What’s involved in training to go into space?

As an astronaut you get trained to do all kinds of things: learn to fly in a high-performance plane, learn the systems of the Space Shuttle and the Space Station and learn how to work as a team in simulations. My primary job on my missions was to operate the robotic arms. However, I ended up being the spacewalker. To do that, you piece together different experiences – including stuff in virtual reality – and we had lessons where we had to learn about the spacesuit and so on.

It all seemed to come together in our big pool – the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. It’s the largest pool in the world and you can fit an entire Space Shuttle inside it. You can practice what you’re going to do in space in the water. You’re floating in the water column like you’d be floating in space. Many hours, days, weeks and months of my life add to my days at work in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. It was a wonderful experience training for a spacewalk. Mike Massimino is a retired NASA astronaut and veteran of two space missions, STS-109 and STS-125