 Yes, it's much better now, there'll be no problem. Thank you. Dr. James Newman, a board space vehicle endeavor. What's your mission? Our mission is actually not a single mission in the sense of just coming up and doing one thing. We're really here to work and live in space. Today we deployed the Spartan satellite, which will be on a two-day mission to study solar science. We'll next deploy the Wakefield facility for studying new technologies in micro, in semiconductor electronics. And we also have a spacewalk to study some of the techniques for the space station construction. Let me take some of the incoming calls to you. Maybe they can get through to you more clearly. Phone number 1-800-222-K ABC. Larry, good morning. Yes, good morning Michael. I just wanted to wish Dave Walker and the crew the very best of luck and congratulations from the Career Academy at Hollywood High School. And we'd love to have them come and visit the school after their experience and tell us a little bit about the trip in space. Well, were you a classmate? Yes, I was a classmate of Dave Walker's at the Test Pilot School, the Air Force Test Pilot School. I'm watching a picture of you up there in space. You look so incredibly relaxed, more relaxed than I feel right now. I want to go back to that question that I posed earlier. Are there moments of fear or are you too dumb busy to be concerned about being frightened? The off-and-itself is probably the most frightening part of a launch. And if you've ever seen a launch, it's really a lot scarier to watch one than it is to be inside the shuttle. Inside the shuttle you don't see all of the fireworks going on outside and it's just like an elevator that's a whole building that goes straight up. Yeah, I'd rather take an elevator. You know something? That isn't true. I think every one of us watching now has fantasized about doing what you're doing. At what age did you begin to say to yourself, you know something? I'd like to be an astronaut. There's a little controversy about that, but it was when I was probably between 13 and 15, when I realized it would be a great way to combine flying, a love of the idea of flying, and also science and engineering. Let's take another call. We're speaking to Space Shuttle Endeavour. We're speaking with Dr. James Newman, astronaut. I'm Michael Jackson. René, good morning. Good morning, and I'm so thrilled I can barely believe what's happening to me. My name is René Shapiro. I'm speaking to you from the Republic of California. I'm 62, grandma of 11 grandkids, and two years ago my husband, myself, and two others flew a general aviation plane around the world through Ukraine and Russia doing within 65 hours, which you do every 90 minutes. My question is this. What words do you have to my own grandkids and to all the young people who may be listening? What guidance can you give them if they want to set their career along the flight path you've chosen? How lovely. Did you get that one, doctor? Yes, I did. And one of the questions that I often ask is why should kids study hard in school? Math and science are important, but they're hard subjects. We have to study hard at them to be good. And I think that one of the good answers for that question is a career in the space business, and certainly a career as an astronaut. I think that more and more people are going to have the opportunity to fly in space, and I think that this is one route. There's a number of other routes as well that give kids good reasons to study hard in school, but I strongly believe that the space program is an outstanding example. Great countries do great things, and this is something for all of us, for the kids, for adults, for seniors to enjoy. René, thank you very much for your call. And we're really on the verge of enormous, I'm quite frankly to use, I think it was Newt Gingrich's words, frontiers of knowledge and opportunity. And am I correct in saying that NASA is doing more with less these days? Short cut off, Houston. Do we lose him? You know, there's so many questions one should get to, and eventually I will. I've done so with the administrator of NASA, you know, why Congress wants to slash NASA's budget. But Doctor, is NASA doing more with less these days? Absolutely. NASA is finding ways to economize, to do things more efficiently, and up to this point, with a great deal of actually, I think, increased safety. The challenge is to continue that in the face of continuing budget pressure. Our phone number, 1-800-222-K-A-B-C, and it takes you all the way out into orbit, if you will. Bob, you're on 790-K-A-B-C talk radio with the man aboard Endeavour. How long will you be there, Dr. Newman? We'll be here for another 10 days. We'll be picking up the Spartan satellite. Hello? Oh, here's Bob for you, Doctor. There's a lot of science with it, and then doing the spacewalk on flight day 10. We hope you'll come and join us for that. I'd love it. I'd love to go, but I'm not bright enough, and I'm too young. Bob, you're on K-A-B-C talk radio. Good morning. How are you today? Fine. I'd like to say greetings from Belfall in California. What's on your mind? I just wanted to say good luck. This is a great opportunity for America. I think the space travel is our future. We should put more money into it. Well, instead of launching a few spacecraft every decade, I gather NASA is planning to send several probes into deep space each year. Would that be a fair assessment of what the plans are for the future? Yes. One of the initiatives that the administrator has been working on is getting some of these probes into space not only cheaper, but much more rapidly. It's the faster, better, cheaper idea, which is already beginning to bear fruit. Appreciate that call, Bob. Rick, you're on 790 K-A-B-C talk radio, live into space. I'm Michael Jackson. Good morning. Good morning, and greetings from Star Trek Voyager. You're on the set of Star Trek Voyager? We're in the art department