Word: crippen
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Ride, 32, a physicist by training from Encino, Calif., seemed almost born to the Brotherhood of the Right Stuff. She said little as the shuttle smoothly climbed skyward, except to take issue kiddingly with Bob Crippen, 45, Challenger's veteran commander, who was making his second shuttle flight. Said she: "He keeps saying there's nothing exciting happening. I'm not sure I'd go along with that...
...Friday morning, after six days in space and 95½ orbits of the earth, if the schedule holds and winds and weather are fair, Challenger will end its flight. Crippen and his copilot, Rick Hauck, 42, will glide the 100-ton craft to the first shuttle landing on the new three-mile-long runway at the Kennedy Space Center, with President Reagan looking on. Thus Challenger, which was prepared for flight in a record 63 days, will avoid the long and expensive cross-country piggyback haul that followed previous touchdowns on the Western deserts. The price for the convenience...
...measure, ST57 (for Space Transportation System), as the flight is called in NASA's abbreviation-prone parlance, is the most ambitious mission to date. Sally and her companions are so heavily "tasked" (more NASAese) that even the energetic Crippen initially had reservations about the workload for his crew. Still, as the mission got under way, the script seemed under perfect control...
...mission specialist, Ride will not pilot the shuttle. On takeoff and landing, she will sit just behind Challenger's commander, Bob Crippen, 45, who flew on the initial shuttle flight and is the first to get a second shuttle mission, and Co-Pilot Frederick Hauck, 42, a rookie. Monitoring the flood of data from the instrument panel, Ride will in effect be the flight engineer. If an emergency occurs, she will suggest special corrective procedures. But Ride's primary responsibility will come later, when she is set to operate the shuttle's 50-ft.-long mechanical...
Ride has earned her colleagues' trust and high regard. Says Crippen, who as skipper had veto power over all the crew choices: "You like people who stay calm under duress. And Sally can do that. She hit all the squares." Her sister, who has become a Presbyterian minister, calls her a tough, no-nonsense competitor: "Sally will wipe you out every time." Adds Molly Tyson, an old Stanford roommate: "I've never seen Sally trip, on or off the court, physically or intellectually...