MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Hawaii and California Air National Guard Airmen completed a week of search-and-rescue training missions in support of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
The training entailed coordinated airdrops of rescue packages into the Santa Cruz Water Drop Zone, conducted by an aircrew from the 204th Airlift Squadron and Guardian Angel rescue teams from the 131st Rescue Squadron, to validate their ability to provide rescue support in the event of a contingency landing.
“This has been an extremely beneficial experience for us all,” said Capt. Evan Kurosu, 204th AS exercise planner. “This mission is so dynamic, which requires a high level of experience. It pushes us to be flexible and can only be accomplished by working closely with the Human Space Flight Support Operations and the PJ community.”
Before each transit from Earth to orbit and back, C-17 Globemaster IIs are fully equipped with pararescue teams, rescue craft and life-support equipment. Aircraft out of Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, will be ready to aid space travelers if the capsule lands outside planned landing sites.
Guardian Angel teams, such as that of the participating 131st RS, require an intense two-year training program and are equipped with heightened recovery skill sets that can be applied in extreme and austere conditions during peacetime and war.
Combining rescue capabilities with a C-17 is a new development in the airlift community, making ongoing training a critical component of mission readiness for all personnel involved. In contrast with smaller and more conventional rescue aircraft, such as HH-60 and HC-130 class airframes, the C-17 can travel farther and faster and deploy all rescue elements from a single fuselage.
Mission participants were challenged to adjust their operations to a wide range of environmental conditions and logistical factors such as wind, lighting, water conditions, geographic displacement and communication signals, which often push rescuers to come up with alternative approaches at any point during the mission.
To offer contrasting scenarios to the rescue repertoire, participants located and attended to a staged victim who was "stranded" aboard a mock space capsule during the initial rescue, followed by a similar operation at night.
In the event of a real search-and-rescue mission, aviators would use telemetry systems and radio communication to reach the splashed-downed capsule and would apply a set of search patterns to make visual contact with the astronaut crew.
While participants of the exercise, which ended May 21, had a clear agenda to practice their rescue competencies, mission planners are always looking for ways to accomplish additional training requirements along the way.
The C-17 aircrew scheduled and flew a unique low-level sortie on a military training route near Travis Air Force Base, California, to qualify aviators with evasive maneuvers that are applicable for their wartime skillset. In addition, Guardian Angel pararescuemen also obtained land-based High Altitude Low Opening or HALO training required for their jumpmaster upgrade curriculum.
Since the first manned-CCP flights started last year, all launches to and from orbit went according to plan, leaving standby rescue crews on the ground at their respective takeoff installations, while primary recovery teams ensured crews were brought back safely.