Helms already has a good idea how shell feel tonight when hatches between the shuttle and the station swing open and the three float over the threshold.
"Im sure Jim and Yuri and I will have the biggest smiles on our faces you can imagine, because we are looking at our future home," she said.
"I think Im going to be really excited," added Voss. "We think this is the best training that we could get."
In what can only be described as an unusual twist of fate, Usachev, Helms and Voss got their tickets to ride Atlantis on relatively short notice.
Atlantis originally had been scheduled for launch on a mission to repair a Russian space tug and set up the next major building block for the station a Russian command-and-control module that will double as crew living quarters.
In February, though, the so-called Russian Zvezda service module suffered yet another in a string of launch delays, this time until mid-July.
NASA, consequently, decided to split in half the content of the original Atlantis flight plan, deferring all work related to the opening of the service module until a shuttle mission now scheduled for launch in mid-August.
What followed was an unprecedented 11th-hour shuttle-crew shuffle.
Three members of Atlantis original crew were reassigned to the August shuttle flight because they primarily had trained to work on the delayed service module.
Usachev, Helms and Voss then were asked to step in because they already had been extensively trained to perform space station maintenance work.
"It definitely was a surprise. I know that this is something that NASA hasnt done very much in the past taking one shuttle mission thats very close to flight and splitting it in two," Helms said.
"The situation really did dictate that you had to put experienced people into those three openings, [and] I think we had already had a huge portion of the amount of training that you would want to have. So we were a natural fit."
Thats not to say, however, that it hasnt been a real scramble for the trio to get ready for the Atlantis flight. Shuttle crews typically have a year to 18 months to train for a mission, but in this case, Usachev, Helms and Voss were tapped for the flight just eight weeks ahead a scheduled launch.
Usachev and Helms, consequently, were put through a quick refresher course in space-station repair work while Voss had to get up to speed in fast fashion for a six-hour spacewalk.
All three also had to brush up on shuttle systems and emergency procedures, but Voss said the training crunch was no big deal.
"You have to understand that we already were well-trained on all of the station chores," he said. "So it hasnt been too hard."
And for both Voss and Helms, the shuttle gig has been a welcome respite from the globetrotting grind full-time station crews typically are put through as they jet back and forth between Houston and Moscow.
"In fact, Ive thought about it as almost like a vacation for me because I havent had to travel. Ive not had to go back for another trip to Russia, and weve been able to be at home," Voss said.
The Atlantis flight, meanwhile, will give the three crew mates experience that should prove very handy when they board the station in February 2001 for a four- to six-month stay.
"It actually is a training trip for our future space-station flight. We have been doing a lot of space-station training, but there wont be any training here on Earth that will be as good as actually going up and visiting the actual space station," Helms said.
"You know, Jim is going to get a chance to crawl around on the outside of it during his spacewalk, and Yuri and I will get a chance to crawl around on the inside of it with the maintenance tasks," she said.
"These are exactly the kind of things were going to end up doing on our own [station stay] anyway. So there isnt any better training to get us ready, and thats how I think all three of us look at it."
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