Training ISS crew in ATV docking

This just in this morning from Lionel Ferra, ESA’s ATV training expert based at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. This week, Lionel and his colleague Oleg Polovnikov are in Russia at the TsUP Mission Control Centre – Moscow (MCC-M), where they are conducting refresher training for astronauts Paolo Nespoli and Alexandr Kaleri on their roles during next week’s ATV docking. Lionel wrote:

This week, Oleg Polovnikov and myself conducted the final crew training from Moscow (TsUP). On 17 February, the main ATV docking training session took place remotely via ground-to-space voice, video and data link. The astronauts – Paolo and Alex – had a very dynamic lesson using a high-fidelity simulator onboard the Russian module where ATV will dock. Our on-board training (OBT) covered nominal and off-nominal scenarios for Johannes Kepler rendezvous (rdv) and docking. These ‘rendezvous drills’ are an integral part of crew training for Rdv operations.

Training ISS crew in ATV docking

Once the nominal and off-nominal – i.e. contingency – scenarios had been practiced and reviewed with Oleg and myself as the instructors on ground, we proceeded to a ‘dynamic’ session. In this, the two crewmembers played their respective roles as for the actual docking on 24 February. Throughout the various scenarios, ATV Operator 1, Paolo Nespoli, and ATV Operator 2, Alexandr Kaleri, reported progress in tandem via space-to-ground voice loop and reacted to the malfunctions that were injected into the simulator.

The crew will conduct additional malfunction proficiency training on Monday, 21 February, just three days before docking. This will allow the instructors to have a final word with them before the real operations on Thursday. All the best from Moscow – Lionel

We’ll have more from Lionel and the crucial training role played by the teams at EAC later here in the blog.