Rescue reservists support successful rocket launch

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Natasha Dowridge
  • 920th Rescue Wing Public Affairs
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) --  Air Force Reservists from the 920th Rescue Wing here supported the successful United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch Aug. 6. The Atlas carried the Juno spacecraft for NASA.

Juno launched from Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and is tasked with investigating the formation, evolution and structure of the planet Jupiter from an elliptical orbit.

Airmen with the 920th RQW provided search-and-rescue support for NASA's manned spaceflight missions from the Mercury project in 1961 through the space shuttle program, which ended in July. While there are currently no missions requiring astronaut search-and-rescue operations, the 920th RWQ continues to support NASA's rocket launch missions.

Rescue Wing Airmen perform range-clearing operations using their HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters to clear a 2,000-square-mile area of the Eastern Range, a launch area that extends east of the Atlantic Ocean for all Space Coast rocket launches. By providing range clearing, they ensure mariners keep a safe distance from the rocket launch path and out of harm's way should the rocket dismantle.

Debris (from the rocket) could fall from the sky as far out as 80 miles down the range, said Lt. Col. Rhys Hunt, a Pave Hawk helicopter pilot here. Rescue Wing Airmen could also assist medically if something were to happen to the rocket and debris somehow hurt someone.

Being equipped with unique combat search-and-rescue skills and equipment, Rescue Wing Airmen are the most qualified in the world to respond to any emergency scenario, Hunt said. 

"The day before the launch we do mission planning," Hunt said. "We get the coordinates for the area that we need to search and clear ... we met the tasking as directed."

In the next six months, NASA officials have three more missions scheduled, in which the Rescue Reservists will continue to provide range-clearing and rescue support if needed.

Range clearing is only one part of the unit's peacetime mission. The other peacetime missions are providing search-and-rescue support for civilians at sea who are lost or in distress, and providing humanitarian and disaster-relief operations.