Astronaut duo lands at Laboratory
When it comes to spaceflight, astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Jeff Wisoff
have just about seen it all. These days they are firmly grounded back
on earth, both nurturing careers at the Lab and about to embark on their
next adventure (you’ll have to keep reading to find what that is).
Last fall, Jernigan and Wisoff, who are married, decided they’d had
their fill of the wild blue yonder and it was time to pursue new challenges,
albeit this time on the ground. On Oct. 1, Jernigan joined the Physics
and Advanced Technologies while Wisoff landed at the National Ignition
Facility.
Prior to that Wisoff, 43, had served four missions in space, taken three
space walks totaling almost 20 hours, delivered tons of supplies to the
Russian Space Station Mir, retrieved the European Retrievable Carrier
Satellite, conducted science experiments in space, and helped construct
the International Space Station.
These days, he serves as deputy associate project manager for Systems
Engineering, working closely with Mary Spaeth, the chief technical officer
for the NIF Project.
“The Space Program is a team effort in the same way that NIF is a
team effort,” Wisoff says. “The astronauts are lucky enough
to get to do the flights, but nothing would be successful without all
the engineers and people working on it. It’s a huge effort that involves
lots of people and I think that’s the attractiveness of these big
projects.
“It gives us a feeling that there’s a reason for us to do all
this hard work, because we can do things that are pretty amazing. Anybody
who stands out and watches a shuttle launch is struck by the same feeling,”
Wisoff continued. “It’s tear-jerking to see and hear the incredible
power. It’s a pretty amazing thing that humans can build these incredible
machines. I think the same thing is true of NIF. It’s going to be
a milestone in human history.”
Wisoff comes to NIF with a background in lasers. He began his graduate
work on the development of short wavelength lasers at Stanford University
as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Completing his master’s
and doctorate degrees at Stanford in 1986, Wisoff joined the faculty of
the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice University.
His research focused on the development of new vacuum ultraviolet and
high-intensity laser sources.
In addition, he collaborated with researchers from regional Texas Medical
Centers on applications of the laser to reconstruction of damaged nerves.
He has collaborated with researchers at Rice University on new techniques
for growing and evaluating semiconductor materials using lasers. Wisoff
also brings experience with integrating systems.
“By the nature of our training and the nature of who we interact
with,” he says, “astronauts generally have the best big picture
of how to execute the mission. This involves getting our hands on the
hardware and working with the contractors to figure out ways to fix problems
that come up that don’t cost too much, but still make the hardware
operational. And I think those are the kinds of things that are going
to be needed here as we get into commissioning NIF.”
Reminiscing about his space travel, Wisoff said the “big ride is
one of the most fun times.”
“For the first two minutes, while the solids are burning,” he
says, “it’s very much like a jerky roller coaster ride. There’s
a cadence of calls from mission control and a lot of rumbling.” There’s
also a lot of interaction in the cockpit, looking for milestones and checking
systems.
After two minutes, the boosters come off and typically this is when the
astronauts open their visors. For about the next six and a half minutes,
they’re riding the main engines, which is “similar to riding
a high-speed electric train that emits a high-pitched hum but very little
vibration,” Wisoff says. However, the astronauts do feel the G-Forces
building to a sustained three-G’s. When the main engine cuts off,
the three-G’s drop to zero gravity and “it feels like a big
bear has jumped off your chest,” Wisoff says, “Suddenly you’re
no longer pressed into your seat. Your seat belts are floating up in front
of you. You’re in orbit.”
During his last flight in October 2000, Wisoff and his partner tested
a jetpack called SAFER (an acronym for Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue;
EVA is how astronauts refer to a space walk, or extra-vehicular activity).
“Space walks are like having a full-screen IMAX theater in your face,”
Wisoff added. “The views are incredible.”
In the past, space walkers were tethered to their spaceship. If the tether
were to break, the only option was to bring the ship to the astronaut.
SAFER would allow astronauts to rescue themselves, to bring themselves
to the ship.
Built onto the back of the astronaut’s oxygen pack, this self-contained
jetpack has a hand controller that allows astronauts to guide themselves
wherever they want to go. To test SAFER, Wisoff’s partner, standing
on the robot arm to which Wisoff was loosely tethered, dropped Wisoff
off the space station structure.
Wisoff floated around until he deployed the SAFER’s hand controller.
Then he oriented himself down at the target — one of the cameras
in the back of the shuttle payload bay — and flew a straight line
toward it.
“I was to fly a straight line toward the camera,” Wisoff says,
“as if I was trying to rescue myself and get to a point.” Wisoff’s
partner tracked him with the tether so it never became a constraint on
his flight. “We flew right down to the camera and it worked great,”
Wisoff says. “It was a kid’s dream; the closest thing to being
Buck Rogers.”
The hardest part about being the spouse of an astronaut is being the one
left back on earth.
“When you’re launching into space, you’re so busy you’re
not thinking about the risk,” Wisoff says, “but when you’re
sitting in that launch control center, more or less by yourself, it’s
a lot harder to watch your spouse launch than it is to launch yourself.
