Back to the future: pararescuemen again practicing astronaut capsule recovery.

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With NASA on schedule to replace its fleet of space shuttles with a new crew exploration vehicle, an Air Force Reserve unit responsible for providing first-response medical, contingency, rescue and recovery for all shuttle launches is busy preparing for the changeover.

Six pararescuemen from the 920th Rescue Wing conducted recovery testing on a mockup of NASA's next-generation spacecraft at the Trident Turn Basin on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., March. 8.

Master Sergeants Robert Smith, Chris Seinkner, Matt Roche, Jeffrey McManus and Kenneth Surrey, along with Senior Airman Richard Boyd, deployed an inflatable flotation collar during the test of the Orion crew exploration vehicle, NASA's next-generation spacecraft.

The collar is designed both to stabilize the capsule after water landing and provide a platform for recovery personnel to stand on during the operation.

The operation, called the Post-landing Orion Recovery Test, allowed the PJs to test the capsule in outside conditions. In addition, it gave NASA personnel an opportunity to discover what kind of motion astronauts can expect to experience after landing.

According to NASA, Orion is targeted to begin carrying humans to the International Space Station in 2015 and to the moon by 2020. Orion is part of NASA's Constellation Program.

Air Force pararescuemen have provided astronaut recovery support to NASA as far back as the Mercury program and were the first on scene to help legendary astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Gus Grissom from their space capsules.

(Sergeant Flipse wrote this article while assigned to the 920th RQW public affairs office at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. He is currently working for the Air Force Reserve Command Recruiting Service.)