The National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent three astronauts to Fairchild Air Force Base last month to review the U.S Air Force’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Water Survival Course, known as SERE. 

A recent article in the Fairchild Flyer, the base’s newspaper, says NASA’s interest in the program relates to its development of a new rocket capsule called the Orion. Because Orion’s reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere likely will involve landing in the ocean, astronaut crews will need to be trained for water landing and for interaction with rescue personnel sent to retrieve them. 

“The NASA astronauts visited because they are currently reviewing their own water survival program, and wanted to see and evaluate how we conduct our water survival training. The best way to do that is by participating,” says Lt. Col. Erik Haynes. 

Haynes is the operations officer for the 66th Training Squadron at Fairchild, which is responsible for all SERE training. 

 “The Air Force has been conducting these courses for 60 years or more at several locations,” he says. “However, last August, we consolidated training, so that Fairchild is the sole location for all such Air Force training.”

Haynes says the 66th Training Squadron conducts three survival courses: basic water survival, ejection/bailout survival, and a helicopter survival course. The majority of course participants are Air Force aircrew members, and each week a total of about 150 people participate in the three courses. 

He says basic water survival is a two-day course, while the ejection/bailout and helicopter survival courses run for one full day. Participants normally only need to go through one course, but depending on the type of aircraft they operate, may need to go through two of the three. 

Haynes says the three visiting astronauts, Col. Michael Fincke, Maj. Anne McClain, and Dr. Michael Barrett, participated in all three SERE courses, and hosted a professional development event for the base’s airmen. 

“We don’t often get visits from astronauts so it was kind of a neat presentation, very interesting and educational,” he says. 

During their visit, the three astronauts also made a stop at the Michael Anderson Elementary School on base, named for the Spokane astronaut who perished on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Lt. Col. Christopher C. Tacheny, chief human space flight support for NASA at  Johnson Space Center in Houston, confirmed the organization is interested in the potential of the program to train astronauts in water landings.  

“Within the next several years, the U.S. will be launching commercial space vehicles into space from U.S. soil,” says Tacheny. “Most of these missions will have a water landing recovery, which facilitates our purpose for coming to Fairchild.” 

Tacheny, who was formerly a 66th Training Squadron Commander at Fairchild and designed the base’s training pool, says he is putting that experience to work for NASA.

 “My experience in survival training has proven to be very beneficial to NASA as they reevaluate their astronaut training program,” he says. 

According to Tacheny, NASA has sent several astronauts to participate in the SERE program, but generally the organization sends engineers working in its landing-and-recovery office or other training development offices. 

He says the visiting astronauts might make a return visit to Fairchild for a follow-up event this summer, although plans for second visit haven’t been finalized.