#mike fincke

[humanoidhistory]

May 27, 2011 -- A fish-eye view of astronaut Greg Chamitoff on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. You can see the photographer, Mike Fincke, reflected in the helmet visor. (NASA)

[everybittexas]

The pool is 202 feet long, 102 feet wide, and 40 feet deep. It holds 6.2 million gallons of water. And somewhere in the middle of all that — suited up, weighted to neutral buoyancy so he neither sinks nor floats — is NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, rehearsing what it feels like to be weightless. This is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. It's where spacewalks get learned before they get lived. The whole idea is almost absurdly elegant: you can't practice floating in space while you're standing on Earth, but you *can* submerge an astronaut in an enormous tank of water and get pretty close. Not perfect — water has drag, space does not — but close enough to wire the muscle memory, close enough to run the drills, close enough to matter when it counts. Fincke has been here before. Many times. The man has logged more American spacewalk time than nearly anyone in history, which means he's spent a significant chunk of his career essentially doing slow-motion underwater construction work while wearing a suit that costs more than most houses. By December 2023, he's training again — methodical, deliberate, going through procedures that have to become automatic before you trust them 250 miles above the atmosphere. There's something almost meditative about the NBL photographs. The massive tank. The suited figure suspended in blue water, surrounded by support divers in wetsuits. Full-scale mockups of International Space Station components sitting on the pool floor like the world's most expensive aquarium decorations. It looks nothing like space and yet it's the closest thing we've got down here. Johnson Space Center doesn't always get the romantic billing that Kennedy does — Kennedy has the launches, the fire and the thunder, the thing that makes your chest vibrate from miles away. Houston has the math. Houston has the training. Houston has the quiet, grinding preparation that happens years before anyone lights a rocket. The phrase *Houston, we have a problem* became iconic precisely because Houston was the voice on the other end of the line when things went wrong — the people who had thought through contingencies, who had done the reps. The NBL is that ethic made physical. Six million gallons of patience. It makes you wonder how many hours of underwater training translate into a single hour of actual spacewalk — and whether, when you're finally out there with nothing between you and the void, you even remember the pool at all, or if the body just knows.

[earthlings1997]

Who is Mike Fincke, NASA Astronaut Whose Medical Condition Sparked ISS's First-Ever Medical Evacuation?

Mike Fincke is one of NASA’s most experienced astronauts, a veteran spaceflight professional whose decades-long career has been defined by technical expertise, operational leadership, and extended missions aboard the International Space Station. In early January, however, his name drew widespread attention for an entirely different reason. Fincke publicly identified himself as the astronaut whose…

Who is Mike Fincke, NASA Astronaut Whose Medical Condition Sparked ISS's First-Ever Medical Evacuation?

[narratorquestionmark]

NASA'nın Erken Dönüş Kararı, Uzayda İlk Tıbbi Tahliye Oluyor

ABD Ulusal Havacılık ve Uzay Dairesi’nde (NASA), bir ilke yol açan sağlık kriziyle ilgili belirsizlik sürerken Uluslararası Uzay İstasyonu’ndaki (UUİ) erken dönüş kararının merkezindeki ismin deneyimli astronot Mike Fincke olduğu doğrulandı. Fincke ve ekip arkadaşları, NASA astronotu Zena Cardman, Japonya Uzay Araştırma Ajansı’ndan Kimiya Yui ve Rusya Federal Uzay Ajansı Roscosmos’tan Oleg…

NASA'nın Erken Dönüş Kararı, Uzayda İlk Tıbbi Tahliye Oluyor

[alittlefurtheroutoftheway]

NASA'nın Erken Dönüş Kararı, Uzayda İlk Tıbbi Tahliye Oluyor

ABD Ulusal Havacılık ve Uzay Dairesi’nde (NASA), bir ilke yol açan sağlık kriziyle ilgili belirsizlik sürerken Uluslararası Uzay İstasyonu’ndaki (UUİ) erken dönüş kararının merkezindeki ismin deneyimli astronot Mike Fincke olduğu doğrulandı. Fincke ve ekip arkadaşları, NASA astronotu Zena Cardman, Japonya Uzay Araştırma Ajansı’ndan Kimiya Yui ve Rusya Federal Uzay Ajansı Roscosmos’tan Oleg…

NASA'nın Erken Dönüş Kararı, Uzayda İlk Tıbbi Tahliye Oluyor

[lunastation]

Boeing CFT crew member Mike Fincke with backup Butch Wilmore (underwater) EVA training in 2019.

(Photo: NASA/James Blair)

[124daisies]

Expedition 9 official photo

[thedailyfeed-blog]

Today, astronaut Mike Fincke will spend his 378th day in space, breaking the record for longest time in space by a U.S. astronaut. When Endeavour returns June 1, Fincke will have spent more time in orbit than the shuttle Endeavour has logged in its entire 19-year career.