How will NASA's astronaut training hub change with commercial space stations?

美国宇航局的宇航员训练中心将如何随着商业空间站而改变？

HOUSTON — What does NASA's astronaut training hub look like these days, as the agency aims to bring more commercial space stations into the fold?

休斯顿——随着美国宇航局的目标是将更多的商业空间站纳入其中，美国宇航局的宇航员培训中心如今是什么样子？

It's an interesting mix of government and private companies, of space agency personnel and of contractors, all working together to keep U.S. and international astronauts flying through the end of the ISS — currently expected around 2030 — and the new breed of commercial space stations expected to take its place.

这是一个有趣的组合，既有政府机构和私营企业，也有航天局人员和承包商，他们齐心协力，确保美国和国际宇航员能够持续执行飞行任务，直至国际空间站退役——目前预计在2030年左右——并迎接预计将接替它的新一代商业空间站。

Canadian reporters like myself were invited on a tour of Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Aug. 4 ahead of the launch of SpaceX Crew-13, which launches no earlier than Sept. 12. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutryk is a mission specialist on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which also includes NASA commander Jessica Watkins, NASA pilot Luke Delaney and Roscosmos mission specialist Teteryatnikov.

像我这样的加拿大记者于8月4日受邀参观了约翰逊航天中心（JSC），此行是在SpaceX Crew-13任务发射之前，该任务发射不早于9月12日。加拿大航天局宇航员乔什·库特里克是“龙”飞船上的任务专家，同行的还有NASA指令长杰西卡·沃特金斯、NASA驾驶员卢克·德莱尼以及俄罗斯航天集团任务专家捷捷里亚特尼科夫。

The ISS remains an active program for at least a few years; NASA managers reiterated in a press conference here on Aug. 3 that they are still targeting an end-of-operations in about 2030 — but they are prepared to extend the lifetime of the station if directed by Congress (which wants to keep going at least another two years).

国际空间站至少在几年内仍然是一个活跃的项目；美国宇航局管理人员在8月3日的新闻发布会上重申，他们仍然计划在2030年左右结束运营，但如果国会指示，他们准备延长空间站的寿命（国会希望至少再运行两年）。

The space station has had a leak on the Russian side for several years, and astronauts recently and briefly sheltered in a Crew Dragon during discussions of a fix. At the press conference, NASA added the situation is under control as Roscosmos agreed to essentially seal off that area. Major station systems, they added, are otherwise in good health.

国际空间站俄罗斯段已泄漏数年，宇航员最近在讨论修复方案期间曾短暂躲入一艘“龙”飞船。在新闻发布会上，NASA补充说，随着俄罗斯航天集团同意基本上将该区域封闭，情况已得到控制。他们还表示，空间站的主要系统在其他方面状况良好。

But as spaceflight takes planning, teams are already thinking about "lessons learned" when the ISS retires for a new generation of mission planners, which would include an even greater focus on companies. NASA's Commercial LEO (Low Earth Orbit) Destinations or CLD program aims to have private space stations for astronauts by the time the ISS retires, and handed out early-stage contracts valued at about $415 million in 2021 to three teams led by Nanoracks, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. After NASA briefly considered changing the program's scope, after input from industry a new request for proposals advancing CLD should be out soon.

但是，由于航天飞行需要规划，各团队已经在思考国际空间站退役时的“经验教训”，以供新一代任务规划者参考，而这将包括更加侧重企业。NASA的商业近地轨道目的地（CLD）计划旨在国际空间站退役时，让宇航员能够使用私人空间站，并于2021年向由Nanoracks、蓝色起源和诺斯罗普·格鲁曼领导的三支团队发放了价值约4.15亿美元的早期合同。在NASA曾短暂考虑改变该计划范围后，在听取业界意见后，一份推进CLD的新招标书应该很快就会发布。

Meanwhile, companies like Vast Space have their own self-funded modules almost ready to fly, while Bigelow Aerospace has an inflatable module on ISS that is being tested, long-duration wise, to make sure the concept holds up for a future free-flying destination. No matter who hosts astronauts, however, NASA officials on the tour said they are prepared to offer expertise and help — and there is no other visible demonstration of that expertise to the public than the ISS Mission Control, which is often shown live on NASA+ during a selection of space station operations.

