United States Navy Retrieves NASA Payload From Ocean Bottom With CURV III, Various Locations

Description

OF DELIVERED NEWSFILM RELEASE OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (PUBLIC AFFAIRS) UNITED WASHINGTON, D.C. - 20301 STATES OF PLEASE NOTE DATE IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 21, 1970 OXford 76161 Number 60-70 Footage: 100' 16mm Color Master Room 2E 773 Time: 2:47 U. S. NAVY RETRIEVES NASA PAYLOAD FROM OCEAN BOTTOM WITH CURV III (Official U. S. Navy Film Released by the Department of Defense) A new model of the U. S. Naval Undersea Center's Cable-controlled Underwater Research Vehicle (CURV III), tested only once at a depth of 6,000 feet, re- covered a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) instrument package from 5,850 feet of water off the Virginia coast on March 22, 1970. The 400-pound payload was the heaviest object recovered by an unmanned vehicle from an ocean depth of more than one mile. The NASA instrument package was sent aloft from Wallops Island, Virginia, to gather data on the March 7 solar eclipse. It landed in the Atlantic about 75 miles from Norfolk, and sunk to the bottom. The Supervisor of Salvage, part of the Naval Ships Systems Command, contacted the Naval Undersea Center and requested that CURV III be shipped to Virginia from San Diego, California, to assist in the recovery of the payload. Recovery operations began on March 21 when a helicopter from the radar station at Wallops Island marked the payload's point of entry based on radar tracking data and the CURV III made its first dive. Working through the night on rough seas, the crew aboard the CURV III mother ship, USS OPPORTUNE (ASR-41), moved the vehicle through two systematic search patterns. On the second pattern, the closed circuit television system operated aboard the USS OPPORTUNE spotted the payload on the ocean bottom. The instrument package had separated from the recovery package. At 6:00 a.m., March 22, CURV III fastened onto the instrument package and began its ascent to the surface. By 5:30 that afternoon, both parts of the payload were aboard the USS OPPORTUNE. The CURV III system, mounted on the mother ship, included an acoustic locating device, a television and sonar control, monitoring console, and vehicle handling gear. The cable-controlled vehicle is seven feet wide, seven feet high and thirteen feet long, weighing two tons. A number of subsystems are attached to its aluminum frame including propulsion units, TV camera and lighting equipment, acoustical locating instruments, and a hydrolic system to operate the mechanical hand or claw. - MORE -

Collection

Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer

Series

Filmed News Releases