U.S. military, NASA relationship on display with Artemis 1 mission

221211-N-VQ947-3099 PACIFIC OCEAN (Dec. 11, 2022) Sailors aboard amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27) use a line load attenuating mechanism assembly to pull the NASA Artemis I Orion spacecraft into the well deck, Dec. 11, 2022. Portland, along with Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Montgomery (LCS 8), is underway in U.S. 3rd Fleet in support of the recovery. The retrieval operation is part of a Department of Defense effort that integrates combatant command service capabilities to determine best practices for safely retrieving spacecraft capable of carrying humans into space. The U.S. Navy has many unique capabilities that make it an ideal partner for supporting NASA, including its amphibious and expeditionary capabilities with the ability to embark helicopters, launch and recover small boats, three-dimensional air search radar and advanced medical facilities.