Ready for liftoff: reservist astronaut counting down the days until he blasts into space

Citizen Airman, April, 2005 by Bo Joyner

One day this summer, a 48-year-old Air Force Reservist is scheduled to join one of the most elite clubs on this planet--the alliance of men and women who have traveled into space.

Lt. Col. Mike Fossum, a NASA astronaut and individual mobilization augmentee assigned to the F-16 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, will be on board Atlantis for space shuttle mission STS-121 when it blasts off some time between July 10 and Aug. 1. As a mission specialist, he will be responsible for supporting flight operations during launch and re-entry. Also, he will perform two or three spacewalks while the shuttle is docked to the international space station.

STS-121 will be the second space shuttle mission since Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere in February 2003. STS-114, NASA's initial return-to-space flight since the Columbia tragedy, is scheduled for May.

"I grew up in the space age, and like a lot of kids in the '60s, I dreamt about becoming an astronaut," Colonel Fossum said. "I truly feel blessed to have had the chance to follow that dream and, now, to actually have the chance to travel in space."

The colonel, selected for NASA's astronaut program in 1998, learned in October 2003 that he had been chosen for the crew of STS-121. Since that time, he has been involved in an intense training program to prepare for the 11-day mission. The program has involved a lot of classroom work, some long hours in the gym and a great deal of time spent in the space shuttle simulators. There's also been a lot of time spent in the 6-million-gallon water tank at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. That's where astronauts practice extravehicular activities, more commonly known as spacewalks.

"That's probably the most difficult part of the training," Colonel Fossum said. "We're in our space suits, and we're in the water for six hours at a time. It's very physically demanding, and it requires a great deal of concentration. You have to think about every little move you make."

Inside the tank, NASA scientists are able to simulate the zero-gravity conditions that astronauts experience during space flight. The training allows astronauts to become familiar with the dynamics of body motion under weightless conditions.

While Atlantis is docked to the space station, Colonel Fossum will also be working with the shuttle's remote manipulator system or robotic arm. NASA has been developing and testing new hardware and procedures designed to make space shuttle flight safer. The STS-121 astronauts will be carrying some of these new pieces of equipment and practices with them into space.

One of these is the orbiter boom sensor system. The 50-foot-long OBSS will be attached to the shuttle's robotic arm and will equip the orbiter with cameras and laser systems to inspect the shuttle's thermal protection system while in space.

Scientists believe a piece of insulation foam from Columbia's external fuel tank struck the shuttle's left wing during liftoff, causing a breach in the shuttle's thermal protection system. This allowed superheated air to penetrate through the wing's leading edge insulation and progressively melt the aluminum structure inside.

"With this new boom, we can inspect areas of the shuttle we couldn't inspect before, and if we find any cracks, we can make the necessary repairs in space," Colonel Fossum said.

In addition to the safety improvements they will be carrying with them, crew members aboard STS-121 will be resupplying the space station with equipment and consumables and will be dropping off one astronaut who will be staying at the station.

The road that has led Colonel Fossum to the edge of space hasn't always been an easy one. He said he never could have made it where he is today without a lot of hard work, the unwavering support of his wife and four children, and the support of his Air Force family.

The colonel received his Air Force commission from Texas A&M University in May 1980. After completing his graduate work at the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1981, he was detailed to the Johnson Space Center where he supported space shuttle flight operations. Soon after that, he was selected for the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, Calif., where he graduated in 1985. After graduation, he served at Edwards as a flight test engineer in the F-16 Test Squadron and later as a flight test manager.

He left active duty in 1992 to work full time for NASA. Before being selected for the astronaut program in June 1998, Colonel Fossum served as a systems engineer and flight test engineer. Since 1998, he has worked as the head of space station flight software development and as a capsule communicator--an astronaut who serves as the voice link between the ground and space station crews.

Colonel Fossum gives the Air Force a lot of the credit for the position he's in today.

"Like most kids who dream of being an astronaut, I kind of gave up on that dream as I got a little older," he said. "But when I first came to NASA as a young Air Force lieutenant in 1981, I met a couple of Air Force astronauts, Jerry Ross and Ellison Onizuka, and they encouraged me to rekindle that dream. They showed me what it would take to become an astronaut and helped give me the confidence to know I could do it."