HOUSTON: Alpha, this is Houston on two. Are you ready for the PAO event?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Okay. We've got you on one, we'll switch you over to two. And you're go to check the camera and check the view, make sure you like the scene.

HOUSTON: Okay. We got a good video. And pretty flags there behind you. And you're loud and clear on two. Over to JSC PAO. This is Houston (inaudible) ISS for a voice check.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is JSC PAO. How do you hear me?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Hear you loud and clear.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Okay, Sox, we're ready for questions. We'll start off here with Bill Harwood here in the front.

NEWS MEDIA: Bill Harwood, CBS News. Commander Bowersox, we were struck by Frank Culbertson's comments after September 11th of a feeling of isolation at a time of national tragedy when you're off the planet. (A), I was wondering what you all's reaction was when you did get the news from Houston. And (B), if you did sense that same feeling of isolation, you and Don, as you're up there so far away and unable to keep up with the flow of the investigation.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, first of all, I would not use the same words that Frank used. We've been getting lots of information and we've been feeling like we've been very well in the loop with what's going on down on the ground. But one thing we have noticed is that here on the Station, our emotions tend to be a little bit amplified and so when we read some of the information, we'll feel a stronger response than we might have felt on the ground. But as time goes on, that seems to subside a little bit and we move on with our everyday work.

NEWS MEDIA: Kathy Sawyer of the Washington Post. Commander Bowersox, could you comment in detail of the training that you're about to get in order to change your plan and come down in the Soyuz? And can you tell me why you weren't trained for that in the past since this contingency was always kind of in the background?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, actually a big part of our training in Russia has been operations in the Soyuz for descent and also for moving it around the Station should that be required if we had to move to a different docking port, so we are trained and prepared. But because it's been a few months since we've been in a simulator, we'll do additional training here on board if it should be required for us to come home in the Soyuz.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Mark Garreau from the Houston Chronicle. What's your opinion on whether only two people could run the Space Station if you were replaced by a smaller crew? Is it possible for two people to run the station and even would there be any time at all to do any research?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: If two people were up here, they'd be real busy just maintaining the systems on Space Station. However, there would be time to do some level of research. And by virtue of having people here, you're always doing research on your body itself looking at the effects of long duration weightlessness on the human physiology. So it's important to keep people on Station, and by virtue of that, we can collect data and the life science data as data set for ten- or fifteen-year periods may actually be one of the more valuable data sets we get.

NEWS MEDIA: Kwan Lasalle with the Associated Press, for Commander Bowersox and Don Pettit. How much of the chance have both of you had to mourn the loss of your colleagues on Columbia, or have you tried to stay pretty much focused on work at this point?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, the folks on the ground have been real good about reducing our schedule and we've had time to grieve our friends. And that was very important. When you're up here this long, you can't just bottle up your emotions and focus all the time. I mean, it's important for us to acknowledge that the people on STS-107 were our friends and we had a connection with them and that we feel their loss, and each of us had a chance to shed some tears. But now it's time to move forward and we're doing that slowly. This press conference today is a huge step that's helping us move along towards our normal objectives and fulfilling our mission here.

DR. DONALD PETTIT: And grieving is -- the way you grieve is sort of a personal thing, and myself, I like the privacy to grieve in the quiet surroundings here that we have on the Space Station.

NEWS MEDIA: Bob Hager from NBC for Commander Bowersox and Don Pettit. You said that your emotions are amplified in space, but what were those emotions when you first heard it? How did you hear it? And what thoughts raced through your minds at first?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, the first thing that happened was we were scheduled for a normal planning meeting on Saturday and General Howell, the director of the Johnson Space Center, came in and told us that we lost a vehicle on entry. My first reaction was pure shock, I was numb and it was hard to believe that what we were experiencing was really happening. And then as the reality wore on, we were able to feel some sadness. It's the classic grieving responses that our psychologists have warned us about, you feel sad, you feel angry, all those things. And now as time goes on, we're able to put those aside and focus a lot better on our work, although we will be going through the process for probably until we get home or much after.

DR. DONALD PETTIT: And when I first heard, at that point it was not known what or the condition of the crew were in and so we were hoping that there were going to be survivors. And then as it unwound, we learned that there were no survivors and that's when the magnitude of the event really hit me.

