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Solid
Rocket Booster Recovery:
Rick Tubridy has been an engineer and diver with United Space Alliance
for the past 19 years. United Space Alliance is NASA's prime contractor
for the Space Shuttle Program. The company provides many services
to the space agency, including assisting with astronaut training,
shuttle processing and launch operations, and recovering and rebuilding
the solid rocket boosters.
As
part of Rick's job, he routinely dives during the
recovery of the boosters. In the past, the company
has tried to document their work using amphibious
35mm cameras, but the results were not always satisfactory.
As he describes it, their photos were nothing but "black
and blue."
Shortly
before a recent shuttle launch, Rick purchased a
Light & Motion Tetra housing for his Olympus
C3030Z still digital camera. Although he had purchased
the camera for his personal use, Rick took the camera
out into the clear waters of the Gulf Stream where
the boosters splash down to document his company's
work. It was his first dive with the camera and all
of his photos were shot with ambient light, at depths
down to 100 feet and beyond.
According
to Rick, the results with the digital camera were
excellent and the photos were circulated via email
at Kennedy, Johnson, and Marshall space centers.
The photos are aiding engineers in a redesign of
the diver-operated-plug used on the solid rocket
boosters to improve diver safety during the recovery
of these shuttle components.
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