Is NASA all buddy-buddy with the oil industry? Or is the agency so strapped for cash that it’s willing to rent out its facilities to non-space people? Take your pick of conspiracy theories because NASA’s now offered up underwater training facilities to oil companies with offshore drilling operations.Raytheon, the operations contractor for NASA’s underwater facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, partnered with Petrofac Training Services to put unused pool space to use training offshore drilling crews on survival techniques. According the NASA, International Space Station crews will still be trained at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory—aka giant training pool—for space walks. But with the shuttle program shut down, astronaut training has become far less time-sensitive. With the facility sitting idle, Raytheon has put the pool up for rent to rake in some cash and help keep up with maintenance costs.The pool itself is 202 feet long, 102 feet wide and 40 feet deep. A crowning feature of the Sonny Carter Training Facility, the pool holds an astounding 6.2 million gallons. To prep the tank for oil field worker survival training, a transparent 12-foot faux floor is being installed in designated areas because, unlike space walk training, the oil survival classes will focus on avoiding submersion.According to a release,The core courses are helicopter underwater egress training; basic offshore safety induction and emergency training; and further offshore emergency training. The partnership also will expand into the delivery of emergency response and crisis management training for oil, gas and other industry sectors by using the NBL’s on-site test control rooms.As protective as some NASA diehards may be of its facilities, the slowdown of NASA’s manned space operations leaves the agency in a bit of a quandary. With huge training facilities sitting dormant, the agency is faced with either blowing its budget maintaining them, demolishing decades worth of construction during what is likely a relatively short lull in operations, or putting them to use.Raytheon, as the operations contractor, has an interest in maximizing the profit potential of the facilities, which theoretically saves NASA money and keeps the facilities in tip-top shape. And as far as drilling companies are concerned, an off-shore oil rig is isolated and failure of critical systems is deadly. Training in space facilities seems like a natural choice. So while it may not be as exciting as training actual astronauts, partnerships like this are a smart way for NASA to keep its core facilities running.
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