Astronaut

Astronaut Synopsis

Featuring interviews and insight from astronauts who have flown on Apollo, Soyuz, Shuttle and ISS missions.
Beginnings - the origins of the word 'astronaut', and astronauts in science fiction, literature and poetry.
Selection and recruitment - previous astronaut intakes, types of astronaut jobs, interviews, tests and selection/rejection, NASA's 45-page application form.
Astronaut missions - sub-orbital, Earth orbit, rendezvous and docking, ISS, lunar orbit, Moon landing, driving on the Moon, future missions, Mars.
Space suits - purpose, design, components, evolution, potential dangers.
The astronaut's equipment - spacewalk equipment, equipment operated from inside the spacecraft, personal equipment.
Training for Earth orbit - training for weightlessness, spacewalk training, airlock, mission simulation, training for emergencies.
Training for beyond Earth - landing on the Moon, driving the Lunar Rover, asteroid capture, geology fieldwork training, one-sixth gravity mobility training, Mars mission simulations.
The experience of space - arriving in space, views from space, The Earth, Moon rise, the stars, the Earth at night, the aurora borealis, daily life in orbit, the effects of weightlessness.
Working in orbit - experiments, repairs, astronomy, breakdowns.
Personal time in space - leisure, exercise, photography, communications. Epilogue - returning to Earth. Appendices - astronauts' accomplishments, glossary/abbreviations.