MS. STILSON: Daniel from New Plymouth asks what do the astronauts do in the last five days before launch?
MS. HIRE: Well, it's actually, again, a very exciting time because you're getting closer to actually doing that thing that you've
been preparing for, for so many years. Just the travel to the Kennedy Space Center is a big milestone for us. The crew is in quarantine.
We don't want anyone to catch a cold or any type of illness that they can spread to the rest of the crew or that might degrade
their own performance during the flight. So we keep them quarantined to make sure that they're not exposed to germs or viruses.
However, there are certain people who are cleared in and able to interact with the astronauts, including a very few of their family members.
Once they come to the Kennedy Space Center and they're within this short period of time before the flight, they go through the final
updates for the mission, for the things that may have changed, do a few more rehearsals.
For instance, the crew will be flying Shuttle Training Aircraft where they practice the final approach and landing of the Space Shuttle
and just to remind them of this and get a couple more practices in before they actually fly.
And then get a very short period of time to actually relax with some close family members before they go off and,
again, just start accomplishing all these tasks that they've been preparing for, for years.