Mission & Project Info | NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory
Mission Blog

Today the NEEMO 9 mission ended successfully with “splashup” at 8:46 am. It was a beautiful, peaceful day on the reef, and all of the aquanauts are doing well and are happy to be back in the fresh air and sunshine. They will be engaged in post mission interviews, physicals, and other activities the rest of the day, and tonight we will celebrate the outstanding success of this mission at the traditional “splashup party”.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our hosts here at the National Undersea Research Center. Their professionalism and commitment to safety is second to none. They take great care of the nation’s only undersea research facility, they keep a close eye on our crewmembers, and they take great care of our Topside team and visitors. So to the habitat technicians, Jim Buckley and Ross Hein — a hearty “thank you” for teaching our crewmembers how to live as aquanauts. To Mark “Otter” Hulsbeck, a sincere thanks for the great training you gave them. To Craig Cooper, thanks for managing this (and all) NEEMO missions so professionally. For Dominic Landucci, a special thanks for all the time you put into making it possible for Aquarius to meet all the demanding technical requirements of this mission. And for the rest of the Aquarius side staff who potted daily, manned the watchdesk 24/7, and did it all with a smile, we can’t thank you enough. Finally, a special and sincere thanks to NURC Associate Director Otto Rutten for being our host and boat captain for the last 3 weeks. It wouldn’t have been possible without you all.

We can’t properly thank everyone who had a hand in making this mission successful, but a few key individuals should be noted:

• The Center for Minimal Access Surgery and Dr. Mehran Anvari, for your vision, funding, manpower, hardware, and “out of this world” objectives;
• The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center for the funding and support;
• The National Space Biomedical Research Institute for the funding, manpower, hardware, and relevant science;
• The University of Cincinnati for allowing us to borrow Dr. Tim Broderick for this mission (we’re reluctant to give him back…);
• The ExPOC team, for your preparation, long hours, and tireless perseverance;
• JSC’s Mission Ops Directorate, for the majority of the manpower that keeps this project alive year by year, as well as your unflagging support;
• JSC’s Flight Crew Ops Directorate, for the manpower, support, and part of the crew;
• The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at JSC and Florida State University for the working diver support;
• Dr. Lee Morin, for the leadership you provided on this mission;
• Dave and Mariana McGraw, for hosting our splashup party;
• Previous NEEMO crews who helped pave the way; and
• The families and friends of all of us who’ve been away so long making this mission a success. We appreciate your sacrifices!

Stay tuned for NEEMO 10, a 7-day mission focused again on Lunar exploration concepts. It is scheduled for July 2005.

Thanks for your support and following along!

- NEEMO 9 Topside Team (Marc, Bill, Monika, Kimi, Dan, Alex, Kristen, Trevor, Pam, Valerie, Adrian)