Written by: Howard Hall
Photo by Bill Brassard

Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld reached down and lifted the Styrofoam lid to the cooler and pulled out a beer. “Can I get you one,’ he asked me.

“No, I’m still loaded,” I said holding up my Sierra Nevada. Across the deck Mission Specialist Mike (Mass) Massimino was grilling cheeseburgers on a small barbeque as he complained lighted heartedly of needing a larger grill. Peter Kragh was in Mike’s kitchen talking to Mission Specialist Michael Good while I was sitting at the kitchen table with Commander Scott (Scooter) Altman and Mission Specialist Andrew (Drew) Feustel. Drew and I had just finished discussing the optical differences between looking through an astronauts curved helmet visor in air compared to looking through it in water. Having made a single dive wearing a bubble helmet years earlier I knew that looking through a curved air-water interface could be very disorienting.
“A lot of people get sick at first,” Drew said. “Some have thrown-up in their space suits. But I got used to it pretty quickly. I don’t even notice the distortion any more.”

Watching the astronauts work in the huge NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) pool, it was obvious they were used to the visual distortion. They conducted very complicated tasks without any apparent difficulty. From my experience with the bubble helmet, I knew that, at least at first, it could be very difficult to judge distance through a domed lens. I quickly reminded myself that these were very talented and adaptable people. Indeed, these people would soon be working in space.

“But I can’t help wondering how different it’s going to be in space,” Drew said. Though Scooter, Mass, and John Grunsfeld had been up before, this would be Drew’s first mission. For John this would be his fourth time in space and his third repair mission to Hubble. I considered telling Drew that I thought it would be much easier to see clearly in space without the air-water distortions of the NBL pool. But it was a fleeting impulse. I have no qualifications whatsoever for offering these super-heroes advice.

Across the table Scooter started talking about car racing. I took a moment to look around and suddenly suffered a powerful moment of deja vu. The comfortable family home, the small barbeque, a few kids running around, and a half-dozen NASA astronauts only weeks away from an enormously challenging mission in space. I suddenly realized it was right out of a scene in the movie Apollo 13. But I was also suddenly struck with the difference between the movie and the moment I was living. The scene in the movie was composed of talented actors pretending to be astronauts. I was in the company of the heroes that actors pretend at. I was experiencing the real thing.

Later that evening, Mike Massimino insisted Scooter Altman tell us of his experience doubling for Tom Cruise during the filming of Top Gun. Scooter went on to explain how his finger became part of the movie as he inverted an F-14 Tomcat and pretended, as Cruise’s character, to offer a hand gesture to a Russian Mig pilot. The scene was captured from a gyroscopically stabilized camera aboard a nearby Lear jet.

“Yeah, the production company paid $7,600 per hour for the fighters, and $23 per day for the pilots.” Peter, Bob, and I were carried away. Later, Mike asked that I tell of my experiences outside a cage with great white sharks. I did the best I could, but my tales of making a shark film for Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom hardly seemed worthy while in the company of these extraordinary individuals whom our nation has selected to explore space. Ironically, Peter, Bob, and I were treated with a respect and admiration that was quite overwhelming. But for those who fly into space as well as those who spend most of their days in the company of astronauts, perhaps it is reasonable to find underwater filmmakers a refreshing diversion.

Earlier that day, Peter and I had spent six hours filming in the NBL as Mike (Mass) Massimino and Mike (Bueno) Good practiced the tasks they would repeat 300 miles above our planet during a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronauts were underwater for nearly six hours straight as Peter and I alternated shooting with the massive IMAX 3D camera. Our director Toni Myers and associate producer Judy Carroll watched us work on monitors in the NBL test control room high above the pool as we followed a very tight schedule of tasks. This was a test conducted in real-time. There would be no repeats or do-overs if Peter or I missed a shot. Because the test was so important, it was critical that Peter and I avoid interfering with or distracting the astronauts with our camera or lights. Peter and I were also aware that accidentally squishing an astronaut’s finger with our 1,300 pound camera would lead to very embarrassing national front page news.

For all of those reasons as well as liability concerns, gaining permission to dive in the NBL pool, especially during astronaut training is not easy. The vetting process starts with the requirement that Peter and I and our camera assistant, Drew Fellman all pass a comprehensive class three flight physical before coming to Houston. Assuming we passed the physicals we would be giving a swim test, diving skills test, and a nitrox diving theory written exam once we arrived at the Houston Space Center. Dive Operations Specialists Sara Williams and Greg Sparkman conducted the exams. I was allowed to skip the written theory exam since I had dived in the NBL some years earlier during production of a Discovery Special on the Space Station. But all of us were required to take the diving skills and swim tests. There were others taking these tests at the same time. Not all of them passed.

After passing the tests we, and every other diver entering the pool on any given day, also must pass a daily physical exam. After satisfying all these requirements, Peter, Drew and I were ready to dive as NASA crane operators lifted the platform supporting two suited astronauts and lowered them into the water. Assisted by Dive Operations Specialists Bill Brassard, Jon Stubblefield, and Zoran Bilc, our team spent the day capturing IMAX 3D images of Mass and Bueno as they practiced their enormously complicated mission on full-scale mock-ups of the Space Shuttle with the captured Hubble Space Telescope mounted in the cargo bay. Six hours later their mission was completed flawlessly and so was ours. The temperamental IMAX 3D camera operated without a single glitch.

As the Dive Operations Specialists assisted Mass and Bueno out of the mocked-up Space Shuttle air lock, Mass insisted that we all gather in the cargo bay for a group photo. Bill Brassard, who had brilliantly photographed our underwater activities all day, snapped the group shot then exchanged places with Jon Stubblefield for a second photo.

Afterwards the group split up and climbed out of the pool. The next day I would be heading home where during the following month I would spend my time diving in California’s kelp forests and flying my light sport aircraft over the deserts of Southern California. In following few weeks Michael Good, Michael Massimino, and the crew of STS-125 would rocket into space.

For more writing and information about Howard Hall and to see more of his writings go to http://www.howardhall.com
All photos on this article were taken by Bill Brassard. Bill manages the underwater photo and video department at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.

Copyright Notice: This article and all included images are copyright protected and may only be reproduced copied, stored, manipulated or used as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration with the written permission of Howard or Michele Hall, or the copyrighted photographer as noted