SPACEPHOTOS

Astronaut James H. Newman, assigned as a mission specialist for NASA's STS-88 mission, waves as he is submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). The two assigned STS-88 space walkers--Jerry L. Ross and James H. Newman--shared the platform as it was lowered into the water where the pair moments later were training with full-scale mockups of the International Space Station (ISS) hardware with which they'll be working in space. One of those elements will be the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), which will have been launched a couple of weeks prior to STS-88. Once the FGB is captured using the remote manipulator system (RMS) of the Endeavour, astronaut Nancy J. Currie will maneuver the robot arm to dock the FGB to the conical mating adapter at the top of Node 1, to be carried in the Shuttle's cargo bay. In ensuing days, three space walks by Ross and Newman will be performed to make power, data and utility connections between the two modules.