john f. kennedy space center brevard county, florida - Environmental ...

NAME(S): Retrieval Ship Liberty Star
FACILITY NO(S): N/A
FLORIDA MASTER SITE FILE NO.: 8BR2019
LOCATION: CCAFS Industrial Area
PROPERTY TYPE: Resources associated with Transportation; Resources associated with
Space Flight Recovery
DATE(S): 1980
ARCHITECT/ENGINEER: Designed by Rudolph F. Matzer and Associates, Jacksonville for
United Space Boosters, Inc. (USBI) of Huntsville, Alabama, a subsidiary of United Technologies
Corporation of Sunnyvale, California. Built at the Atlantic Marine Shipyard, Fort George Island,
Florida.
USE (ORIGINAL/CURRENT): Liberty Star was specifically built for the retrieval of expended
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and their associated flight hardware following
launch. Since 1998, the ship has also been used to tow the external tank (ET) from the Michoud
Assembly Facility in Louisiana to KSC.
HISTORICAL DATA: Liberty Star, and its counterpart Freedom Star, were built for United
Space Boosters, Inc. (USBI) in 1980 and 1981 at the Atlantic Marine Shipyard, Fort George
Island, Florida. The Liberty Star arrived at KSC in January 1981; it was eventually sold to
Lockheed Space Operations and operated under a lease arrangement with NASA. In 1993, NASA
purchased the ship for $7.25 million. Permanent structural changes were made to the vessel ca.
1997 and 1998 by Dentyen’s Shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina in order to tow the Shuttle
external tank barge from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana to KSC. Changes included
strengthening of the stern, installation of new bulwark fairings and towing H-bitts, and
replacement of the hydraulic tow winch with a new double-drum waterfall winch. Other ship
improvements include Differential and WAAS Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational
equipment, a Flume Tank System for increased stability, state-of-the-art communication systems,
and man-rated boat davits. In 1992, the NASA “meatball” insignia was painted on the ship.
The Liberty Star can hold a maximum of 24 persons, including the nine-person SRB retrieval
team and retrieval supervisor. At the time of splashdown, the ship is positioned in its station,
located about eight to ten nautical miles from the impact area. The ship is designed to recover
one SRB. Booster retrieval operations are controlled from the aft bridge of the ship; the forward
area of the bridge is for the operation of the ship itself.
The retrieval process begins with the pilot and main parachutes, whose shroud lines are wound
onto three of the four reels on the ship’s deck. The frustum and drogue chutes are reeled in next.
The frustum is lifted from the water by a power block attached to the ship’s deck crane. Two dive
teams, of eight persons each, are deployed from two inflatable boats to recover the boosters. An
Enhanced Diver-Operated-Plug (EDOP) is launched from the ship and towed to the booster by
one of the small boats. The EDOP is inserted into the booster nozzle by the first dive team, and
air is pumped from the ship into the booster, displacing the water and eventually causing the
booster to assume a horizontal position and float on the surface. A tow line is then connected to
the booster, and the towing operation begins. At Port Canaveral, the booster is brought from a