Recovery ship gets new home

A ship that for years has been a player in the space program will now serve the Merchant Marines. NASA signed an agreement with the Maritime Administration to transfer the recovery ship M/V Liberty Star to the National Defense Reserve Fleet. It will be used in training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. The ship is best known for retrieving space shuttle boosters that splashed into the Atlantic, but in the past year was used to retrieve the Orion crew capsule being developed for NASA's Space Launch System. Liberty Star was a regular to the Gulf Coast. Shuttle external tanks built at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans were placed on barges and towed to Kennedy Space Center by Liberty Star and its sister ship, M/V Freedom Star. NASA is still working to identify a new use for Freedom Star. (Source: Space, NASA, 08/21/12) Previous item mentioning Freedom Star