Astronaut Training

I got a chance to participate in the astronaut training about two weeks ago. I knew basically what happened when they were on the pad but never got a chance to be there while it was going on. Since I am one of the small group of people that has done quite a bit of work on that system since the strike, I got to participate.

After the crew does a complete dress rehearsal inside the vehicle they practice what they would need to do in an emergency to get off of the tower quickly using the slide wire basket system. They get in the baskets and hit the release lever. We have he baskets tied off and locked with chain so that the basket will not go more that a few inches. After that is all done everyone goes down to the slide wire landing area so the crew can practice getting out of the one basket that is fully released and allowed to slide all the way to the bottom. Here is a picture that is posted on the NASA web sight. I just managed to get into it.