[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 16 (Monday, April 20, 1998)]
[Pages 639-640]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Telephone Conversation From Houston With Astronauts at 
Kennedy Space Center in Florida

April 14, 1998

    The President. Are you ready?
    Lt. Col. Richard A. Searfoss. Yes.
    The President. Well, you're looking good. I hope you find out a lot 
of things about the human neurological system to help me, because I'm 
moving into those years where I'm getting dizzy and I'm having all these 
problems--[laughter]--and I expect you to come back with all the 
answers.
    Lieutenant Colonel Searfoss. Well, thank you, Mr. President. We'll 
take that on board as one of the challenges that we'll try to meet. 
[Laughter]
    If you'd like, Mr. President, I'll introduce my crew to you.
    The President. I'd like that, and anything you want to tell me about 
the mission, I'd be glad to hear it.
    Lieutenant Colonel Searfoss. My name is Rick Searfoss. I'm the 
Commander of the flight. It will be my third shuttle mission. Right next 
to me, my immediate right, is Scott Altman. He will be the pilot on the 
flight. Next to him, Kay Hire, our flight engineer. Our payload crew 
consists of four doctors--right next to me, Rick Linnehan, who is a DVM, 
veterinarian. And behind us, Drs. Buckey and Williams are medical 
doctors; and Jim Pawelczyk is a physiologist, a Ph.D. researcher. So, as 
you can see, we've got some great science expertise to do the onboard 
portion of this mission.
    The President. Just very briefly--you know, I've got the whole 
national press here with me, so why don't you briefly describe what the 
purpose of the mission is and what some of the things you're going to be 
exploring are.
    Lieutenant Colonel Searfoss. Absolutely. The fundamental, overriding 
question that is consistent across all 26 of our experiments, Mr. 
President, is that what happens, in a very detailed sort of way that we 
want to understand, to the nervous and neurological processes and 
systems when you take the certain variable away that we just can't take 
away on Earth, and that's, of course, gravity.
    I'm going to turn it over just for a minute or two to Dr. Linnehan, 
who is our payload commander, and he can give you a few more details on 
that.
    Rick.
    Dr. Richard M. Linnehan. Yes, sir. Mr. President, we have 26 major 
experiments that deal all the way from the vestibular system, which is 
the inner ear, how we interpret balance on Earth as opposed to in space, 
up to neuronal plasticity, which really is just another way of saying 
how the brain heals or rewires itself in terms of damage or new 
adaptations in space.

[[Page 640]]

    The President. That's great. Well, we're all excited about it. We're 
anxious to see you get off and anxious to see you come home safely, full 
of information.
    One of the general points that I want to make with all of you here, 
that I have tried to make both to the Congress and to the Nation, is 
that the space program has enormous potential to change life here on 
Earth for the better, in a health way, in a way that you're exploring, 
in environmental ways, and in other ways as well. So this is a 
particularly exciting mission to me, because I believe it will help to 
strengthen the support of the rank and file Americans for our NASA 
operations, generally. And I'm very grateful to you.
    Good luck, and have a great time out there. Thank you.
    Lieutenant Colonel Searfoss. Thank you very much, Mr. President; we 
appreciate it.
    The President. Goodbye. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. from the Lyndon B. Johnson Space 
Center with Lt. Col. Richard A. Searfoss, USAF, mission commander; and 
Dr. Richard M. Linnehan, mission specialist. During the telephone 
conversation, the following crewmembers were referred to: Lt. Comdr. 
Scott D. Altman, USN, pilot; Comdr. Kathryn P. Hire, USNR, flight 
engineer; Dr. Dafydd Rhys Williams, mission specialist; and Dr. Jay 
Clark Buckey, Jr., and James A. Pawelczyk, payload specialists. Health 
sciences mission STS-90 was scheduled for lift-off aboard the space 
shuttle Columbia on April 16.