Editing Seabee (section)

===Space race: NASA/Tektite I===
[[Image:Tektite I exterior.jpg|thumb|Tektite I assembled by ACB 2]]

In 1960, a MCB 10 detachment built a [[Project Mercury]] [[telemetry]] and [[Ground station|ground instrumentation station]] on Canton island.<ref>[http://www.militarymuseum.org/PortHuenemeHist.pdf United States Navy and Marine Corps Bases: Domestic, Paolo E. Coletta, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1986. p. 495]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/Seabee/Cruisebooks/postwwiicruisebooks/NMCB%2010_1963,pdf.|title=MCB10 cruisebook 1963, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

On 28 January 1969 a detachment of 50 men<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah196906.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618025524/http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah196906.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 June 2015|title=''All Hands'', June 1969, Number 629, Navy Dept. Washington, DC. p. 39}}</ref> from [[Amphibious Construction Battalion 2]] plus 17 Seabee divers began installation of the [[Tektite habitat]] in Great Lameshur Bay at [[Lameshur, U.S. Virgin Islands]].<ref>Seabeemagazine online [http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/01/25/this-week-in-seabee-history-week-of-jan-24/ Seabeemagazine online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704094300/http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/01/25/this-week-in-seabee-history-week-of-jan-24/ |date=4 July 2017 }}</ref> The Tektite program was funded by [[NASA]] and was the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored by the U.S. government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uw360.asia/project-tektite-the-aquanauts-that-lived-in-the-sea/|title=Project Tektite: The Aquanauts That Lived in the Sea|date=11 August 2016}}</ref> The Seabees also constructed a 12-hut base camp at Viers that is used today as the Virgin Islands Environmental Resource Station.<ref>[https://stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/crystal-blue-view-of-tektite-ii/ St. John Historical Society, St. John, US Virgin Islands, Crystal Blue View of Tektite II]</ref> The project was a by product of the [[Space Race]]. It caused the U.S. Navy to realize the need for a permanent Underwater Construction capability that led to the formation the Seabee Underwater Construction Teams".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2014/07/17/project-tektite-i-and-the-birth-of-the-underwater-construction-teams/ |title=U.S. Navy Seabee Museum online magazine, "Project Tektite and the Birth of the Underwater Construction Teams" by Dr. Frank A. Blazich Jr., Historian, U.S. Navy Seabee Museum |access-date=20 January 2018 |archive-date=31 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731152519/http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2014/07/17/project-tektite-i-and-the-birth-of-the-underwater-construction-teams/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At present{{When|date=October 2022}} NASA is working on the [[Human mission to Mars|Moon to Mars]] program. In 2015, ACB 1 was involved in moving the Orion's [[Boilerplate (spacecraft)|Boilerplate]] Test Article (BTA).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/05/30/acb-1-helps-nasa-lift-off/ |title=ACB 1 Helps NASA Lift Off, MC3 Eric Chan, Public Affairs Office ACB 1, Seabee Magazine Online, 2016, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA |access-date=15 August 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926065026/https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/05/30/acb-1-helps-nasa-lift-off/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> ACB 1 was tasked in August 2019 in a test recovery exercise of the [[Orion spacecraft]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2019/08/23/acb-1-teams-up-with-nasa/ |title=ACB-1 Teams-Up with NASA, MC2 Brianna Jones ACB 1 Public Affairs Office, Seabee Online, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA. |access-date=15 August 2020 |archive-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815200737/https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2019/08/23/acb-1-teams-up-with-nasa/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> ACB 2 was put through the same task a year later in August 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2013/08/27/phibcb-two-supports-nasa-capsule-recovery-operation/ |title=PHIBCB TWO SUPPORTS NASA, MC3 Taylor Mohr, Public Affairs Office ACB 2, Seabee Online, Seabee Museum Archives, Port Hueneme, CA. |access-date=15 August 2020 |archive-date=4 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204181645/https://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2013/08/27/phibcb-two-supports-nasa-capsule-recovery-operation/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>