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Shuttle Commander Ready to Fly a Desk
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 04:00 pm ET
07 December 2002
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Veteran commander Jim Wetherbee on Saturday became the first astronaut to land a shuttle five times as he wrapped up his sixth and very likely final spaceflight with the conclusion of Endeavour's two-week mission to the International Space Station. "Jim, we really appreciate working with you and all of your crew. It was a great flight," flight director Wayne Hale radioed from Mission Control as the spaceplane sat on the end of runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center. "All good things come to those that wait. We're glad to bring you back to Florida, and I have word that they have a clean desk waiting for you in Building One," Hale added, referring to the main headquarters building at the Johnson Space Center. "Well," the Navy captain replied from Endeavour's flight deck, "Thanks a lot, Wayne. I hate to say I'm ready because then it would be recorded, but thanks a lot. I guess I'm ready." Wetherbee said before the flight began Nov. 23 this mission would most probably be his last and that he looked forward to continuing to work for NASA to help future crews, although he wasn't exactly sure how yet. A New York native who turned 50 during the mission, Wetherbee was selected as an astronaut in 1984. He made his first spaceflight in 1990 aboard Columbia and since then has flown aboard and landed each of the four orbiters in NASA's current fleet.In a NASA interview done before the flight, Wetherbee said he's wanted to be an astronaut since he was a little boy. "It's the only thing I can remember, since I was 10 years old, that I've wanted to do for a living. And I guess I don't really know why. It's just something I always wanted to do, and I've always been interested in science and math and it was a calling, I guess," he said.
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