Underway Restoration Take a look at (URT) 10 was the tenth in a sequence of checks and the primary time NASA and its companions from the Navy and Air Pressure put their Artemis II restoration operations to the take a look at.
“The U.S. Navy has many distinctive capabilities that make it an excellent accomplice to help NASA. Amphibious transport dock ships, similar to ours, present the potential to embark helicopters, launch and get better small boats, monitor three-dimensional air area and supply high-end care via our superior medical services,” mentioned Capt. Doug Langenberg, commanding officer of USS John P. Murtha. “Every group that participated on this mission underwent intensive coaching – our capability to work collectively demonstrates our maritime restoration expertise and capabilities.”
Working in help of U.S. Area Command, extra U.S. Navy items included Helicopter Sea Fight Squadron (HSC) 23, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expeditionary Help Unit (EODESU) 1, Amphibious Development Battalion (ACB) 1, and Strike Group Oceanography Crew San Diego, with help from U.S. Air Pressure’s First Air Pressure, Detachment 3, and U.S. Area Pressure’s forty fifth Area Launch Delta Climate Squadron.
After final yr’s profitable restoration of the Orion spacecraft from the Artemis I mission utilizing the amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27), and with the addition of crew for the Artemis II mission, the restoration groups have begun modifying their timelines and procedures to make sure the astronauts shall be safely on the restoration ship lower than two hours after splashing down within the Pacific Ocean.
As soon as the crew splashes down, a gaggle of Navy divers will strategy Orion and guarantee it’s protected for the astronauts to exit the spacecraft. The divers will then open the spacecraft hatch and assist the astronauts exit one after the other onto an inflatable “entrance porch.” This raft wraps across the capsule and permits for the crew to be picked up by way of helicopter and flown again to the restoration ship. As soon as the astronauts are on board the restoration ship, groups will safe Orion with a sequence of traces and slowly tow it again contained in the ship, simply as they did in the course of the Artemis I mission.
Through the take a look at, the crew practiced the Artemis II restoration procedures, releasing and recovering the crew module take a look at article, a full-scale mock-up of Orion.
Previous to URT-10, Navy dive groups had been educated at NASA Johnson Area Heart’s Impartial Buoyancy Laboratory, a big pool the place astronauts practice for spacewalks and engineers refine procedures.
“We’re specialists in cell salvage and towing in addition to open water, small boat operations,” mentioned
Senior Chief Navy Diver Ryan Crider, a grasp diver assigned to EODESU-1 who oversaw his unit’s tactical participation. “This mission is an instance of how the explosive ordnance disposal neighborhood has developed over time and a glimpse of what EODESU-1 hopes to realize sooner or later alongside NASA and Fleet companions.”
Earlier than the underway take a look at, Artemis II astronauts U.S. Navy Capt. Reid Wiseman, U.S. Navy Capt. Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen visited Naval Base San Diego to fulfill with the restoration crew and study extra concerning the restoration vessel and testing that can assist convey them safely again to shore.
The restoration crew will seize classes realized and apply them to future underway checks to ensure they’re able to get better the Artemis II crew and convey them residence safely.
“The crew module retrieval operation following Orion’s flight is a part of a Division of Protection effort that integrates combatant command and repair capabilities to find out finest practices for safely retrieving spacecraft and crew, in each nominal and contingency situations,” mentioned Lt. Col. David Mahan, Director of Operations for First Air Pressure, Detachment 3, which gives DoD Human Area Flight Help to NASA. “URT-10 is the primary time that the DoD and NASA have exercised the extra restoration necessities vital to future crewed missions. This occasion allowed NASA and the Division of Protection to place their years of coaching into observe to securely get better the capsule and simulated crew. Classes realized from URT-10 will be sure that restoration for subsequent crewed Artemis flights be protected and efficient.”
Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3 includes three amphibious squadrons, 15 amphibious warships, and eight naval help components together with roughly 18,000 active-duty and reserve Sailors and Marines. Because the deputy commander for amphibious and littoral warfare, U.S. third Fleet, the ESG 3 commander additionally oversees Mine Countermeasures Group 3 and the 15 littoral fight ships and two subordinate divisions beneath Littoral Fight Ship Squadron 1. ESG 3 is postured in help of U.S. third Fleet as a globally responsive and scalable naval command aspect, able to producing, deploying, and using naval forces and formations for disaster and contingency response, ahead presence, and main fight operations specializing in amphibious operations, humanitarian and catastrophe reduction and help to protection civil authorities, and expeditionary logistics.
