When do crews disband?

When does a shuttle crew look at each other together for the last time
and then go their separate ways? It must be kind of sad, when they have
spent so much time training--especially these pre-Columbia crews--and
flown a mission together to finally wrap it up and move on. Something
about this crew made me feel they are especially close. I definitely
got a sense of family at the press conference yesterday.

Mark Lopa

wrote in news:1153226527.850454.257670@
35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

When does a shuttle crew look at each other together for the last time
and then go their separate ways? It must be kind of sad, when they have
spent so much time training--especially these pre-Columbia crews--and
flown a mission together to finally wrap it up and move on. Something
about this crew made me feel they are especially close. I definitely
got a sense of family at the press conference yesterday.

The crew stays together until after the postflight debriefs are complete,
which can take several weeks. The real "this is it" moment is when their
training manager (who runs their schedules while they're training together
as a crew) hands them back to the Astronaut Office schedulers. Often at
that point individual crewmembers will move to different offices as they
start their next assignments. This can be a very gradual process - Steve
Robinson and Andy Thomas still share the old STS-114 crew office, though
they're the only ones left.


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JRF

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I imagine its a bit like contract workers. You can have a job for years,
then they don't need you any more. Often, some contact will be kept, as in
the case of Astronauts, they have still got quite a rare profession, after
all, and probably do meet if they stay in the program. Some of course, who
through age, family decisions, or lucrative offers, do other things, so then
its probably more like ex work colleagues, maybe phone contact for a while,
but people drift apart. it does not mean they don't think about each other
of course, its just life has a way of prioritising stuff!

Brian

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"Jorge R. Frank" wrote in message
...
wrote in news:1153226527.850454.257670@
35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

When does a shuttle crew look at each other together for the last time
and then go their separate ways? It must be kind of sad, when they have
spent so much time training--especially these pre-Columbia crews--and
flown a mission together to finally wrap it up and move on. Something
about this crew made me feel they are especially close. I definitely
got a sense of family at the press conference yesterday.

The crew stays together until after the postflight debriefs are complete,
which can take several weeks. The real "this is it" moment is when their
training manager (who runs their schedules while they're training together
as a crew) hands them back to the Astronaut Office schedulers. Often at
that point individual crewmembers will move to different offices as they
start their next assignments. This can be a very gradual process - Steve
Robinson and Andy Thomas still share the old STS-114 crew office, though
they're the only ones left.


--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.