Trips on the C-135 "vomit comet" simulate weightlessness for the astronauts-in-training like Caldwell, top left, and other members of her class.
She applied, along with 2,500 other candidates, for an astronaut position. She made the first cut and became one of 122 people selected to spend a week in Houston undergoing exhaustive screening tests, including psychological testing, physical examinations and interviews.
When it was all over, Caldwell became the youngest member of the 1998 astronaut class and – for a time – America’s youngest astronaut. She was in the top 1 percent of the initial pool and one of 17 mission specialists to be selected. There were also eight pilots. Seven international members later joined the class, including two from Italy, two from Canada and one each from France, Germany and Brazil. The Brazilian is that country’s first astronaut.
Though technically no longer America’s youngest astronaut – a younger woman is in the current training class – Caldwell says she will always retain one other historic distinction: She was the first astronaut selected who was born after the first moon landing.
Training is grueling both physically and emotionally, with all kinds of races, challenges and projects demanded of the fledgling astronauts. There are underwater endurance tests, long-distance races, wilderness hiking — experiences designed to build independence, teamwork, physical strength, ingenuity and intellect.
Caldwell continued to learn and grow following her astronaut training, earning a pilot’s license and learning conversational Russian and Spanish. She has become the only astronaut proficient in American Sign Language, a language she first began studying in high school, where two of her closest friends had hearing disabilities.
As an astronaut, Caldwell has several major responsibilities. She has spent much of the past two years in Russia, where she has worked closely with the cosmonauts and studied Russian culture. One-third to one-half her time has been spent in that country, where she stays for at least one month at a time. She first lived in a mid-city hotel but now stays in a cottage at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, the military base about 25 miles northeast of Moscow where cosmonauts are trained.
