NASA: Memories from Bill Gregory

Communities

March 2, 2009

Anonymous The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Mon Mar 02, 2009, 10:54 AM EST

BY JILL MICHAELS

Special to the Lockport Journal

So where were you that Thursday, March 2, 1995?

William G. Gregory remembers well. He was out of town, out of the country, out of this world.

The Lockport native was off the planet.

Fourteen years ago today, the former NASA astronaut launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-67. Fulfilling his role as the shuttle’s pilot, Gregory and his six crewmates spent nearly 17 days in space supporting an astronomy mission called Astro-2. The crew set a then-record for an extended-duration shuttle flight before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on March 18, 1995.

After departing NASA in 1999, Gregory was drawn to Phoenix in part because his parents, William and Kathy Gregory, had already retired from Lockport to that area. What do they remember about their son’s adventure in space?

The senior Bill Gregory is still proud of his STS-67 launch-day prediction — one that was ultimately proved correct.

On his behalf, Kathy — a retired schoolteacher who grew up 17 miles outside New York City — explained the scene: “We had a 1:30 a.m. launch. They were facing a hold in the countdown. There was a cloud cover and only a 20-percent chance of launch. NASA started talking about a 24-hour delay.

“My husband, a retired Navy pilot, went outside. We followed him. He looked up and around. He announced: ‘They’ll launch.’ ”

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“We all went back inside. The wind shifted, and they took off.”

Kathy listed three of her own anecdotes that she personally recalled.

“I don’t think I’ve said this to anyone before. But all the churches in that area (Lockport) all pray for whatever shuttle is going up next.”

She also remembered that people kept asking her: “Aren’t you worried?”

“I kept saying: ‘No. Bill enjoyed camp when he was young. This is just another camping trip.’

“I never worried for a minute,” she said. “Except when they were coming home. A 15-day trip ended up being a 17-day trip.”

Kathy also reminisced about the traditional pre-launch dinner for each shuttle crew and their extended families. The meal is eaten at NASA’s beach house on the Atlantic coastline at the Kennedy Space Center.

“We attended a barbecue party before the launch. We got to meet other astronaut parents and their children. And we had the opportunity to interact with the astronauts, themselves. It was nice to meet everyone.”

In the Gregory sibling hierarchy, the former astronaut is the oldest of two boys and two girls. Kathy explained Bill’s siblings’ reaction to the family’s collective STS-67 experience.

“Bill’s brother is 1 1/2 years younger than Bill is. He kept saying: ‘I can’t believe he’s in space right now.’ ”

Along with other mission memorabilia, Kathy saved a “darling” 12-page booklet put together by a second-grade class at a Lockport elementary school. The booklet, “Just Like Me: Our Astronaut Bill Gregory,” features pictures taken from all over town: a winter street scene, the shopping mall, the Palace Theatre, a lawn being mowed, a puppy. A short poem accompanies each photo to illustrate that as a child, Bill had done the same things that the students had done, “just like them.”

“They wrote the booklet to show that you can do anything,” explained the still-proud mother. (Bill spoke at the students’ high school graduation, the class of 2005.)

Just like Bill, John Grunsfeld made his rookie trip into space on STS-67, and he also wields a kind but mischievous streak. After an unexpected incident, the two astronauts concocted a prank as they were preparing to depart Houston for their upcoming launch in Florida, 14 years ago.

“He and I agreed to drive to the airport together,” narrated Grunsfeld last week. “We were following him to his house to carpool. He stopped his Corvette at the gate in his gated community.

“Well, we accidentally bumped into him. So he and I thought it would be good for him to wear a neck brace.”

The playful feign of an injured astronaut a week before launch ruffled certain feathers at NASA.

“We still laugh at that,” Grunsfeld chuckled. “I’m laughing at it right now, just thinking about it.”

Gregory also cracks up over the memory when reminded of the anecdote. “We still come to tears over that. It was an absolute scream.”

The good camaraderie continued on orbit. Grunsfeld said: “We worked hard, but we had a good time. We had great sport keeping the potty clean.”

Grunsfeld also outlined the serious scientific difficulties of successfully capturing on film the footage of a half-peeled banana spinning into his mouth while both were floating in microgravity.

According to Grunsfeld, he and Gregory also devised a strategy, a bit of a game, to pull as much science as possible from the three telescopes flown on the shuttle during their Astro-2 mission.

After each celestial object was observed, the mission timeline called for shutting down the telescopes and maneuvering the shuttle into a new position for aiming at the next astronomical target. During their 12-hour “red shift” together, scientist Grunsfeld managed the telescopes while pilot Gregory (also known as “Borneo,” his Air Force call sign) moved the vehicle.

“We would wait until the very last minute to shut down and move,” Grunsfeld recalled. “We found out later that made them very nervous on the ground. They thought we were pushing too far to the edge, that we were not paying full attention to the timeline and were catching ourselves at the last minute.

“But the end result was that we got more science than we would have gotten otherwise.”

How would Grunsfeld describe Gregory to those who have never met him?

“He was a wonderful guy to fly with. He’s the Wild Man of Borneo, but he is also an incredible family man.”

Gregory has a 21-year-old son, William “Billy” Philip, and a 19-year-old daughter, Christina. He also has two stepdaughters: Casey Zitelli, 23, and Colby Zitelli, 20.

In times past, Gregory has joked that he was better known in Houston as an athlete than an astronaut. His highly competitive sports career as a distance runner and as a triathlete culminated on the Big Island of Hawaii when he competed in and completed the IRONMAN Triathlon World Championship in 1997.

Still, that accomplishment pales in comparison to cycling around the world in 90 minutes (on the shuttle’s exercise bike during his STS-67 flight).

With tongue partially in cheek, Grunsfeld commented on their ground-based exercise habits. “We would go out for a run together for about 4 or 5 miles. Then we would say good-bye, and he would go on for another 12 miles.”

Grunsfeld will soon fly another astronomical mission. He will serve as NASA’s lead spacewalker during STS-125 Atlantis, the high-profile mission this spring that will repair and service the Hubble Space Telescope one final time.

Gregory will attend his annual high school reunion in Lockport the third Saturday of August this year.

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