From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.
On episode 371, NASA’s Recovery Director discusses the splashdown and recovery process and how she helps to ensure safety, not just for the space travelers, but for all recovery team members. This episode was recorded on January 15, 2025.
Transcript
Host (Leah Cheshier): Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 371, Bringing Astronauts Home. I’m Leah Cheshier and I’ll be your host Today on this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human space flight and more. Long before we launch astronauts to the International Space Station, preparations are already underway for their homecoming. Recovery Operations for missions on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft require dedicated team members from both the commercial provider and from NASA to meticulously plan the movement of all people, boats, spacecraft, and astronauts, ensuring safety not just for the space travelers, but for all recovery team members. Joining me today to talk all things splashdown and recovery is Sam Testa, NASA’s Recovery Director. We’ll dive into exactly what her role entails, the teamwork and logistics required to make a safe recovery possible, and some fascinating facts and stories from the missions accomplished so far. Let’s do it.
Host: Sam, thank you so much for coming on Houston We have a podcast today.
Sam Testa: Thank you guys so much for having me. I’m already having fun,
Host: <laugh>. Yeah, we’re gonna have a good time, but I wanna start, uh, learning a little bit more about you. So where are you from? Where’d you go to school? What did you study, really the foundation of, of everything that brought you here today?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so I’m from, um, a very small town in New Jersey called Neshanic Station. Actually most addresses it’s Branch Burg, um, but we are technically in Neshanic Station, New Jersey. Um, and I went to Immaculata High School for the majority of my time in high school. I actually started out at a high school called Mount St. Mary’s, and then went to Immaculata High School and then went to, um, Villanova for college, Villanova University just outside of Philadelphia, um, in Pennsylvania and did four years there in, uh, mechanical engineering. And then did a fifth year for mechanical engineering masters. Um, and that fifth year is actually when I moved down to Florida and started work.
Host: Oh, okay. So was NASA always on the radar for you? I mean, pursuing mechanical engineering, you obviously had to have some inkling, maybe mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Sam Testa: Yeah, I always wanted to work at nasa. My, um, grandfather was an engineer and inventor and, um, he had always had this deep love of the stars and space and growing up, um, we had, uh, some time where we would spend actually down in Florida, um, in the Stewart area, which is a couple hours south of, um, Cape Kennedy. And, uh, we would come out from dinner and, you know, Florida has such a beautiful dark sky where you can see all the stars, and he would bring me out into the driveway and point out all the constellations and had a telescope that we could look through. Um, and that’s really where my love of space came from, was his passion for space and astronomy. Um, and then the mechanical engineering kind of just fell out of my personality and, and a little bit of his, and my dad’s actually, my dad is, um, kind of an at-home MacGyver, <laugh>, you know, with the bubble gum and a, and a tweezer or a a paperclip. Um, I was always kinda holding the flashlight for him as he was fixing stuff around the house. And, uh, mechanical engineering just kind of fell out of my passion for fixing things and learning how things work.
Host: That is so cool. What a sweet story. Like and a testament to your grandfather’s love for space that now you actually work in it. That’s amazing. Was NASA your first job after you graduated?
Sam Testa: Yeah, it was, um, in 2014, my sophomore summer, I actually started as an intern at the Kennedy Space Center in a software engineering group, um, where I quickly realized that software was not my passion <laugh>. Um, I was the only mechanical engineer supporting a lot of electrical computer software engineering, um, and enjoyed the work, learned a lot, learned a lot about coding, and, um, was doing work that kind of merged mechanical in software, which was really interesting. Um, but very quickly realized that’s not what I wanted to do 40 hours, 50 hours a week every week for the rest of my life. Um, and had the very fortunate opportunity to come back with a design engineering group at Kennedy, um, the following year. So my junior summer, um, did an internship with them and then that’s the group that hired me on when I graduated senior year. And, uh, I finished my fifth year master’s virtually while working full-time in that group.
Host: Oh, how nice. And this is my, this is my plug for internships because obviously you might not have known, you might have thought that you loved software engineering until you had that opportunity to try it out for a few months and then decided, like you said, you liked the work and you liked being there, but it wasn’t the exact thing you wanted. So this is my plug for NASA internships. Yeah, everybody come try it out.
Sam Testa: Huge plug for NASA internships. Um, I started as, uh, it was called NFS back then. Yeah, I think it’s called OIF now internships, which is kind of just the summer. Um, and then came back as a Pathways um, intern, which is more of a co-op. Um, and was very fortunate to do that. Kinda gave me my foot in the door. I got to meet a lot of people. Got to meet the design engineering group actually in my first internship, which is where I got my internship the second time around. Um, and just got to see what NASA was doing and all the different things they were doing and got to really find my footing and find what I love to do.
