Dr. Sam Strauss
Flight Surgeon / Diving Medical Officer
Johnson Space Center
Kelsey-Seybold Clinic

Who I am

My name is Sam Strauss. I am a physician working for the Kelsey Seybold Clinic, which is a NASA contractor at the Johnson Space Center. I work in the Human Test Support Group, which provides medical support for some aspects of astronaut training and space medicine research. I grew up in Philadelphia PA, where I went to college and medical school. I have served in the Navy as Submarine Medical Officer, and in the Air Force where I received my specialty training in Aerospace Medicine. I have worked throughout the nation and the world in both diving medicine and aerospace medicine. I am married and have two teen-age children.

What I do

I support NASA astronaut training at Johnson Space Center in Houston. I work at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) where astronauts are trained to do their spacewalks from the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. Astronaut training is conducted in a forty-foot deep, 6.5 million gallon immersion pool at the Sonny Carter Training Facility. It is the largest indoor pool in the world and is designed to hold full size mockups of the Space Shuttle cargo bay and International Space Station. My main job is to medically supervise diving operations, and astronaut training at the lab. I am the NASA Medical Monitor for the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuit, and I also support altitude physiology training for NASA astronauts and flight crewmembers.

At other times I'm the medical officer for Space Shuttle and Space Station vacuum chamber astronaut training, I fly as a flight surgeon the NASA KC-135 for weightlessness training and research flights, and dive on special projects like the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) project.

I Dive and Fly for NASA

In order to be familiar with the training the astronauts receive at my facility I was certified as a NASA Nitrox SCUBA diver in the NBL. I frequently make "house calls" under water so I can directly observe the training that goes on here. I also got to qualify and dive in the EMU spacesuit. Working in the spacesuit is a totally different experience. It's a lot like being locked inside a mechanical shell and looking out through a fishbowl as you float around from one work area to another. When you're buoyant there's no up or down, left or right so it's hard to keep oriented. It's really demanding work and very exhausting, especially in the hands. It feels like squeezing a tennis ball in each hand for the entire 6 hours. Tasks that seem simple take a tremendous amount of effort, concentration and skill.

I get to "float and fly" with the astronauts and researchers as a flight surgeon crewmember on the "Weightless Wonder" NASA KC-135 aircraft. We fly "zero G" to learn more about the effects of microgravity on human physiology, devices such as robots, and on a variety of engineering, physics and chemistry processes. Floating around the cabin and "flying" from place to place is an amazing experience. Every little movement displaces your momentum, so if you're not used to it you can go heading off into any of the three dimensions.

As one of two NASA qualified diving medical officers I am also assigned to the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, NEEMO 5 project. I will be with the crew for training week, and then support the saturation part of the mission from Houston.

Likes About My Career

I love getting up every morning and coming to work at JSC! For me working in space medicine is a blast. There are always new and fascinating challenges and always so much to learn about the human and medical aspects of space exploration. Something that makes it so much more meaningful for me is the privilege of knowing and working directly with our astronauts. Being their doctor and friend makes everything we do to support them that much more personal for me. The work I do in the manned space program has been an enormous source of joy and pride both personally and professionally. In so many ways it is more like a dream come true than a job.