Suggested Searches

2 min read

Flight Surgeons

Flight Surgeons on console
Flight surgeons working on console. A Flight Surgeon is a physician that has specialized training and board certification in Aerospace Medicine. Most flight surgeons are also board certified in an additional specialty such as family medicine or neurology and maintain their certifications in both specialties.
NASA

Personal Doctors to the Astronauts

Given the significant investment in training and preparation for missions, it is critical that flight crew members are kept as healthy as possible. To that end, NASA assigns a special doctor called a ‘Flight Surgeon’ to each crew once they are assigned to a mission. Flight surgeons oversee the health care and medical training when they are preparing for their mission and also take care of any medical issues that arise before, during, or after spaceflight. During a mission, flight surgeons work the console in the NASA Mission Control Center (MCC) under the call sign ‘Surgeon’ and hold weekly private medical conferences with the astronauts. Flight surgeons do not report details of the conferences back to Mission Control, however, if they learn something that could affect the mission, they inform the flight director.

NASA Flight Surgeon Joseph Schmid waits for the Expedition 39 crew members to be extracted from the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft shortly after it landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. Wakata, Tyurin and Mastracchio returned to Earth after more than six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 38 and 39 crews.
NASA

Extensive and Ongoing Training

A Flight Surgeon is a physician that has specialized training and board certification in Aerospace Medicine. Most flight surgeons are also board certified in an additional specialty such as family medicine or neurology and maintain their certifications in both specialties. This extensive academic requirement means that most flight surgeons will undergo an average of 12 to 14 years of undergraduate, medical, residency, and clinical training before earning the title. And the training doesn’t stop there. Flight surgeons must stay current on new technologies and advancements in telemedicine, pharmaceuticals, treatment protocols, and diagnostic techniques to address the challenges of medical care for the crew on-orbit.

Chris Cassidy of NASA is carried to the medical tent
Chris Cassidy of NASA is carried to the medical tent shortly after he and Commander Pavel Vinogradov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos landed in their Soyuz TMA-08M capsule in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Sept. 11, 2013.
NASA

Travel Means More than Just House Calls

In addition to performing regular physicals to ensure astronauts are healthy enough to fly, flight surgeons also provide medical services for the astronaut’s family. Utilizing the Flight Medicine Clinic at Johnson Space Center, these doctors form a close, personal bond with their patients which leads to a better, overall picture of their health—even if it requires a phone call in the middle of the night or a house call. In fact, the flight surgeon is usually one of the first faces a crew member sees after landing. Flight surgeons must frequently travel to launch and landing sites, even the remote fields of Kazakhstan for recovery of the crew after a Soyuz landing.

Points of Contact

Gary Beven
Nancy L. Srb

Share

Details

Last Updated
Jun 20, 2023
Editor
Robert E. Lewis