Host: We have very similar stories because I started as an intern too, so I love that a lot of people at NASA did and, and, uh, stay for a really long time. So it’s a great way to start your career. Um, what other roles did you hold at NASA before you became the recovery director?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so I’ve been at NASA, I think I’m going on 11 years now. Um, and so I started kinda in the software and then moved to mechanical. I was a design engineering kind of support for a while and worked on things like, um, Artemis and the mobile launch tower for the Artemis and SLS vehicles. Um, I worked on the Orion Ingress platform, which is what the astronauts kind of use to get into the Orion capsule when it’s on the launchpad before they launch that day. Um, I worked on a couple of the umbilical arms that, um, bring commodities to the vehicle before it’s launching out on the launch pad. And then I think one of my favorite ones when I was a design engineer was, um, the centrifuge team. So I actually worked with a lot of JSC people, um, as the only Kennedy person I was the mechanical design engineer on the project for centrifuge training for the NASA astronauts who are flying with the commercial crew program. So we, um, reestablished kind of human centrifuge training in the United States after the, um, Apollo and shuttle programs. We had kinda let it drift. Um, shuttle didn’t have nearly as many Gs or acceleration loading, um, as the Apollo program did, and a capsule, um, going to kind of more airplane shaped, uh, vehicles. The capsules themselves had more load. Um, now that we’re flying with SpaceX and Boeing we’re back to capsules and, and even Artemis, the Orion, uh, is a capsule. And so the loads went up and we decided that it would probably be a good idea to kind of test some of those high G loads and make sure the crew could reach everything they had to, and, um, kind of operate all the different, um, switches and buttons they would need to at any phase of flight, some of the emergency procedures. And it eventually turned into required training, um, for the crew and the astronaut candidates, um, the new crew and then the assigned crew. Um, and that was super fun. I loved that project.
Host: That sounds super fun. Did you test it yourself, <laugh>?
Sam Testa: I did. I was the test dummy. Um, I was the first person in the centrifuge. Um, once we designed the hardware, we were up in Dayton, Ohio at Wright-Patt Air Force Base, and those guys were phenomenal absolute experts in what they do. Um, we designed a couple emulative displays, so they were basically mock displays of what we had in both the SpaceX and Boeing capsules so that we could have various sized people, um, under g load, reach out and flip switches and push buttons and play with, you know, touch screens to make sure they could reach and operate everything they had to at various phases of flight. Um, and I was the first person in and, um, the team likes to say that they think I have the most hours under gx. Um, so GX is chest to back, like you’re laying down on the floor. Um, all the G loads are going through your chest. Um, when you see test pilots go through Cent FE training, they’re under GZ, which is head to feet. That’s why you see them kind of pass out or, um, okay. Yeah, look a little funny. All the oxygen and blood is kind of rushing from their vital organ, so they end up passing out. It’s different for us. Um, and for the astronauts when you’re under GX because they launch kind of in a supine on their back position, um, it just makes it really hard to breathe and reach forward and everything feels like many times more weight than it would normally. So your arm feels like way heavier than it normally would. Um, and it takes more muscles for your lungs to fill with air because it’s pushing against more gravity than it’s used to. Um, and so it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it immensely. So they like to say, I, I might have the most hours for the agency.
Host: Wow, that’s impressive. Okay. I think I could do that. I think I could do GX you could do it. I don’t know. I could do GZ <laugh> maybe. We’ll never have to find out <laugh> <laugh>, but those were a lot of different, uh, different roles. How, how do you think they prepared you for being recovery director? ’cause I mean, they don’t, like, when you look at them from a bird’s eye view, they don’t necessarily all tie together into recovering from a splash down or out in the desert or something.
Sam Testa: Yeah, I had a lot, a lot to learn when I became a recovery director from, from mechanical engineering. It prepared me in the sense that I was working with a lot of interdisciplinary teams and with a lot of, um, we call ’em stakeholders, but they’re basically different teams that, um, are involved in a project or program. I was working with a lot of those teams as a mechanical design engineer, so I knew a lot of the names, I knew a lot of what those teams valued and what their goals were and what they were focused on. And that was really helpful, knowing how to interact with them, um, what they valued highly, you know, what their interests were, um, what their specialties were, things like that. But, um, it was very different from what a recovery director does, so I had a lot to learn.
Host: Wow. Well, moving into that, that side of things into recovery, let’s imagine someone has never watched one of our amazing and fascinating recovery operations <laugh>. Um, can you give us a high level, like 60 second rundown of what all that entails?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so from what, um, you would see from the outside looking in for a recovery is we have the astronauts returning from the International Space Station. We have four astronauts who are a combination of, um, NASA and international partner astronauts. Um, they’re returning with either SpaceX or Boeing and coming back and, and landing back on earth after their mission. Um, on the ISS and for SpaceX, which is what I primarily focus on, um, I do support Boeing as well, but I primarily focus on SpaceX. Um, they are coming down and splashing in the ocean, um, after they, you know, pull their chutes and, um, they kind of gently float down and land and bob around in the ocean. And we have a team of people out there with both NASA, our international partners and SpaceX ready to bring them home. So you’ll see the recovery vessel. We have fast boats and jet skis. We have, um, teams go out and interact with the capsule to kind of rig it up so that we can tow it back to the, the big recovery vessel. We’ll lift it onto the, the boat, um, translate it over, uh, do some checks and then open the hatch. And the crew comes out smiling and happy and their first breath of fresh air since being on station for about six months.
Host: Yeah. So that six month timeframe, give or take a little bit, we have some longer, some shorter. When do you start planning for their return home?
Sam Testa: We start return planning before they even launch. Um, in terms of training, especially, we have our, um, teams ready as soon as they’re getting ready to launch to potentially bring them home. We have what’s called a return after fail to dock team, and that team is, um, prepared and on call in case something happens when that crew is trying to dock to station or on its way up to station. They have any kind of issue and they need to come home. Our team is on, on the hook to go out and, and bring them back just like it was a normal end of mission. Um, before even that, we have training going on with our crews and with our teams to make sure that they’re fully prepared and ready for what they’re going to be asked to do. Um, if it happens early and we have a, you know, early end of mission where we need to bring them home or when it happens nominally, uh, at the end of that six months on station.
