Ax-2 Commander Peggy Whitson is pictured next to aquatic apparatus’ inside the Operator Solutions facility in Melbourne, FL.
Axiom Space crews train a lot and for any event that could happen. Axiom Space has chosen Operator Solutions as the provider for crew rescue and recovery operations and to serve as operational support during launch. This is to ensure that if the crew experience an anomaly in flight and require support at an off-nominal landing location, they will know what to expect and perform in an efficient and safe manner. Operator Solutions has developed and tested tactics, techniques, and procedures for training, rigging, alert, response, command and control for human spaceflight missions and spacecraft.
Previous training exercises started with locating the private astronaut crew and spacecraft in the open ocean, initiating the next step of the search and rescue procedures. After airdropping recovery rescue equipment and an inflatable rescue vessel, four pararescue jumpers were airdropped into the recovery zone to prepare their rescue vessel for transport to the crewmembers and spacecraft. In addition, a fully operational Rescue Operations Center — located at the Operator Solutions facilities in Melbourne, FL – monitored and communicated through several critical communications channels, including connectivity to Axiom’s Mission Control Center, personnel at the recovery site, SpaceX, NASA, and ground and air crews. Once the rescue team reached the crewmembers and their spacecraft, helicopter air support hoisted the crewmembers with the pararescue jumpers for transport to a nearby hospital for additional medical support ensuring the health and safety for each crewmember, ending the validation exercise.
Ax-2 Pilot and STEM advocate John Shoffner meets with colleagues at the Operator Solutions facility in Melbourne, FL.
While NASA relies on the Department of Defense for rescue support, commercial human spaceflight launches, like ones by Axiom Space, fall outside the parameters of what the Secretary of Defense has agreed to support, therefore leaving Operator Solutions to help fill the void in rescue capabilities. Highly trained rescue specialists from within the Department of Defense as well as medical doctors, human spaceflight experts, and fixed and rotary-wing capable aircrews assist with the training to ensure the crew can handle anything that comes their way.
