NASA Signs 'Space Act' Deal with Blue Abyss for Massive Astronaut Training Project in Brook Park

A rendering of what Blue Abyss’ astronaut training facility in Brook Park may look like when built in 2026. Credit: Blue Abyss

Brook Park’s foray into commercial astronaut training is heating up.

NASA Glenn and Blue Abyss, the U.K.-based aeronautics company pursuing its first U.S. facility just outside of Cleveland, announced on Wednesday they have entered into an aptly-called Space Act Agreement, tying them together as collaborators in everything space-related.

By June, Blue Abyss is to release a study notifying NASA of how exactly both entities can benefit each other—from robotics research to running parabolic flights or underwater gravity simulation—and what exact infrastructure needs to be built to fulfill those needs.

Both organizations, a press release said, will be eyeing at least a decade-long partnership to aid in astronaut training and pursuing research “that addresses challenges in low-Earth orbit, cis-lunar [between Earth and the Moon], lunar and Martian environments.”

Blue Abyss, an aerospace company headquartered in Cornwall, U.K., has been eyeing since late 2022 some 13 acres of untouched land in Brook Park to build its first American campus for future dwellers of the International Space Station. The project is currently estimated to cost the company upwards of $253 million when all’s said and done.

The goal is essentially for Blue Abyss to capitalize on the ever-burgeoning commercial space market—think Blue Origin and SpaceX—with a facility dedicated specifically to training workers for those and similar companies. One with a human centrifuge for high-G research; a parabolic flight simulator for microgravity experiences; and a pool for freedivers and astronauts to simulate space or test autonomous underwater vehicles.

Blue Abyss’ planned 150-feet-deep testing pool could be used by NASA in some shape or form, or could be expanded based on a market study due for June. Credit: Blue Abyss

Which, Joshua Freeh told Scene, would only be a win-win boon to NASA Glenn’s central mission, especially as the Artemis Mission—sending us back to the moon—heads towards in next phase in April 2026.

“I think Blue Abyss really wants to know: How many commercial astronauts might there be? And how many will there be in five years?” Freeh, the chief of Human Exploration and Space Operations, told Scene.

“That’s where we’ll see [the Space Act] study go,” he added. “Just understanding, beyond NASA missions, are there other needs beyond crew training, astronaut training, partial gravity testing and deep-sea testing in general?”

Most of NASA’s astronauts in training go through NASA Johnson in Houston. Crew will still be trained there, Freeh said, despite Blue Abyss erecting a training facility down the way.

With the likelihood of a new Huntington Bank Field being built in Brook Park down the road from NASA, the thousands of jobs and careers created by such a partnership with Blue Abyss could signal a nice growth spike for a suburb more used to fleeing factories and shuttering storefronts.

Paul Marnecheck, Brook Park’s Commissioner of Economic Development, said the Space Act deal further solidifies a shift from what’s been more of a working-class culture in recent decades. He pointed to 89 luxury townhomes being constructed off Snow Road as signal of things to come.

“I look at it as individuals, if they’re coming here for training, they’re rening out a townhome—maybe knowing they’re always gonna have a team here training,” he told Scene. “So, there’s a nice synergy here, I think.”

“We’re looking to raise our demographics,” Marnecheck added.

Blue Abyss’ facility is slated to break ground later this year. The Space Act market study will be, Freeh said, completed by the end of June.