Host: I would love to dive into a little bit more about the training. So I know we do tabletop sims. Um, do you do any sort of integrated sims with mission control? How do you prepare for for Splashdown?
Sam Testa: Yeah, we have a couple different sims that we run, like you said, tabletops, where we bring everybody into a meeting and basically run through scenarios, um, that we might see, we hope we won’t see, but that we might see to make sure that everyone’s prepared for what their roles and responsibilities are and um, how they would be expected to respond. Um, but we also do sims on console. Um, we do undock to landing sims or, um, free flight to landing sims where we get to kind of go through and simulate what we would be doing if various, you know, hazardous scenarios or, um, off nominal basically not expected situations arise. Um, and so we don’t do as many console sims as we do tabletop sims. The tabletop sims really allow us to get, um, a smaller, more dedicated team who’s actually in the field together in a meeting to talk through what they’d be doing in the field. The, um, on console sims are more for the mission management teams who are on the console. And as a recovery director with the landing and recovery team, we’re really in the field more than we’re on console.
Host: Yeah, that’s true. And that makes sense, um, because that’s how I was thinking is, you know, it it’s very hard to simulate an actual splash down without doing the actual splash down. Um, but one thing that we do also is HUWET training Helicopter Underwater Egress Training. And I have like an insight into this conversation <laugh>, because I work so closely with the commercial crew and I’ve gotten to do so many of these things. So can you break down what HUWET training is for us?
Sam Testa: Yeah. HUWET is Helicopter Underwater Egress Training, and it’s basically NASA’s equivalent to like military dunker training. It’s like dunker light. Um, so we go out to rely on New Tech, um, which is our provider for per HUWET. And we are strapped into, well first we spend about four hours in a classroom, right? Learning about what we’re gonna be doing, what the scenarios will be, the, uh, PPE or personal protective equipment, um, that we’ll be wearing, which is traditionally a life vest and a heeds bottle, which is, um, like a breathing air bottle, a pony bottle for, for those who are divers. Um, and then we take lunch and the last four hours of the day are in the pool. Um, and we are strapped into what is basically a large barrel with four seats in it. Um, we have some divers out there with us, which we’re very grateful for. Um, and we’re strapped into seats in this big barrel with our, uh, life vests and our air bottles. Um, we are dropped down into the water, flipped upside down underwater, and then told to escape <laugh>. Um, and so we have to, um, take off our harnesses, which are holding us into the seats while we’re upside down. We have to find our way to a window, knock out that window, and then get ourselves to the surface. Um, all starting from an underwater strapped position, um, in this simulated helicopter body.
Host: I know some people love it and some people hate it, but for me it is the closest thing to an action movie that <laugh> I’ll probably ever be in. So I thought it was fascinating. <laugh>.
Sam Testa: Yeah, we get some mixed reviews of the dunker training of the HUWET training that we do. Um, I enjoyed it. There are some people who definitely don’t. Um, we hear a lot about, uh, the water up the nose and the burning sensation. Um, the first time you do it, you come up from the water and when you feel that burning your nose, you’re supposed to yell wasabi <laugh>, because that’s what it feels like. It feels like you ate too much wasabi and it got up your nose. Um, but all in all, it’s a great training for those who enjoy it. We’re very happy that they get to come. For those who don’t, it’s a mitigation to a safety risk. For the SpaceX returns we have, um, helicopters that take us from land out to the recovery vessel before the capsule comes in and reenters the atmosphere. Those helicopters over water, um, could potentially have issues that would have us landing in the water. We hope that that never happens, but we like to be prepared in all circumstances, just in case. And the HUWET training, um, is really a mitigation to make sure that everybody knows what to do. If we were to find ourselves in that very unfortunate situation, how to escape from a helicopter that ends up upside down underwater. Um, and it gives us a, a little bit of comfort and some experience to fall back on if we were to find ourselves in that situation. So for those who don’t love it, it’s helpful for those who love it. We’re glad you enjoyed your time with us. <laugh>.
Host: <laugh>. Well, these missions are part of the commercial crew program. So essentially for, for anyone listening, these are NASA missions, but we are using provider hardware. And since you work mostly with SpaceX, we’ll talk SpaceX specifically. So how do you work with SpaceX to make sure both parties, NASA and the provider? We, we get both of their needs communicated and met.
Sam Testa: The CCP missions, um, are basically where NASA has bought seats on these provider capsules and vehicles. And so, um, we work very closely with SpaceX, um, and their engineers, their recovery experts, um, their mission management teams leading up to every mission. Um, specifically on the recovery side, we’re doing a lot of planning. We’re, um, enacting any changes from the previous mission or things that need, um, updating, um, we’re incorporating lessons learned from our last mission or previous missions where we’ve seen areas we could get better, um, and making those updates or, um, areas where we’re doing really well and we like that. And so we’re making them even more robust, um, because we like what we’re doing and we wanna keep doing it. Um, we have a lot of meetings leading up to, uh, recovery, um, both kind of in the months and, and weeks leading up. Um, but also, uh, we have like the tabletop sims, like we talked about where we’re working with our counterparts and with our, um, assigned teams. And, uh, a lot of conversation. I think open lines of communication are the best way that we’re able to kind of prepare for a mission. It really requires it, um, we have to talk to each other a lot. Things are very fluid and change very frequently with recoveries or, or any mission that’s going on. And so working with the SpaceX team, um, it’s really about making sure those lines of communication are open and, uh, whether we’re having meetings or shooting texts back and forth or phone calls or what have you. Um, it’s all about making sure that that we’re able to talk.
