NASA, Oil Industry to Share Astronaut Training Facilities

Officials at the American space agency announce that they have recently signed a new agreement with Houston-based Petrofac Training Services, which states that the latter can use some of the astronaut training facilities at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), in Texas.

The meeting was set up by Dulles, Virginia-based Raytheon Technical Services Co., which is the main NASA contractor handling the Sonny Carter Training Facility Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL).

This is the basin in which astronauts train before going to space. It was used for a large number of missions, including some to the Russian Mir space station, the International Space Station and the American space shuttles.

This installation provides a certain feeling of microgravity, allowing astronauts who are getting ready to go to space to practice maneuvers they will perform during spacewalks. Since only a small portion of the NBL is being currently used, NASA decided to take advantage of what remains.

PTS says it will use whatever space the space agency can spare at its installation in order to provide survival training for workers departing for offshore oil and gas drilling operations. These people are at great risk if their rigs are damaged, or if they sink.

According to the agreement, the training sessions will begin this December. By that time, the portion of the basin that PTS workers will use will be converted into an environment similar to what the trainees may expect to find out in the real world.

The massive pool that represents the core of the NBL is 202 feet long, 102 feet wide, and 40 feet deep (61.5 by 31 by 12.1 meters). It contains a total of 6.2 million gallons (23.47 million liters) of water.

“In 2010, NASA selected the Raytheon team to manage and operate the facility under the NBL/Space Vehicle Mockup Operations Contract. NASA allowed Raytheon to use the facility when it is not being used for agency activities,” a statement from the space agency explains.

“The partnership will efficiently use NBL resources while combining the expertise and capability of Raytheon and Petrofac to create a center of excellence for survival training,” the press release adds.

Among the topics that will be taught during the training exercises are emergency helicopter evacuation training, basic offshore safety induction and emergency training, as well as further offshore emergency training.