Did You Know Astronauts Train Underwater? Engineer Glenn Butler, CEO Life Support Technologies knows because he's been involved. Glenn was the principal consultant for NASA-Johnson Space Center to engineer zero-gravity simulation breathing systems and develop new oxygen safety standards for the astronaut training program - designed to support the then Hubble Space Telescope emergency repair mission. They were the first to figure out they needed to use NITROX instead of AIR to be able to extend the space walks long enough to fix what had to be fixed.

Glenn Butler is my guest today in honor of the Space X launch. Be cool to understand better how the 4 astronauts on board (3 men one woman) trained to spend 6 months - working, doing science research and sleeping in space - weightless. I offered to teach them how to 'act' weightless, ageless and timeless but they called Glenn instead. 

Glenn Butler has more than 35 years experience in military and commercial diving, and clinical hyperbaric operations. He has developed and/or operated twenty (20) plus major hospital-based Hyperbaric Medicine programs internationally. He's involved with NASA and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) clients ongoing. A founding member of the National Board Certification for Hyperbaric Technologists, he's also is a member of the UHMS Hyperbaric Safety Committee. He served for many years as a member of the NFPA-99 Hyperbaric Technical Committee. He has authored several HBO2-related U.S. patents and published more than 36 scientific documents.

Glenn's new book will be released shortly. It's for anyone interested in science and diving. It's about mentorship and passing on what he's learned to the next generation. Very cool. 

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The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) is operated by NASA. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia The 6.2 million gallon tank includes mock ups of International Space Station modules and other training materials.