NASA Astronauts Train In Waters Off Galveston

GALVESTON, TX -- Astronauts trained in the Gulf of Mexico of the coast of Galveston on Thursday, honing their skills in exiting a capsule in the ocean. An Orion space capsule bobbed around in the waters until astronauts exited the craft.

On America's next spacecraft, astronauts returning to Earth will land in the ocean in such a capsule. “They’ve simulated that they’ve thrown out the raft and they’re going to get out of the capsule one by one and they’re just practicing to see how all of our assumptions when we put this all together are gonna work,” NASA astronaut Suni Williams told Click 2 Houston.

The capsule, when returning from space, will enter the Earth's atmosphere at about 20,000 miles-per-hour. Acre-wide parachutes will be used to slow the capsule's descent to a speed safe for landing in the water.

Orion Crew Survival Systems project manager Dustin Gohmert told Click 2 Houston that this training is necessary. "Giving them these capabilities means they can survive. One way or another, they are going to have the tools they need in their toolkit to get out of the capsule and survive until recovery forces are there for them," Click 2 Houston reported him as saying.

Article image U.S. Navy Handout/Getty Images News/Getty Images