A 4 hour tour...a 4 hour tour. Once we completed our training Extravehicular Activity (EVA) dives for 1 and 2 hours a piece, it was time to complete a full 4 hour EVA. Megan and I were the first team up...

Noel and I splashed down on Friday (Mission Day 9) morning, and 24 hours later we were in full saturation and joined the rest of our crew as official Aquanauts! Before we submerged from the topside...

As we prepare for the mid-mission crew switch, we will keep this blog sweet and to-the-point. Amidst the many EVAs, science objectives, and high operational tempo, one thing to remember at the end of the day is what we are doing...

To launch the Mission Day 6 update, Commander Reid Wiseman sent us his perspective from beneath the waves: "Today kicked off our Mars analog which meant a 15 minute delay was synthetically added to all of our communications between the aquanauts and...

Every morning, 7:30AM at Aquarius Reef Base, the dive support, research, and operations team members meet for 'Tag-Up' so we can review the planned objectives for the day and voice any additional information or questions to the entire NEEMO 21...

We have samples! Today, the EVA team of Matthias and Reid collected our first coral sample for the FIU marine science team. The EVA was just over 4 hours, and they did everything from reef exploration to identify specific species...

For each of the 6 crew members, there are around a dozen or so research and support team members - at a minimum - that make a mission like NEEMO move forward successfully and productively. With so many operational objectives embedded...

It's official! As of 10:28 AM ET on Mission Day 2, Reid Wiseman, Megan Behnken, Marc O'Griofa, and Matthias Maurer are officially Aquanauts after having lived underwater for 24 hours. On that note, both Megan and Reid are now the 49th...

...and we're off! NEEMO 21 splashed down today at 10:28 AM ET. Even with grumbling skies and a few downpours, the crew was ecstatic to hop on the boat and head out to the Aquarius habitat after a 3-day weather delay. After a...

Training week is a wrap! The crew spent Training Days 5 and 6 immersed (literally and figuratively) in learning more about the science objectives and related procedures for the mission. On Thursday, we headed out to a dive site known as...

As mentioned in the previous post, a major part of our crew training week has been learning how to dive the Kirby Morgan Stainless Steel 37, which is a helmet used for surface supplied diving. With this helmet, we...

The fun begins! During June 2016, the NEEMO 21 crew underwent their first round of crew training at Johnson Space Center. In addition to reviewing mission protocol, objectives, and safety, we specifically trained on numerous mission science objectives, including vestibular function...

Dive! Dive! Dive! This is Dawn Kernagis, IHMC Research Scientist and host of STEM-Talk, and I am absolutely thrilled and honored to join the 21st mission of NASA's undersea analog, NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), as both a...