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Visit the Astronaut Flight Lounge

August 10, 2005 at 2:23 pm · Filed under Geek Speak, Spaceflight · Comments

Since NASA.gov has become a new “daily visit” in my web wanderings, I immediately noticed their new Astronaut Flight Lounge today.

Check it out — especially the pre-recorded Q&A’s from astronauts who participated in the STS-114 mission — Steve Robinson (Mission Specialist, STS-114) and Julie Payette (CAPCOM, STS-114).

Watching the Q&A segments in the Lounge, you’ll learn not only about the astronauts, but spaceflight and the astronaut corps. For instance, did you know that when they tell the astronauts to “Begin fluid loading,” what they’re actually telling them to do is drink well in excess of 1.5 quarts of salt water?! That tidbit in one of Steve’s Q&A’s (The “Did you ever get sick in space?” one.)

I love Julie’s response to the question, “What’s your favorite movie?”

…the original Star Wars, because I saw that when I was 13 years old [...] a time when I thought becoming an astronaut was the coolest thing. I remember sitting down in the theatre with my cousins and seeing the biiiiiiig spaceship…One day we’ll be able to fly in space like that [pause] but hopefully we won’t be at war.

FYI: The Flight Lounge is built in Flash, so to get the either of these particular astronauts you’ll need to select their name(s) from the “Astronauts” tab.



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