Shoulder Injury Incidence Rates in NASA Astronauts

Evaluation of the astronaut shoulder injury rates began with an operational concern at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) during Extravehicular Activity (EVA) training. An astronaut suffered a shoulder injury during an NBL training run and commented that it was possibly due to a hardware issue. During the subsequent investigation, questions arose regarding the rate of shoulder injuries in recent years and over the entire history of the astronaut corps.