English company buys land in Ohio for astronaut training facility
Blue Abyss, an English company focused on establishing “extreme environment research, test, and training centres,” has purchased twelve acres in Ohio where it plans to build an astronaut training facility.
The property, which is near Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center, will include a 164-foot deep pool, microgravity center, astronaut training center, and a hotel. Brook Park Mayor Edward Orcutt described the facility as a “boot camp for astronauts.”
It appears the company is expecting there to be a lot of commercial astronauts in the coming years who will need training, and anticipates that NASA will not be capable of or interested in providing the service.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Blue Abyss, an English company focused on establishing “extreme environment research, test, and training centres,” has purchased twelve acres in Ohio where it plans to build an astronaut training facility.
The property, which is near Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center, will include a 164-foot deep pool, microgravity center, astronaut training center, and a hotel. Brook Park Mayor Edward Orcutt described the facility as a “boot camp for astronauts.”
It appears the company is expecting there to be a lot of commercial astronauts in the coming years who will need training, and anticipates that NASA will not be capable of or interested in providing the service.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Whether or not the risk of starting up this facility pays off is going to be crucially dependent upon whatever decisions SpaceX makes about procurement of training for the people who will be executing its lunar and Mars projects. If it decides on total or substantial autarky, such training facilities as this will have to scramble for what is most likely going to be quite limited non-SpaceX business for some time.
I would think that SpaceX would be smart to specialize in the skills development of a select type of astronaut that they would be uniquely qualified to bring along… the kind that don’t eat food or drink water, and don’t need toilets or spacesuits!
Oooooo! About an half hour up the road from me!
I could see it as a training base for civilian orbital space station construction. And they will need a hundred or more space construction workers for the next 10 years of work. Plus add in a small crew of on site managers and safety medics.
I just can not see NASA allowing their facilities to be used for it.
LTC SDS,
You wrote: “About an half hour up the road from me!”
Since it is in commute range, maybe you can get a job there and help to train the next generation of civilian astronauts.
_____________
pzatchok wrote: “And they will need a hundred or more space construction workers for the next 10 years of work.”
So this training facility could have work for quite some time, training ten or so astronauts each year.
Once they build rotating space stations, the astronauts may be able to routinely stay for a year, as they could rest and recreate in 1G or 1/2G sections of the station, perhaps avoiding some of the health problems associated with long stays in space.