Carriers in the Space Age

(Click on mission patch for details. Links are to NASA mission summaries.)

This page is dedicated to the memory of:

Apollo 1 27 January 1967	Challenger Mission STS 51-L 28 January 1986	Columbia Mission STS 107 16 January 2003 - 1 February 2003

NASA photo	NASA photo	NASA photo
Roger Chaffee Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom Edward H. White	Gregory B. Jarvis Christa McAuliffe Ronald E. McNair Ellison S. Onizuka Judith A. Resnik Francis R. Scobee Michael J. Smith	Michael Anderson David Brown Kalpana Chawla Laurel Clark Rick Husband William McCool Ilan Ramon

"Earthrise" - Apollo 8
NASA photo

High Flight

Oh, I have slippped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there.
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

by Pilot Officer John G. McGee, Jr.

Carriers have played an integral part in the United States space program. Carrier task groups, with their mix of ships and aircraft, were capable of covering a large area for purposes of security, search and recovery. The carrier itself, with it's large flight and hangar decks, allowed the installation of specialised equipment to communicate with and track spacecraft, care for the astronaut(s) after recovery, and secure and inspect the spacecraft itself. Carriers recovered all but one of America's ballistic re-entry manned spacecraft, with a perfect record of safety. No astronaut was lost or injured during recovery operations. (The one exception was Gemini 8, which was safely recovered by a destroyer operating independently.)

Carrier task groups stood by throughout all the early missions, ready to lend assistance as needed in the event of mission problems.

Project Mercury

Mercury-Redstone mission *MR-1* was a failed unmanned test mission. Mercury-Redstone mission *MR-1A* was an unmanned and unrecovered test mission. Mercury-Redstone mission *MR-2* contained Ham, the astro-chimpanzee, on a life-support and biological systems test. Ham was recovered by the destroyer DD-864 USS Harold J. Ellison and the landing ship LSD-20 USS Donner. Mercury-Atlas mission *MA-1* was a failed unmanned test mission. Mercury-Atlas mission *MA-2* was an unmanned and unrecovered test mission. Mercury-Atlas mission *MA-3* was a failed (range safety abort) test mission. The test capsule was later recovered. Mercury-Atlas mission *MA-4* was an unmanned and unrecovered test mission. Mercury-Atlas mission *MA-5* contained Enos, the second astro-chimpanzee, on an environmental systems test. Enos was recovered by DD-780 USS Stormes and DD-705 USS Compton.

*Mercury 3*	5 May 1961 Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) - "Freedom 7" Alan B. Shepard First American in space Recovered by CV-39 USS Lake Champlain task group south of the Bahama Islands (75 w 27 n).	*Mercury 4*	21 July 1961 Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4) - "Liberty Bell 7" Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom Astronaut recovered by CV-15 USS Randolph in mid-Atlantic, some 300 miles east of Cape Canaveral. The capsule filled with water due to a premature hatch deployment and was not recovered.

*Mercury 6*	20 February 1962 Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) - "Friendship 7" John H. Glenn First American to orbit the Earth Recovered 800 miles southeast of Bermuda by DD-841 USS Noa, part of the CV-15 USS Randolph task group. Capsule and astronaut were later transferred to Randolph.	*Mercury 7*	24 May 1962 Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7) - "Aurora 7" M. Scott Carpenter Splashdown at 19 n 64 w, east of the Dominican Republic. Astronaut recovered by CV-11 USS Intrepid; capsule recovered by DLG-6 USS Farragut and DD-753 USS John R. Pierce; Pierce delivered the capsule to Roosevelt Roads Naval Base, where it was loaded aboard an aircraft and flown back to the Cape.

*Mercury 8*	3 October 1962 Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) - "Sigma 7" Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Recovered by CV-33 USS Kearsarge.	*Mercury 9*	15-16 May 1963 Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) - "Faith 7" L. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper First American to spend a day in space Recovered by CV-33 USS Kearsarge.

Project Gemini

*Gemini 1* and *Gemini 2* were unmanned and unrecovered test missions

*Gemini 3*	23 March 1965 "Molly Brown" Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom & John W. Young Recovered by CV-11 USS Intrepid east of the Bahama Islands.	*Gemini 4*	3-7 June 1965 James A. McDivitt & Edward H. White First American spacewalk (by Ed White) Splashdown at 27 n 74 w, northeast of the Bahama Islands. Recovered by CV-18 USS Wasp.