Host: And then recovery training for the crew. What, what do they have to go through to prepare to come home after that six months or more or less in space?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so before they launch, about two months before they’re scheduled to launch, they go through what’s called unassisted egress training, um, out in Cape Canaveral with SpaceX and some NASA counterparts, um, including myself as a recovery director, um, to basically train them on what to do if a recovery goes wrong and they end up by themselves. So there are, um, worst case instances where the capsule could end up in a location, which is not where the recovery forces are, and the crew has to spend some time by themselves before rescue forces can come and bring them home. And so unassisted, um, water egress training gives the crew a chance to, um, in a simulated capsule, in a simulated SpaceX dragon capsule, um, egress alone, just the four of them with the protective equipment that they would have, um, on a bad day if they were by themselves in the ocean. So traditionally, we want the crew to stay in the capsule for as long as they can. They’ve got the time to do it, as long as all the systems are good and the weather’s good, and there’s no reason for them to leave the capsule, we want them to stay. It’s safe, it’s cozy in there. Um, but on a day where they need to get out this training gives them the experience of what that’s like. And so, um, SpaceX has the recovery vessel there. Um, they have a fast boat with some experts on the capsule design and, and the egress, um, operation. We have the hardware for the crews to basically dawn or put on their safety equipment. They open up a simulated hatch. Um, they throw some safety equipment out. They have a life raft that they need to, um, climb into. So they kind of climb out of the hatch, jump into the water, get into their life raft and experience what that would be like, um, if they were doing it in an emergency on a return.
Host: So this is actually in the ocean where they do this, or is it in a pool?
Sam Testa: It’s in Port Canaveral. Okay. So it’s kind of in between. Um, we do it in, uh, port Canaveral. Uh, so we’re not doing it out in open ocean. We’re not doing it in a pool. So it’s a little bit in between, but it is fairly controlled in terms of the environment we’re in. Um, SpaceX traditionally will have somebody, uh, on top of the capsule rocking it back and forth to simulate a little bit more of a, of an ocean environment. But it is, um, very controlled. That’s a fun job. A lot of people want that job. I would love that job ifhey let me do it.
Host: Well, to talk a little bit more about jobs, what are some of the roles for the NASA and the SpaceX team members? Who, who covers what aspect of the return?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so we have a very extensive SpaceX team. We have, um, what’s called the WRL, which is the water recovery lead. They’re really the operations manager, um, when a recovery is happening. We have the mission manager. They’re doing a lot of the planning leading up to mission and also responsible for the cargo. And, um, a strong counterpart to myself and, and the water recovery lead. Um, they have a, um, recovery manager, uh, who’s out there kind of overseeing all of it and there for support. Um, they’ve got power rescue men that are, um, retired and, and work for SpaceX in support of, um, capsule recovery. So they’re usually out there doing the rigging on the capsule. They have firefighters who are there in case something goes wrong with the vessel or the capsule or the helicopters that are landing on the vessel. Um, they’ve got nurses and physicians who are there to support the crew. Um, when they come back, we do a medical evaluation and both NASA and SpaceX have medical teams out there. Um, there’s a, a lot of teams that SpaceX brings out. Um, and then on the NASA side, we have the, um, NASA recovery director who’s really coordinating and leading the NASA team, um, leading up to and on mission. We have a, um, crew recovery chief, we call ’em CRC, they’re out of the, uh, vido office in um, JSC. And it’s usually an astronaut, um, who is responsible for the safety and, um, comfort of the crew. And so they, um, have a lot of responsibility if something needs to change with the crew, um, or if decisions need to be made for, um, the crew to kind of adjust on the fly. That that’s what the CRC helps us do. We have a, a flight surgeon out there and it depends on, um, what nationality astronauts we have as to how many flight surgeons. Um, but they’re there for the health and safety of the crew as well. We have, um, NASA nurses who come out. We have PAO who’s there to cover the recovery. Yeah, shout out to PAO <laugh>, um, <laugh> who’s there to cover, um, the recovery and also help, um, if we have a contingency with the communications out to the public and making sure that everyone’s informed as to what’s happening. Um, we got a lot of people, uh, I wanna make sure that I covered everybody.
Host: If you had to put a number on it, how
Sam Testa: <laugh> I have that number. Really. I do. Yeah. We have 44 active personnel on the recovery vessel, um, up to 19 of which are the NASA landing and Recovery team. We call it the LRT.
Host: How many boats do you have out there? Because I know there’s the main recovery ship, there’s fast boats, there’s jet skis, and then even beyond the boats, we have the aircraft. What does that contingent look like?
Sam Testa: There’s a lot of assets. So we have the larger SpaceX recovery vessel, which has two smaller fast boats and some jet skis, um, which are used to interact with the capsule once it’s splashed down. We have the Coast Guard out there who supports from a landing site security perspective and public safety perspective. So they usually have one to two boats. Um, and we sometimes have, um, another contractor out there, SpaceX contractor supporting from the landing site security and public safety aspect as well. It’s usually two boats, um, total from that perspective. And then we also have air assets that are out there with us. So we have the NASA WB-57, um, which is there for imagery of the capsule return and splash down. Um, we usually have a, um, Kennedy helicopter or two depending on what’s going on, again for imagery. And then, um, SpaceX also has, um, usually one air asset out there that’s doing range surveillance, again from the public safety perspective. Um, and then in addition to all of those, we have the two H 225 Super pumas, which are the helicopters that the LRT is taking to get from land out to the recovery vessel and back, um, in support of the mission.
