STS 61-A crewmembers training on the KC-135

S84-47177 (17 Dec 1984) --- A recent flight in NASA's KC-135 aircraft gave the STS 61-A/Spacelab D-1 crewmembers a chance to get a preview of weightlessness. Mission specialists Bonnie J. Dunbar and Guion S. Bluford appear to be balancing several payload specialists during a few brief moments of microgravity. With heads near the floor are, left to right, Payload Specialists Reinhard Furrer, Ulf Merbold, Wubbo J. Ockels and Ernst Messerschmid. Ockels is from the Netherlands; the others, from Germany, with Merbold serving as backup.