*Gemini 5*	21-29 August 1965 L. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper & Charles Conrad Crew recovered by DD-941 USS DuPont and transferred to CV-39 USS Lake Champlain after splashdown near the Bahama Islands.	*Gemini 7*	4-18 December 1965 Frank Borman & James A. Lovell First space rendezvous (with Gemini 6) Recovered by CV-18 USS Wasp after landing in the Bahamas area.

*Gemini 6*	15-16 December 1965 Walter M. "Wally" Schirra & Thomas P. Stafford First space rendezvous (with Gemini 7) Recovered by CV-18 USS Wasp after splashdown near the Bahamas.	*Gemini 8*	16 March 1966 Neil A. Armstrong & David R. Scott First docking with another spacecraft (an unmanned Agena upper stage) Recovered by DD-852 USS Leonard F. Mason off Okinawa. This is the only space mission where a carrier was not the prime recovery ship, due to a premature termination of the mission and the use of a secondary recovery area.

*Gemini 9*	3-6 June 1966 Thomas P. Stafford & Eugene A. Cernan Recovered by CV-18 USS Wasp. The capsule splashed down less than a mile from the ship in the Bahamas recovery area.	*Gemini 10*	18-21 July 1966 John W. Young & Michael Collins Recovered by LPH-7 USS Guadalcanal in the Bahamas area.

*Gemini 11*	12-15 September 1966 Charles Conrad & Richard F. Gordon Recovered by LPH-9 USS Guam in the Bahamas recovery area.	*Gemini 12*	11-15 November 1966 James A. Lovell & Edwin E. Aldrin Recovered by CV-18 USS Wasp in the Bahamas area.

Project Apollo

Apollo-Saturn 201 (AS-201) was an unmanned test mission recovered by CV-21 USS Boxer. Apollo-Saturn 202 (AS-202) was an unmanned test mission recovered by CV-12 USS Hornet. Mission designation *Apollo 1* was retroactively assigned to the disastrous launch pad test which resulted in the deaths of astronauts Chaffee, Grissom and White. Designations *Apollo 2* & *Apollo 3* were never assigned. *Apollo 4* was an unmanned test mission recovered by CV-20 USS Benninigton. *Apollo 5* was an unmanned and unrecovered test mission. *Apollo 6* was an unmanned test mission recovered by LPH-3 USS Okinawa.

*Apollo 7*	11-22 October 1968 Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisle & Walter Cunningham Recovered by CV-9 USS Essex in the Bermuda area.	*Apollo 8*	21-27 December 1968 Frank Borman, James A. Lovell & William A. Anders First manned mission to orbit the moon. Recovered by CV-10 USS Yorktown approximately 400 miles south-southwest of Hawaii.

*Apollo 9*	3-13 March 1969 Gumdrop (CSM) & Spider (LM) James A.McDivitt, David R. Scott & Russell L. Schweikart First in-flight test of lunar module. Recovered by LPH-7 USS Guadalcanal in the Bahamas recovery area.	*Apollo 10*	18-26 May 1969 Charlie Brown (CSM) & Snoopy (LM) Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young & Eugene A. Cernan Full-up dress rehearsal for lunar landing. Splashdown about 300 miles south-southwest of Hawaii. Recovery by CV-37 USS Princeton.

*Apollo 11*	16-24 July 1969 Columbia (CSM) & Eagle (LM) Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins & Edwin E. Aldrin "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Recovery in the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii, by CV-12 USS Hornet.	*Apollo 12*	14-24 November 1969 Yankee Clipper (CSM) & Intrepid (LM) Charles Conrad, Richard F. Gordon & Alan L. Bean Recovered by CV-12 USS Hornet in mid-Pacific. Note: The four stars on the mission patch represent the three members of the Apollo 12 crew plus astronaut Clifton Williams, who was likely to be named as lunar module pilot for this mission when he was killed in a training accident in a T-38 aircraft (source: (under "Training Accidents")).