Host: Do any of those include the Coast Guard or Department of Defense? Do we, do we have them out there helping us when we bring astronauts home?
Sam Testa: Yeah, So the US Coast Guard is out there doing the landing site security and, um, public safety kind of range surveillance role, which is awesome. We’ve usually got one to two vessels. Um, and they’re out there supporting us on scene for that. Um, we very much appreciate their help and service in, in that department, um, and their partnership. Um, but in addition to that, they’re also helping kind of leading up to mission to make sure that the public is aware that there might be some hazardous operations going on in various areas so that, um, we don’t have any issues with the public engaging in, um, the dangerous activities that we have going on or accidentally stumbling across the recovery operation. Um, and then the DOD is, uh, in support of all of our missions, um, throughout various phases for recovery there on call for rescue. Um, if we do have an event where the crew ends up away from the recovery teams, um, and they need support, uh, the DOD would go in and, and help them out. And so we do have those assets on standby, um, to be called in. If we find ourselves in a situation where, where we need rescuing,
Host: Let’s pretend it’s time for the astronauts to come home from the International Space Station, and we are all gathering, all getting ready for splashdown. So what are the criteria that we’re looking at? What meetings are we holding in that timeframe to talk about the return opportunities?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so we’re keeping an eye on the hardware. Um, the capsule and the crew are still on the International Space Station, so they’re preparing for undoing, making sure their capsule’s good, all their cargoes loaded, all of their last checks, and science is complete to their satisfaction before they undock and come home. They’re doing a lot of handover to the next crew. Um, when we bring a crew home, traditionally we have a crew that’s just launched, uh, and so we have two crews on the International Space Station in that timeframe. They’re doing a lot of handover activities to make sure that all the science and research is, um, well executed in the handover, um, and that nothing’s missed or skipped. And so there’s a lot of that going on. There are some goodbyes and things along those lines. Um, but once the capsule’s packed and the cargo’s packed and the crew’s ready and we’re confident that the hardware is ready to go, um, it’s all about weather, weather, weather, weather. Um, Florida especially has a lot of microclimates and we have landing sites all the way from the panhandle, um, in the Gulf down to, you know, middle of the state, uh, in the Atlantic seven total that we could be targeting. Um, and depending on orbital mechanics and the, um, opportunities we have to land the vehicle, coupled with the weather that we have ongoing, um, whether there’s storms and lightning, um, what the sea states are, what the winds are, um, we are looking for the best place, the safest place to bring them home to. And that becomes the majority of the discussion, the closer we get to an undock. Um, and so that week leading up, I’m having meetings with the landing and recovery team to make sure that they are prepared for the different places we could be. They have all the information they need, they’re ready to travel. Um, we’ll be doing some more training actually just before the crew would be undocking. Um, we do a, um, Coast Guard safety vessel training with SpaceX on the recovery vessel to make sure that everyone’s familiar with the area. Some of our landing recovery team members, um, can be new between missions. We don’t necessarily get the same team members every time. And so this training ensures that all of us know, um, what the warning signs are, what the hazards could be on the layout of the vessel, where we should and shouldn’t be, things along those lines. And that happens also in the days leading up to, uh, recovery. And then, uh, we’re holding DMMTs, which are Dragon Mission Management team meetings. Um, they’re held with CCP, SpaceX, um, all of the stakeholder groups that are involved in, um, managing the mission, um, to make sure that, uh, we’re all on the same page as decisions are being made and the right people are making those decisions. Then we’re also holding weather briefings, um, again to talk about the weather. It’s the hottest topic when you get closer to an undock. Um, talking about where we could be landing, when we could be landing, um, what the phasing time will be, which is the time from when the capsule undocks from station to the time it splashes down the number of hours that that takes, that the crew’s in free flight. Um, we’re having meetings sometimes daily, sometimes a couple times a day at all hours to make sure that we’ve really covered all our bases. We know what we’re getting ourselves into, we’re making good decisions, and, uh, everyone’s ready to go when we officially pull, go to undock.
Host: So we have pulled go. I know you love to hear it, <laugh>.
Sam Testa: I do. I love that sound.
Host: And let’s walk through what the actual a homecoming day looks like for any movements for the team. What does that happen? What does that look like?
