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NBL HISTORY
NBL History
Since the mid-1960s, neutral buoyancy has been an invaluable tool for testing procedures, developing hardware and training astronauts. This neutrally buoyant condition simulates reduced gravity sufficiently for the astronaut to practice future on-orbit procedures, such as extravehicular activities (EVA) and to work through simulation exercises to solve problems encountered on-orbit. Some of these exercises are carried out on a real-time basis.
In 1995 Johnson Space Center named the NBL training facility, near Ellington Field, in honor of the late astronaut M. L. "Sonny" Carter, who was instrumental in developing many of the current space-walking techniques used by the astronauts.

Astronaut M. L. "Sonny" Carter

Carter was selected into the astronaut program in 1984. His first mission was aboard STS-33. He was training as a crew member aboard STS-42 when on April 5, 1991, he died in a commuter plane crash near New Brunswick, Georgia. Before he became an astronaut, Carter was a Navy doctor and aviator, and a soccer player for the North American Soccer League.


Sonny Carter Training Facility - Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas
(281) 792-5999 		NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Responsible NASA official: Ronald Lee
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Last Updated: April 4, 2007