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Interesting side note to the SpaceX capsule recovery.
Boaters gatecrash SpaceX's 1st splashdown with astronauts. 'We need to do better,' NASA chief says.:
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour splashed down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida Sunday (Aug. 2), returning astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to Earth after their historic Demo-2 test flight. But shortly after that splashdown, private boats swarmed the space capsule, apparently hoping for a closer look.
"That was not what we were anticipating," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a post-splashdown briefing. "After they landed, the boats just came in. We need to do a better job next time for sure."
[...] Bridenstine said the U.S. Coast Guard did clear the landing zone ahead of the splashdown, and the landing itself had no issues. The SpaceX recovery ship Go Navigator recovered the capsule about 30 minutes after splashdown, but not before the private boats arrived.
"That capsule was in the water for a good amount of time and those boats just made a beeline for it," Bridenstine said. "There are things that we're going to look at, that we need to do better at, for sure."
SpaceX recovery crews in fast boats worked to push back the encroaching boaters. Still, the private boats could be seen in an arc around SpaceX's Go Navigator as the retrieval team plucked the capsule from the sea.
"The lesson learned here is that we probably need more Coast Guard assets,and maybe more SpaceX and NASA assets as well," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in the post-splashdown briefing. "This was a demonstration mission. This is the time that you go learn about these things, and we'll certainly be better prepared next time."
Previously:
(2020-08-02) Demo-2 Astronauts Safely Splashdown in Gulf of Mexico
(2020-08-01) More Quickly than Anyone Expected, NASA Embraces Reuse for Human Flights
(2020-05-30) Today WAS the Day -- Crew Demo 2 Launch Successful -- Heading to ISS [Updated]
(Score: 5, Informative) by istartedi on Wednesday August 05 2020, @11:54PM (3 children)
They had to do that. A Notice to Mariners is just like a NOTAM (NOtice To AirMen), except on water. It's just that apparently you don't get in as much trouble for violating one.
They send out notices to keep responsible boaters away, so you don't have some poor sap setting crab-pots or whatever and getting surprised by the recovery flotilla. The solution to the problem is to make the penalty for violating a Notice to Mariners comparable to that of willfully violating a NOTAM. You should lose your license to navigate for some specified period of time. They should make that widely known. That ought to keep them away, and if it doesn't then you need to have enough security around the perimeter to keep them away by force.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday August 06 2020, @04:13AM (2 children)
Do boaters need a license to navigate or other license to use their boats in Florida? And if they do, how well is it enforced?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @06:34PM (1 child)
https://myfwc.com/boating/safety-education/faqs/ [myfwc.com]
Yes, but actually, no. Safety Cert =/= license, but it's close enough in practice.
It's only enforced as much as enforcement personnel feel like it (ie. bad behavior or checkpoints); the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (locally, the Fish Police) aren't well-funded and don't have time or manpower to stop everyone. FWC is mostly freshwater or coastal, and Coast Guard handles further out stuff like this.
Coast Guard was involved for maritime safety. They cleared a 10mi radius before spashdown, after which the boaters promptly ignored them until
yelled atasked nicely to back up.(Score: 2) by dry on Friday August 07 2020, @12:58AM
OK, much the same as where I am. Thanks.