Sam Testa: So every mission’s different, um, so I’m gonna try and generalize it, but every single mission is a, a different flavor of kind of the same concept. Um, when we’ve pulled go, it’s traditionally at like the undo minus six hour timeframe. And so the team has either, um, already traveled to the staging city where we’re gonna be leaving from to get to the capsule, um, or we’re about to start travel from a central location in Florida. And so, um, we take that time to get the team in a couple different vehicles, you know, ground transport vehicles over to the staging city, or we’re already at the staging city and we’re trying to get as much rest as we can before we kind of deploy for mission. Um, and we deploy in two waves. We have the first team, which is called, um, JIT one, or just in time team. And that team lands in the recovery vessel about five hours before splash down. It includes, um, myself, the NASA CRC, our, our crew chief. Um, it includes, uh, the SpaceX medical team, the NASA medical team, the NASA mission, uh, the SpaceX mission manager, excuse me. Um, and we take those H225 Super Puma helos. We take one of those out to the recovery vessel, um, and land and begin doing our on vessel preparation and checks. Then a couple hours later, the second part of the team JIT two will come out same way, um, on the Super Puma helicopter. That includes our crew, uh, reps who are there, um, from NASA and the various international partners, um, to represent, um, their crew members and support their crew members. It includes our PAO teams, it includes our imagery teams, um, and, uh, anybody else on the SpaceX side who’s coming out. Um, and they land on the recovery vessel. And then everybody’s there, our full 44 are in attendance, um, and we’re finishing final checks, um, ahead of capsule splash down. And so they land that second team lands a little over an hour before splash down. So we get those final checks done, make sure everyone’s, um, ready to go. There’s no, um, challenges that we need to work through, no changes that we need to address. And, uh, everyone kind of takes a break from prep. We wanna make sure that all our prep is done, um, right as the capsule is reentering and, um, when the, the parachutes are about to come out because being on the vessel, we’re only a couple miles away. And so we can usually see it really clearly. Um, especially in the daytime, daytime landings I’ve decided are my favorite because you can see the whole capsule and the drogue parachutes and the main parachutes, and you can see it swing under the canopies and it’s really, really pretty. Um, night missions are great too, because you see this what looks like a massive comet coming straight for you when you’re on the recovery vessel, um, streaming across the sky. And it, it’s just absolutely gorgeous. But once it’s kind of cooled off from the atmosphere, um, unless we have these really big spotlights, which we’re really, um, we don’t get as frequently as I would love, uh, it’s really hard to see the capsule. You just kinda end up seeing these two little red and green lights swinging as they fall down. It’s not as grand an image as daytime. Um, so we all take a break from our various prep, which is complete at that time, and we go to the bow of the ship and we watch, um, the capsule reenter and, and splash down, which is just a phenomenal moment. Everyone is so excited and we’re all kind of holding our breath, and at the same time, we’re all trying to figure out where it’s gonna be coming in from and who’s gonna see it first. And, um, when it finally does splash down, it’s kind of like an all right team break. Um, we’ve got ’em down, they’re in the water time to time to do the job, uh, and we all run back to our stations and get ready for the capsule to be brought on board, um, with the crew so that we can recover them and, and do the things we need to do once they’re on board.
Host: I had the privilege of going to Crew two return, which I still say and tell people is probably one of the coolest experiences, the coolest experiences of my whole life. And it was a nighttime splash down. And so I vividly remember everyone standing together and we’re all trying to pinpoint where the capsule is, and, and we all thought we had it at one point, and that turned out to be a star <laugh> <laugh>. And then you see it come streaking through and it is unmistakable and you feel a little bit silly that you ever thought that a star could look like that. Um, so, but you’re right after the shoots opened and like you said, cool down happens, you just don’t, you don’t see it. And so we didn’t see the splash down itself, but um, still one of the most incredible experiences to this day of my life. So absolutely loved that.
Host: So you’ve seen the spacecraft reenter, splashed down, and it is back to work for everybody on the recovery ship. What’s next for the crew inside the capsule and what are you guys doing on the ship on the fast boats, all of that?
Sam Testa: Yeah, so the crew in the capsule on the water is going to, um, be told that we’re starting our safety checks. Um, we do hazardous gas checks, um, in a safety sweep around the capsule. This is to make sure that we don’t have any leaks, hazardous commodities that could be dangerous to the support staff or the crew themselves as we’re doing the, um, recovery operation. And so SpaceX and the fast boats will start doing, um, smaller and smaller circles around the capsule to make sure they’re not picking up on any hazardous materials or gases. Um, and then once that’s complete, they’ll uh, climb onto the capsule itself, kind of knock on the window to let the crew know that they’re on board and that, um, we’re we’re there to pick them up. And they’ll start doing some rigging, um, with, uh, harnesses and, um, tethers to the capsule so that it can be towed closer to the recovery vessel, which is also making its way closer now that it haz-gas sweeps where we’re clean. And, um, we start, SpaceX starts rigging the capsule for Lift. They have this great A-frame on the back of their recovery vessel that, um, actually translates over the water. Um, they’ll hook up that a-frame to the capsule itself and lift it up out of the water and translate it onto the recovery vessel. Once it’s down on what’s called the Nest, which is a, a big ring, um, on the back that the capsule sits in, they’ll do another, haz-gas sweep, um, to make sure that we haven’t jostled anything and nothing has changed from when it was in the water. We didn’t miss anything there. And then we’ll translate the capsule closer to, um, where the Med Bay is, um, to the Crew egress platform. It actually slides along the back deck of the recovery vessel. Um, and then they do another set of haz-gas sweeps again, just to make sure we didn’t jostle anything to be super thorough. And, uh, once SpaceX has given the go and mission control has given the go, they’ll start the operations for Hatch opening. Once the hatch is open, a SpaceX flight surgeon will jump inside and do a quick check of all the crew members, make sure they’re feeling good, um, ready to be moved, no issues. And then once that’s complete, um, another SpaceXer will jump inside and we’ll start egressing the crew in a predetermined choreography. And so each crew member will come out, they’ll be helped onto a, um, platform that we’ll use to kind of bring them into what we call the Medical Bay. That’s an area where we do, um, medical checkouts of the crew. They’re