The second of two east coast Solid Rocket Booster Recovery Ships, Freedom Star was delivered in January of 1981 as UTC Freedom, and was owned by Pratt & Whitney. Ownership of the vessel was transferred to Lockheed concurrent with the consolidation of Space Shuttle operations at KSC in 1984. This is when she (and her sister) received new names (Freedom Star and Liberty Star). They were owned by Lockheed until 1992, when the vessels were purchased outright by NASA. A contract to operate the ships was maintained by Lockheed until 1996, when it was consolidated into the newly formed "United Space Alliance" (not to be confused with the later United Launch Alliance), which operated her and her sister until they were retired in 2012. Shown above is the standard configuration for solid rocket booster recovery as seen from about 2000 through the end of the program in 2011. In September of 2012, she was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet for possible future use as a training vessel.
From some point after 1996, through the end of the program, both Freedom Star and Liberty Star were used to tow the Pegasus barge with the external tanks aboard from Michaud, Louisiana to the Cape. The ships were also used to support a number of other non-NASA missions such as the NOAA Aquarius underwater laboratory.
Next up will be Liberty Star in her later, TV Kings Pointer role.