How do the astronauts spend their time in the event of a postponed flight?
ANSWER from Dr. George Martin on April 3, 1997: During short delays (a day or two), the flight crew stays in Florida, here at Kennedy Space Center. When they are here preflight they are sequestered with relatively few contacts, because of the NASA Health Stabilization Program (HSP). This program has a pretty good track record for keeping the astronauts relatively free from exposures to and contraction of infectious illnesses close to a launch. While waiting during a delay, they perform some testing and last minute practice and refining of procedures. They also do some flying of the Shuttle Training Aircraft or STA. A longer delay would require them to go back to Houston. They would then prepare for the flight as before. Return to top.
