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About the mission and the training

Statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first person to go to space.

For much of the last year and a half, I have been in training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, about an hour's drive northeast of Moscow. The region is picturesque and the climate and terrain are similar to that of eastern Canada.

For the first 12 months, I took a course leading to certification as a Soyuz flight engineer. In November the European Space Agency (ESA) invited me to train as a backup astronaut to Roberto Vittori for the upcoming Italian Soyuz Mission, also known as Eneide. ("Eneide" is Italian for The Aeneid, the epic poem by Virgil about the voyages of Aeneas and the founding of Rome.) This invitation is an example of the collaboration between the astronaut offices of the Canadian and European Space Agencies. ESA has a strong space science program and a reputation for developing high quality payloads, so I was eager to undertake this new endeavour.

Launch of Soyuz TMA-5 with the Expedition 10 crew onboard.

Roberto Vittori will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz TMA-6 vehicle on April 15 with the ISS Expedition 11 crew, and dock with the International Space Station (ISS) two days later. While aboard the ISS, Roberto will conduct several different experiments and technology demonstrations on behalf of researchers from Italy and other European countries. On April 24 he will return to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-5 with the Expedition 10 crew who will have just completed a six-month tour of duty.

Prior to his selection as a European Space Agency astronaut, Roberto served in the Italian Air Force as a test pilot. We first met in 1998, when we joined the same NASA class of astronaut candidates. Over the years, we occasionally trained together on space shuttle and ISS systems. Being married to an Italian-Canadian from Montreal has been of benefit since my wife Brenda had already introduced me to Italian culture and customs. Furthermore, my backup for the 1996 Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission was Dr. Luca Urbani of the Italian Air Force. So you can see that I have a special bond with Italian colleagues.

Bob Thirsk shows a camera to Roberto Vittori.

My training program for the Eneide mission was identical to that for Roberto since, in the unlikely event he would be unable to fly, I would replace him and complete all objectives of the mission. Therefore my program included training as the flight engineer for the launch, rendezvous and descent of the Soyuz vehicle. I also trained on all of the scientific payloads and on some of the ISS systems.

Bob Thirsk, centre, with the other two backup crewmembers: American astronaut Dan Tani, left, and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

Even though I am backing up Roberto Vittori, I have spent much of my time in Star City with two other people: Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronaut Dan Tani. Mikhail is the Commander of the Expedition 11 backup crew while Dan is the backup Station Flight Engineer. Meanwhile, Roberto has spent most of his time training with the Expedition 11 prime crew: Commander Sergei Krikalev and Station Flight Engineer John Phillips. While the two crews followed identical training programs, we trained separately.