COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- For a group of West Middle School students, it was a day months in the making.

Hours of class time and preparation came down to the opportunity to train like true astronauts.

"For the whole semester we have been running through the crew catalog as part of their regular cirriculum, and the final event is them flying an actual shuttle mission. It lasts about an hour and it parallels Johnson Space Center astronaut training," Ranganath Weiner said.

Weiner is a teacher at West. He said the students use real-life National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scripts, equipment and procedures during the training.

"It is different than most of the other space programs around the country in that this is an actual training mission where the students do everything that an astronaut does to prepare for an actual shuttle mission," Weiner said.

Weiner's partner, Aerospace Outreach Specialist James Dean, said the materials used to build the simulator come direct from the Johnson Space Center and added the programs have to be released by NASA.

"The kids appreciate that this is as real as it gets. It is not cardboard boxes, this is the real deal, astronauts can come in and train on my simulators," Dean said.

Dean said the students are asked to launch the shuttle, orbit the earth and then safely land the shuttle.

He said they are separated into two teams, shuttle crew and mission control.

The students said they appreciate the opportunity and will use what they have learned in the future.

"I plan on being an aeronautics engineer, so I feel this is giving me some background knowledge for the future," Joshua Munson said. 

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