Melbourne Startup Builds Air-and-Sea Rescue Force to Recover Astronauts After Offshore Splashdowns

By Rick Neale

Shane Smith walked beside a heavy, hexagonal orange-and-yellow inflatable raft designed specifically to receive a small crew of astronauts who might splash down far offshore. The raft’s rigid, paddleboard-like floor supports medical treatment and chest compressions, while a removable canopy, ballast bags and hoist points make helicopter recovery possible even in rough seas.

"When this is inflated, it isn't like your standard life raft. The floor is rigid enough for medical care — it’s not all wet and soupy," said Smith, a former U.S. Air Force Reserve 920th Rescue Wing command chief and co-founder of Operator Solutions.

Operator Solutions, based at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, says it is the first commercial human-spaceflight rescue company. The startup partners with Axiom Space on private missions to the International Space Station and staged a Lockheed C-130A Hercules, two Sikorsky S-76 helicopters, rescue boats, personal watercraft and more than 50 trained personnel offshore for the Ax-4 crewed launch in June.

Why a private rescue force?

Until recent commercial crew flights, the Department of Defense handled astronaut recoveries. "What’s going to happen when the commercial people start flying?" asked Brandon Daugherty, Operator Solutions' co-founder and CEO and a former 920th pararescue team leader. He said military resources cannot be assigned to every private launch, creating a need for qualified civilian responders.

Daugherty and Smith bring extensive search-and-rescue experience to the venture. Daugherty deployed on multiple combat rescue missions and helped perform more than 120 helicopter-hoist rescues during hurricanes. The company draws heavily on veterans: it "staffs up" to roughly 50 contract personnel in the days before a crewed launch, most of them current or former military.

Operations and capabilities

The firm operates a compact operations center at the Aerospace Center off Apollo Boulevard, with seven workstations, a red countdown clock and displays showing off-shore launch corridors. Its hangar space stores parachutes, boats, trailers and pallets of specialized equipment ready to deploy by air and sea.

Operator Solutions says its equipment and procedures can sustain up to four critically injured patients for as long as 72 hours at a high level of medical care. Teams approach disabled spacecraft cautiously because of hazards such as toxic gases and jagged metal from launch-abort systems; personnel who "sniff" a capsule use carbon-fiber self-contained breathing apparatus for protection.

Partnerships, funding and future customers

The startup launched in 2020 and credits Axiom Space with helping it gain early traction. Operator Solutions has raised about $1 million so far and is seeking roughly $4.5 million more to expand capabilities. Potential customers include commercial space operators, NASA, the U.S. Navy, cruise lines, disaster-response agencies and manufacturers that return cargo via ocean splashdowns.

The company also supported Sierra Space’s February 2024 airdrop tests of the planned Ghost logistics vehicle at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch and Landing Facility, and is partnering with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine to develop emergency medical training for commercial spaceflights. Dr. Victor Vargas, Health First chief medical officer and an Air Force pararescue flight surgeon, serves as the company’s medical director.

"We're constantly having to figure out complex, high-risk problems and come up with solutions. We're trying to bring that into the space industry," Daugherty said, summarizing the company’s mission to translate military rescue experience into civilian space operations.