Astronaut Janet L. Kavandi, mission specialist, checks her communications head gear as she stands on a movable platform. Minutes later she was lowered into a nearby deep pool for an underwater training session at the Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), part of the Sonny Carter Training Center. Kavandi has weights on the training version of her extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) which help to provide neutral buoyancy in the pool. Astronauts Kavandi and Gerhard P.J. Thiele were participating in a rehearsal of a contingency space walk.