In Her Own Orbit

For Pam Melroy, being an astronaut was the ultimate juggling act.

Pamela Melroy, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, is now NASA’s deputy administrator. During her career as an Air Force pilot, Melroy logged more than 6,000 flight hours, serving in both Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After NASA selected her as an astronaut candidate in 1994, she would be assigned to three space shuttle missions, and she is one of only two women to ever command a space shuttle. Melroy recently spoke about her long career in aerospace with Jennifer Levasseur, a curator in the National Air and Space Museum’s department of space history.

Levasseur: You were a KC-10 pilot who did aerial refueling for SR-71s. What was that like? Was it as tricky as it looks?

Melroy: What happens is the two aircraft come nose to nose, and then the tanker [KC-10] rolls out just in front and above the receiver [SR-71]. Knowing when to start the turn in the tanker was critical—so that the SR-71 wouldn’t go blasting past because you turned too late. But you don’t want to turn too early, dragging the whole thing out. Both of those could be bad situations. You also don’t want to turn aggressively or make too steep of a bank.

During refueling, the SR-71 was very close to its lower speed threshold for safety, and when an aircraft gets really slow, it can lose controllability characteristics. That meant we were going pretty fast [in the KC-10], almost as fast as we could go to help keep the SR-71 controllable. So you’re keeping a very close eye on speed. You’re also navigating for the [two-aircraft] formation, so it was just a very high level of precision flying.

What do astronauts do when they’re not in space? When you were an astronaut, what was a typical day on Earth?

If you’re assigned to a flight, you end up in a fairly rigid situation, particularly with the space shuttle. There are so many hours of training that everyone has to receive. There are all sorts of requirements—like which crew members have to be in a training session together. You don’t want to be teaching the same class six or seven times. It’s more effective anyway if you can train as a group—particularly with simulator training. Training for a mission makes for a very structured life, but—in many ways—an easier one. I think most astronauts will tell you that when they’re in training, they have a scheduler who is managing everything and just tells them where to be.

But if you are not training for a mission, you’re in charge of your own calendar. You have duty assignments—sometimes more than one—and it’s your job to try to juggle all the things you have to do. You’re essentially doing what I consider two or three full-time jobs. I spent a lot of time studying or doing individual simulators so that I could maintain proficiency. In addition to that, you have these technical assignments, and so there’s a raft of meetings and other things that come with it. If you are a capcom, for example, you’ll be working in a lot of simulators inside mission control. You’re also expected to do one public-speaking engagement a month—maybe two days out of the office to do that. And as a pilot, I had to maintain proficiency in the T-38, which required flying a certain number of days a week. My advice to new astronaut candidates was always: “Hey, if you’re really crushing any one of those things, then probably everything else is falling down.” You have to figure out how to balance it all, and try to keep up at least at an adequate level with all of those things.

Is there a pilot, astronaut, or cosmonaut who inspired you?

Absolutely. Mike Collins. When I was in my first year of college, I took an astronomy class. And the professor said to the class: “Hey, I just read this really great book about astronaut Mike Collins—his experience on Apollo. It’s an autobiography.” And then she said if anybody wants to borrow it…so of course I was right up at her desk at the end of the class and borrowed the book from her. It’s called Carrying the Fire, and the thing that really struck me was how humble and human Mike was. [He was also director of the National Air and Space Museum from 1971–78.] He had a great sense of humor and was passionate about flying—passionate about a lot of things. And he never shied away from showing his deep humanity. That book was my favorite, and I finally got the opportunity to meet him. I was a test pilot at the time, and I flew to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in my own airplane. I had a copy of the book because I saw that he was going to be there. I hoped I could get him to sign it, and he did—and it is absolutely a treasured possession. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Mike Collins is my favorite astronaut.”

I always say the mark of a good book is when you can hear the person. If you know who the person is, and you can hear them while you’re reading the book, it’s good.

Can you name a science fiction film that accurately portrays being in space?

Space is really tough to accurately portray on film, but Gravity did a good job with the microgravity scenes. Almost the entire film takes place in space, which gives you this really strong sense of the inevitability that every 90 minutes you’re going to go around the Earth. Just to see Sandra Bullock floating through the International Space Station was eye-popping. For me, the best space films are the ones that portray the astronauts’ take on life in orbit.

When you’re feeling stressed out—either in space or on Earth—do you have a go-to comfort food?

I try not to be a stress eater. But I will tell you that the thing that gave me the most comfort in space was tea. So I asked for tea with milk—it’s not the usual thing, most astronauts drink coffee. I was generally the only person [drinking tea], and they would help me tune it to just the right amount of milk and so forth. On Earth, a critical part of my routine every morning is to have a pot of tea with creamer. So to be able to start my day in space with a couple pouches of warm tea was a welcome familiarity.

When you’re feeling stressed out—either in space or on Earth—do you have a go-to comfort food?

I try not to be a stress eater. But I will tell you that the thing that gave me the most comfort in space was tea. So I asked for tea with milk—it’s not the usual thing, most astronauts drink coffee. I was generally the only person [drinking tea], and they would help me tune it to just the right amount of milk and so forth. On Earth, a critical part of my routine every morning is to have a pot of tea with creamer. So to be able to start my day in space with a couple pouches of warm tea was a welcome familiarity.