*Apollo 13*	11-17 April 1970 Odyssey (CSM) & Aquarius (LM) James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert & Fred W. Haise "Houston, we have a problem." Moon landing cancelled after an explosion tore apart Odyssey's service module. Using Aquarius as a lifeboat, the crew was able to loop around the moon and return to Earth. Recovered by LPH-2 USS Iwo Jima after Pacific splashdown.	*Apollo 14*	31 January - 9 February 1971 Kitty Hawk (CSM) & Antares (LM) Alan B.Shepard, Stuart A. Roosa & Edgar D. Mitchell Recovered in the Pacific by LPH-11 USS New Orleans.

*Apollo 15*	26 July - 7 August 1971 Endeavor (CSM) & Falcon (LM) David R. Scott, Alfred M. Worden & James B. Irwin First use of Lunar Rover Recovered by LPH-3 USS Okinawa, Pacific Ocean.	*Apollo 16*	16-27 April 1972 Caspar (CSM) & Orion (LM) John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly & Charles M. Duke Recovered by CV-14 USS Ticonderoga in the Pacific.

*Apollo 17*	7-19 December 1972 America (CSM) & Challenger (LM) Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans & Harrison H. Schmitt Pacific Ocean recovery by CV-14 USS Ticonderoga.

Project Skylab

*Skylab 2*	25 May - 22 June 1973 Charles Conrad, Joseph P. Kerwin & Paul J. Weitz Splashdown 835 miles southwest of San Diego, California and recovered by CV-14 USS Ticonderoga	*Skylab 3*	28 July - 25 September 1973 Alan L. Bean, Owen K. Garriott & Jack R. Lousma Recovered in the Pacific, 230 miles southwest of San Diego, by LPH-11 USS New Orleans

*Skylab 4*	16 November 1973 - 8 February 1974 Gerald P. Carr, Edwin G. Gibson & William R. Pogue Recovered by LPH-11 USS New Orleans 175 miles southwest of San Diego	Note: The numbers on the mission patches represent manned Skylab missions. *Skylab 1* was the unmanned initial launch of the orbital module, with the manned missions numbered as indicated in the table.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

*Apollo-Soyuz Test Project*	15 - 24 July 1975 Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand & Donald K. Slayton Valeriy Nikolayevich Kubasov & Alexei Arhipovich Leonov Apollo recovered by LPH-11 USS New Orleans in the central Pacific, near Hawaii Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan on 21 July

Recovery Summary

Carrier	Recoveries	Missions (Unmanned missions)
CV-18 USS Wasp	5	Gemini 4, Gemini 7, Gemini 6, Gemini 9, Gemini 12
LPH-11 USS New Orleans	4	Apollo 14, Skylab 3, Skylab 4, Apollo-Soyuz
CV-12 USS Hornet	3	Apollo-Saturn 202, Apollo 11, Apollo 12
CV-14 USS Ticonderoga	3	Apollo 16, Apollo 17, Skylab 2
CV-39 USS Lake Champlain	2	Mercury 3, Gemini 5
CV-15 USS Randolph	2	Mercury 4, Mercury 6
CV-11 USS Intrepid	2	Mercury 7, Gemini 3
CV-33 USS Kearsarge	2	Mercury 8, Mercury 9
LPH-7 USS Guadalcanal	2	Gemini 10, Apollo 9
LPH-3 USS Okinawa	2	Apollo 6, Apollo 15
DD-852 USS Leonard F. Mason	1	Gemini 8
LPH-9 USS Guam	1	Gemini 11
CV-21 USS Boxer	1	Apollo-Saturn 201
CV-20 USS Bennington	1	Apollo 4
CV-9 USS Essex	1	Apollo 7
CV-10 USS Yorktown	1	Apollo 8
CV-37 USS Princeton	1	Apollo 10
LPH-2 USS Iwo Jima	1	Apollo 13

Sources

All project/mission logos and patches from the Kennedy Space Center Public Affairs Office "History of Human Spaceflight" website

The Illustrated History of Man in Space, by Robin Kerrod

The Tin Shed Observatory

From the Sea to the Stars: A History of U.S. Navy Space and Space-Related Activities by Gary Federici; online publication of the U. S. Naval Historical Center

Space and the United States Navy by Commander Ted Wilbur; online publication of the U. S. Naval Historical Center

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