As the spouse on the ground all you have to think about is the risk.”
Now that Tammy Jernigan is done with blasting off into space on the shuttle
and spacewalking several hundred miles above Earth, she can get on with
the most challenging adventure of her life.
No, it’s not her new job as assistant associate director for special
projects in the Lab’s Physics & Ad- vanced Technologies directorate.
Although that’s providing enough new challenges in and of itself,
thank you.
Actually, it’s preparing to become a mother for the first time. “Spaceflight
is much less physically demanding than having a baby,” quipped Jernigan,
42, now 19 weeks into her pregnancy. “This is a real challenge.”
Since Jernigan left NASA’s astronaut program last September to join
the Laboratory, the challenges have come fast and furious.
“It’s been an entirely new start: new job, new family, new home.”
Jernigan was in the Bay Area, trying to close the deal on a new house,
on Sept. 11.
“My husband called me that morning from Houston to tell me about
the attacks back East and to warn me about flying that day,” Jernigan
said. “Needless to say, the house-buying was put on hold.”
Things have started to settle down, though. She and husband Jeff Wisoff,
also a former astronaut, are happily ensconced in a new home in Pleasanton.
Wisoff has joined the National Ignition Facility Programs Directorate
as deputy associate project manager for Systems Engineering (see accompanying
story).
The changes mark a new era for Jernigan, who started working for NASA
as a 19-year-old physics undergraduate at Stanford University. She worked
part time at NASA Ames on the Galileo project, which launched a probe
to explore Jupiter and its moons. After earning her bachelor’s in
physics at Stanford in 1981, Jernigan went on to earn master’s of
science degrees in engineering science (’83, Stanford) and astronomy
(’85, UC Berkeley) before becoming an astronaut in 1985. She completed
her Ph.D. in space physics at Rice University in 1988.
Last year, after 15 years at NASA and five shuttle missions that included
spacewalks and a visit to the International Space Station, Jernigan, along
with Wisoff, felt ready for new challenges. They considered various options,
including coming to the Lab, where Jernigan had served on the Physics
directorate’s review committee since 1995.
“We really enjoyed the astronaut program, but it was nice to leave
on such a high note,” said Jernigan.
“Here at the Lab, we can utilize more of our physics backgrounds,
at an institution that does superb science and also has a great record
for executing large programs.”
Jernigan says the experience gained at NASA performing large mission overviews,
and comprehensive mission planning and pre-testing, would serve her well
in her new position.
She is currently engaged in strategic planning for the directorate, including
helping to ensure that the directorate’s structure is optimized to
take advantage of the organization’s strengths. She will also take
part in evaluating the directorate’s investment strategy, and in
program development and review.
“We have a terrific group of people at Livermore, and (AD) Bill Goldstein
and his staff are making my transition a real pleasure,” Jernigan
said. “I have a tremendous sense of satisfaction in the contributions
we make here to national security. Just after Sept. 11, when people heard
Jeff and I were coming to Livermore, they said we must be glad to be going
to the Lab because now we could do so much to help bolster the country’s
defense.”
But blasting off into space on rockets is not easily forgotten.
“Flying in space in definitely exciting,” Jernigan said. “When
the solid rocket boosters light, it’s a real kick in the pants. And
the view of Earth from space is simply magnificent.”
Jernigan’s last flight, in 1999, was a 10-day mission during which
the crew performed the first docking to the International Space Station.
The mission delivered logistics and supplies in preparation for the arrival
of the first crew to live on the station. Jernigan performed a spacewalk
of nearly eight hours to attach equipment to the exterior of the station.
“The missions go by so fast. It’s almost as though you blink
and it’s all over. If you don’t watch out, you can get so busy
with your responsibilities that you forget to take the little free time
you have to stop and enjoy the view and the whole experience.
“Interestingly enough, coming back to Earth — even after as
little as nine days in space — requires an adjustment to the burden
of Earth’s gravity. Even though I’d spent the first 30 years
of my life on Earth, it was Earth that felt like the foreign environment.”
Born in Tennessee and raised in Southern California, Jernigan always wanted
to fly. “Growing up, I was interested in science and math. Later,
I learned to fly small planes, and in graduate school I was on the astrophysics
path. So, in some sense, becoming an astronaut was a natural follow-on
career.”
Jernigan and Wisoff know astronaut Leroy Chiao, the Lab employee on leave
to NASA. In fact, Chiao flew with Wisoff on his last mission in October
2000.
Jernigan and Wisoff were the only husband-and-wife astronauts in the program
when they left NASA. They never crewed together on a flight, but they
managed to share their experiences during missions via videoconferences
between Earth and the shuttle.
In searching for new careers after NASA, the two didn’t necessarily
intend to work at the same place again, but the Physics directorate attracted
Jernigan and NIF was a perfect fit for Wisoff.
“At least now we can share work experiences over the dinner table
at home each evening.”