creating the future just the way you folks are. My question is you're looking forward to the spacewalk and the space station assembly practice. The space station assembly practice. How would you respond to the guys who are doing it? More fantasy than fact. We're really looking forward to it. We've got a bunch of new tools and techniques. We're going to get the guys really cold. It'll be Mike and Mike Gernard and Jim Voss who are going outside. I'll be controlling them from the end of the Canadian-built arm that we have. I went on a spacewalk on my first flight, and so this time I'll get to be on the inside and move them around as we're going to take them to some really cold attitudes. We have some new suit improvements in order to help keep them warm because it is very cold when the sun is not shining on you here in space. For those who are just joining us, we are hearing a novel opportunity, but then that's what KABC is day in and day out. A novel opportunity. We are experiencing what it's like to hold a press conference live and direct for the man who's aboard a space vehicle. We're speaking with Dr. James Newman, astronaut aboard the space vehicle Endeavour. How many times have you been aloft? This is my second flight, and I remember from my first one two years ago on STS-51, also in September. A couple of months after I got back from that, I had this intense desire to come back to space, and it's not an opportunity that people get very often, so it's really a pleasure to be back. So is this what we would call a space shuttle? Yes, we are on the space shuttle and it's designed to be able to take cargo to not only to space, but also return from space. And that's where our program really complements the Russian space program in our international space program now, because we can bring a lot of stuff back, whereas the Russians can take a lot of mass into space for their space station, so they haven't been able to bring very much back. Steve, you're on 790K ABC Talk Radio with Dr. James Newman, astronaut. I'm Michael Jackson. Yes, Michael. I just want to say that since I was a little kid, I've always been very fascinated by the program, and I was wondering what was the most thrilling experience in space that you ever had? What gave you the biggest rush? I think it was my space walk that I'd have to say when I went outside in a space suit, and when you're outside here in the shuttle, of course, we still have air. We've got all the comforts of home, but getting into a space suit and going outside the shuttle, where there's really nothing between you except for this thin space suit, that was really probably the most unbelievable experience that I've ever had. I bet you were pretty cold as well when you went out there. Well, actually, in order to test the attitude that the Hubble Space Telescope repair guys, remember them also a couple of years ago, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, they wanted us to test the attitude. Now in space, if the sun is shining on the space shuttle, then you'll be warm, but if deep space is all you can see, then you'll get very cold. So we tested an attitude to make sure that the Hubble Space Telescope repair workers would not get too cold. We had a medium cold attitude, not too cold. When you speak of the space shuttle, it's surely one of the most versatile of space vehicles ever developed, and yet it represents surely only a very fractional part of all our U.S. space launches, doesn't it? All space launches, yes. However, it's a significant number of launches of the American space program total. We've had, there's been a hundred human space flights, and the shuttle is now up to about 70. 71, actually. We're the 71st. Let's take one more call. If we can. George, you're on 790K ABC Talk Radio. If we can. George. Yes, Michael. Yes, sir. I would like to say, first of all, that I am extremely pleased to be able to speak to our astronauts out there and that I have never, ever lost the enthusiasm of watching our country send their men into space. My question is, doctor, what do you feel is the future of the shuttle? Is it going to be more of an unmanned as opposed to manned missions? And what do you think about the possibility of taking nuclear waste from our planet and putting it in space, launching it out to the sun and getting it off of our planet? I'll try to take the first part of that question, and that is that the space shuttle itself is definitely a vehicle for people. It's a way of getting people and cargo into space. And it will always be that until sometime in the next century we develop another one. But there's certainly going to continue to be a place for unmanned vehicles. When it comes to just hauling material into space and not having to worry about bringing it back or needing the special skills of people, then an unmanned vehicle is the way to go. For communications satellites, for most of those, for example, and for others. As far as just hauling raw material, essentially, or expended nuclear waste into space, that's a bit further down the road. I think it will be actually cheaper to find good solutions to that here on Earth rather than sending it into space. We are working on better technologies to make it cheaper to get into space, but in order to send the stuff off to the sun is a ways off. I envy and respect what you do. Let me stress the envy for a moment, because you are the true heroes that we still write about without criticism. You are the people who are visiting the frontiers that we, all of us, just sort of dream about, fantasize about. I am respectful of your being able to find some time for us, and I realize you've got a lot of work to do, haven't you? Yes, we have a very busy flight, but it's actually been a pleasure to take a short break to talk with you all. Then I'd love to do it again. Thank you very, very much indeed for joining us live from Endeavour. Thanks to you Captain James, Dr. James Newman.