Part VI: Inside the Space Shuttle Sim

  
by KYW's Michelle Durham

Astronaut Chris Ferguson, a Northeast Philadelphia native, invited me into the space shuttle simulator along with his team at the Johnson Space Center.

To say there's a lot to learn there would be an understatement.

(Ferguson:)  "You'll be able to see our speed over here -- this is our Mach number. When you see Mach 7, that's seven times the speed of sound."

The simulator moves to give the astronauts a sense of the jarring and rumbling they'd feel during an actual liftoff.

You are tilted back, with your knees and feet elevated, as you prepare for a liftoff.

When Chris does it, it seems easy:

"Here comes the engines, right at 100, 102, 102. There goes the tower..."

Now it was my turn to try a landing.  I was at at the controls with a little help from Paul Uranga, control propulsion instructor for the space shuttle:

"Now what I want you to do is pull slightly back on the stick. Five feet to go...touchdown!  Now bring the nose down -- push forward.  Excellent! Good job."

Bill Ramsey is the sim control.  I asked him how badly I really did.

"Not that bad. Coming in you had 196.1 (knots airspeed) -- that's pretty good. Sink rate of 2.4 (meters per second) -- astronauts put it down pretty close to 1."

(Want to see Michelle's report card?  Click here.)

Then he wanted to interview me:

(Ramsey:)  "Do you want to be an astronaut?"

(Durham:)  "Absolutely!"

VIDEO: Astronaut Ferguson and his crew take Michelle for a ride aboard the Shuttle simulator