6 questions for astronaut Dr. Scott Parazynski
By Bill Scanlon
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Tethered to the tip of the International Space Station, astronaut Dr. Scott Parazynski looked across the Himalayas, saw the Northern Lights and felt like the luckiest man above the face of the Earth.
Parazynski, a former Evergreen resident, last month performed what NASA is calling one of the greatest "space saves" in the history of manned space flight.
The crew of the space shuttle Discovery had installed a pressurized compartment on one side of the space station.
But when they unfurled two solar wings, on a girder on the left side of the space station, the second one snagged in tangled wires, ripping in two places.
Without the solar wings, the space station wouldn't have enough power to function, and the efforts and hopes of scientists worldwide would blink off.
Parazynski, an emergency room specialist, floated outside with wire cutters, pliers and homemade tools to fix the torn wing.
Propped on a 90-foot extension beam, he was farther away from the safe confines of the space station than any astronaut had ever been.
He also was dangerously close to a solar wing that had 100 volts of electricity.
Exhausting? Yes.
Successful? You betcha.
Monday morning, Parazynski answered questions posed by the Rocky Mountain News:
1 You're a scuba diver, a world-class luger, a rock climber. You've climbed all 53 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. Was the space walk comparable to any of those?
The closest comparison would be a really difficult rock climb.
You're on belay the whole time. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You're at your physical and mental limits.
2 Can you describe what it was like, out there alone, having a perspective hardly any of us will ever have?
There were so many things. It was a stream of consciousness that could cover a thousand pages. I'm not eloquent enough to do it justice.
To look back from the very tip of the space station at the most remarkable technology human beings have ever built . . . to look down across the Himalayas, to see sunrises and sunsets . . .
It was a real sense of awe, thinking of God's creation, feeling so fortunate to be there, so many powerful emotions coming over you as you stand there.
3 You're a doctor. How can space travel advance medicine?
In space, we can see changes in the body that mimic the normal aging process.
Because of the lack of gravity, there is a deterioration of the muscles and of bone density and a sense of balance.
As we sit on the couch on a weekend, we're actually doing a simulation of space flight, because we're not using our muscles.
In space, you push off with your fingertips and fly around like Buzz Lightyear.
If you're looking at osteoporosis in post-menopausal women, the space environment is a great lab. You can look at cause and effect, and at how things change, but the effects come much more quickly.
You can see how your countermeasures are working very directly.
4 How did you exercise in the space shuttle?
Because space walks are very physically challenging, it's important to exercise on board to preserve our capacity to use our muscles.
I used a bike that's similar to what you'd see in a spin class.
For the astronauts that are up in space for months, it's important that they get more resistance training, so we have a hydraulic system that simulates weights.
5 What drove you to the astronaut program, or for that matter, to all the other adventures in your life?
I had just incredible parents, very supportive. They were adventurers in their own right. My father worked for Boeing, and we lived in a lot of interesting places, including overseas.
I got the travel bug and the adventurous spirit from them. It shaped the way I look at life.
I'm like a lot of people in Colorado who relish experience and adventure.
6 Do your wife and two kids worry about you?
Yes, certainly. They are glad I'm done. They're ready for me to sit on the Barcalounger, I guess. Of course, I doubt if I'll do that.
But it does take a toll on the family. It's not without risk.
You can't do something of great significance and not be willing to take risks. You're respectful of the risks.
And I trust that everyone at NASA, everyone who works on the space shuttle, is doing everything they can to make sure it's as safe as humanly possible.
The benefits far outweigh the risks.
© Rocky Mountain News
source : http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/11/volunteer-vaults-to-hero-status/
Church guard gains hero status
Ex-cop 'was very focused' as she 'took him down'
By Fernando Quintero
Originally published 12:30 a.m., December 11, 2007 Updated 11:54 a.m., December 11, 2007
The gunshots echoed like thunder in the hallway filling with smoke and the panic of those who sensed death at their shoulder.
The black-clad gunman coming through the church door was bringing hell to the believers.
The only thing in his way was Jeanne Assam.
"People were running away from where the shots were fired. I saw him through the chaos," Assam said Monday as she searched for some of the calm that carried her through the nightmare that played out inside New Life Church the day before.
"It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," said Assam, whose hands trembled slightly as she spoke during the afternoon news conference.
Assam took cover and waited for the gunman to get close.
"God was with me. I was very focused. My hands weren't even shaking," said Assam, a volunteer security guard at New Life.
"I identified myself and engaged him then took him down," Assam said, giving a clinical account of the moment when she fired the shot ending the gunman's rampage.
"I didn't think for a minute to run away," she said.
A witness close enough to be hit by a bullet fragment is one of those who credits Assam with saving lives that day.
"She kept yelling, 'Surrender.' She was not flinching. It was unbelievable," said Larry Bourbonnais, 59, a New Life parishioner who was slightly injured on his left arm.
The gunman had fatally wounded two teenage girls in the parking lot before entering the building. But, New Life Pastor Brady Boyd said, if the attacker had made it another 60 feet down the hall, he could have shot hundreds of parishioners still inside.
Bourbonnais said the gunman was dressed in black with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. Bourbonnais said he took cover behind a pillar as gunshots were exchanged.
Through the smoke that came from devices police had shot into the facility, Bourbonnais said he saw the gunman's head tilt forward, and then he fell to the ground.
"There were two other armed guards, but they weren't doing anything. I asked one of them to give me their gun so I could take the guy out," said Bourbonnais, a Colorado Springs resident who said he is a Vietnam veteran.
"I asked her, 'How are you so calm?' She said, 'I was praying to the Holy Spirit the whole time to direct me,' " Bourbonnais said recalling Assam's words. "The whole thing probably lasted 30 seconds."
Assam, who said she has been a member of New Life for a few months, said the incident happened on the last day of a three-day fast she had been on as part of her religious practice.
"I was weak. God made me strong. I'm honored God chose me," she said.
Assam said she read about the shootings in Arvada earlier in the day and "got chills."
A small woman with feathered blonde hair and eyes that were bloodshot, Assam said she had not slept since the tragedy and can't get the sound of the gunshots out of her head.
The shots were so loud, Assam said, it sounded like they were fired inside the church.
A former officer with the Minneapolis police, Assam delivered her story with the clipped understatement of a street cop.
But she broke the tension when asked about her personal background.
"I'm single. No kids," she said, quickly adding she was on the lookout for a man. She drew a laugh when she first declined to give her age; then said she was 25. She is 42, according to public records.
Assam grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., went to Hamline University and graduated with a criminal justice degree, said her twin sister, Jennifer, of Sioux Falls. She has five sisters and a brother.
She worked with the Minneapolis police for several years in the late '90s before leaving the department and moving to Colorado in 2000.
Lt. Robert Kroll, vice president of the Minneapolis Police Union, confirmed that Assam was fired over "truthfulness issues." In an internal investigation, Assam had denied she used derogatory language in an encounter with a citizen in the late 1990s, but a videotape proved differently, Kroll said. Assam appealed, but the firing was upheld by an arbitrator.
Boyd said that Assam is one of 12 members of his congregation who volunteer to work as guards at New Life. Half of those volunteers carry firearms, he said, and all of those are licensed.
"She's a real heroine to me and the New Life Church," Boyd said.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune contributed to this report.
