Spacecraft Recovery
9 September 1959: Big Joe 1
General Characteristics:
Keel laid: 25 July 1943
Launched: 23 April 1944
Commissioned: 08 March 1945 and again 14 May 1949
Decommissioned: 09 May 1947 and again 31 October 1973
Builder: Built by Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco, CA
Propulsion system: 60,000 SHP; General Electric Geared Turbines
Propellers: two
Length: 376.5 feet (114.76 meters)
Beam: 40.83 feet (12.44 meters)
Draft: 14.17 feet (4.3 meters)
Displacement: 3,218 tons full
Speed: 36.5 knots
Armament: 6 x 5"/38AA (3x2), 12 x 40mm AA, 11 x 20mm AA, 10 x 21" tt.(2x5)
Crew: 336
More information on USS Strong from the United States Navy.
USS Strong was stricken 31 October 1973 and transferred to Brazil 31 October 1973, renamed Rio Grande Do Norte (D 37). I*t was stricken 06 February 1996. In 1997, she was under tow from Brazil to India to be scrapped when she foundered in high seas off the coast of Durban, South Africa, and was reported by Brazil to have sunk.
