Stories

It's not every day your job includes teaching someone how to sleep or use the bathroom in zero gravity. But for KBR training instructor Tiffany Swarmer, it's all in a day’s work.

"The NASA Flight Operations team covers everything," said Swarmer. "How to eat, how to float without crashing into things, how to use the bathroom and how to respond to urgent situations like loss of power. Because once the crew is up there, they need to know exactly what to do.”

As a longtime NASA partner in astronaut training, Swarmer is part of a KBR team that prepares astronauts—and a new generation of commercial explorers—to live and work aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The team also provides mission operations for the Boeing Starliner and for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will carry humans around the Moon and back for the first time in more than 50 years. 

From mastering complex hardware systems to managing daily life in microgravity, KBR ensures every astronaut is mission ready—no matter their background.

Training NASA’s Career Astronauts

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Swarmer trains the men and women selected for long-duration Artemis missions—those who will live and work in deep space for months at a time.

Training ranges from microgravity adaptation to virtual simulations, team-building exercises and emergency response drills. Astronauts learn how to manage floating crumbs and liquids and follow strict housekeeping protocols to prevent hazards like airborne dust.

“Our job is to make sure everything becomes second nature,” said Swarmer. “Life in microgravity is nothing like life on Earth. They’ll be confined, isolated and in extreme cases may be in their suits for days. Even basic tasks—eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom—have to be relearned.”

Life in Microgravity 

Take sleeping, for example. Inside Orion, crew members are tethered into sleeping bags to keep them from drifting. 

“Your arms want to float up on their own,” Swarmer said. “Without gravity, you can’t sleep on your stomach, side or even back. You just float. It’s disorienting at first, so we help them find ways to sleep that feel secure.”

KBR supports survival training, medical evaluations and psychological conditioning, preparing astronauts to lead scientific experiments, conduct spacewalks and operate every system onboard.

KBR also helps crews stay healthy in space. Daily exercise, careful monitoring and performing routine equipment checks to help prevent injuries and keep the spacecraft in top condition are part of the program.

“We help them get comfortable doing simple things in an environment where nothing behaves the way you expect,” Swarmer said. “There’s no up or down in space, and no room for mistakes.”

Training the Next Wave: Commercial Astronauts

Down the hall at JSC, KBR crew instructor and flight controller Ryan Launius also prepares a different kind of astronaut: researchers, scientists, educators and private citizens heading into space for a week or two.

These commercial explorers train on a condensed curriculum—core systems, simulations, survival basics. 

“They may not be flying the vehicle,” Launius said. “But they still have to live and work in space.”  

Which means space-toilet training—just like their career astronaut counterparts. 

Launius walks crew members through how to use the system, which uses airflow to pull waste away while providing a flush containing water and acid to treat the urine. In microgravity, proper alignment is everything, so they practice with camera-assisted mockups.

“It might sound strange, but once you get the hang of it, it’s just another part of living in space,” he said. “We make sure they’re ready for anything—and confident doing it.”

Supporting the Team on the Ground

Astronauts don’t do it alone. Behind every mission is a team of mission controllers, flight directors and ground crews – many also trained by KBR. 

Instruction covers spacecraft systems, protocols, anomaly resolution and emergency procedures—everything it takes to plan, support and troubleshoot a mission from Earth. 

“No one is born a flight controller,” Launius said. “You have to learn how to monitor critical systems, support the crew and respond in real time. That takes specialized training.”

He put it simply: “We don’t build the rocket—we build the team. We help plan the mission and support it in every way. But at the end of the day, it’s always about the crew. Our job is to protect them first—then the vehicle, then the mission, in that order.”