Photo above: VAI/Michael Howard Photography Helicopters Patrol the Sky at Kennedy Space Center Pilots perform multiple missions for NASA complex. By Justin Bachman Apart from the rumble of a rocket launch every few days, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is a peaceful, sprawling complex located within Florida’s Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, located on a barrier island between the Florida coast and the Atlantic Ocean. The 144,000-acre spaceport is the largest field center in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It stretches roughly 34 miles from north to south and is the primary site for US government and commercial rocket launches. Security is always tight, both on the ground and from the sea and air, with KSC security staff, the US Coast Guard, and personnel from the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on duty at all times. The task of monitoring this sprawling campus from the air falls to a cadre of NASA pilots who fly three Airbus EC135 helicopters on security patrols and a variety of other missions. The fleet is tasked with perimeter checks and other duties, including flights to monitor rocket launches and to record Hollywood-quality, 8K video that NASA uses to support spaceport operations or edit into news coverage and social media posts. Stephen Lee (pictured at right), the center’s aviation maintenance chief, is a pilot at KSC, the only one of NASA’s 10 field centers to have helicopters, known officially as KSC Flight Operations. “I feel very blessed to be here,” Lee says on a recent sunny morning, standing inside the hangar with a fleet of Airbus birds kept gleaming with weekly washes and post-flight touch-ups. For the KSC, the EC135 fleet replaced older Bell UH-1H Huey II helicopters and provides a versatile platform that can seat two pilots—but also operate with a single pilot—and carry as many as five passengers. It can be converted to an air ambulance within about 10 minutes while providing durability and modest maintenance loads, Lee says. As part of a 2020 agreement for three new aircraft, NASA and Airbus Helicopters signed a 10-year support contract that includes maintenance and several Airbus personnel assigned to the KSC. Multiple Missions During a launch, the military range east of the KSC is a strict no-go zone for aircraft, vessels, and humans owing to the potential for an anomaly that could send lethal debris blasting across the launch zone. The twin-engine EC135s fly as far as 70 miles offshore during patrols. The team also supports NASA’s astronaut-return missions from the International Space Station, when SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules splash down off the Florida coast. NASA views the Airbus EC135 as a versatile aircraft that can perform a wide range of missions, including security patrols, search and rescue, aerial video of rocket launches and landings, and habitat monitoring. (VAI/Michael Howard Photography) Beyond these roles, the KSC fleet is called upon for periodic search-and-rescue missions to find campers and hikers lost in the wildlife preserve. The flight team also provides medical evacuation during emergencies, overflies prescribed forest burns in the area, and keeps watch for boaters entering restricted waters during rocket launches. The team conducts random security sweeps across the KSC both day and night. “This is a federal facility, so we have to protect it,” Lee says. “Telling the [media] story is always good, but that will never trump the security” aspect of the Flight Operations mission. On a cloudless late Thursday morning in early December, a Falcon 9 rocket shook the quiet for several minutes to send a SiriusXM commercial satellite on its journey to a geostationary orbit. This particular launch involved no NASA helicopter air support, although commercial space launch operators have the option to hire the NASA team. Blue Origin, for example, opted to contract with NASA to provide helicopter assistance for its debut launch operations for the New Glenn rocket. The new, heavy-lift model from billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space company took its first flight from the KSC on Jan. 16, with the space center’s full flight crew and two of its three Airbus helicopters providing clearance of the hazard area and detailed imagery support. Inspired by Airwolf Lee, 44, joined NASA in October 2022 after a military career as a helicopter maintenance technician and US Army UH-60 Black Hawk pilot, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s also been a helicopter pilot with the Army National Guard for more than a decade. Lee grew up in Long Beach, California, and cross-enrolled at San Diego State University as part of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) ahead of his planned army career. He followed in the military footsteps of his father, who was drafted to serve in the Korean War. Like many children of the 1980s, Lee was fascinated by the CBS series Airwolf, which featured a modified Bell 222 posing as an armored, supersonic stealth attack helicopter. Lee doesn’t hesitate to grin broadly, and nod, when asked about a connection between the TV series and his interest in pursuing a career with helicopters. When it comes to the various models of helicopters Lee has worked on or flown, he says, “I do have a special place for my Black Hawk,” the workhorse twin-engine UH-60 helicopter the US Department of Defense has acquired by the thousands since the model entered into service, in 1979. Chasing an Asteroid One of the more memorable missions of Lee’s NASA aviation career came in September 2023, when he and a colleague supported the return of an asteroid sample that NASA identified in a remote spot in the Utah desert. The mission included a three-day journey from the KSC to the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range, west of Salt Lake City, with refueling stops every two to three hours. The novel scientific exploration—dubbed OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer)—was NASA’s first to land a spacecraft on an asteroid, called Bennu, collect samples from the surface, and return them to Earth. The effort began with a launch from the KSC in September 2016, with the collection spacecraft (also named OSIRIS-REx) settling briefly on the asteroid in October 2020 and obtaining 4.3 oz. of material. After a nearly three-year, multibillion-mile journey back to Earth, the spacecraft ejected into the atmosphere a capsule containing the Bennu samples before being sent on a new mission to explore another asteroid, Apophis, in 2029. On the day of the asteroid sample’s return, Sep. 24, 2023, Lee and his NASA colleague Andre Karpowich flew the camera-equipped Airbus to record the capsule’s descent and the parachute deployments needed to slow the capsule from more than 27,600 mph to its 11 mph touchdown velocity. The pair also flew the safety technician to the landing site to ensure that “all systems were safe before the recovery team could [approach],” Lee says. Patrolling Earth and Sky Aside from rockets, the KSC’s home, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, hosts more than 1,000 species of plants, 117 species of fish, 68 amphibian and reptile species, 330 bird species, and 31 mammal species. The nearby Indian River Lagoon makes up part of the refuge. Since NASA acquired the land in the early 1960s, the area’s beaches, marshes, and dunes have been protected from development, providing habitat for a wide range of plants and wildlife. Its 43 miles of beaches are a critical nesting place for endangered sea turtles, with people on the ground helping document the number of turtle nests created annually. “It’s just a beautiful area,” Lee says. “If you’re a nature lover, this is the place to be.” KSC strives to be “a responsible partner” in maintaining the habitat and works with other agencies in monitoring wildlife health, with KSC Flight Operations a key part of that work, says Messod Bendayan, a communications strategist who supports the KSC Communications Office. Lee enjoys the variety of work the Flight Operations team does. “I’m in the air watching rockets launch, telling that story one day,” Lee says, recounting the variety of his piloting missions, including a space capsule recovery in the Utah desert. “On another day, I’m counting bald eagles.” Justin Bachman is a professional writer specializing in aviation news and analysis.
