Melbourne’s commercial human spaceflight rescue company hopes a new partnership with Health First will help expand its trauma-response services to reach medical victims aboard cruise ships, people injured in natural disaster zones, and search-and-rescue operations worldwide.
Operator Solutions fields an array of military-grade equipment — including transport planes, helicopters, boats and personal watercraft — to rush hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean if private astronauts need rescued after launching from Cape Canaveral.
Founded by U.S. Air Force Reserve 920th Rescue Wing personnel, these specialists can perform life-saving surgeries and medical procedures on injured astronauts while floating on rescue rafts at sea, if needed.
“They operate when conditions are complex. Where environments are unpredictable. Where rescue and medicine intersect in aerospace, maritime and disaster settings. They are built to respond, to extract and to operate in high-risk environments,” Health First President and CEO Terry Forde said.
“When you look at our strengths side-by-side, the alignment is obvious. Field expertise. Hospital expertise. When those capabilities are connected before an emergency ever happens, something powerful occurs,” he said.
Forde spoke on stage while Operator Solutions hosted a strategic-partnership event Tuesday, March 3, at the company’s spaceflight rescue facility at Melbourne Orlando International Airport.
Shane Smith, a former 920th Rescue Wing command chief, is co-founder and chief financial officer of Operator Solutions. He said the Health First partnership remains in the early stage, and company officials will do “a deep dive” into legal and insurance details, medical-authority guidelines and other matters. He said the company did likewise when partnering with Axiom Space to cover private astronaut missions to the ISS.
Dr. Victor Vargas, Health First chief medical officer, has served as Operator Solutions’ medical director the past five years. He is a Air Force pararescue flight surgeon who retired after 23 years of service.
Inside Operator Solutions headquarters off Apollo Boulevard, a “rescue operations center” resembles a pint-sized NASA mission control. Co-founder and CEO Brandon Daugherty addressed media in front of large monitors showing real-time marine boat traffic along the Eastern Seaboard; aircraft traffic from the Beachline Expressway southward to Palm Bay; and the northeasterly ascent track of crewed missions to the ISS.
Daugherty — a former 920th Rescue Wing pararescue team leader — said his company covers a spacecraft-splashdown swath stretching from Florida northward to Ireland. He said the Health First partnership should help expand service to include Port Canaveral’s cruise industry. For example, he said a pararescueman and an orthopedic surgeon could tandem-jump from a plane, parachute onto a ship far offshore, and perform lifesaving surgery on a victim.
Ideally, Smith said Operator Solutions will build and open a aircraft hangar and rescue facility within the next 24 months at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. He said company command-and-control functions will remain based at the Melbourne airport, which will also serve as a backup rescue facility.
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Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Astronaut rescuers to team with Health First on life-saving missions
Reporting by Rick Neale, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
