Navy divers assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 11 and Mobile Diving and Salvage Company 11‐7, attach a towing bridle to the NASA Orion crew module on Dec. 5, 2014. US Navy Photo
Friday’s successful test of NASA’s reusable Orion capsule was a first for the space agency and a renewal of a greater Navy role in the space program. Read More
USS Anchorage (LPD-23) recovers an Orion capsule on Sept. 15, 2014. US Navy Photo
The amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD-23) completed a third set of underway recovery tests for the NASA Orion spacecraft according to the U.S. Navy. The test was the second such effort for the ship, which returned to Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on Saturday. Read More
Sailors from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) and Navy divers assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 11, Mobile Diving and Salvage Company 11-7, participate in the second underway recovery test for the NASA Orion Program on Aug. 3, 2014. US Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy and NASA are currently conducting a second round of at sea testing on board USS Anchorage (LPD-23) to learn how to recover NASA’s newest manned spacecraft, service officials told USNI News on Monday. Read More
Sailors assigned to the amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) recover an Orion capsule into the well deck of Arlington. US Navy Photo
Amphibious warship USS San Diego (LPD-22) left Naval Station San Diego, Calif. on Tuesday for an open ocean recovery test of NASA’s planned new Orion space capsule. Read More
Scott Carpenter
Scott Carpenter was one the original Mercury 7 astronauts and a former Naval aviator. Carpenter died on Thursday. He was 88. The following was a 2001 interview in Naval History magazine.
In his Aurora 7 spacecraft on 24 May 1962, one of the original Mercury 7 space pioneers became the second American to orbit the Earth. After a rather rocky flight, overshooting his splashdown target by 250 miles, he was assigned to monitor the design and development of the lunar module for the Apollo project. He then took leave from the space program in the spring of 1965 to serve as an aquanaut in the U.S. Navy’s SeaLab II project, spending 30 days 205 feet below the surface off the coast of La Jolla, California. “The first person to explore both of humanity’s great remaining frontiers” talked recently with Naval History editor Fred L. Schultz between sessions of a Naval Forces Under the Sea symposium sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Naval Academy. Read More
Sailors assigned to the amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) recover an Orion capsule into the well deck of Arlington. US Navy Photo
The Navy and NASA conducted tests this week in Norfolk, Va. to prove that a San Antonio-class (LPD-17) amphibious warship could be used to recover the space agency’s next bid for manned space flight, NASA officials told USNI News on Thursday. Read More
NASA Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is capable of flight altitudes greater than 55,000 feet and flight durations of up to 30 hours. NASA Photo
Forget Moby Dick’s white whale – a tropical cyclone is by far the most difficult ocean beast to track. This rotating system of clouds and thunderstorms, most commonly known to North Americans as a hurricane once it reaches a certain size and speed, is typically several hundred miles wide with winds as fast as 155 miles per hour.
These vast storms are essentially a physics puzzle, in which the interaction of moisture, wind, air, heat and other elements can trick even the most knowledgeable scientists trying to forecast both the path and intensity of a hurricane. In the last decade, weather models have gotten much better at predicting path and landfall, but they have been less skillful when trying to estimate pressure and maximum wind speeds. Read More
In 2014, a Navy ship will recover a NASA capsule from the first time since 1975.
The mission to recover the Orion will reestablish a relationship going back to the beginning of manned space flight.
The following is a brief illustrated history of the relationship of the Navy and NASA from Alan Shepard’s first flight into space to the Apollo moon missions, collected from the U.S. Naval Institute Archives.
Alan Shepard, the first American in space, is recovered from the South Atlantic in 1961. US Naval Institute Archives
A Marine helicopter lifts Liberty Bell 7 after recovering astronaut Gus Grissom, July 21, 1961. The helicopter was forced to release the capsule and allow it to sink after it became flooded with seawater. Liberty Bell 7 was recovered from the ocean floor in 1999. US Naval Institute Archives
USS Kearsarge after recovering Faith 7. May 16, 1963. Note the formation of sailors in the shape of the capsule. US Naval Institute Archives
Faith 7 being hoisted out of the water by the USS Kearsarge, May 16, 1963. US Naval Institute Archives
James A. McDivett is pulled from the Gulf of Mexico during Gemini 4 training, April 14, 1965. US Naval Institute Archives
Gemini 9 astronauts get picked up by the USS Wasp, July 30, 1966. US Naval Institute Archives
The USS Kearsarge celebrates its role in astronaut recovery with a banner, May 18, 1963. US Naval Institute Archives
Apollo 10, recovery. US Naval Institute Archives
Sailors on the USS Wasp hoist Gemini 9A aboard, June 6, 1966. US Naval Institute Archives
Decontaminating the Apollo 11 command module as the astronauts wait to be recovered, July 24, 1969. US Naval Institute Archives
Apollo 13 is recovered after its harrowing mission, April 17, 1970. US Naval Institute Archives
Pararescuemen from the USS Ticonderoga arrive at the spacecraft carrying astronauts from Skylab, June 22, 1973. US Naval Institute Archives
For more information on the Navy’s relationship to NASA, see MOON MEN RETURN: USS Hornet and the Recovery of the Apollo 11 Astronauts from the Naval Institute Press.
Artist conception of an Orion capsule being towed into the well deck of a San Antonio-class amphibious ship. NASA Photo
At the start of U.S. space flight, capsules from the Mercury to Apollo programs were plucked from the sea by Navy and Marine helicopters and taken back home on aircraft carriers.
Now the service and the space agency are renewing the relationship for the recovery of NASA’s Orion manned capsule with the latest class of amphibious warship, NASA officials told USNI News. Read More
In preparation of the nation’s first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11, crew members underwent training to practice activities they would be performing during the mission. In this photograph Neil Armstrong approaches the helicopter he flew to practice landing the Lunar Module (LM) on the Moon.
Before Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, he was a naval aviator and flew one of the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based jet fighters the F9F Panther in the Korean War. He left the Navy, went to college and joined NASA as a test pilot before being selected as the second generation of American astronauts, ultimately bound for the moon.
In memory of Armstrong’s passing, we are presenting a Proceedings photo gallery from 2009 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
