The Gallaudet 11

In the late 1950s, NASA and the U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine launched a joint research program. The program recruited 11 deaf men from Gallaudet College — a university for the deaf and hard of hearing now known as Gallaudet University — to better understand the effects of prolonged weightlessness on a human body in outer space.

According to NASA, of these 11 men, 10 lost their hearing at an earlier age due to spinal meningitis. The illness damaged the vestibular systems in their inner ear, and affected their response to motion sickness. 

The men appeared “immune” to the adverse effects that most hearing individuals experience.

The research program lasted for approximately a decade and consisted of various experiments that tested the perception of movement and balance in the inner ear. 

These experiments included sitting in zero-gravity flights, spinning in centrifuges and spending several days in a rotating room.

One experiment took place on a ferry that travelled over turbulent currents. The 11 men played cards without issue while the researchers suffered from sea sickness to the extent that they ended the experiment prematurely. 

The contributions made by the 11 deaf men of the Gallaudet 11 advanced research on motion sickness during spaceflight. 

This development has been utilized for the last 40 years, including on the recent Artemis II mission.

According to NASA, Harry Larson, one of the 11 men, said, “we were different in a way they needed.”