| | |  | Claudie visits Space Shuttle mock-up | |
Claudie's Training Diary 2: a change of scene
25 September 2001
At the end of August the Andromède crew flew to Houston to
NASA's Johnson Space Centre, where they spent a week in mock-ups and simulators learning their way around the American section of the ISS.
"Theory is never enough," says
Claudie. "For real confidence, you have to see and touch. Even
though we will work almost exclusively in the Russian section, we
will have the run of the whole station and we have to know our way
around. It was also good to get to know the ground controllers and
the CapComs, the people we'll be talking to from orbit. And to
meet astronauts from America, Europe, Canada and Japan: it brings
home just how international the project is."
| | Andromède crew and supply crew visiting NBL | |
The Houston visit offered another bonus: a reunion with the ESA
astronauts who are training there. "Scattered between Russia,
Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, we don't often have a chance
to get together. Even though we're all in the European Corps of
Astronauts, our lives are very different. It was good to meet
again in a relaxed way, talk to people's wives and husbands. And
when you see how big their children have grown, you realize just
how quickly time passes."
Claudie and her colleagues were also able to spend some time with
the space station's Expedition 2 crew, who had returned only a few
days before. "They were all in great form: Yury Usachev, Susan
Helms and Jim Voss were still readjusting after five months in
orbit, but they were all delighted with their mission. They had a
wonderful present for us, too: a preview of the wide-screen,
three-dimensional IMAX pictures they had taken. It was almost as
if we were already on board."
| | Trying out the ISS sports equipment | |
All in all, an extraordinary trip. "On the way back I stopped off
in Paris to pick up my little girl Carla from her grandparents. We
had a wonderful reunion after our long separation, even more so
since by chance her father was in Paris, too. [Jean-Pierre is
currently based in Germany as head of the ESA astronaut division]
Then it was back to Russia and for Carla, back to kindergarten at
Star City. She's delighted to be with her friends and to speak
Russian again."
And the training programme? "We're now in the last stages of
preparation. It's quite intense; so that we are ready for the last
week in September, we have an exam practically every day. For the
Soyuz, there are tests on manual piloting for approach, docking
and descent; for the whole crew, exams on every part of the flight
and aboard the station; an exam on a typical day's work. And
medical exams, too. After a series of tests in September, the GMK
- the Russian medical commission - will give us our final flight
clearance. We've just been trying out our spacesuits for size and
checking for leaks. Everything is ready.
| | Visiting the Hab mock-up | |
"In October, after a few days' break with our families, we will
go to Baikonur Cosmodrome for the first time. Our rocket and our
Soyuz are there already: this will give us a chance to check
everything out and to say anything that needs to be said about the
spacecraft's equipment. We'll have a final opportunity a few days
later, when we come to Baikonur again for the launch."
And then? "We'll talk about that later, when I tell you what
happens at Baikonur in the ten days before the launch."
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