By Beth Reese, Army Soldiers Magazine
NINE-year-old Douglas Wheelock watched in awe as the first man landed on the moon. “Every boy in America wanted to be an astronaut, but I was just a regular kid living in a small town. I never believed it was something I could attain,” he remembers.
Today, LTC Douglas Wheelock awaits his first trip into space. He is one of six Army astronauts assigned to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Command’s NASA Detachment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Sending soldiers to outer space may seem an unusual mission for an army that does most of its business on the ground, but space is the Army’s “high ground.” Discoveries made there help soldiers move and communicate on earth, Wheelock said.
Satellite technology, for example, was used to project troops to the battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
History in the Making
Army astronauts share a role with 15 other nations in constructing the International Space Station, the largest space experiment ever. By 2004 soldier-astronauts will have helped build and maintain 460 tons of structures, modules, equipment and supplies in orbit.
The ISS is mankind’s next step to the solar system, said COL Patrick Forrester, commander of the NASA detachment and the Army’s senior astronaut. Like a field site where soldiers prepare for battle, it lets astronauts study the affects of life in space before venturing back to the moon or heading for Mars.
“Before we go out to explore the solar system, we need to learn how to operate in space, adapt the human body to space flight and overcome the hazards of going to space for huge periods of time,” Forrester said.
The ISS is expected to stretch 17 stories tall and house six research labs by its completion in 2008.
COL Nancy Currie was part of the STS-88 Endeavour crew that turned on the lights at the ISS in December 1998. During the 12-day mission she operated the shuttle’s 50-foot robotic arm to mate the station’s first two segments — one American-made, one Russian-made.
“My most vivid memory of that flight was having the commander pick up the microphone and say, ‘Houston, this is the International Space Station’ for the very first time. I had to pinch myself,” she said. “It was a dream come true.”
COL Jeffrey Williams, who flew on Atlantis, is the first Army officer scheduled to command the ISS. Currently training on the Russian segment of the ISS at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow, Williams predicts his flight will take place in three years and his stay at the ISS will last six months.
Everyday Business
Most Army astronauts can count on one hand their number of trips to space. Their job is a mix of public appearances, training on new equipment, and specialization training on high-tech systems they would use aboard the ISS and space shuttle. They spend 18 months learning systems before bearing technical roles that range from computer engineering to robotics.
The challenge is not in learning single systems, the Army astronauts said, but understanding how systems work together and how a failure in one system may affect another. And because the amount of equipment that can be carried aboard the shuttle is limited, astronauts must know how to repair rather than replace many of the parts.
Astronauts awaiting flight assignment work up to their future roles by supporting crews that are training for scheduled missions. LTC Timothy Creamer supported a 2001 space shuttle mission, helping coordinate schedules and plan training.
“Probably the most intense period was leading up to the launch. Even though we were working 24 hours a day, it seemed liked 36,” Creamer said.
Wheelock currently works in the Mission Control Center as a spacecraft communicator, making him the sole link between crews in orbit and ground support.
