BROOK PARK, Ohio — The dream of a multi-million-dollar commercial astronaut training complex, featuring a giant pool and hotel in Brook Park, is closer to being a reality.
The CEO of British company Blue Abyss was in town recently to update a crowd at the Ohio Aerospace Institute. The planned Brook Park facility would train people to work in extreme environments, from the depths of the ocean to the weightlessness of space.
"I think it will international providence," CEO John Vickers stated last week. "The world's first commercial astronaut training center — fully accredited, bringing international customers through Hopkins to this location, working in conjunction with NASA Glenn as NASA continues to work more with commercial companies — I think we can help that process grow."
Vickers says the deal to buy the 12-acre site on Aerospace Parkway, across the street from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and near NASA Glenn Research Center, should wrap up before Christmas. Construction would then be slated to begin in the spring of 2024, taking about 18 months to complete.
"We are meeting with our architects to finalize the design. All of that's come together nicely," Vickers added. "Always, I think, in big projects, if you expect it to go smoothly, you are going to encounter the unexpected. But we are very close to being able to finalize a number of things pre-Christmas, which will be very nice, and then in the early new year submit our planning application to the city of Brook Park.”
A training facility like this has been a dream of Vickers for 10 years. Inspired as a kid by the Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975 and underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, he envisions several centers across the globe.
No official renders of the Cleveland Blue Abyss center are available, but Vickers said it will be like the one currently under construction in Cornwell, England. However, due to a large delay overseas, the Cleveland location is on track to being the first complex like this completed in the world.