NEWS MEDIA: Lisa Stark, ABC News. I know you do have the Soyuz to come back on, but I'm wondering, do you feel isolated at all? I mean, not isolated, but stranded in a sense up there? And I'm also wondering how disappointed you are that you won't be coming back in March.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, let's handle the second part first. We are enjoying our mission up here, we enjoy the environment on the Space Station and we're going to enjoy the next two and a half, three months here. So the extra stay is not something that we consider a negative. In fact, for us it's positive. We actually volunteered to stay longer. We've told our management that if they need us to stay a year, that's fine, we've got blanket approval for that. If they want us to go longer than a year, please just give us a couple months' notice. So we like living on Space Station. And we feel comfortable that we have a way home. We have complete confidence in our Soyuz vehicle and the ability of our Russian partners to operate that vehicle and get us home safely.

NEWS MEDIA: Tracy Watson, USA Today, for the Commander and Dr. Pettit. Do you think that this will fundamentally change how you view your experience on Station, the fact that Columbia went down while you were -- while you were aboard? Will you still look back on it as essentially a good time?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: Most certainly I will look at our experience on Space Station as a good time. It will certainly change the way you think about space flight. For myself, I had always imagined the launch phase to be the dangerous part with the pucker power to it, and now it's made me rethink that all that energy that those big boosters put into you on launch has to be taken out by the atmosphere when you re-enter and that's a lot of energy as we so patently are aware of now and it just maybe stays a little clearer in my mind in terms of where the risks really are.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Kelly Young at Florida Today for Dr. Pettit. Do you have any health concerns in the back of your mind, radiation, bone loss or otherwise, since you may be staying in space as long as seven months?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: No, I don't have concerns for these, simply because we have been studying these long enough to know how to deal with countermeasures to minimize or reduce these maladies, and we are working hard at our exercise program. We spend about two hours a day exercising and that's been one of the root -- the root of benefits of exercising is reducing the bone loss. And we are prepared to have stayed on Space Station up to a year, as Commander Bowersox mentioned earlier, and these effects, I believe, are all within the realm of what we can expect.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Brian Cabell from CNN. There is -- this is for Commander Bowersox. There's a debate here on Earth about the future viability and safety of the Shuttle Program. I'm just wondering what you might have to say to those who question the value of the Shuttle at this point.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, let's just start with the last part of that, the value of the Shuttle. The Shuttle provides us a way to learn about the hypersonic environment, the difficulties of getting back and forth to orbit and move tons and tons of people and cargo back and forth to our Space Station. It's a unique vehicle and it's something that will take billions and billions of dollars to replace.

It's perfect to work with our Space Station, because it brings one of the things we need, which is water. Water is a by-product of the electrical power generation system of the Shuttle and it's -- on a normal Shuttle mission where you don't go to a Space Station, you have to throw it overboard. When you come to a Space Station, you can leave it here and it's a resource for the crew, so it's a tremendously valuable research and development asset.

As far as the safety, we need to look into the cause of the last accident, we need to understand it, and once we've evaluated that, then we'll be able to make a much better comment on that question. And I wouldn't be so presumptuous to say that everything is just fine, because we need to know, we need to look. And I promise you, the folks at NASA are going to understand this thing completely before we fly shuttles again.

NEWS MEDIA: Bruce Nichols, Dallas Morning News, for Cosmonaut Budarin. What adjustments would be required up there to stay longer and what adjustments in the relationship between the three of you have already occurred because of this event?

NIKOLAI BUDARIN: (Speaking Russian)

NEWS MEDIA: Nancy Holland, KHOU TV, this is for Commander Bowersox and Dr. Pettit. I understand that you're willing to stay there pretty much as long as it takes, but I wonder if you could tell me what you're doing to release the stress that may just become part of daily life for three people who spend so much time together. And also what your families are saying about this extended stay. Are you finding yourselves maybe being in touch with them a little bit more and what they're telling you about it?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Yes, we are contacting our families more. I'm receiving tremendous support from my family; they've shown that they believe in what we're doing and that they're understanding if we need to stay longer.

