Civilians Get Military-Style Survival Training

Seven members of the 2009 class of NASA astronaut candidates recently completed water survival, aviation physiology and aviation indoctrination flight training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida.

The initial cadre of NASA astronauts in 1959 were all military pilots, so each had already gotten flight and survival training. Today's astronauts are a mix of military and civilians, and have diverse backgrounds.

"As we began to select civilians, it made sense to give them similar training to what the military candidates brought to the program," said Duane Ross, NASA's manager for astronaut selection and training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The Navy survival and flight training is exactly what we needed, they're easy to deal with, and they were able to work with the [candidates] schedule."

The entire class consists of 14 aspiring astronauts, who started their training by honing their survival skills with the Center for Security Forces (CENSECFOR) detachment in Brunswick, Maine. The group travelled to the Navy's 12,500-acre Rangeley mountain wilderness training facility, where they learned land survival, navigation and field medicine.

"We usually get to train new aviators at the beginning of their careers, but these NASA candidates are already experts in their chosen fields, as all of the civilians hold advanced degrees," said Hull Technician 1st Class Michael Pavlovick, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape instructor at CENSECFOR. "These guys learned very quickly, and have an amazing work ethic. Their two-day field survival exercise went extremely well; I can see why they were chosen for the astronaut program."

Following their land survival training in Maine, the seven non-aviators in the class travelled to NAS Pensacola for water survival, aviation physiology and flight training, including flight training in simulators, familiarization flights and instrument training flights in the T-6A Texan II turbo-prop aircraft.

Lt. Col. Kenneth Devero, the training officer for Training Airwing 6 was the project manager for the candidates during their month-and-a-half stay at NAS Pensacola.

"The candidates training with us in Pensacola are mission specialists, not pilots - so they need to receive flight training very similar to what we give our naval flight officers (NFO)," said Devero.
"Although they don't get the full NFO syllabus, the training provides a great aviation orientation for the [candidates]."

"I expected the flight training to be tough," said Dr. Janette Epps, an aerospace engineer. "But with our abbreviated syllabus they really throw a lot at you and expect you to learn quickly. Since we will be flying in the T-38 Talon jet trainer on a regular basis with NASA, this is exactly what we need."

The NASA class of 2009 is focused on the International Space Station, as current plans call for the space shuttle to be phased out by the time they complete their training. The term 'international' also applies to this class of candidates; in addition to the nine U.S. candidates, five international members, including three Japanese and two Canadian candidates, have joined the class.

With their aviation indoctrination complete in mid-November, the candidates returned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to continue their astronaut training, which includes scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, extravehicular activity (space walks), and robotics. The entire candidate syllabus takes approximately 18 months to complete.

FMI: www.nasa.gov