Spacefest V - Day 3 - Curt Newport and the Recovery of the Liberty Bell 7

Picture of the Day for 5/26/2013. Last full day of Spacefest. Never did get to help out an astronaut, but I was asked to assist Curt Newport who was one of the special guests. That ended up being a fabulous assignment since I wouldn't have gotten to know him or his story otherwise. He specializes in deep sea salvage and led the expedition that recovered the Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. 

Gus Grisson was America's 2nd astronaut in space. After splashdown, his Mercury capsule, the Liberty Bell 7, sank after the hatch blew off prematurely which caused the craft to take on water. It was fascinating hearing Newport talk about the process of finding the capsule and the preparations that went into hoisting it from a depth of over 16,000 feet (more than 3,000 feet deeper than the wreck of the Titanic). NASA un-crated an original Mercury capsule (never flown) that was in storage so Newport could determine the best way to design and affix specially-made hooks to the Liberty Bell 7. According to Newport, it was more a matter of finesse than brute cable strength since the capsule was surprisingly light- weighing less than 2,000 pounds. 

In addition to the Liberty Bell 7, he's also worked on the recovery of the space shuttle Challenger, TWA flight 800, and the Titanic. Pretty impressive career. 

I'm pictured with him in the first photo below. In the second one, Kate Doolan is interviewing him for a follow-up to a book she co-authored. Kate deserves a blog entry all to herself since she has a larger-than-life personality. She's from Australia and a hoot. She's been a fun addition to Spacefest.