New Zealand Aviation NEWS: Following Discovery Launch, Shuttle's First Pilot Describes Mission Numbe

Following Discovery Launch, Shuttle's First Pilot Describes Mission Number 1
As six astronauts engage in one last mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery, Mike Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, knows what it feels like.
After all, Coats was the pilot for the shuttle Discovery's very first mission -- the STS-41D flight that marked the beginning of the shuttle's 27-year spaceflying career, which will end in retirement after this trip to and from the International Space Station.
Discovery lifted into space Aug. 30, 1984, on its inaugural mission from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. [Reflections on Building Shuttle Discovery]
From the pilot's seat on Discovery's first trip into orbit to the seat he currently occupies as director of the Johnson Space Center, Coats, 65, has a unique connection with the oldest of NASA's shuttles still in operation. On the eve of Discovery's scheduled liftoff from that same launch pad for Its STS-133 mission, SPACE.com sat down with Coats to discuss his STS-41D flight, the ending of the space shuttle program, and his hopes for the future of space exploration:
SPACE.com: You were a part of Discovery's maiden voyage. What has it been like for you, watching as Discovery gets ready to launch on its final spaceflight?

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Michael Coats: Well, it's obviously a bittersweet feeling. I've got mixed emotions. I'm always proud when we're launching any of the shuttles. I'm just so proud of the teams — the thousands of people around the country, and around the world — that make it possible to launch the shuttles, and go up and do the things we do on the space station.
From my perspective as director of the Johnson Space Center, I get to see parts of the team working together. I get to travel around the world and meet the people who are working hard to do the research that we're doing on the space station. And so it's a real privilege for me to see the team.
I wish the people around the world could have an understanding and appreciation of the amazing, highly motivated group of people that work in the space program. They make the impossible possible, and sometimes they even make it look easy. And it's not easy. Getting into space, operating in space — it's a real challenge. It's always going to be a challenge.
So it's bittersweet. I'll be really sad when Discovery rolls to a stop for the last time, because then they'll take it and put it in a museum. You know, at my age I see a lot of planes that I flew more than 40 years ago in museums, but seeing the spaceship that I flew in a museum is going to be really hard.
SPACE.com: In a sense, Discovery's STS-133 mission marks the beginning of the end. As we approach the retirement of the space shuttle program, how would you sum up the impact of the shuttles?
Coats: I think it's been an amazing vehicle. The capabilities and the complexities of the shuttle are astounding.
But that same complexity gives it the capability that we couldn't have dreamed of even 45 years ago. It's just incredible, and I think we're going to miss that. The shuttle can take incredible amounts of weight and mass into orbit. And we can bring it home. It's a truck — nothing else can lift as much as the shuttle. So, we're going to miss that capability. We can't go out and repair satellites like we've done for the last 30 years. So it's sad, in a sense, to see it come to an end.

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