Update

Note from Janeen, the pilot's wife...

While Tony and his crew await completion of NASA's plans to fix the flow control valves, a moderate training schedule has been put in place to maintain the crew's readiness for the moment when NASA finally says, "Go for Launch!"Simulated ascent/entry runs, flights in the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA), robotic arm practice, and suit-ups at the Neutral Bouyancy Lab (NBL) for simulated Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVAs) have kept the crew focused on their pending mission, despite the many slips -- six total, so far; four since the Feb. 12th date.As I write, the tentative target date for Space Shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station --Thursday, March 12th -- remains on track. However, an exact target launch date will not be determined until at least March 6th when the next Flight Readiness Review (FRR) is expected to reconvene. Tony and the STS-119 crew plan to return to quarantine this Thursday evening, March 5th, in anticipation of a launch on the 12th.As work progresses with the shuttle’s three gaseous hydrogen flow control valves, we continue to pray -- and hope you will, too -- for every single administrator, engineer, technician, and support personnel involved in tackling this problem -- and for their families who, undoubtedly, are sacrificing an inordinate amount of quality time with their loved ones in support of the STS-119 mission and all future shuttle flights. We thank them for their tireless dedication to and conviction in "getting it right."

On an even more personal note, we are often asked how we feel about "all of this." Like everyone else, we are reminded by the current flurry of activity that exploring space is, in fact, a very risky business. Are we scared? You betcha. Do we worry? Of course! But we don't dwell. The truth is, our family believes in and is fully committed to the challenge of space flight as one definitively worth pursuing. Without question. Without regrets. We love Daddy and want him to return to us to live out a long, meaningful life! But, ultimately, that's not our call. Tony is doing what he was born to do, and we're proud of him. Part of what makes this life worth living is actually LIVING it -- doing what you were created to do. What a gift -- both to receive and to give! We put a huge amount of faith in God's providence -- and trust in the promise of a purpose bigger than ourselves, beyond our immediate circumstances and personal desires.

"What I saw was just too beautiful to have happened by accident." ~ Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo Astronaut

"Man must rise above the Earth -- to the top of the atmosphere and beyond -- for only then will he fully understand the world in which he lives." ~ Socrates, 469 - 399 B.C.

"The eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.... I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours." ~John F. Kennedy, speech at Rice University, 1962