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Canadian Astronaut Chats With Bush and Decides to Take One Day at a Time

Posted on: Monday, 23 October 2006, 21:00 CDT

By BETH GORHAM

WASHINGTON (CP) - Walking in space is a thrill but Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean says there's nothing like terra firma.

Now he's going to take a few months to figure out what's next. MacLean and the rest of the Atlantis crew met Monday with President George W. Bush and spent an hour talking about their shuttle mission last month, with American students gathered at the Canadian Embassy.

"Looking at the Earth from up there is fantastic, it's amazing, it's the most wonderful thing you'll do," said MacLean, 51, who will soon be leaving the United States to join his family in Montreal.

"But it does feel good to be back on Earth feeling safe."

There were a few anxious moments for the Ottawa-born MacLean and his five crew mates aboard Atlantis. Liftoff in September was plagued by a lightning strike, bad weather and mechanical problems.

They finally took off to resume construction on the International Space Station on Sept. 9, their last chance before a major delay of several weeks.

And a stubborn bolt in space caused a lot of grief for MacLean while he and fellow astronaut Dan Burbank were free-floating and installing a 17-tonne truss addition with giant solar panels.

Then unidentified debris seen floating outside the shuttle raised concerns and delayed their return by a day.

For MacLean, the seven-hour spacewalk was a personal high and a balancing act between concentrating on work and soaking up the experience.

But there were many exceptional moments, said the laser physicist, nicknamed "The Professor" by the crew.

"Because you are doing so much in a short period of time, each second starts to feel like a minute . . . You'll be looking at a portion of Canada and the next second you're over the Atlantic and then the next second you're over Europe."

During a photo opportunity, MacLean said he talked with Bush about the importance of family and the future of the U.S. space program.

"He's a very charming individual. He knows more about it than you would expect. I guess it is his vision to get us back to the moon and on to Mars."

"That program is exciting to me," said MacLean, whose wife Nadine and their three teenagers accompanied him to the White House.

"I think Canada has a role to play there. I think it's very important that we find our way and find out exactly how we're going to participate."

But for the next four to six months, he's planning on waking up every morning and just thinking about that day.

That's something he didn't have a chance to do during the 4 1/2 years he trained for the mission, the first construction effort on the space station since the Columbia disaster in February 2003.

"We were very proud and privileged to have Steve MacLaren on this mission with us," said Atlantis commander Brent Jett. "We need his skills and talents. He did just a fantastic job up there."

MacLean, selected as one of the first six Canadian astronauts in 1983, first flew aboard Columbia in 1992.

This time, as a mission specialist, he manoeuvred Canadarm 2 aboard the space station and took the long-awaited walk outside to install panels that boost the station's power supply.

The space station must be finished before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. The shuttles, first flown in 1981, will be replaced some day by "Apollo-type" space vehicles to be used for travel to the moon and Mars.

Source: Canadian Press

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