Table of Contents
Introduction: Not Your Father's Astronaut Book: But He'll Like It Too! vii
Training
1 Flying Jets: A Prelude to Flying Spaceships 3
2 Speaking Russian (robopntb no PYCCKN): Learning the Language of Your Crewmates 7
3 Paper Bags: Learning Not to Breathe Too Much CO2 11
4 The Vomit Comet: The First Taste of Weightlessness 15
5 Survival Training: Preparation for Space Calamity 20
6 Space Shuttle Emergencies: The Special Hell Created by Simulation Supervisors 31
7 Chez Terry: Styling the Hair of a Superstar Crewmate 36
8 It's Not Rocket Surgery: Medical Training for a Spaceflight 39
9 Mouse Matters: Live Animal Experiments in Space 44
10 Clothes Make the Astronaut: Packing for Six Months in Space 47
11 Astronaut Crossfit: Physical Training for Spaceflight 51
12 Jet Lag (And Space Lag): Adapting Your Circadian Rhythm 55
Launch
13 Dressing for Success (And Launch): A Very Complicated Spacesuit 61
14 When Nature Calls: A Spacesuit Has No Fly 67
15 The Red Button: How and Why a Shuttle Could Be Intentionally Destroyed 71
16 The Ride Uphill: Staying Cool When You're Blasting Off 75
Orbit
17 Learning to Float: How to Cope with Zero G 83
18 How to Build a Space Station: A Painstaking, Piece-by-Piece Process 88
19 Piloting Spaceships: Rendezvous, Docking, and Avoiding Space Junk 95
20 Just Add Water: Space Station Cuisine 103
21 Making Movies: An Entire IMAX Movie Shot in Orbit 108
22 ZZZZZZZZZZ: Sleeping While Floating Is Awesome 115
23 No Showers for 200 Days? No Problem! Bathing in Space 119
24 The Glamour of Space Travel: Going to the Bathroom in Space, Uncensored 124
25 Saturday Cleaning: An Astronaut's Work Is Never Done 129
26 Where Over the World Are We? Recognizing Places on Your Planet 132
27 Bad Bosses: Silly Rules and Bureaucratic SNAFUs 139
28 In Space No One Can Hear You Scream: An Ammonia Leak Threatens the Station's-and the Crew's-Existence 142
29 It Was a Long 200 DAYS: Do ISS Astronauts Make Whoopee? (What Everyone Wants to Ask) 148
30 Dealing with a Dead Crewmember: If a Fellow Astronaut Expires 151
31 Robotic Crewmates: Remote Work Outside the ISS 155
32 Phones, Email, and Other Horrors: Communicating with Earth (Slower than Dial-Up) 161
33 Hearing Voices: How Psychologists Prepare You for What Spaceflight Does to Your Head 164
34 Package Deliveries: Receiving, Unpacking, and Repacking Cargo Ships 170
35 Netflix, Hulu, and Baseball: In-Flight Entertainment 175
36 Fighter Pilot Does Science: Experiments Are the Real Point of the Mission 178
37 Marooned: What to Do If You're Stranded Up There 183
Space Walking
38 The World's Biggest Pool: Training Underwater for Spacewalks 189
39 The Art of Putting on a Spacesuit: And You Thought Launch Was Complicated 198
40 Brief the Flight and Fly the Brief: Don't Fly by the Seat of Your Pants 205
41 Alone in the Vacuum: The Spacewalk Itself 208
Deep Space
42 What You Need to Get To Mars: A Realistic Look at What It Will Take 221
43 The Human Body beyond Earth: The Physical Toll of Long-Term Spaceflight 228
44 Time Travel: Einstein and the Whole Relativity Thing 238
Re-Entry
45 Riding the Roller Coaster: Re-entry Is Not for Sissies 243
46 Adapting to Earth: You Try Walking After Six Months in Zero G 250
47 Tragedy: Being There for the Columbia Catastrophe 256
48 No Bucks, No Buck Rogers: Meeting with Washington Politicians After a Spaceflight 265
49 Space Tourism: What You Need to Know Before Signing Up 272
50 Are We Alone? Is There a Goo? and Other Minutiae: My Take on Some Minor Questions 275
51 What Does It All Mean? The Big Picture 283
Afterword: Isolation: Better on Earth or in Space? 291
Acknowledgments 298
Index 303
Photo Credits 310
