How to Train Like an Astronaut for a Day

There’s really only one way to train like an astronaut for a day, in a program created with the help of real veteran astronauts and on equipment designed by NASA. Go where they have the real stuff--Kennedy Space Center in central Florida.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Choose your Shuttle crew. You can team up with your family or your co-workers or go it alone. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers a 1-day individual Astronaut Training Experience (ATX), 2-day Family ATX and custom Corporate ATX.
2. Pick a date and make reservations online at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex website or call [phone]. The individual ATX costs $250/person. The cost for the family ATX includes overnight accommodations and is $625 for one adult and one child plus an additional $275 for each additional person staying in the same room.
3. Pack shorts or pants and athletic shoes and head for the Experience.
4. Meet your ATX instructors and new teammates and get checked into your hotel around midday of day one, if you take a Family ATX. For an Individual ATX, arrive at the Visitors Complex at 9:15 a.m. for your full-day program.
5. Board a KSC bus for a private tour of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
6. Head to the Training Facility at the Astronaut Hall of Fame to train on the multi-axis trainer, 1/6 gravity chair and other simulators and interactive stations.Learn the ropes from real NASA astronauts.
7. Fly your shuttle mission to the International Space Station with a realistically outfitted mission control and full-scale orbiter mock-up. You’ll perform critical repairs to the ISS and drop off needed supplies. And gain serious bragging rights for your return home.

Tips & Warnings

• The Individual ATX is open to those over 14. Children between 8 and 14 can participate in the Family ATX with parents, grandparents or guardians.
• The 2-day Family ATX also includes a pizza party, a presentation on how to become an astronaut, lunch with an astronaut and a model rocket build-and-launch project.
• The Family reservation price includes overnight hotel accommodations in nearby Cocoa Beach.
• There are height and weight restrictions on some of the simulators.
• Skirts should not be worn.
• Participants should be free of neck and back injuries.