As far as dealing with the extra stress of a longer mission, one of the things we noticed that really helps is exercise. It's incredible how it seems to sort of even out your nervous system and just puts you in a better mood no matter what's going on around you on board, and so we're lucky, it turns out that exercise is one of our countermeasures that helps us lose -- prevent losing as much bone calcium and keeps our hearts from weakening, so we get plenty of time to crank away on the exercise bike, run on the treadmill, and work out on our weight machine, our resistive exercise device.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is JSC PAO. And for Sox, if you would like to offer an anecdotal translation of Nikolai's answer for the media here, that would be appreciated, before we toss it to KSC.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: I thought you guys had interpreter support on the ground; I'm sorry. Let me see if I can summarize it quickly. Nikolai said we've got a great attitude amongst the crew, we're ready to stay as long as we need to, but that our Soyuz does have an expiration date on it, it needs to go home around the end of April or May and so it would make sense that if that -- when the crew comes to replace the SOYUZ, that we might be replaced with them. Of course there are no decisions that have been made yet and we're willing to stay while the managers on the ground talk about it and make the right choice.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Thank you very much, Sox. And Alpha, this is JSC PAO. Please stand by for questions of KSC PAO.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Kennedy PAO. Good morning. How do you hear us?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: We've got you loud and clear.

NEWS MEDIA: Yes, Commander Bowersox, this is Seth Bornstein with Knight Ridder Newspapers. I know you said you're prepared to stay longer, somehow I'm trying to get what your preference is. Would your preference be to go early when the Soyuz stay out or just to stay as long as -- until you have a Shuttle? And why is that your preference?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, let me just say that over the last five or six years, I've been going through a lot of training and my sense of time has sort of changed. I can't describe why, but I've gotten to a point where I don't worry so much about weeks and months and I just worry about where I am and what I'm doing and that it's -- that it's meaningful and enjoyable.

I like life here on Station. The only thing I could imagine that would make it better is to be able to bring my family and friends here. Some day that will happen, but we're not at that point yet, so I have to do this alone. But I would consider it a positive if I got to spend an extra six months or nine months here.

For some reason there's a limit out there at about a year in my brain, I think it's because I put it there before flight, so that's why I've asked management for a little warning if they decide we need to go past that. But the couple of three, four months that we're talking about right now is the most likely extension actually sounds pleasant to us.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Phil Chien for Earth News. I'm writing for both the Silverton and Bedford hometown newspapers for you guys, so this is goes for the Diggery Dewplayer and Sox. Something I've been wanting to ask you guys for about three weeks: How was your space walk? How did you enjoy it? What was so fascinating about it? And especially for Don, what was the smell of space like when you finished the space walk? And sorry you're not going to get to finish your chess game.

DR. DONALD PETTIT: Well, the smell of space, as you probably are aware, I wrote about it in one of the science chronicles, so that hasn't changed, it still reminds me of sweet welding fumes. And it may not actually be the smell of space, it may be off-gassing from the Space Station structure, but I've taken up quite a license to label it as "the smell of space."

Oh, in terms of the EVA, it's amazing to be emersed in the vacuum of space. The panoramic views that you have through a helmet are different than what you have through a window. It's about the difference between looking at mountains while you're sitting on the runway, say, at Salt Lake City Airport where you look through the mountain -- you look at the mountains through the window in an airplane as opposed to standing outside on the tarmac looking at the mountains, and being emersed in space while you're in a spacesuit gives you those kinds of panoramic views that the human brain can take in that you just can't replace looking through a window.

NEWS MEDIA: Phil Long, Miami Herald, for the Commander --

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: I want to echo those sentiments. Just the wideness and the deepness of the colors that you get looking through the thin glass of the helmet visor versus the thick glass we have on our other windows. It's really wonderful outside on an EVA.

