While SpaceX is just about the only major American aerospace company without a presence in the Yellowhammer State, Sunday’s completion of the historic Demo-2 mission still managed to have an Alabama connection.
Demo-2 was SpaceX’s first-ever crewed mission for NASA and the first crewed orbital launch to depart from the United States since the final flight of the space shuttle program in July 2011.
The mission lifted off on May 30, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket powered Endeavour from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a one-day trip, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived at the International Space Station.
On Sunday, the Endeavour Capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, with the two astronauts strapped inside. This marked the first crewed ocean return since July 1975. The Endeavour’s splashdown was also the first Gulf of Mexico return to Earth in NASA history.
The SpaceX recovery ship GO Navigator met Endeavour and hoisted the capsule aboard shortly after it landed in the water off the coast of Pensacola, FL.
GO Navigator was built by Master Boat Builders, which is located in Coden, AL.
An unincorporated community in southern Mobile County, Coden is located near Bayou La Batre.
Mobile County Commissioner Jerry Carl, who is the Republican nominee in Alabama’s First Congressional District, highlighted Master Boat Builders’ contribution to the mission.
“I am so proud of the fact that Master Boat Builders in Coden, AL is playing a key role in history, with the recovery of the Space X mission today. Go Navigator was built by the Rice Family / Master Boat Builders in 2010,” Carl said in a Sunday Facebook post.
GO Navigator joined SpaceX’s recovery fleet in August 2018. Since then, it has gradually been upgraded to meet advanced mission needs. The vessel is now equipped with a medical treatment facility and helipad for emergency situations.
Its sister ship, GO Searcher, was also built by Master Boat Builders. The vessels typically work in tandem on SpaceX recovery missions.
You can view video footage from GO Navigator’s recovery efforts on Sunday here.
Since the end of NASA’s space shuttle program, Russian-made rockets and spacecraft had ferried astronauts to the International Space Station before Demo-2.
Both SpaceX and Boeing are part of NASA’s push to begin what is essentially a commercial space taxi service to the space station.
“We are entering a new era of human spaceflight,” commented NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Boeing’s Starliner was designed in Huntsville and is launched into space by an Alabama-built, United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket. The Starliner program hopes to conduct its first crewed mission to the International Space Station in 2021.
Starliner made history last year, becoming the first-ever American orbital space capsule to land on U.S. soil when it touched down at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on December 22.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.