Clearwater astromom recounts shooting into space

Nicole Passonno Stott watched plenty of space shuttle launches. As an astronaut in training, she had a close-up view.

But nothing prepared her for the explosive force of being strapped inside the orbiter as the solid-rocket boosters thundered her crew off the launch pad.

Stott, who grew up in Clearwater and graduated from Clearwater High School, flew into space aboard the shuttle Discovery on Aug. 28 and lived aboard the International Space Station before returning on the shuttle Atlantis on Nov. 29. She spent a total of 91 days in space.

Her tour of duty included more than 6 1/2 hours of spacewalking outside the space station and the first-ever capture of a new Japanese cargo vehicle. She celebrated her 47th birthday in space Nov. 19.

If all goes as planned, she'll go back into space in September as a member of the STS-133 crew. The mission is scheduled to be the last flight of the shuttle fleet before it's retired.

Stott talked by phone from Houston last week about her life in orbit, about the emotional hardship of being away from her husband, Chris, and their 7-year-old son, Roman - and about that magnificent blast-off.

Q. As a space geek, I need to know about the launch.

A. [laughs] Oh, it's very cool. You know, it's kind of ... I had watched so many of those. You, too, probably. [laughs] So, you kinda have in your mind what it will be like. For me, I think I was expecting that the most impressive thing would be that 2 1/2 minute ride on the boosters when you have the real vibration and the rolling and stuff going on. This is not to say that wasn't impressive. It was. But for me, the most surprising and impressive thing was when the boosters lit and you are sent away from the pad. [laughs] You are literally kicked off the pad.

I remember thinking, "I was just sitting very comfortably, cozy in my orange suit." And then, BOOM, you are off the pad. And you know from that second on that you're going someplace fast.

All it did for me was immediately threw this huge smile on my face. Woo hoo! is the only thing you can think. I was on the mid-deck, so other than staying in communication with my crewmates, I had no real responsibility as far as the flight went for launch. I could just enjoy it.

Q. Tell me about the first moment of weightlessness.

A. You're strapped in pretty good on the shuttle, so if you just relax, your arms and legs kind of ... they have this neutral position that they go to. They just want to float up to that. That was really neat. You start to realize that your body is experiencing it, too. Of course when you get unstrapped, it's just ... all of a sudden it becomes, "Wow, this is just how it's supposed to be. [laughs]

Q. Like you're back floating in the womb.

A. No kidding.

Q. Do you dream any differently in space?

A. Not initially, I don't think. I got to the point where, for me at least, even on the ground a lot of my dreams are built around stuff that's going on in my life normally. So, being in space became part of the dreams, too. Instead of walking somewhere, I'd be floating.

Q. How did you cope being away from your husband and son? How did they cope?

A. What I tried to do all along, even with the few years of training leading up to it, was to keep them engaged as much as possible. My husband knows the space business anyway, but for my son, that was a really important thing to feel like he was part of it as well. We just continued that on with the flight itself as much as we could, everything from wearing these little bracelets we had to me calling every day when he was done with school.

Q. How did you communicate?

A. We have an Internet phone, so I would call every day and talk to him and once a week we had a video conference. And we did special events, like I did a video conference with his school so that he felt like he was the leader of that. And sending down pictures and little video clips. ... That's not to say there wasn't some crying at night like you would expect from any child when their parent's away.

Q. That had to rip you up.

A. Oh my gosh, yeah. Definitely more hard on me than anything else.

Q. Forget that riding on a booster thing.

A. I knew my husband would do great with it. He and Roman, they don't have a problem. That's how I felt when I got back. I could tell everything had gone well.

I am really fortunate that way, too. It's been nice from the very beginning to have a family who has supported this. I think that's important.