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Clay floated just off the P6 truss holding the Adjustable Portable Foot Restraint (APFR) as Oleg maneuvered the 170-foot station robotic arm into position. Fyodor was stationary on the other side of the truss from Clay watching to make sure that the arm stayed safely away from the structure. Oleg called out that the arm was in position and stopped. It was time for Clay to install the APFR. Once the APFR was installed at the end of the arm, Clay would be able to lock his feet inside and travel on the arm, like a giant space ride, to the position of the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS). I looked over Oleg’s shoulder while at the same time watching Clay and Fyodor’s progress on the giant video screen. It was a cosmic experience. Everything was going perfectly. Every now and then, Clay’s arms would suddenly move a few feet away from his body and return as suddenly to connect to his elbow. Other than that occasional arm jumping, the reproduction of the space walk in the Virtual Reality (VR) lab was eerily realistic. While wearing bulky helmets and wired gloves, Clay and Fyodor’s movements are reproduced, in space suits, on the computer screen as if they were conducting a spacewalk. This was one of the best places for the entire Expedition 15 crew to practice the difficult and dangerous task of jettisoning the EAS. It is times like this that I stop and think about how cool my job is.

The room is full of various astronauts, engineers and technicians. Clay and Fyodor will spend many hours in real space suits in the giant swimming pool known as the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) practicing the spacewalk for jettisoning the EAS. Likewise, Oleg will practice for hours in a robotics lab using a similar VR-type lab to execute the arm motions. Other training will include pushing a life-like EAS on the Precision Air Bearing Floor (PABF) - a giant air hockey table where objects float on a cushion of air, allowing an astronaut to get a feel for moving equipment in the weightlessness of space. However, this only simulates motion in the 2-dimensional area of the air floor. The VR allows all 3 of the crew members to interact while conducting their complicated space walk ballet. These sort of training sessions will be repeated several times as they prepare for the mission. I can see the crew becoming more and more familiar with the spacewalk each time they conduct one of these sessions. And in turn we learn things to make the procedure better. Hopefully both the crew and procedures will be perfect on orbit when we do this for real. But while I watch I also worry - is there something we are missing? Do we need more training? We can always use more training but there is only so much time available.

- Bob Dempsey, Expedition 15 Lead Flight Director