NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab

Diving at the NASA Underwater Neutral Buoyancy Lab

Jonathan Bird

Located in Houston, Texas, NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab is an underwater training facility used to prepare astronauts for the zero-gravity conditions they’ll experience in space. The massive pool houses an exact replica of the International Space Station, and measures 202 feet in length, and is 102 feet wide and 40 feet deep.

During training missions like this one, each astronaut is assigned a team of four divers: two safety divers, one tool diver and one cameraman. These divers assist astronauts wearing a 300-pound underwater spacesuit as they practice the tasks they’ll need to complete in space. The spacesuits are weighted with lead and pressurized to be neutrally buoyant, and training is closely monitored by NASA staff.

More about NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab:

•Safety divers are responsible for moving the astronauts from task to task, and wear two tanks so they can remain at depth throughout the duration of the training.

•NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab is an underwater replica of the International Space Station. It spans roughly the length of a football field, with a maximum depth of 40 feet.

•To compensate for buoyancy and equilibrium, astronauts are equipped with plastic tools on their tool belts. Metal tools are handed to them and taken away by a diver.

•Each astronaut is accompanied by two safety divers, who are prepared to swiftly remove the diver from the water in the event of a suit failure or other underwater crisis.

•Divers equipped with float cams stream live underwater video of the astronauts to the NBL Test Room, where a team supervises the training session on 21 monitors.

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