Astronaut Scott Parazynski, anchored to a footrest, assessed his repair work when the solar array was fully deployed while Space Suttle Discovery was docked with the International Space Station. Astronaut Doug Wheelock (outside the frame) assisted the truss by keeping an eye on the distance between Parazynski and the array. Photo credit: Doug “Wheels” Wheelock
Astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock spent his NASA Career expands knowledge about living and working in space. His new mission is to find out how best to train astronauts to return to the lunar surface.
Wheelock is a veteran test pilot and retired U.S. Army Colonel who has accumulated 178 days in space and was recently a guest speaker during a virtual safety day at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. During his NASA career, he performed six space walks, flew on Space Shuttle Discovery and the Russian Soyuz, and served as the commander of International Space Station Expedition 25.
He was recently selected by NASA’s director of flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to lead the joint testing of the human lander system. He is also co-chair of the joint test panel for the moon landing project, which is part of NASA’s Artemis mission to return astronauts for sustainable human exploration of the moon.
A comprehensive announcement by the agency regarding the definition, development and submission of bids on the lunar landing platform formed the basis for an award on April 30th to three companies for the design and construction of human landing systems. The three companies include Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, Dynetics of Huntsville, Alabama, and Space-X of Hawthorne, California.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has asked Wheelock to lead the joint test team, which is largely concerned with training crews for landing on the moon.
STS-120 Commander Pamela Melroy spoke to media and guests at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after Space Shuttle Discovery landed. Behind her from left are the mission specialist Stephanie Wilson, the pilot George Zamka and the mission specialists Doug Wheelock and Scott Parazynski. Mission STS-120 continued the construction of the station with the installation of the Harmony Node 2 module and the relocation of the P6 truss. Photo credit: Kim Shiflett
“We have these companies that build landers, but we need to be able to train our crews,” said Wheelock. “I lead test development and any testing and selection of platforms that we will use for fixed base models, motion simulation and flight trainers.”
It wasn’t always space missions and moon landers for Wheelock. At a young age, he said he learned from Neil Armstrong watching the first man on the moon display qualities he believed leaders should have, such as humility and authenticity.
Astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock. Photo credit: NASA
“I got the chance to ask him a question (when I was a kid) and I wanted to know how he felt as an extraordinary superhero,” he said. Armstrong didn’t see himself that way, which had an even bigger impact on Wheelock.
“How is it that an ordinary boy stands on the moon?” he thought. “I later learned that ordinary children from ordinary places overlap with the extraordinary.
It wasn’t until years later, after being an astronaut, that he remembered what a first-grade teacher said to him, “One day you might as well land on the moon.” As an astronaut, he remembered it and knew, “Children of all ages turn turn to NASA to redefine what is possible for them. ”
On August 24, 1998, he was selected as an astronaut and learned how to tackle complex challenges.
“It’s like when we have pieces of a 1000-piece puzzle and all the pieces in front of us, but the box has been taken away,” he said. “We don’t know what it looks like, but we’re looking for the corners. Corners are the existence of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. ”
The approach applies to a number of challenges.
“What we do in the simulators or flight test plans, we know what the picture should look like,” said Wheelock. “However, we may be doing something we’ve never done before, or trying to learn about a device for the first time, and that’s a mystery too. If we don’t approach this by looking for corners and connecting pieces, we won’t solve it. ”
Wheelock said being an astronaut is not easy and he must overcome some fears in order to conquer the skies and space. He was very afraid of falls and loud noises. Through strength, courage and dedication to teamwork, he overcame everything and was rewarded for his hard work.
“When I went into space, I wanted to rush to the window,” he recalled. I wanted to look at the thin blue line of the atmosphere and see from space the little town I came from. ”
