Touring the NBL

At this year’s Space Exploration Educator Conference (SEEC) in Houston, I was given an amazing opportunity to tour the NASA Neutral Buoyance Laboratory (NBL).

If you’ve ever wondered how astronauts practice spacewalks without actually leaving Earth, the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) is the place where the magic happens. The idea of using underwater training goes back to the 1960s, when NASA realized that neutral buoyancy, essentially floating as if weightless, was one of the best ways to rehearse spacewalks. Early experiments took place in smaller pools, but by the late 1980s NASA knew it needed something much larger for the then‑planned Space Station Freedom. The old Weightless Environment Training Facility just couldn’t hold full‑scale station mock‑ups, so NASA purchased an existing McDonnell Douglas building in the early 1990s and transformed it into the massive facility we know today.

The NBL officially opened in 1995, and by 1997 it was fully outfitted with the enormous 6.2‑million‑gallon pool that now supports astronaut training for the International Space Station. Inside this giant tank, astronauts suit up and work with life‑sized mock‑ups of ISS modules, robotic arms, and visiting spacecraft - all under the watchful eye of expert dive teams who help choreograph each task. Training here evolved from decades of earlier neutral buoyancy experimentation and remains a critical part of preparing astronauts for spacewalks today.

Heading into the NBL! - Photo: J. Montiel

While tours of the facility can be taken from the observation deck, our tour was going to be on the pool deck! These tours are not easy to get, and I have to admit that I still can’t believe that I was invited! The week before the conference, I received a call from a friend in Houston who swore me to secrecy, and then asked if I was free on the Friday morning of the conference. They told me that they were taking this tour and wanted me to go along with the group, but I couldn’t tell anybody! Thankfully I was scheduled to present on Thursday, so I absolutely would be available for this opportunity!

Jumping for joy at this opportunity! - Photo: J. Montiel

I arrived at the facility, and at the guard house I gave the name of my guide. The guard could not find her name or mine! He directed me to the side of the road so others could get through, and then eventually joined me with a clipboard. At this point I was frantically texting my friend asking if I had the wrong name, and what I should do. After speaking with the guard and repeating the first and last name of my guide, he finally found it. Apparently her name has a spelling that the guard was not familiar with, so he was reading it differently than I was pronouncing it! Thankfully he waved me through to the parking area.

Once inside, I was greeted by a very nice person at the desk who asked me to have a seat until the rest of my party arrived. The entry area was quite small (again, not many visitors), but they did have a small assortment of NBL-tagged gear you could purchase that you couldn’t get anywhere else! I may have spent too much, but when was I going to get this opportunity again!

Once the rest of the group arrived, we started the tour!

The NBL - One of the largest pools in the world!

As we started to climb the stairs to the pool deck, I started coming to grips with the size of this facility. It is MASSIVE!

Once on deck, we saw the line of gear laid out for the divers that were going to be helping the astronauts in the pool. We were in for a treat, as two astronauts were going to be training today! We could see on the other side of the pool a group of people surrounding a platform that had two spacesuits attached to it, and sitting near each one was a person preparing to get in them.

The two astronauts training today were Chris Birch and Jessica Watkins. Chris is a “rookie” astronaut (meaning she hasn’t flown, yet) and was getting more hours for her diving qualification. Jessica was preparing for her second flight as a member of Crew 13, scheduled to fly later this year.

Astronaut Chris Birch

Astronaut Jessica Watkins

We got to get quite close to the team preparing the astronauts, and saw them get into their suits and test all the fittings as well as have the specialized “tool belts” installed.

An extra special treat was waiting for us as we watched: Astronauts Cady Coleman and Don Pettit were also there to view the dive preparations! I had met Cady on several different occasions in the past, and she was going to be presenting a session at SEEC later that evening. But I had never had the opportunity to meet Don Pettit! Don is our oldest current astronaut, and does some amazing photography! I held it together, but inside I was definitely fangirling!

Don Pettit and some guy!

We were given the opportunity to have a picture taken with Chris Birch once she was ready to dive. As I stepped off of the platform, Don was there and he reached out his hand to shake mine! I told him how much I enjoyed his photography and that I share it with my astronomy students all the time. He said there was more coming, and we took this selfie. Then the workers ushered us away from the platform as they were about to put the astronauts into the water.

The group with Chris Birch as she prepares to train!

This was pretty awesome!

We then got to see the astronauts be lifted by a giant crane and slowly lowered into the water. Chris gave us a little wave as she entered the water, and the diving assistants began disengaging her from the rig.

Four astronauts-Cady Coleman, Don Pettit, Gretchen Greene, Aymette Medina

What a great day!

The NBL is an amazing facility! I am so thankful for the opportunity to take the tour and to see training in progress! I especially want to thank my friends that made this possible. You know who you are, and I want you to know how thankful I am for our friendship.

And thank you, dear reader, for making it this far! I’m just a science teacher that does his best work live and in person, so this putting-things-down-in-writing thing is not very natural to me. I hope that as this blog grows I can improve!

Have you been to the NBL? Do you have any questions about my visit? Leave me a comment below!