just coming home from space. , they’ve just gone through some pretty dynamic operations. They’ve been in space for six months and now we’ve un docked them from the ISS. They’ve reentered earth’s atmosphere. They’ve splashed down into the ocean, they’ve been lifted onto this recovery vessel. We wanna make sure they’re feeling good, um, give them, you know, some fluids, give ’em a chance to snack, get them outta their space suits and into more comfortable clothes, um, and get them ready to take their helicopter flight back to, uh, dry land. And so, um, the crew one by one is, um, taken out or egress, um, from the capsule into the Medical Bay or the Med Bay and, um, their medical evaluations and, um, they’re changing outta their suits happens in there. And then once everything’s complete, um, with their flight surgeons and their nurses both on the SpaceX and the NASA or international partner side, um, they’ll often make a, a phone call home. Um, they’ll call their families, let them know that they’re back safe, um, and sound, and that they’re headed back to dry land and back to them, um, to the Houston Space Center, um, quickly following after, after this operation. Um, and then we’ll get them onto the helicopter, which is the same helicopter that the teams have taken out, um, to get onto the recovery vessel. The, uh, inside interior is a little bit different. It’s, it’s meant specifically for the astronauts to bring them back in a configuration that’s comfortable for them. Um, and so we’ll, we’ll get them onto the helicopter and fly them back to a predetermined airport where they start, uh, what’s called baseline data collection or BDCs are Human health and Performance. Um, human Research Program does what’s called Baseline Data Collection with the crew. And it’s basically a series of research experiments that start weeks or months prior to the crew actually launching to the International Space Station. Um, they’re taking measurements of the crew’s, um, physical capability, cognitive ability, um, a lot of different measurements even before they launch and kind of creating that baseline, um, so that when they’re on station, they can continue to take those measurements to understand if anything’s changing while they’re in the zero gravity environment. And then upon return, once they get back to the airport, um, as soon as they can, they take those measurements again. Um, and basically what this does is allows them to understand the changes that these astronauts bodies are undergoing from a one G environment like you and I, you know, hanging out on earth, doing what we do, then spending six months in space where they’re in a zero G microgravity environment and then coming back and readapting to being in gravity when they haven’t been for six months, give or take. Um, and that is really, um, some important science that’s going on with the Human Research Program, um, and the International Space Station program to enable us to go further, to enable us to go back to the moon, to enable us to eventually go to Mars. All of that science and research is, um, giving those scientists the ability to understand how the human body is changing in the microgravity environment and how it’s readapting to gravity. And they’re taking that and extrapolating information that will help us go to Mars long term, go to the moon long term and even beyond.
Host: And all of this happens really fast. So from the time the capsule splashes down to the time the crew members are outta the capsule, it’s an hour or less correct.
Sam Testa: Yeah. So splash down to Crew egress total all four crew members outta the capsule is about an hour, um, often a little bit less. Uh, SpaceX is pretty good that way. And then, um, from the time the crew has gotten outta the capsule and is back doing this research on dry land is about two hours, sometimes even faster than that. Um, and then that research usually takes about an hour. And, um, once that’s complete, we make sure the crew’s comfortable again and get them onto a NASA jet and back to Ellington and Houston where their families are waiting.
Host: And so you essentially could be an astronaut coming home from space. You could be in that plasma trail and six hours later or less be hugging your family members that you haven’t seen in six months
Sam Testa: Just about.
Host: That’s absolutely fascinating to me. Just how quickly, I mean, it’s down to a science at this point almost.
Sam Testa: Yeah, with the changes that are coming up, it’ll be a little bit different. Um, we’ll, we’re gonna figure out the timing and we’re working through the logistics there, but we’ve gotten pretty good at timing it out and, um, SpaceX is really knows what they’re doing.
Host: that was a great breakdown of all of the movements of the team, uh, movements of the crew and what all of the, the vessels are doing during that timeframe. And as of right now, we’ve successfully recovered nine crews off the coast of Florida. So what are some of the ways that your team has adapted during that timeframe to be more agile or just incorporated lessons learned?
Sam Testa: Yeah, flexibility is the name of the game for us. Um, like I said, we have seven landing sites that are scattered across the state of Florida, both in the Gulf and the Atlantic. And, um, we’ve had instances on missions where we thought we would have good weather in one spot, and turns out we didn’t. And we needed to pivot to another and move the team from, you know, one coast of Florida to another, um, which is well over 30 people, um, ground-based and not including all of the people on the SpaceX side who need to kind of fly via helicopter over to the other recovery vessel. Um, because we do have to to cover both coasts, um, which enables us to do that thankfully, so that we can get our crews the safest weather possible. Um, but it absolutely requires flexibility and rapid adaptability. Um, and one of the things that my office likes to joke about is our, um, kind of saying is Semper Gumby, always flexible, <laugh> Um, it’s one of those things where, uh, you make a plan, you execute the plan, you kind of expect the plan to change. Uh, you throw the old plan out the window and you make a new plan. Um, and so we work very hard to make sure that the teams are co-located ’cause it’s easier to move us all together, as opposed if we’re all spread out, um, we make sure that we have a couple different people, um, working to kind of follow all the meetings. Like I said, they can happen kind of any time of the day or night. And so we wanna make sure our teams are as rested as possible. So we have a couple different kind of focal points, um, who are tracking those meetings, but we also make sure that if we need to, we can rotate people out so that they can get the rest they need. Um, and then we have backup plans, um, and we sometimes have backup plans on backup plans where we’ll have hotels, um, booked in one section of the state and the next section of the state, just in case we have to pivot last minute. Um, and having, um, the ability to do that has enabled several of our recoveries, um, in recent history.
Host: So we’re looking at a major shift coming up. All of the crews that we’ve discussed, those nine safely recovered crews have been off the coast of Florida, like we mentioned, but now we’re planning to start these recovery operations off the coast of California. So how will the operations change themselves and what has that planning process been like?
