New space crew take final exams before flight

From: Russia Today (TV)

The members of the 21st mission to the International Space Station are taking their final pre-flight exams before going to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The three-man crew will set off on a six-month mission on September 30.

The tests will take place in the Gagarin training center outside Moscow – also known as Star City – and will be focused on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The crew is comprised of Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and space tourist Guy Laliberté, who is also a former circus acrobat.

The special commission will decide whether the men are ready to go into space. However, many at Star City believe this final exam is a pure formality, since the crew members have already gone through years of tough training, and failing the exam is almost impossible.

During the exam, the future cosmonauts have to demonstrate how well they understand each other, work together and deal with emergency situations. After getting their tasks, the cosmonauts will have to fulfill them. Their performance will be evaluated on a five-point marking scale.

To pass their tests the cosmonauts will use two full-scale mockups – one of a Soyuz spacecraft and another of a Russian part of the ISS.

“We can’t re-create [zero] gravity here. We can’t create [a] vacuum here either. We train how to perform in the depressurized situation,” said Sergey Krikalyov, head of the cosmonaut training center. “I think dealing with depressurized situation is as dealing with fire. We also can stimulate fire, of course, without creating it.”

Maxim Suraev has been preparing and training for the flight for twelve years and if everything goes well, the upcoming flight will become his first one.

His American counterpart, Jeffrey Williams, is more experienced: he previously resided on the ISS for six months in 2006 as a member of the Expedition 13 crew.

Canadian billionaire, 50-year-old Guy Laliberté is the founder of the Cirque du Soleil entertainment company. He will spend 12 days on the ISS.

“Actually when I arrived here, I was in my worst shape ever, so I had to get back in shape. I am far away from my acrobatic time of my 20 years, when I was 20,” he said.

“The most exciting thing is I think the entire experience from the training. And I can’t wait to experience the flight. The most difficult for me was [the] rotating chair,” Guy Laliberté said.

from:
http://russiatoday.ru/Sci_Tech/2009-09-08/new-space-
crew-exams.html

Comment: some fine pictures of the Cosmonauts at the mockup/simulators within Star City

Our thanks to Andy, G0SFJ for spotting this item