posted 08-04-2016 05:34 PM               

They first went to the Army, and the Army said, "We could handle that much load, but we don't know to operate off [aircraft] carriers, and we hardly ever fly over water. So maybe you ought to talk to the Navy."

The Navy said, "We do all that stuff, but we don't have external cargo capability, and also we don't have the size helicopter you're talking about. We don't have [very much] lift capability because our helicopters are pretty well maxed out with antisubmarine warfare equipment."

So the third stop was the Marines...

posted 08-04-2016 06:39 PM               

The first Navy HSS-2 helicopters to be deployed for Mercury recovery operations came with the off-course landing of Aurora 7 as part of the contingency procedures, according to NASA's report on Mercury-Atlas 7.

HSS-2 twin-turbine helicopters were launched from the USS Intrepid with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the spacecraft of 07:43: (02:47 after spacecraft landing). These helicopters had the capability of personnel retrieval and return to the Intrepid.

That said, three Marine HMM-161 helo crews were deployed from the Kearsage to recover Schirra (per Burgess' "Sigma 7: The Six Mercury Orbits of Walter M. Schirra, Jr.").

posted 08-05-2016 06:58 AM               

Amongst other things it describes an occurrence during Scot Carpenter's recovery. Apparently the Air Force had sent an HU-16 amphibious aircraft to the area where Aurora 7 had splashed down to assist in picking up Carpenter. The USS Intrepid (CVS-11) had recovery authority, but was 167 kilometers away.

posted 08-05-2016 10:03 AM               

Plans were to utilize HSS-2 helicopters for astronaut retrieval rather than the SA-16. These helicopters were deployed with a Mercury program doctor aboard.

posted 08-05-2016 11:12 AM               

Early Mercury flights (Shepard, Freedom 7; Grissom, Liberty Bell 7; Glenn, Friendship 7) were supported by Marine squadrons using UH34D helicopters operating from carrier-type ships for the Atlantic ocean recoveries. Carpenter's flight, Aurora 7 following Glenn's orbital flight, was again planned to land in the Atlantic and be supported by the Marine helicopters aboard the USS Intrepid.

Recovery support for Carpenter's landing rapidly changed when it was learned the spacecraft landed approximately 250 miles downrange from the Planed Landing Area. The landing was beyond the range for the Marine helicopters to immediately depart for the landing area. Aboard the Intrepid was a squadron of the larger, faster, greater-range SH-3A Sea King helicopters that were just recently introduced to the fleet. Their mission during this deployment was primarily to practice their role of anti-submarine warfare while at sea enroute to the assigned recovery station. However, when information became available that Carpenter was a considerable range downrange, decisions were made to utilize the SH-3A helicopters rather than the UH34D helicopters to fly to the landing. The swim teams and photographers quickly transferred their gear to the SH-3As and they sped to the scene.

At the scene, pararescue jumpers had already parachuted from an Air Force plane to install the flotation collar and render assistance to Carpenter in his raft. The SH-3As arrived shortly afterwards and brought Carpenter back to the Intrepid. The USS Pierce, one of the recovery destroyers, assigned to a position downrange of the Intrepid, retrieved the spacecraft. This flight, Carpenter's Aurora 7, marks the first time the SH-3A Sea Kings were used in the water landing programs and continued to support the later flights. A typical pattern of the helicopters over the carrier was made up of helicopters with assigned personnel for specific tasks. The Swim helicopters had the UDT swimmers aboard, Photo units had NASA and Navy photographers, and the Recovery helicopter had the NASA Flight surgeon aboard. Several of the helicopters had SARAH gear installed to assist in location of the spacecraft.

Following the Aurora 7 flight, the SH-3A type helicopters were embarked on the CVS type carriers, and the LPH type ships assigned to the recovery forces for the remainder of the water landing programs. Navy helicopter squadrons, either from Atlantic or Pacific units, supported the missions dependent on the location of the planned spacecraft landing area.

posted 08-05-2016 01:52 PM               

The Secretary accepted Chew's reasoning that the HU-16 might have been able to land, but the increasingly rough seas probably would have precluded it from taking off. MacNamara closed the interview by stating since Carpenter was recovered safely, that was all that mattered to him.

posted 08-06-2016 02:17 AM               

Early on, NASA decided to have water landings for space capsules (capsules in the early days, then spacecraft as we became more sophisticated) both because water would provide a softer landing and Earth is more water than land.

But who was going to recover the capsule? The Navy had most of the ships and the Air Force, and indeed the Army, to assist in this vital part of the mission. It did not take much persuasion by NASA to get the DoD to become a partner in this vital area of space missions. As things evolved, the DoD set up a single point of contact (the commander of Patrick Air Force Base) through which NASA would levy recovery requirements for each mission.

The DoD requisitioned ships and aircraft from line units and assembled a recovery task force. In the early days, a typical recovery task force consisted of four ships and several dozen aircraft: helicopter and fixed-wing. The primary recovery ship (usually an aircraft carrier) would be stationed at the primary landing point and three secondary landing points were covered by other type ships (such as destroyers, minesweepers, escort ships). The aircraft would be uprange and downrange of the primary landing point and at contingency landing points throughout the world.

The ship requirements were passed to two Navy commanders..one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific... who each led a Commander Task Force (CTF). The Atlantic unit was CTF-140 and the Pacific unit was CTF-130. The commanders were usually two-star admirals with collateral duties. (For example, the CTF-130 commander was also the commander of Pearl Harbor Naval Station.) Each commander had a staff of officers toplan the support details. Aircraft search requirements were passed to the Air Force Rescue Command where search and rescue aircraft such as the C-130 were assigned.