Orion Spacecraft Crew Exit Tests 2015 NASA Johnson Space Center

Orion & SLS playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL57B48E4271D610C8Public domain film from NASA.https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-tests-crew-exit-strategy-for-orionOct. 8, 2015: When astronauts come home in Orion from deep-space missions, they’ll need a strategy for a safe and efficient exit. At NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, teams are performing a series of tests Oct. 6-8 to evaluate the most efficient way for astronauts to get out of the spacecraft after weeks or months away from Earth.Orion will send crews to destinations where humans have never traveled before, including to an asteroid and on to deep space destinations including Mars, then bring them safely back. While engineers around the country are developing and building systems to support crews far from Earth in the harsh environment of space, teams also are continuing to develop techniques to ensure the final phase of the astronauts’ journey – getting back to dry land -- is successful.“When astronauts come back to Earth in Orion following the first crewed flight, they will have been away for long periods of time, so we want to be prepared to get them out of the spacecraft quickly in a variety of scenarios,” said Tom Walker, rescue and recovery lead for Orion. “The work we’re doing this week allows us to test out crew egress procedures using a mockup of Orion in the water.”The buoyancy lab, NASA’s 6.2 million gallon pool that is primarily used to train astronauts underwater for spacewalks, provides a controlled environment where recovery personnel can practice techniques to assist people getting out of a test version of the crew module. The facility previously has been used to develop ways to approach and harness Orion for its first flight test last year, known as Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, and to develop manual uprighting procedures, if they were to become necessary.During the three-day testing, personnel are simulating arriving to a spacecraft floating in the Pacific Ocean and what it will take to assist the crew as they exit. They will also evaluate the layout of equipment inside the spacecraft that affects exit and the gear used during the recovery process....The work builds upon the development and execution of recovery procedures and equipment used for the uncrewed EFT-1, which will be modified from lessons learned and used during Exploration Mission-1, NASA’s first flight of Orion atop the agency’s Space Launch System rocket...Test subjects, including both astronauts and engineers, will not be wearing the Modified Advanced Crew Escape spacesuits being developed for Orion during the evaluations but will instead wear garments and equipment that will limit mobility in a similar way as a spacesuit would to make the scenario more realistic...Orion is designed to sustain a crew that has splashed down in the ocean for up to 24 hours if it were to land off course and need to wait for recovery personnel. Astrona