posted February 24, 2005 11:19 PM               

Starting at around 8:00am, Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson donned spacesuits and submerged in the 6.2 million-gallon Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory pool. Over the next six hours, they practiced the second of three spacewalks planned during their mission.

While Noguchi and Robinson simulated the spacewalk underwater, the rest of the crew practiced their roles at facilities adjacent to the pool.

We had the opportunity today to observe the spacewalkers beside the pool as they prepared and completed the session, and to watch the other crew members as they trained. An exhibit area was also available during the day to provide hands-on access to several Shuttle return to flight safety enhancements.

In addition to photographing the crew, the media also had a chance to question Eileen Collins, James Kelly, Robinson and Noguchi about their upcoming flight.

Asked by collectSPACE if she had any contact with previous Return to Flight crew members, Collins replied,

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"We've spoken with STS-26's Rick Hauck about how our missions are the same and how they are different. For example, we're going to the International Space Station and we're definitely going up for a longer mission, a longer flight.

"We've realized our differences, but where we are the same are in the media activities that we have and want to support as much as we can. For example in late March, we're going to have orbiter rollout, and [as a crew] we're going to try our best to be there."

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quote:

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"Our greatest tribute will be when we launch and reach orbit!"

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