Feb 15th 2008
Star City, Russia
Today I completed the last of my Astronaut medicals today. Been 3 weeks of medicals between NASA and here in STAR CITY, Russia.
I am officially astronaut medically validated and flight status ready for training. My first day of training consisted of SOYUZ TMA Design and Layout sessions. Russia's Soyuz transports, used today to ferry cosmonauts and astronauts to the International Space Station, are the longest serving manned spacecraft in the world. The ISS has to depend on Russia's Soyuz transports for crew trips to space and back to Earth. Included in the training is theory, Soyuz design and layout classes and many hours in the simulators. We were also provided highly sensitive procedure manuals and information on the Soyuz to take home to the profi to study.
We were asked to complete and sign a disclaimer to prevent us from selling Russian technology to China in particular. China buys space technology from Russia.
We were also advised not to photograph blueprints, photocopy or keep any type of data on our laptops pertaining to the Soyuz Spacecraft. An interesting start to the day.
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