NEWS MEDIA: Phil Long, Miami Herald, for the Commander. Was there something in particular some way that you did to commemorate and celebrate the lives of the astronauts aboard the Columbia? And do you have any particular concerns about your return to Earth?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, first of all, as far as ceremonies up here, we sat in by radio on the memorial service that was held at the Johnson Space Center, and at the conclusion of that memorial service after the bells had rung on the ground and the T-38s had flown by and it was very quiet on board and we rang our ship bell seven times, and at that point it was very, very quiet on board the International Space Station. We spent fifteen, twenty minutes in silence and then we moved on, we had work to do, we needed to unload our Progress. And at that point we started thinking about good things; we pulled out the fresh fruit, the oranges, the mail we got from home, and it gave us quite a lift after the memorial service.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Chris Kridler from Florida Today for Don Pettit. Don, could you also talk about what you said to your family and what they've said to you about the possibility of you staying longer? And do you have enough "Saturday Morning Science" to occupy you for maybe nine more months?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: In terms of the "Saturday Morning Science," an orbiting environment is rich in discovery and I cannot fathom a moment when there wouldn't be some new investigation or observation to make, so no, I wholeheartedly agree with Sox in that we could easily stay up here a year and not have any trouble about feeling lonesome, no trouble about feeling isolated, or no trouble about being bored.

Now, in terms of family, I could not be here if it wasn't for the support I get from my wife. And we communicate as often as we can via e-mail and through the NASA-arranged family conferences. And the support you get with this kind of contact is the -- gives me the fundamental strength I need in order to stay up here and continue on with the work for our mission.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Brad Liston from Reuters with a question for Dr. Pettit. How important was it that you were receiving news, the bad news from Earth, more or less in real-time? And if you could imagine yourself on a deep space voyage where the communications lag might be hours or even days, what difference would that make?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: It was important to us to receive information as it was known. And conclusions are often hard to draw when the raw facts are coming in, so there was not a whole lot of conclusions at the time we were receiving the information. And I'm one that I do not like to jump to premature conclusions when you have incomplete facts, so the fact that the conclusions were slow to come in, that doesn't bother me at all. Facts came in as fast as the folks on the ground could feed them to us.

For something like this, if you're on a two- or three-year trip to Mars with a twenty- or thirty-minute delay time in terms of radio link, I don't think the radio information known would -- would be any faster than your radio link in your spacecraft. So I don't see how this would be a problem if something similar were to happen while you were on a trip to Mars.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Grayson Collins, Central Florida News 13. After everything that's happened, many Americans looking ahead to the future of our Space Program, not just the Shuttle as we talked earlier, but broader goals for the next twenty or even thirty years. What are your thoughts on the options for our future including possibly more time in Earth orbit with unmanned missions or reaching out on something, a much more ambitious mission, like a trip to Mars?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, we talk about that a lot here. I think that what we're doing here in low Earth orbit is meaningful and very important for expanding our reach out into the solar system and on into our galaxy and universe, but I think all of us would love to see us go back to the Moon and go back to Mars or go to Mars. We'd like to see us go someplace that has land, someplace that we could walk, someplace that we could reach down and hold the dirt in our hands and has gravity.

NEWS MEDIA: Dan Billow with WESH TV. I'll address this to Don Pettit; any of you might wish to chime in. You're all obviously willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the space program. Could you talk a little bit about what you're doing over the next few weeks to do that? What sorts of things are you giving up on, conserving; using less water, for example. Talk a little bit about the preparations you're making to stay up there a little bit longer. And is it tentatively in your mind pretty much that you're coming home on a Soyuz around the May timeframe?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: I'll address a little bit about conservation. Some things, like water, which is one critical supply item that we have on Space Station, there's not a whole lot we can do to conserve because we don't use water wantonly on Station in the first place. Just as an example I probably use three or four ounces of water every time I take a shower, which is unheard of if you're used to turning on a faucet at home and having gallons and gallons pour out, but it really doesn't take much to take a sponge bath and that's what we do up here. And though you can say well, let's don't take showers, well, that three or four ounces a day, it doesn't -- it doesn't buy you that much. And if you look at the big water usages in our food and it's not wise to scrimp on your hydration level if you want to maintain body health over a long period of time. So if you look at water as one of our resources, there's not a whole lot we can do to change our consumption rate on that.

Other things, for example batteries, we've got the detector ductor that uses special batteries and I went through the stack of dead batteries this morning and sorted through them and found batteries that had been changed out, still had a little life in them, so that way we can use those up for less critical measurement needs keeping the new batteries sets available for when we really need to use them. So there's some conservation measures like that which you can do to extend some of your limited supplies for a little bit longer.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: The one thing that's probably easiest to conserve, though, is clothing. Up here we've the perfect air temperature all the time and a good humidity level, so we really don't get our clothing sweaty. The only articles of clothing that do get that way are the ones we use on the exercise equipment.

