ARLINGTON, Va. - As NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis landed June 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Air National Guard members looked back to its launch two weeks earlier knowing they were ready to help. They were relieved that they didn't have to.
Working with the U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for military support to space shuttle missions, the Air Guard supported NASA with its East Coast Launch Abort and Emergency Landing Sites at F.S. Gabreski Airport, N.Y., Otis Air National Guard Base, Mass., and Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H.
Space shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on June 8 for an 11-day mission to continue construction of the International Space Station.
Of the space shuttle's many possible emergency situations, some scenarios predict the astronauts can survive mechanical, weather or other problems that cause them to abort the launch. According to NASA, planning for each space shuttle mission includes provisions for an unscheduled landing at contingency sites in the U.S. and overseas.
The Air Guard's emergency landing sites were three of nine U.S. airports that were in Atlantis's flight path with runways long enough for it to land. The sites stood up emergency response teams and maintained readiness centers and communication links with NORTHCOM during the launch.
"We play a small part in it unless something happens, then we would play a big part," said Maj. Scott Hoyt at Pease.
Hoyt, who has worked as an alternate site coordination officer (ASCO) at Otis and who served in the same role at Pease for Atlantis's recent launch, explained that the Air Guard units conduct training every two years with NASA to certify for the missions.
When designated as a alternate landing site, the airfields place a team of military and local responders on standby that coordinate with an on-scene commander and the ASCO. The ASCO maintains communications with launch officials through a telephone and computer network, which ties in to larger support agencies.
In New York, aircrews and pararescue Airmen (PJs) from the 106th Rescue Wing stood by on "strip alert" at the Gabreski airport and at Cape Canaveral, Fla., ready to take off should the astronauts need a rescue from the Atlantic Ocean. The search and rescue units were equipped with the HC-130 Hercules aircraft, Zodiac boats and other special equipment for water rescues.
"Historically, pararescue has always supported the space program," said Chief Master Sgt. Carl Brooks from the Air National Guard's Personnel Recovery and Special Missions Division here.
Brooks worked in pararescue for the space shuttle program's first launch in 1981. "The first space shuttle launch had a crew of two "a pilot and a copilot" and they had ejection seats, so it was more of a standard rescue mission where we would locate ejected pilots," he said.
He explained that today's pararescue teams use boats in the mission because the expanded shuttle crews do not have ejection seats and could be spread far and wide in the water.
The Air Guard's HC-130 aircrew from New York and one pararescue specialist from the Alaska Air National Guard's 212th Rescue Squadron deployed to Cape Canaveral to team up with Air Force active and reserve Airmen at Patrick Air Force Base.
Together, the search and rescue teams coordinated with other NORTHCOM joint force support teams during preflight and launch plans. During the Atlantis launch, the units maintained two rescue units; one team in the air, nearly 200 miles out over the Atlantic, and one team on the ground at Patrick Air Force Base.
Brooks said the Air Guard's pararescue Airmen and aircrews can work with "a rainbow of military services" to accomplish the mission. "There's PJs basically all over the Atlantic region in support of this mission, he said, and there's active, Guard and Reserve units in support every time they launch the shuttle."