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Four sailors from the United States Navy will be the first people to welcome the astronauts of the Artemis II mission after their splashdown in the Pacific Ocean this Friday, about 60 miles off the coast of San Diego, California, marking the end of a historic ten-day mission in deep space.
The commanding lieutenant Jesse Wang, the chief hospital petty officer Laddy Aldridge, the hospital senior chief Vlad Link, and the hospital first class petty officer Steve Kapala make up the recovery diving medical team, which is part of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One (EODGRU-1) of the United States Navy.
Your mission will be to open the hatch of the Orion capsule —named "Integrity" by its crew— conduct initial medical assessments inside the spacecraft, and assist the four astronauts in their safe exit to an inflatable raft positioned beneath the side hatch, referred to as the "front porch."
Each team member was individually assigned to a specific astronaut: Wang will attend to Christina Koch, Aldridge to Jeremy Hansen, Link to Commander Reid Wiseman, and Kapala to Victor Glover.
The training for this moment was a process that took several years, according to the United States Fleet Forces Command in an official statement released on Friday. The recovery operations will be coordinated from the USS John P. Murtha amphibious ship, which will serve as the main support platform for the mission.
All the doctors are certified divers and experts in decompression illnesses and underwater medicine, a specialization that makes them well-suited to operate in the complex environment of a space landing. They come from expeditionary war communities, where their usual role is to ensure the safety of military divers in high-risk operations.
The profiles of each member add a human touch to this high-flying story. Wang, originally from Laguna Beach, California, is a certified emergency physician and diving medical officer since 2024, having joined the Navy in 2021. Link, from Chelsea, Massachusetts, has accumulated 18 years of experience in dive medicine. Kapala, from Alpena, Michigan, has been practicing dive medicine since 2018 and confessed to being inspired by science fiction novels and space movies to reach this moment.
Aldridge, from Cushing, Oklahoma, comes from a family with three generations of military service. "Coming from three generations of military service in my family, I feel honored to serve as the independent diving chief for this mission. This effort is the culmination of our training to provide world-class care to the Artemis II crew," in what marks the first human journey into deep space in over 50 years.
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