So one of my personal sacrifices is I've been wearing the same pair of shorts the past two and a half months. They're very special shorts; I wore them up on the Space Shuttle. They're a new pair of shorts, we call them our "Dittemore shorts" because Ron Dittemore is credited for getting us a bunch of those in the Space Shuttle Program and I've liked them so well that I just can't give them up and now they're sort of my lucky shorts. I'm going to try and keep them going until they've got holes in the bottom.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Kennedy Public Affairs. That concludes our questions from here. Stand by for Headquarters.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Headquarters PAO. How do you read us?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: We got you loud and clear.

NEWS MEDIA: (Speaking Russian)

My question was about the physical conditions of Nikolai. Thank you.

NIKOLAI BUDARIN: (Speaking Russian)

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: From the point of view of the crew, we're doing fine as health goes. The issues that we had were medical certification issues; these arise all the time in space programs. The problems that astronauts and pilots have with their doctors are legendary and I think this is another one in a long list of things that will be talked about and discussed over the next few years.

NEWS MEDIA: Commander and Dr. Pettit, I'm Jan Fox from the CBS local affiliate here in Washington D.C. And as you well know, the debris from the Shuttle is scattered over a very large area. As you imagine that, what are your hopes and your very real fears that NASA can draw some conclusions to the causes?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, we've been able to see some of the data that is coming back, and from my limited experience with accident investigations there have been other tragedies that have been solved with much less data, so I have high hopes that we'll be able to pin down the cause and figure out exactly what happened. But it's a daunting task for those people on the ground who are working it, and they're in our thoughts and prayers all the time.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Frank Morring with Aviation Week for Commander Bowersox. There's already discussion here about de-staffing the Space Station. I wonder if you could give us your thoughts on that.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, for me as an individual, the reason I come here to space is because I believe that exploring is important; that we're laying a foundation for our -- our children and their children to leave the planet some day. Part of that legacy that we're going to leave them is a continuous presence here that started -- a human presence that started back in the Mir Program and we would like to see that, but that's as much emotional as logical. If we were to have to deman the station, it would not be a huge setback for our program, the station will keep flying and we'll be able to send people back here if we need to. But on an emotional level, I really want to see people stay.

NEWS MEDIA: Commander, it's Patty Reiner with the Houston Chronicle. It sounds like you're having a great time on the Space Station, but can you tell us what's your favorite part about being in space and what are you missing about Earth? What cravings are you having or what are you looking forward to when you come home?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, my favorite part of being here on the Space Station is looking out the window. I love to look at our planet. We have a treasure that we live on that we need to protect, and I can't get enough of just staring at the beauty of the oceans and the different continents and islands that we have.

And I would say that the things that I'm missing are very small, things like my favorite soft drink or buttered theater popcorn, little things like that, things that don't really matter and that I'll be able to get plenty of when I get back home. Those are material things. Of course I'd like to get a hug from my wife and a hug from my kids and give them the same, but, again, there's plenty of time to do that during the next few months or year, whatever that is.

NEWS MEDIA: (Inaudible) New York Times. What's the reaction of possibly going to a crew of two because to conserve water and energy, have you thought about that at home and what you do on the station now, what would two people do that three people couldn't do and vice versa and what kind of station would it be with two instead of three people?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, having two people on Station would change things quite a bit, it would change the dynamic of how you support each other emotionally. It's really nice where if two people are getting a little bit irritated, well, one of them can go and talk to the third or the third can act as a referee.

It's sort of like with our international partnership. The more people, the more partners you have, the more work that's required to maintain that partnership, but the stronger you are because you have more bodies and more hands to get things done.

