Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
Tim Goddard is NASA’s open water lead responsible for the design, certification, procurement, and training of both NASA and Navy teams involved in recovering Artemis II astronauts and the Orion spacecraft after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego. The operation relies on a coordinated effort, including six small boats, four helicopters, and a Navy amphibious ship, with more than 50 personnel stationed on and under the water during recovery activities, according to Goddard.
To ensure mission success, Goddard and his team conduct extensive training exercises using representative Orion hardware at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, progressing to bay operations and then open ocean conditions near San Diego. This rigorous preparation includes repeated drills of all recovery phases so that team members are fully prepared by mission time.
Goddard previously led recovery of Orion capsules during Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014 and Artemis I, the first uncrewed test flight around the Moon in 2022. While earlier efforts focused solely on capsule recovery, the Artemis II crewed mission prioritizes safely retrieving the astronauts before attending to the spacecraft.