The Coast Guard Supports Space Launches and Reentries

BY EDWARD LUNDQUIST

What goes up may come down. For launches from spaceports like Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at Cape Canaveral in Florida, Vandenberg Space Force Base (formerly Vanderberg Air Force Base) near Lompoc, California, on the West Coast, or NASA’s Wallops Island facility near Chincoteague, Virginia, the Coast Guard provides a presence at sea to keep nearby waters clear of marine traffic.

A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Port Canaveral, Florida, enforces a safety and security zone during a rocket launch off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 24, 2016. The Coast Guard helps provide safety and security services for launches out of the Kennedy Space Center.

The Coast Guard works with the Space Force’s 45th Space Wing, NASA, and commercial launch providers to promulgate limited-access safety zones. On launch day, the Coast Guard monitors and patrols those zones to keep boaters out of an area where debris or hazardous materials might fall incidental to launch.

Cmdr. Jill Lamb, chief of response for Sector Jacksonville, Florida, said the Captain of the Port (COTP) promulgates notices to mariners to set forth those limited access safety areas. Her team uses a local risk assessment tool for each launch. “It’s scalable, so we can look at all the factors and adjust our force laydown. It might vary, depending on if we’re dealing with a satellite launch or an astronaut launch.”

Crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Maria Bray watch as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, May 30, 2020. Coast Guard units and crews supported the launch by enforcing safety and security zones during the rocket’s launch in order to protect members of the public, vessels, harbors, ports, and waterfront facilities.

The highest risk is usually within the first minute or minute-and-a-half of launch, depending on launch vehicle, configuration, azimuth, or planned specific tests, said Chief Warrant Officer John Chandler, commanding officer of Station Port Canaveral.

The Coast Guard has search and rescue responsibilities and law enforcement authorities.

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“During those launches that are deemed high risk or when we receive a request from the 45th for surveillance assets, our vessels would patrol within the launch danger area, ensuring vessel masters are aware of the hazardous areas and CG [Coast Guard] – enforceable Limited Access Areas [LAA],” Chandler said. “Our job with the USSF [U.S. Space Force] day of launch is to provide CG authority in the event a boater is causing the overall risk analysis to increase, which can affect proceeding to launch, hold, or scrub.”

The Coast Guard has supported the U.S. space program since its beginning. Here, U.S. astronaut Frank Borman, Gemini 7 prime crew command pilot, is hoisted out of the water by a U.S. Coast Guard recovery team from a Sikorsky HH-52A Seaguard helicopter during water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico, in October 1965.

But the Coast Guard’s responsibilities go beyond launch day. Increased launch activity means more space-related shipping going in and out of Port Canaveral for commercial launch partners such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Boeing, and Orbital ATK. Large rocket assemblies and bulk shipments of rocket fuels can arrive by sea at Port Canaveral. Specialized vessels are used to recover booster assemblies at sea, including autonomous barges on which boosters can land and be brought back to port for refurbishing and reuse.

As the local officer in charge of marine inspection, the sector commander is charged with inspecting and approving those highly specialized maritime vessels.

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“We go aboard to ensure compliance with regulations and safety requirements,” Lamb said. “It’s becoming more challenging to learn these new vessels. They don’t fit squarely into the typical ship categories we’re used to, and each of these commercial operators have their own types of vessels. As the technology advances and their experience grows, the operators are constantly adjusting their procedures and modifying their vessels, which means we need to conduct frequent inspections to deal with the changes.”

But with all the new technologies, new vessels, and increased number of space launches, Lamb said the Coast Guard is very experienced with space operations. “We’ve been a mission supporter since 1955.”