Marathon simulation readies Shuttle team for return to space

If the Space Shuttle Mission Management Team (MMT) was a football team, its members just finished their toughest scrimmage yet. A strenuous, eight-day simulation at Johnson Space Center recently put the team through its paces. Multiple challenges and conflicting data were handed to the team -- all with the game clock ticking.

"There were timeline pressures, conflicting info coming in -- we had to sort out those conflicting mission priorities," he said. "It's one thing to do it around the board table; it's another to do it with the mission clock running."