与此同时，像Vast Space这样的公司已有自筹资金研制的模块几乎准备就绪，可以飞行；而Bigelow Aerospace在国际空间站上有一个充气模块，正在进行长期测试，以确保这一概念能够支撑未来自由飞行的目的地。然而，无论由谁来接待宇航员，NASA官员在参观期间表示，他们准备提供专业知识和帮助——而向公众展示这种专业知识的最明显例子，莫过于国际空间站任务控制中心，它经常在NASA+上直播部分空间站运行过程。

The Mission Control building holds several dedicated control rooms for different mission purposes, including an historic Apollo control center and another room alternately used for Boeing Starliner and Artemis missions. I've been lucky enough to visit all of these in the past. Our only stop in the building Aug. 4, however, was the iconic ISS mission control.

任务控制大楼内有若干专用控制室，用于不同的任务目的，其中包括具有历史意义的阿波罗控制中心，以及另一间交替用于波音“星际客机”和阿尔忒弥斯任务的房间。我过去有幸参观过所有这些地方。然而，8月4日我们在这栋楼里唯一停留的地方，是标志性的国际空间站任务控制中心。

On screen at the front of the room, the Expedition 75 astronauts were awake and active, occasionally zooming by a camera mounted inside the Destiny U.S. lab sandwiched between two station "nodes" leading to other modules. Flight director Diane Dailey told us the controllers are watching for things like if the astronauts are loaded down with equipment, which indicates that would not be a good time to call unless urgent. "We usually have that live camera view just up for awareness. It just helps us understand," she said.

在控制室前方的屏幕上，第75远征队的宇航员们已经醒来并正在活动，偶尔快速掠过一台安装在美国“命运号”实验舱内的摄像头，该实验舱夹在两个通向其他舱段的空间站节点舱之间。飞行主管黛安·戴利告诉我们，控制人员会留意诸如宇航员是否正因搬运设备而忙得不可开交之类的情况，因为那意味着除非情况紧急，否则不是联系他们的好时机。“我们通常会把那个实时摄像头画面开着，只是为了了解情况。它能帮助我们理解，”她说。

Speaking of calls, an open laptop screen, deliberately positioned within view of the camera, showed all "green" on the comms channels—which helps ground controllers figure out if the crew can hear them, as the station flies in and out of satellite and ground station views all the time. (A flight map, also at the front of the room, also allows for tracking the station and its communications capabilities as it flies around the world.)

说到通话，一台打开的笔记本电脑屏幕被特意摆放在摄像头视野内，上面显示通信频道全部为“绿色”——这有助于地面控制人员判断乘组是否能听到他们，因为空间站一直在不断飞入和飞出卫星与地面站的覆盖范围。（房间前方还有一张飞行地图，也可用于追踪空间站及其在绕地球飞行时的通信能力。）

While it was hard not to keep gazing at these screens, what was almost as mesmerizing was watching the quiet group of ISS controllers positioned in front of their own laptops and occasionally holding side conversations about their systems. SpaceX now has its own Mission Control in California for its spacecraft, while Boeing chose to integrate theirs with NASA's. Whatever pathway companies choose, however, Mission Control will remain an important example of "division of labor" for future space stations.

虽然很难不一直盯着这些屏幕，但几乎同样令人着迷的是，看着那群安静的国际空间站控制人员坐在各自的笔记本电脑前，偶尔就他们负责的系统进行私下交谈。SpaceX如今在加利福尼亚为其航天器设有自己的任务控制中心，而波音则选择将其与NASA的任务控制中心整合在一起。然而，无论企业选择哪条路径，任务控制中心都将继续成为未来空间站“分工”的一个重要范例。

"You're going to see different consoles that specialize in different aspects of spacecraft operations," Dailey said. "I like to kind of think of it in terms of, 'What are all the capabilities you'd need on any given spacecraft', right? You'd need propulsion. You'd need communications. You'd need computers. All of those things. So, we have all of those disciplines and all those areas in the spacecraft represented here."

“你会看到不同的控制台，各自专门负责航天器运行的某个方面，”戴利说。“我喜欢这样来想：‘对于任何一艘航天器，你都需要哪些能力？’对吧？你需要推进。你需要通信。你需要计算机。所有这些东西。所以，航天器上的所有这些专业领域，在这里都有相应的岗位来代表。”

The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility — known to JSC workers as Building 9 — is constantly in flux, because modules constantly shift in and out of the facility for different missions. The facility's goal these days is not only to support NASA missions, but also private industry, by providing the physical space and hardware to simulate problems in space if they arise.

