NASA'S NEEMO Mission Ending Early Due To Hurricane Rina

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Oct. 26, 2011

J.D. Harrington/Michael Braukus 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-5241/1979 
j.d.harrington@xxxxxxxx/michael.j.braukus@xxxxxxxx 

Brandi Dean 
Johnson Space Center, Houston 
281-244-1403 
brandi.k.dean@xxxxxxxx 



RELEASE: 11-363

NASA'S NEEMO MISSION ENDING EARLY DUE TO HURRICANE RINA

HOUSTON -- Due to the predicted path of Hurricane Rina, the 15th NASA 
Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, ended earlier than 
planned. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 
operates the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory and the agency determined 
Rina posed a risk to the safety of the mission taking place near Key 
Largo, Florida. 

The six aquanauts of the NEEMO crew left the facility, where they 
lived for five days, and returned to the surface of the Florida Keys 
National Marine Sanctuary in Key Largo on Wednesday morning. 

The six-member NEEMO crew - Commander and NASA astronaut Shannon 
Walker; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi; 
Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques; Steven Squyres 
of Cornell University; and James Talacek and Nate Bender of the 
University of North Carolina Wilmington - kicked off this year's 
mission on Oct. 20, after an initial delay caused by another storm in 
the area. 

The NEEMO crew conducted six underwater spacewalks and one day of 
scientific research inside the Aquarius habitat. They also completed 
four days of scientific asteroid exploration analog operations using 
the deep worker submersibles that stood in for the Space Exploration 
Vehicle. This year's mission was the first NEEMO to focus on 
operational concepts that would be used in human exploration of an 
asteroid. 

"Despite the length, we accomplished a significant amount of 
research," said NEEMO Project Manager Bill Todd. "We're already 
learning lessons from working in this environment." 

The remainder of NEEMO 15 will not be rescheduled, and all media 
events are cancelled. The NEEMO 16 mission is tentatively set for the 
summer of 2012. 

For information about the NEEMO 15 mission, visit: 
http://www.nasa.gov/NEEMO 

To follow the final activities of the mission via twitter, visit: 
http://www.twitter.com/NASA_NEEMO   

	
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