We just suited them up, took care of the crew members, waved at them when they walked out, and then we recovered them on landing. We would send people to each landing site, the prime, which is KSC [Kennedy Space Center, Florida] and back up is Edwards [Air Force Base], in California. If they had to call up White Sands [Space Harbor/Northrup Strip] in New Mexico for some reason we’d send someone out there, but only when they called it up, not immediately like the other two. We’d send suit technicians and an insertion technician, which are the guys who strap them in.
Ross-Nazzal: You mentioned the cultural difference. Was there a difference between a very open agency—you mentioned you were working with guys on the spy planes. Was there a big difference between that that you noticed?
McDougle: Working with the spy planes—reconnaissance aircraft—you had a Secret clearance for one, and here we don’t. They did background checks when I got here, but it wasn’t for a Secret clearance. The cultural difference was in the work environment, not working with the crew members per se because crew members are crew members. Most of the astronauts are military, so that was good for us, because we had that in a real good rapport with the crew members, because you’re working with them sometimes more than a year before they even launch because they have to do all their training events.
They’ll have about 20 to 24 training events they perform before they even launch. Then they have TCDT (terminal countdown demonstration test), where they go down approximately three weeks prior and practice their emergency egresses in a real-time launch flow, like suiting them up, timing everything, and getting them strapped in. Then they practice as if they had an emergency, and they would hold hands, then go to the slide wire basket, and pretend to slide down.They’re more focused on having the extra set of eyes look at everything.
I was told after I left my base they did start some kind of a quality program where they’d have somebody look over your work. Of course when you were training, until you knew what you were doing, they’d have a supervisor or your trainer watching you, but once you knew what you were doing it was all you. If something went wrong with that seat kit or suit that you prepared, it was all on you. It wasn’t, “Well so-and-so looked at it,” they get in trouble too. That’s how it felt here. I know they’re trying to be careful, and now I can appreciate it.That first year it was hard for me because I just didn’t understand, “Why can’t I just go fix it?” You have to wait for the engineers to look at it; you have to wait for quality inspectors. Even though you probably already know how to do it, you still have to wait until all the proper channels were taken; all the proper procedures were followed. It wasn’t so strict in the Air Force; they depended on the technician, that airman, sergeant, or whoever, that was trained to do the job. That was a big difference for me. A lot more paperwork, a lot more paperwork here.
A lot more of dotting I’s and crossing T’s.Something else I was surprised about was, in the Air Force—and I figured out why—the crew members had their own assigned sets of gear. This was their assigned suit, their boots, their helmet. In their own bin assigned to them. I came here, I was looking for the same setup, and it wasn’t that way, because if you think about it, these guys may fly once on the Shuttle. So of course they’re not going to get assigned their own gear, but in the Air Force they were assigned gear because they fly several times a week. I asked, “Where are their bins? Where are their closets?” No such set-up here. The suit an astronaut wore, tomorrow somebody else could be wearing it.
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