航天器模型设施——约翰逊航天中心的员工称之为9号楼——始终处于不断变化之中，因为不同任务的模块会不断进出该设施。如今，该设施的目标不仅是为NASA的任务提供支持，也要服务于私营企业，为其提供实体空间和硬件，以便在太空中一旦出现问题就能进行模拟。

When it comes to astronaut training, one example is learning how to do CPR: "CPR is hard enough when you have gravity. When you no longer have gravity assisting you, they [astronauts] have to learn to 'strap in'," said Mathieu Caron, the CSA's director of astronauts, life sciences and space medicine, who accompanied reporters on the tour of Building 9.

在宇航员培训方面，一个例子是学习如何进行心肺复苏：“有重力的时候，做心肺复苏就已经够难了。当你不再有重力辅助时，他们（宇航员）必须学会‘把自己固定好’，”加拿大航天局宇航员、生命科学与空间医学主任马蒂厄·卡龙说道，他陪同记者参观了9号楼。

That's only one example of an emergency, of course. Another one is fire alarms—in which the astronauts learn how to quickly gather their team in a "safe haven" with communications and computers available to talk with Earth, then to make sure everyone is there before assessing the situation and figuring out how to deal with it (which could mean fighting the fire, or heading to an escape vehicle.)

当然，这只是紧急情况的一个例子。另一个是火灾报警——宇航员学习如何快速将他们的团队聚集在一个“安全天堂”，并配备可与地球通信的通信和计算机，然后确保每个人都在那里，然后评估情况并弄清楚如何处理它（这可能意味着灭火或前往逃生车辆。）

When astronauts are training for fire alarms in Building 9, Caron said, there's an extra step involved: letting nearby personnel know that the simulated fire alarm in the ISS area is not the actual fire alarm for the building. "Like, if you hear this specific bell, it's because they're just practicing that training," he explained.

卡隆说，当宇航员在9号楼训练火灾报警器时，还涉及一个额外的步骤：让附近的人员知道国际空间站区域的模拟火灾报警器不是该建筑的实际火灾报警器。“就像，如果你听到这个特定的铃声，那是因为他们只是在练习这种训练，”他解释道。

The emphasis of our visit was on ISS operations, given that we were visiting in association with Crew-13, but the facility's website also mentions "commercial space flight companies and exploration programs" among the customers.

我们此次参观的重点是国际空间站的运行，因为我们是配合Crew-13任务前来参观的；不过，该设施的网站也在其客户中提到了“商业航天飞行公司和探索项目”。

While walking the perimeter of the building alongside NASA and CSA, we could see some distant glimpses of other companies' hardware — from SpaceX and Blue Origin, for example, as well as the Starlab Space consortium's multi-floor space station mockup. As NASA very much intends to be the customer on future CLD destinations, surely more of these companies will be occupying the floor of Building 9 after the ISS retires.

当我们在NASA和加拿大航天局（CSA）人员陪同下沿着这栋建筑外围行走时，可以远远瞥见其他公司的硬件——例如来自SpaceX和蓝色起源的硬件，以及Starlab Space联盟的多层空间站模型。由于NASA非常希望成为未来商业近地轨道目的地（CLD）的客户，在国际空间站退役后，肯定会有更多这类公司入驻9号楼的场地。

Our last stop on the Gilligan-like three-hour tour was the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, which is part of JSC's Sonny Carter Training Facility and about a 15-minute drive from the heart of the NASA campus. Most space people would easily recognize this place as the spot where astronauts rehearse spacewalks, clad in adapted spacesuits simulating what they'll feel for real the moment they step out the hatch.

我们这次类似《吉利根岛》的三小时参观，最后一站是中性浮力实验室。它属于约翰逊航天中心的桑尼·卡特训练设施，距离NASA园区中心约15分钟车程。大多数航天界人士都能轻易认出，这里是宇航员穿着改装宇航服演练太空行走的地方，模拟他们走出舱门那一刻将真实感受到的情形

I spent much of my childhood in community center pools, learning how to swim, and when I walked beside the football-field-sized pool for the first time the humidity — and the echoes on the ceiling and walls from noises — felt somewhat like old times. The scale, however, was strange. The echoes were happening much further away from me, while the humidity was less intense given the expanse of the huge facility. It was hard for my mind to settle, as the setting felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

我童年大部分时光都在社区中心的游泳池里度过，学习游泳。当我第一次走到那个足球场大小的池子边时，那种潮湿感——以及噪音在天花板和墙壁间产生的回声——多少让我觉得像旧日时光。然而，这里的尺度很奇怪。回声从离我远得多的地方传来，而由于这座巨大设施空间开阔，潮湿感反倒没那么强烈。我的思绪很难安定下来，因为这里的环境既熟悉又陌生。

We only spent a few moments poolside, however, as getting up on the catwalks allowed a much better view of the scene. In one zone were the ISS module mockups inside the pool, through which a couple of astronauts were training while surrounded by divers. (You could track the team's progress by watching the bubbles and hoses on the surface.)

