The Mir diet: Lose weight while weightless
The View from Space By John Holliman
February 18, 1998
Web posted at: 11:26 AM EST (1126 GMT)
In this report:
(CNN)
-- I'm getting set to talk to Dave Wolf, the most recent astronaut to
live on Mir. He's been back on the ground for about a month and decided
to talk to CNN before anybody else. I'll try to find out how he's getting
back to weighing something.
The last time I saw him, landing day in Florida, he looked
really, really thin. Andy Thomas, the current Mir resident,
was shocked to learn that Dave had lost 20 pounds. The
interview will be live on CNN Thursday at
7:20 a.m.
Mir had a fairly quiet past month. No big problems to report
from Thomas or from NASA shuttle-Mir program managers.
There's growing concern that Mir will not last as an occupied
space station until the year 2000. The Russians would like to
keep it up, but growing financial problems there,
combined with the need of the Russians to contribute to the
new space station, may result in Mir's living on borrowed
time.
The big news from my past week was the tour and briefings I
was able to get at various military bases around the United
States. The prospect of another massive bombing campaign in
Baghdad and Iraq gets closer every day. I would not be
surprised if bombing was under way by the time we talk next
week.
The major headline from my travels is that the United States
is much better prepared to drop accurate bombs on targets in
Iraq than it was during Desert Storm. The main reason is
global positioning system satellites. I toured the GPS
control center in Colorado and saw how they keep the
satellites in orbit.
I also found that individual satellites have times during the
day when they're less accurate than others. Despite this,
there are enough satellites in the constellation to guarantee
that smart bombs and missiles will hit the targets regardless
of the weather over Iraq. The GPS-guided munitions don't
depend on a clear line of sight from the airplane to the
ground. GPS receivers have been mounted on the rear of
thousands of bombs that were "big and dumb" during the Gulf
war.
I've talked to pilots who say they're going to be able to
drop their bombs and fire their missiles with no doubt that
they'll hit the target. The result will be fewer sorties
flown. The cruise missile, which amazed me during my time
in Baghdad, has been outfitted with GPS guidance in addition
to the internal maps that guided it to the target during
Desert Storm.
Another
headline from my trip involves the use of space to make sure people
on the ground in the region know more quickly when Iraq launches a missile.
During the war, it sometimes took more than five minutes to let the
commander of a Patriot missile battery know that a Scud was on the way.
Notification time has been cut to seconds. I looked at the U.S. Space
command control center in Cheyenne Mountain Colorado where launches
are detected, and at remote satellite receiver stations that can be
shipped to an army commander on the ground in the region. Lots of this
stuff is brand new, but it has been tested and it seems to work.
There's also better weather forecasting from space through
the use of satellites as well. I came back from Colorado with
the distinct impression that space will play a much greater
role in U.S. military operations than it has in
the past.
Gen. Howell Estis, who is commander in chief of space
command, spent lots of time with me talking about the
military importance of space and you'll
be hearing from him on CNN and in this column in future
weeks.
John Glenn starts his astronaut training this week. On
Thursday he goes to Brooks Army Medical Center in Texas to
see how his 76-year-old body is doing at the beginning of a
rigorous training period. After weeks of indecision, NASA
has picked a crew to travel into space with Glenn in October.
We'll get to meet them for the first time as a group on
Friday. I'll let you know what they say
and do after their Johnson Space Center news conference.
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions on things to talk
about here. I'm getting them, and when time allows over the
next few weeks, I'll be exploring lots more than time allows
today.
By the way, don't forget the eclipse of the sun. Coming up
next week. CNN Interactive will show it to you live here with
a direct link to Aruba, one of the places where it will be
visible for several minutes. February 26 is the
date.. See you next week.
John Holliman's column appears each Wednesday.