posted 04-08-2019 10:37 AM               

Space Cover 509: USS W.S. Sims Challenger Recovery

The space shuttle Challenger exploded at 11:39 a.m. on January 28, 1986 killing its crew. The events leading up to the tragedy are well documented but the search, rescue, and recovery efforts are not. The search effort would begin immediately and would close out on August 29, 1986, with the majority of effort taking place through April.

Over the course of the recovery effort a total of thirty ships participated at some point of time – including US Navy, US Coast Guard, UTC SRB retrieval, commercial, and submersibles. In addition, multiple types of aircraft, planes and helicopters, also participated. The search went as far north as the North and South Carolina coast.

Right after the explosion the Cape Leader began coordinating ships and aircraft to stay out of the area because of falling debris. After the range safety officer gave the all clear, ships and aircraft were vectored into the impact area to commence the search in the Atlantic Ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas, On-Scene Commander, and Cape Leader at the Cape comprised the hub for the operations. Usually, one of the on-scene C -130 aircraft was used each day to be in charge of aircraft assets involved in the search.

Cover servicer Bob Boudwin was able to confirm many of the ships involved and was able to provide collectors with covers for the recovery effort – these will usually have his "recovery fleet" RSC added to the front of the cover. In addition, Ross Smith has done a tremendous job of cataloging the ships involved in the effort and associated covers on his recovery ship web site expanding on the knowledge Boudwin began.

Interestingly, years after all of this research was done, in roughly 2017, a "new" ship was added to the recovery list catalog – the USS W. S. Sims.

In researching further, here are some "Sea Stories" from crewmembers at the time.

EM4 Bobby Hall:

This was one of the sadest times I had in the navy. We was on our way back home when we was told that the space shuttle Challenger blew up in midair. We was one of many ships who was looking for any parts that was floating. I still have alot of pics of the stuff that our ship picked up. This is a day that is hard to forget just like 9-11. I also only had about 2 months left to go before I was getting out of the service.

RMC Walter Carpus:

We had been down at the Andros Range [Bahamas], and things were just quiet and peaceful on our journey back to Mayport. I took the opportunity to tune in some music on an old (OLD) receiver. I found a real strong station coming out of Florida. It was within minutes then that I heard the tragic news of the explosion that took so many of the wonderful folks on the Challenger.

I got a quick radio check with Cinclantflt [Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet] on the red phone and called the skipper up on the bridge with the sad news. He immediately called Cinclantflt and was assigned to kick it up to flank (as I remember it) and get to the scene to assist. We were the first ship on station, and, subsequent to some super efforts by our deck/air ops guys managed to only recover a deck full of destruction. There were a great many of the guys teary eyed, but worked their tails off nevertheless.

I still cherish the beautiful award certificate we received for a truly wonderful effort. The ship was awarded the Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal. Every time another shuttle goes up, I, as well as many of you I am sure, hope it never happens again.

The covers shown are from the USS W.S. Sims, with the USS W.S. Sims ship cachet added on one of the first days of participation (February 3rd) and days in March (20th and 26th, with the 26th having wording about the Challenger search added to the cover).

So while searching naval covers be on the lookout for the STS 51L recovery ships, they are still out there to be found...

posted 04-13-2019 02:46 PM               

Seen below are a few more added depictions of Mission 51-L ship covers and major Cape events. One mission emblem cover was actually carried on the US Coast Guard Cutter Dallas when the vessel first left Port Canaveral on Jan. 31 until Feb. 4 of 1986.

While I am not an avid recovery ship cover collector myself, I did try to put together a rather moderate assembly of search and salvage covers of all different types the best I could. Most of these document the early phase of the recovery efforts in late January to March 1986, however, not all of the illustrated covers posted here were cancelled with onboard ship cancels, though. Altogether, I was only able to assemble and put together about 50 different ship and related event covers ending in August of that tragic year.

posted 09-22-2022 05:23 AM               

I have collected several recovery covers about Challenger space shuttle explosion.

posted 10-15-2022 05:57 PM               

All of the airmail envelopes were covers produced by space cover dealer Bob Boudwin of Woodbury, NJ. We worked together with sources and information in trying to produce and service covers during this unique 7-month debris recovery phase. Unfortunately, Bob had made a spelling error in using the word "Recouery" on a rubber stamp cachet that he wanted to apply on all his airmail covers.

Of particular interest may be the Boudwin cover in the first panel section, 2nd row, with an embossed-seal cachet of the USCGC Cherokee, an ocean auxiliary tugboat, that participated in the shuttle recovery effort. The tug steamed over 1,000 miles from Feb. 2-7 having retrieved numerous shuttle parts and sections. The Cherokee cover shown, though, was posted May 1 in Virginia, the ship's homeport state.

To the best of my knowledge, all of Boudwin's Navy postal cancels and rubber stamp cachets are genuine from those assigned U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and private company vessels that had been retrieving debris first scattered over a 1,200-square-mile section of the Atlantic Ocean.

For more precise information about what ships participated in the wide-range search for debris, their direct involvements, and dates active, I do have the original or first-generated news releases and reports from the Navy, Coast Guard, and NASA all throughout that period. I'll see if they could help answer some of the ship questions raised beforehand if not already known and examined by the authors of this cover topic along with a recent Oct. 10, 2022, USS Simpson posted topic.