然而，我们只在泳池边呆了一会儿，因为站在T台上可以更好地看到现场。其中一个区域是游泳池内的国际空间站模块模型，几名宇航员在潜水员的包围下通过它进行训练。（你可以通过观察表面的气泡和软管来跟踪团队的进度。）

"When they [astronaut candidates] first start, we help them a lot," the NBL's Tim Hall told our media group. "The more mature they get in their training, and the better they get, the more we treat it like the real world — and let them execute on their own."

“当他们（宇航员候选人）刚开始时，我们会给予很多帮助，”中性浮力实验室的蒂姆·霍尔对我们的媒体团队说。“他们在训练中越成熟、表现越好，我们就越会把它当作真实世界来对待——让他们自主执行。”

In another was an area where the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 2 moon mission was put through its paces during training: Could the arriving divers handle waves? What if the spacecraft landed upside-down? All of these things were simulated repeatedly to ease recovery operations.

在另一个区域，阿耳忒弥斯2号登月任务的猎户座飞船在训练期间接受了测试：到达的潜水员能处理海浪吗？如果飞船倒挂着陆怎么办？所有这些事情都被反复模拟，以简化恢复操作。

"Have you ever watched 'Apollo 13'?" Hall asked us. (It's the movie that sparked my interest in space when I saw it on VHS in 1996, so yes.) "If you're a fan, at the end of the movie, you'll see them at 'Stable 1'," he continued — that means the spacecraft is upright in the water.

“你们看过《阿波罗13号》吗？”霍尔问我们。（正是这部电影，1996年我在录像带上看到时，激发了我对太空的兴趣，所以，看过。）“如果你是它的粉丝，那么在电影结尾，你会看到他们处于‘稳定1号’状态，”他继续说道——那意味着飞船在水中是直立的。

"We have Stable 1, 2, 3, 4. Those are all the positions of the vehicle when it's laying in the water. So, this thing is actually training for the crew. … we can rotate [the spacecraft], so they train the crew how to get in and out of it in the different stable conditions."

“我们有稳定1号、2号、3号和4号状态。这些都是飞行器漂浮在水中时的不同姿态。所以，这个东西实际上是用来训练乘组的……我们可以旋转（飞船），这样就能训练乘组如何在不同的稳定状态下进出飞船。”

The deep-ocean capabilities are not only useful for spacecraft, but for applications like the oil industry: the pool has been used in past years to simulate offshore work and fire training for the engineers on distant rigs, for example. Private space companies also have had their own time in the pool for spacesuit applications, such as what Axiom Space advertised in 2025 to test the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit that NASA astronauts are expected to use on the lunar surface.

这种深水训练能力不仅对航天器有用，对石油工业等应用也很有价值：例如，过去几年里，这个水池曾被用来为远在钻井平台上的工程师模拟海上作业和消防训练。私营航天公司也曾利用该水池进行宇航服应用测试，比如Axiom Space在2025年宣传的，用于测试NASA宇航员预计将在月球表面使用的Axiom舱外机动单元（AxEMU）宇航服。

Could more companies come in as the ISS program winds down? Hall says right now a lot of the spare capacity is taken up by the U.S. Navy, but the NBL does expect to offer more of these commercial services in future — as it's already advertised on their website.

随着国际空间站项目逐步收尾，会有更多公司参与进来吗？霍尔表示，目前大量剩余容量被美国海军占用，但中性浮力实验室确实预计未来会提供更多这类商业服务——正如其网站已经宣传的那样。

"We're open to that for sure," Hall said. "We haven't had anybody out here yet for, like, a recovery or anything on training like that from a private space [company], but that's definitely something we'll address."

“我们当然对此持开放态度，”霍尔说。“目前还没有任何私营航天公司来这里进行类似回收之类的训练，但这肯定是我们会着手处理的事情。”