HOUSTON - Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko have added quite a few extra frequent-flier miles to their account while training for this spacewalk.
Its commonplace for astronauts and cosmonauts dealing with the International Space Station to commute between Houston and Moscow, but rarely does training on the same task occur in both locations.
The situation is this: The only mock-up of the shuttle is in the pool at Johnson Space Centers Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The only Russian-built Zvezda service module simulator is in Moscow.
So, the spacewalking duo practiced half of their tasks in Houston and the other half in Moscow.
"We like to do a complete end-to-end choreography so the crew can practice," said Mike Hess, the lead EVA officer for the mission. "We couldnt do that, so we split the training."
The spacewalkers ventured to Russia three times to practice with the Russian modules in the Hydrolab at Star City for a total of 11 runs in the pool. They performed a similar amount of training on the Houston end with the U.S. equipment.
Fortunately for Lu and Malenchenko, their tasks didnt change when the mission was split into two parts last spring.
Their last trip to Russia ended in May and they have been practicing the U.S. part here in Houston since then.
Though they can perform the entire task, the duo have some additional training aids to keep their memories and skills sharp.
"To keep it fresh in mind, were going to get videos of the training and the checklists, get some popcorn and go over it again and again," Hess said.
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