During a long week of training for the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight, the STS-114 astronauts might appreciate a few hours lounging in the pool. But the closest that spacewalkers Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson got was a six-hour training session in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston.
Image to left: STS-114 Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson gets suited up for an NBL training run. Credit: NASA
The NBL is one of the closest places to space on Earth. Noguchi and Robinson, who will perform three spacewalks during STS-114, rehearsed possible tile-repair techniques in a training run last week.
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Officer Cindy Begley watched over the practice session. As NASA's lead spacewalk officer for the mission, Begley is part of a team that oversees spacewalk planning and training. During the mission, much of the same team will be in Mission Control, helping the crew from afar.
The practice helped iron out logistical items, such as where to position robotic arms and foot restraints so that the astronauts can each reach what they need. The Return to Flight mission, STS-114, is currently slated for May 2005.