So, for example, when we do an EVA, it's not just two people trying to suit each other up, here we have the three of us and the third person can come and watch and help read checklists and reach things that the other two people might not be able to reach. So if we had two people here rather than three, we'd just have less assets that we can depend on. And it's similar to that on the ground, the fact that we have so many partners in our program makes us stronger.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Headquarters PAO. Please stand by for Marshall PAO.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Marshall PAO. How do you hear us?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Got you loud and clear.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Jason Gasto with WAFF, the NBC affiliate in Huntsville, and this is question is directed to any of the crew members; you may have touched on this in some form or fashion already, however. What's going to be going through your minds as you're headed back toward Earth?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: I'm going to be thinking about how good it's going to be to be reunited with my family -- reunited with my family.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Steve Johnson, WHMT here in Huntsville. How important -- and this is for Dr. Pettit and Commander Bowersox -- how important has the friendly voice from the guys here at the Payload Operation Center, how important has that become to you since Columbia?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: Well, I work with folks at Marshall quite closely through the Payload Science Operations that we do here on Space Station and I enjoy their cheery voice in the morning, which for them is in the middle of the night, and it's amazing they can be there in such a helpful form at that time of day for them. And together we work as a team. I'm a pair of hands for them in some respects and together we work on problems when they're not -- when things aren't working quite right and we figure out what the solution is and we move on with our payload operations, so I really enjoy working with the folks there.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Shelby Spires with the Huntsville Times here in Huntsville, Alabama, and this question is for Commander Bowersox or Dr. Pettit. Is your science schedule being reworked in light of what's going on in the fact that you might be delayed? And is there science for you actually to do in terms of some of the experiments that hadn't been sent up or in experimentation chambers and such up there now?

DR. DONALD PETTIT: Well, obviously if you have an experiment that hasn't been sent up, it's kind of hard to do it on Space Station, but we've got lots of experiments that have been sent up. A lot of them are in storage in some of our storage racks here just waiting for time in which it gets popped into racks and be done, so we've got plenty of physical science experiments to do.

And you can't forget that much of the science we do on Space Station is on the crew itself where we are getting fixed for human physiological studies to look at how we -- how we react to long durations of zero gravity. So just by virtue of having a crew here means we're getting a heap of science done right there, and then while we're here, we work on the physical science payloads that are available to us.

NEWS MEDIA: This is Jonathan Murray with ABC News WAY TV in Huntsville, Alabama. For the Commander, for future astronauts, those that are wanting to go to space, what sort of encouragement can you give them in light of Columbia?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: I might tell them to take heart, that we'll figure out the problem and that we're going to move on; that exploring is worth the risk. And that they need to search their hearts and make sure that it's really part of what they're called to do; that they really are morally and mentally and physically ready to accept those risks, because it's not something that any of us should take lightly.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is the Marshall PAO. Please stand by for the Ames PAO.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: This is Ames PAO. How do you read us?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: We've got you loud and clear.

NEWS MEDIA: My name is John S. Tishner with KNTV NBC 11 in San Jose. I wanted to find out, and this is for both Commander Bowersox and Dr. Pettit, as you've heard and read briefings on the latest information coming in from the Columbia investigation, what kind of questions have been raised in your minds about the Columbia tragedy?

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Well, I guess the key question is the same question that all of you have is what happened. I mean, we still don't know exactly. And then if I was on the investigation, the next question is once we know what happened, I'd start digging into why it happened; what in the system failed? Did we miss something? Did we just not know something? Was there incorrect analysis? And we'd want to understand it completely, and then the next question after that is what can we do to make this system safer.

NEWS MEDIA: It's been said over and over that the Shuttle crew knew the risks. You guys are now in space, all three of you, and it can be said that you know the risks. Talk about what that means to you. And I'd like to hear from Dr. Pettit also on this one.

DR. DONALD PETTIT: Well, we're aware that exploration is an endeavor that takes a higher level of risk than a 9:00 to 5:00 job on Earth. What we're doing here, we've got a mission involving exploration and -- and for me personally, that's worth the risk. And it's not so much for collecting one instrument set of data, but it's taken collectively as exploration in its entirety.

So you don't say I won't accept an increased risk so I can collect one particular piece of scientific data, you accept the risk as you are doing exploration for the sake of exploration, which is what's going to provide resources to use in places to live for our babies and our grandbabies, and that's why we do the exploration and that's why we're willing to take the risks.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: Alpha, this is Houston ACR. That concludes the event. Thank you.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Thank you. Great talking with all of you today.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: And Alpha, Houston, that concludes the PAO event. That was a great job, guys, and we'll pull video link now.

COMMANDER KENNETH BOWERSOX: Okay. Thanks for the support.