ASTRONAUT BACK HOME IN MID-MAY

OAK RIDGE -- Astronaut Linda Godwin will visit her home town next month with tales from her seven-day trip into outer space.

Godwin, a physicist from Oak Ridge, flew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis April 5-12. Since arriving back on Earth, Godwin and the other four astronauts on her flight have been debriefed and are now planning a publicity tour.

In a telephone interview from her Houston office, Godwin said her travel schedule is being finalized. She said she is sure she will be visiting some local schools in mid-May.

Promoting the space program is part of Godwin's job as an astronaut. "Next week we will be traveling around the country," she said. "I am primarily talking with school children. It's nice to bring back home some of my experiences.

"Overall, I was surprised how familiar the orbiter seemed because of all the training we've been through," she said. "Even the sensation of floating; it was odd how quickly that became normal.

"But the memory which is the most visible to me is the view," she said. During our work day we had an opportunity to look out the window a lot. We were taking a lot of photographs.

"But the most memorable views were during the times we had to relax looking out the window at that view while listening to some music. I felt very lucky we were orbiting so high."

At 280 miles above Earth, Atlantis was about twice as high as some other shuttle flights.

"It gives you a different perspective," she said. "You see a different curvature of the Earth

"And we were very lucky to have several cloud-free passes over Africa and South America.

She said some landmarks were obvious from space. "We could definitely see Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula.

"We could see the smoke from the fires over Kuwait," she said.

She said living in zero gravity sometimes makes easy tasks more difficult.

"You are always looking for something you have lost. It has floated away. There is an air flow in the orbiter and eventually it moves things."

As a result, she said, "Doing most tasks takes a little longer. You have to be holding it or it has to be secured."

"There is no up or down," she said. As a result, sleeping arrangements seem a little unusual, by Earth standards. One astronaut slept on the floor, another on the ceiling, one on the wall and two on some lockers."

Godwin slept on the ceiling.

"Once you tie the sleeping bags off, it feels the same wherever you are."

Godwin, who has shoulder-length hair, had to keep it tied back; otherwise it too would have floated. "There are some pictures of that," she said.

"The food was pretty good," she said. "There is no refrigeration, but we can put the food in a warming oven." The astronauts ate vacuum-sealed or dehydrated food.

She said food on the flight included barbecue beef and sweet-and-sour chicken and little, square packets of dried vegetables.

The vegetables "ended up a little overcooked, but the potato patties were pretty good."

Snacks like carrot sticks and fresh fruits, nuts and candy were available in sealed packets. The drinks were all powdered.

The lack of gravity works on food as it does on astronauts.

"If you open one end with scissors and carefully spoon it out, it works pretty well," Godwin said. "Crumbs are the biggest problem; you end up chasing around after those crumbs."

Godwin's primary responsibility on the flight was deployment of the Gamma Ray Observatory. During deployment, an antenna stuck.

"It was pretty late in the deployment process," Godwin said. "The high-gain antenna was the final thing. When we unlatched the antenna, we were expecting it to spring open. It didn't."

What followed had been practiced step by step on the ground during training.

"We went right down the path we had actually been down before. We tried shaking the ray to see if the antenna would spring loose."

The final option was the unscheduled space walk.

"All of us would have been pleased if it had deployed," she said. "But, in a way, we had pre-determined what we would do when all the other solutions failed."

Atlantis' landing was delayed one day, which was long enough for Godwin.

"Even though it's nice to remain in orbit longer, it's not a scene you want to replay very often," she said.

She said the crew prepared for entry even though conditions didn't look favorable.

"We marched along with the day's activities so we are on the timeline if it turns out we can land," Godwin said. "We had done a large percentage of the work. Three of us were already suited up in the launch and entry suits."

But as it became apparent the weather would not improve, the entry was aborted for that day.

"When it was decided that we would wave off for that day, we had to get out of the suits, reconfigure the computer, open the payload bay. We had to power down some things on the orbiter.

Postponing the entry meant another two or three hours of work.

"We did have a fairly relaxed evening."

Preparations began again early the next work day and the space craft made its landing in California without a hitch.

While memories of the Atlantis mission are still vivid in her mind, Godwin is already looking ahead; she hopes to be assigned another flight soon.

"Predicting anything around here is kind of tough," she said. "But I hope more assignments will be made this summer."