Sam Testa: Moving to California is a big shift. We’re basically taking all of our operations from one side of the country to the other. Um, that includes the teams, the hardware, the vessel, um, all that we’ve done in Florida. We are moving over to California and there’s been a lot of planning to enable that. Um, we’ve had a lot of meetings, again, just lots of meetings to talk about the changes and, and the differences between the California environment and the Florida environment. The weather out there is very different, um, where we’re dealing with hurricanes and threading the needle of hurricanes down here in Florida, in California, we’re gonna be dealing with visibility and fog. They have, uh, pretty intensive marine layer depending on the time of year and the time of day. And so we’re gonna be working on that from the perspective of helicopter flights and the landing and recovery team. Um, we’re also working to, um, bring on board new partners and new facilities. Um, we have specific airports identified in Florida that help us on recovery, so we’ll need new facilities out in California to help us out there as well as our hospital partners who we have ready to go in case we have a medical emergency. Um, and need to bring any of our team members or the crew members, um, back to a, a hospital on land. So we’re working with new partners, we’re working with the new weather environment. Um, we’re working with the new time zone. Um, it’s, it’s a lot of change and at the same time it’s gonna be very similar. So we are bringing, um, a lot of the aspects of Florida recoveries, a lot of the things that we’ve become, um, very familiar with and have started to become, um, some somewhat of experts on. And we’re taking those operations and, and moving them over so it won’t be entirely new. Um, there are definitely some new aspects of it, but we’re bringing some of
our current operations as well, um, to make sure that we have a, a smooth transition to a new area.
Host: I think we have time for one more question. So just wanted to know if you have any favorite memories from the Splash Downs you’ve supported, or is there anything specific that you’re looking forward to?
Sam Testa: Every mission is different. Um, commercial crew is really still in the beginnings of its program, you know, compared to programs like Shuttle, um, where we had, you know, well over a hundred missions. Um, we’ve had nine landing so far, uh, and and counting, you know, we’re still going. We’ve got another couple coming up here soon. Um, but because we’re so young and, um, we’re, we’re learning so much, every mission is different. And so every mission stands out in my mind for, for something a little bit different. Um, crew Three Return was my first, and so I’ll always remember that one because it was my first time out. Um, crew four was really great. Um, we had Samantha, Cristoforetti, um, as part of the crew and um, I remember the ESA team that was on the landing and recovery team. I guess Samantha had taken up these fabric, um, key chains, um, with an ESA patch on them to the ISS. And when they returned, um, she had given a couple to the ISSA team and they had gifted me one. Oh wow. And it was so cool because on recoveries, the JIT 2 team, which comes back after the crew helicopter has gone to the airport is the helicopter flight I’m on. And it has all of the cargo, all of the early cargo that we’re bringing back, um, to land to the various labs and science facilities, um, to take their data from. And it’s been a really long day at that point. It’s been a long couple weeks of planning and mission execution, and that’s kind of the first time that you can take a deep breath and, and realize that you’ve done it. And so I don’t always remember that the cargo in front of me has just come from space. Yes, it has just been taken out of a capsule that just reentered the atmosphere and has just come outta space. Um, but on Crew four, they gave me this patch that Samantha had carried with her and had just come out the capsule. And that really struck me that this had just come from space. It was fresh out the oven. Um, so that was a really cool moment. And then, um, crew eight, which we just completed, um, just before the Christmas holiday in 2024, um, in October was a really special one for me. Um, one of the crew members I had worked with in the centrifuge training project that I was a part of as a mechanical design engineer. And so it was really cool to see him fly, um, and to get to be his recovery director, um, and to be one of the first couple faces that, that they saw when they had just come back from six months in space. Um, I don’t think people realize that or recognize it as frequently as, as maybe we should, that when astronauts are coming home, they’ve been isolated in space for that amount of time with only the handful of people that are on their crews or the other crews that are up there. They’re hearing a lot of voices and maybe they’re seeing things on TV screens, but, um, they’re not seeing people like, like we’re sitting across from each other right now. And so when you open that hatch and they see new faces for the first time, um, they’re just so excited. And so it was very cool for me to be there and get to see him kind of fresh out of the International Space Station, especially after having worked with him for, for several years. Um, that was a really memorable mission for that, for, for that perspective for me. Um, and I’m looking forward to many more.
Host: I’m looking forward to many more too, and hoping to get back out on the boat myself. But thank you so much for being here with us today, Sam. This has been eye opening and super informative and I, I just have so much respect for you and the work that you do. So thank you for coming and sharing it with us.
Sam Testa: Thank you so much for having me. I wish I had been on your crew two return mission. I hope very much that you get to come back out with us. Um, I would love to be out on the vessel with you hopefully for a daytime landing so we can show you what it looks like when it’s coming down in daily.
Host: Let’s do it <laugh>.
Sam Testa: We’ll make it happen. Thank you guys
Host: Thanks for sticking around and I hope you learned something new today. Check nasa.gov for the latest news and find more episodes at nasa.gov/podcasts. You can follow Johnson Space Center on Facebook, X and Instagram. Use #askNASA on your favorite platform to submit your idea and make sure to mention it’s for Houston. We have a podcast. This episode was recorded January 15th, 2025. Thanks to Will Flato, Daniel Tohill, Dane Turner, Courtney Beasley, and Dominique Crespo. And of course, thanks again to Sam Testa for taking the time to come on the show. Give us a rating and feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on. And tell us what you think of our podcast. We’ll be back next week.