next so they can take the actual lessons they've learned and apply themselves and get to then

go apply it to the new program. if you look at our history you know a lot of the team came from the shuttle program so they took the hard lessons they learned in the program that are internal the you're not going to read in the the court ought to search the database and if they can apply them soon as the new fifth new designs of the launch pads and the new designs of the launch vehicles we are going to try to capture and move people that have experience into those areas so they can directly apply the knowledge and skills they learned to the new activities going forward. >> you're not concerned you're going to have atrophy or loss of knowledge? >> we need to watch out for that, but what i described as the way we are going to try to prevent that. it's naive to say we have it on hand because this is a very difficult thing to do, you capture this knowledge and pass it on. we are trying our best with the right experts and techniques to

make sure we do it. time will tell how well we've done it but it's critical to try to make the move but will not be easy for us to do. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> they would like to see mike's at puentes - one more time. i want to let everyone know we are going to close by replacing another launch of atlantis on television. we will also replay special tribute to video from the close out before the break down the white room for the last time and then turn things back to mission control for the 135 continual coverage. you can keep up with the entire mission at www.nasa.gov/shuttle. now we will roll video. thank you very much.