Don’t Forget To Take Your Jacket, Honey Bellevue Parents Worry About Son’s Trip Into Space

Ed Parazynski spent a number of years working in the space program himself, but he’s still nervous as his astronaut son prepares for a trip to the Mir space station this week.

Scott Parazynski will be on board the shuttle Atlantis when it lifts off Thursday.

“The enormity of it is awesome,” Ed Parazynski said.

“And for the first two minutes, there is no way they can escape if something goes wrong. Not that I think anything will go wrong. But you still worry.”

It’s Scott’s second space mission. He spent most of his first space shuttle trip in November 1994 conducting environmental science experiments.

On the upcoming trip, he will serve as the mission’s chief medical officer. He also will help operate the shuttle’s life-support systems, will be responsible for the shuttle’s in-flight maintenance and will photograph the docking and transfer operations.

On the fifth or sixth day of the mission, he will go out in space to retrieve a number of scientific experiments being conducted on Mir’s exterior. It will be his first space walk.

Although it’s been planned minutely and practiced countless times, it is still a risk.

“When people ask me how it feels to be his mother, I gulp,” Linda Parazynski said.

The Parazynskis moved to Bellevue in 1979, the year Scott started his studies at Stanford. They had spent many years living in Florida, Africa, Europe and the Middle East as Ed went from job to job with Boeing as an engineer, engineering manager and international marketing representative.

Scott applied for the astronaut program after receiving his M.D. from Stanford.

At one point, he was earmarked to become a member of the Mir crew and was sent to Star City, Russia, for extensive training.

Then the Russians decided he was too tall at 6-foot-3 to return safely in the Soyuze and instead chose Michael Foale, who is in Mir now.

Foale’s replacement, David Wolf, is part of the space shuttle crew that includes Parazynski.

The shuttle will dock with Mir on the third or fourth day of the mission.

It will transfer Wolf and three and a half tons of supplies to the space station.

In return, it will get Foale and an unknown amount of trash.