Date

11-13-2025

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Chad E. Shelley

Keywords

Space Race, Cold War, Project Mercury, U.S. Navy, recovery operations, salvage operations, Jupiter missile, Little Joe (rocket), Bog Joe (rocket), Redstone (rocket), Atlas (rocket), Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, Mercury Seven, USS Salvager (ARSD-3), USS Strong (DD-758), USS Preserver (ARS-8), USS Borie (DD-704), USS Opportune (ARS-41), USS Valley Forge (CVS-45), USS Donner (LSD-20), USS Recovery (ARS-43), USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39), USS Randolph (CVS-15), USS Stormes (DD-780), USS Kearsarge (CVS-33), Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), splashdown

Disciplines

History

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to highlight U.S. Navy efforts during early space recovery operations. The space recovery mission was new to the United States’ Cold War Navy, and in many cases its space recovery forces learned through trial and error, beginning with Jupiter missile nosecone recoveries in 1957. The study examines the collaborative efforts between the U.S. Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to locate and retrieve Project Mercury astronauts and space capsules after they traveled into space and splashed down in the ocean. It identifies technological aides on which recovery forces led by the U.S. Navy relied to locate and recover space capsules, and it chronicled their early incorporation, development, use, and evolution. Finally, it scrutinizes the Navy’s capsule recovery efforts during Project Mercury, focusing on the twenty-six recovery missions that occurred before NASA sent an American into space. The study’s chief contribution is to the gap it closes in the historiography spanning several methodologies, including American space, military, naval, Cold War, and technological histories.

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