By Luis Rodriguez

Payload Integration Responsibilities, Astronauts Floating in Space

Payload integration responsibilities include continuous management and coordination of activities among experiment designers and the different NASA agencies. Other responsibilities include configuration control of the experiments from the moment they are accepted for flight, to launch and landing. We train astronauts on the use and operation of our experiments. Some experiments require us to travel to Kennedy Space Center to do final tests just days or hours before launch. Immediately after launch our crew returns to Houston's Mission Control Center to follow up the progress of the experiment while in space. If the experiment requires testing immediately after landing, then our crew returns to KSC. Isn't this is a fantastic job or what?!! Shuttle launch, landing, and Mission Control Center all within a day's work.

Astronauts float in space due to weightlessness or lack of gravity. In order to simulate the effects of weightlessness while on Earth, the astronauts fly a specially equipped aircraft: the "microgravity simulator." This aircraft is also commonly known as the "vomit comet," as its name implies we have a tendency to get sick while flying in it. The simulator is also used to test instruments or experiments before they are actually flown in the space shuttle.