McDougle: Class 1 is the flight equipment. It can go into space. Class 3 will not ever go into space and that is strictly for training. Then you have the Class WIF [Water Immersion Facility] which is the equipment that’s used for the water training. Only Class 1 goes into space.
McDougle: Yes. When the crew is assigned, depending on if it’s a five- or seven-person crew, technicians are assigned. You have a crew chief, which is the lead of the team. Then you’ll have three or four other technicians. The crew chief is in charge of all the equipment processing. Of course when I first started with STS-37 I wasn’t a crew chief yet. Then you have the insertion techs. NASA and Lockheed used to do the strap-ins. USA has the contract now so we have insertion technicians. Two assigned per mission, one for flight deck, one for middeck. You have a backup that goes to KSC the night before launch just in case something happens to one of our guys that straps them in. They’re certified to be insertion techs, but they are also suit techs. The suit techs cannot do insertion work; they’re strictly suit techs.
McDougle: Yes, it’s pretty much the same. There are really no standouts as far as like something funny happening, unfortunately. Pictures—did I show you this one? That was over at Building 8 photo lab. Mae’s so awesome. Then of course I’ll always remember Curt [Curtis L.] Brown, he was fun to work with. This is definitely a keepsake right here. They [N. Jan Davis and Mark C. Lee] were the married couple on board.
McDougle: He [Curtis L. Brown] was the pilot on STS-47. Hoot [Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson] was the commander. He was an insertion tech; he was Lockheed, the rest of us were all Boeing. It was awesome; I was so happy. You can see how cool she was. This is a little note she sent out. [Shows note] She would put out little messages to let everybody know what was happening. Sometimes astronauts hold pre-launch receptions at KSC. Of course she couldn’t be there, but she was letting everybody know what was going on. Like I say, she’s just a cool lady.
McDougle: That’s the symbolism of it. I made a bigger copy of it, because my daughter made a poster for school one time. That is a mission key chain I bought. I was just super excited of course about everything, having her sign everything. This snapshot they did before they took the actual picture. [Shows image] I said, “Oh, I’m keeping it.” I was just so excited. This is at the reception. That’s her mom and dad, and her roommate in college, Linda Lorelle, news anchor at KPRC-TV in Houston.
Ross-Nazzal: I think I’ve read about her in one of her books.
McDougle: Bernard [A.] Harris [Jr.], of course, was an astronaut at that time, kind of new to the program. He was at the reception signing autographs. That’s her sister. Bernard again. This was actually in the suit room at KSC suiting up. I was testing her then. I was just getting started. Here I am doing the actual test. When she flew, she had different things hooked up to her so she had to make sure she had all that hooked up before I helped her suit up
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