-my wife, laurel, was on the shuttle. she was a scientist primarily involved with life sciences. one day during the mission, i was reviewing the notes, and then here s this foam issue. during launch, a large piece of foam had come off the external tank and impacted the left wing. me and my colleague had this discussion of, hey, you can use a family conference to talk to laurel and find out what she knew. -oh! -you got to remember the hat you re wearing is your flight-surgeon hat, not your family hat. it would have broken protocol for me to bring up an issue to a crew member, even though it s my wife. -i remember a certain sense of relief like, it s almost over. she s almost back. -i didn t talk to laurel about the foam issue. that conference was for iain and laurel, and i was a bystander. -i knew she was going to come back. you know, i never had a question in my mind. -given the fact that you may have lost a little bit of tile during lift-off, i m wondering
-you can kind of feel the air shift a little bit. -there s no space shuttle. i just got this incredible pit in my stomach of fear and of anxiety a rush of adrenaline that you know something s wrong. something s wrong. -the astronaut family escorts, all of their cellphones start simultaneously ringing. -we realized something s seriously wrong. and i said, let s get the families. let s get them back to crew quarters. -wow. oh, my goodness. oh. -it looks like we ve got a van, probably full of family members of the astronauts, being driven away. that s not good. -and i m standing at the runway. i m listening to the radio, and i m listening to the calls.
But, then, the clock started counting back up. It went zero, negative one, negative two. Wheres the double Sonic Boom . No Sonic Boom. Im kind of looking at all the other families, but No One was really saying anything. You can kind of feel the Air Shift a little bit. Theres no space shuttle. I just got this incredible pit in my stomach of fear and of anxiety a rush of adrenaline that you know somethings wrong. Somethings wrong. The Astronaut Family escorts, all of their cellphones start simultaneously ringing. We realized somethings seriously wrong. And i said, lets get the families. Lets get them back to crew quarters