CHAPTER 4 DAY IN THE LIFE: THE MAKING OF A MISSION 76 Training Training began in earnest approximately 6 months prior to the planned mission launch. Several types of training were involved. Since the teams were composed of experienced flight controllers and flight directors, the training at this point was called “flight specific” in that it dealt with the actual mission instead of any generic skills. On the Space Shuttle side, the team—i.e., the flight control team and the astronauts—performed a number of simulations, primarily practicing launching, landing, and aborts. The ISS teams also trained. Flight controllers on the ISS side of the house simulated the spacewalks, as well as the berthing, moving, and activation of modules during approximately a dozen simulations (sims). A key series of sims for the ISS team was the powering down of half the systems, integrating the loop A or B ammonia lines, and activating Node 3 and Cupola modules. Owing to the complexity of this task, the EVA steps were role-played during these sims instead of having the actual astronauts perform the steps in the NBL at the same time. Several joints sims were conducted between the two program teams, especially for rendezvous and docking. The station training lead and the shuttle simulation supervisor were key members of the operations team. Not only did they ensure that the crew and flight control team were trained and ready for the mission, they also poked at the timeline or flight rules to look for any issues the team had not considered. For example, looking into the timeline or flight rules might reveal the team had not allowed enough time for an activity, or a flight rule that was perfect for a nominal situation completely fell apart if something went wrong. The trainers would throw numerous malfunctions at the flight control team. This helped that team gain the confidence needed to deal with real problems in space while remaining composed. Although the specific simulated failures may not occur during the mission, the team knew how to work the problems in a cool and integrated fashion. The flight directors worked closely with the station training lead and shuttle simulation supervisor to ensure the core elements of the mission would be fully trained however, the specifics were left to the training team. Figure 12. Astronaut Robert (Bob) Behnken installs a clamp to hold down the ammonia lines during a training run in the NBL. As the months went on, the flight directors ensured the controllers worked seamlessly as a team and that the plans were ready for the real mission. Since everyone was so nervous about the ammonia lines, the sneaky training team even threw in a simulated ammonia leak during one of the training runs. The team worked through it in the simulation, but everyone realized the situation had not been thought through completely. Therefore, the team cleaned up the procedures and