Spacewalker Jim Reilly worked at a science outpost near the South Pole. Commander Steven Lindsey flew military jets over Florida as a test pilot at Eglin Air Force Base, not to mention two previous shuttle flights. Astronaut Janet Kavandi regularly scuba dives and flew on the last shuttle mission to the Russian Mir space station, and a shuttle flight to map the Earth in unprecedented detail.
The experiences are reminiscent of the early astronauts, who brought diverse backgrounds to NASA. For example, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter lived on the ocean floor for a month as part of the Sealab program, though his duty came after the Mercury flight. All were test pilots, a requirement that still stands for shuttle commanders and pilots.
The Atlantis crew experiences fall in line with their tasks on the mission, including three spacewalks and a complex robotic arm ballet to attach a 13 1/2-ton airlock to space station Alpha.
Gernhardt's underwater work on oilrigs around the world reflects his spacewalking construction duties, minus the elegant view of Earth below.
"In the ocean you have a very microscopic view, just what is right in front of you," Gernhardt said, explaining that mud and silt routinely blocked divers' vision. "The good news in spacewalking is you have good visibility, you can see forever."
Gernhardt performed more than 700 deep dives, during his career, making repairs and doing other work in the ocean environment he has called his first love.
"I worked, as an apprentice commercial diver, and was fascinated with the challenge of deep diving - I mean we were doing up to a thousand foot dives in very complicated life support systems and so forth," he said.
For Reilly, space station Alpha represents the same kind of isolation and interdependence he saw as part of a small team of scientists living near the frigid South Pole.
"There was some diverse personalities, but everybody worked very well together," Reilly said of the research station. "You kind of shed a lot of the stuff that you carry with you from the rest of society when you go to a place like that. It's a much simpler existence. It's a lot easier. As long as nobody goes really ballistic, it goes really well."
He also worked in submarines as a geologist, studying the tiny animals and plants that lived near seeping gas and oil.
"It's very similar to finding something alive on Mars in that it's very different from what we are normally accustomed to seeing as far as what's within the food chain, for example, here on the surface," Reilly said.
In Hobaugh's case, the shuttle flight could be easier than dodging antiaircraft missiles over Kuwait and Iraq.
It may even be more relaxing than his first trip to the space shuttle simulator at Johnson Space Center long before he became an astronaut.
It was supposed to be fun, a chance to try landing a 110-ton glider.
It didn't take long before the Marine pilots decided NASA was secretly auditioning them for the astronaut corps during the trial landings.
Hobaugh, who still goes by his Marines call sign "Scorch" remembers the day:
"It was a little nerve- wracking, given your first approach and thinking I could make or break my opportunity," he said. "I don't know if I made (a perfect landing), but I survived to walk away."
The practice had nothing to do with astronaut selection, but Hobaugh made his way into the astronaut ranks later and is now in space, as pilot of Atlantis.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright 2001 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of
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