Boosting the shuttle: as the space shuttle prepares to launch, airmen stand ready for rescues should disaster strike

Airman, Nov, 2002 by Carie A. Seydel

Even though he's constantly training to do his job, Master Sgt. Doug Huttenlocker dreads the day he'll have to use his skills.

That's because as a space shuttle rescue manager, it's his job to coordinate rescue efforts if the shuttle has a problem during launch. Huttlenlocker's tasked to enter a "hot zone," extract crew members and get them to a decontamination area.

"It's challenging to keep up the high intensity with something that has never happened and may never happen," he said.

He's one of two firefighters assigned to the Department of Defense manned space flight support office. For about half the year, Huttenlocker travels to geographically separated sites across the globe to prepare folks at the sites for the possibility of a shuttle landing in their backyards. They formulate and train each base -- more than 2,000 DOD people worldwide -- in shuttle landing procedures all the way down to a basic rescue.

"We train everybody from the on-scene commander to the hands-on rescueman," he said.

Huttenlocker knows the ascent is the most critical phase of a shuttle mission because everything is working together, which means that's when there's the greatest chance something could go wrong. He said the highest probability of something going wrong is if the shuttle loses an engine during launch. If the boosters -- which burn for roughly two and a half minutes -- don't get the vessel to 17,500 mph before falling off, the shuttle can't get into space. If that happens, the shuttle has to "abort once around" and return to one of the designated locations. Statistically, one in 100 launches might result in a transoceanic abort landing.

Even one is too many. So twice a year -- in March and October -- the firefighters conduct hands-on rescue training on mock-ups of the shuttle and the orbiter. From a launch abort site landing to a full-up bailout exercise where people are literally dumped into the ocean in astronaut suits, all players are involved. It's as close to a real emergency as you can get.

"Seven astronauts are sitting on 2.2 million pounds of high explosives, 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and they're going from zero to 17,500 mph in eight minutes," Huttenlocker said. "Every one of them has seen the Challenger blow up. That's a lot to put on the line for your country and our world, so it's a small task for me to prepare people to rescue them, if it's ever needed."

Luckily, he's never had to use his skills.

As a space shuttle contingency officer, Lt. Col. Frank Rand, said the highlight of his job is watching a successful launch. As an eight-year-old, he sat on the family living room floor watching Neil Armstrong's moon landing on television. So when he arrived last year for his current assignment, he had reason to look forward to his new job -- a big change from flying C-9s and C-130s.

Space lift

Although the manned space flight support team "belongs" to the Air Force administratively, the team's mission is supporting NASA. Nine civilians, six reservists and 22 active duty members -- including firefighters, aviators and medical and administrative people, some wearing astronaut-blue jumpsuits -- are assigned to Patrick Air Force Base on Florida's Atlantic coast to rescue astronauts, if the need arises.

In 1959, a year after NASA was established, the office was formed as a conduit between NASA and the DOD to support the manned space flight effort -- getting astronauts into and back from space. Since those early years, the mission has expanded to include the rescue and recovery of astronauts and payloads, providing landing site support, medical support, public affairs, contingency communication, airlift, sealift, salvage and orbiter ferry flights. From Project Mercury to present-day shuttles, the office has been the silent shuttle enabler.

But it takes more to perform the mission on launch day, with NASA leading the way. While C-12 or C-21 aircraft perform on-scene weather reconnaissance, tankers, H-60 helicopters, Navy E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, ambulances and fire trucks are deployed and stocked with flight doctors, pararescuemen, air traffic controllers and firefighters. Even a Navy fast sealift ship in the area is dispatched to the Atlantic range as a floating command post, if needed.

The two primary shuttle landing sites are the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. There are four additional sites available in Spain and Africa if there's a transoceanic abort landing: Moron and Zaragoza Air Bases, Spain, Ben Guerir in Morocco and Gambia's Yundum International Airport in Banjul. Three of the sites activate with each shuttle launch, and the support forces at these sites support DOD and NASA members. The other 25 emergency landing sites are called on as needed and rely on the site visits from Huttenlocker and his training teams.

"It's literally rocket science -- and orbital mechanics," Huttenlocker said.

Countdown begins

The process starts long before the countdown. Approximately 45 days before launch, the operations order, outlining the details of the plan, is created and sent out. Thirty days prior, country clearances are begun for the overseas teams. Within one month of launch, status briefings prepare all members for what's ahead. The commander approves the plan and assigns participants around the 15- to 20-day point.