USNS REDSTONE shout-out! I was a newly-minted, snot-nosed BSEE when I started working in the telemetry section of this ship in 1985 . Loved the ship, loved the crew, loved the work. A minor correction, Scott. The Redstone supported space shuttle launches, tracking the solid rocket boosters and passing on the coordinates to the retrieval ships. Admittedly, our bread-and-butter during those years were the Trident II and initial SDI ("Star Wars") DOD launches. Here's hoping more Redstone crew and associated engineers catch this video. It was an honor and a joy to work with them.
I worked on the Redstone in 1966-67 for General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. I worked in the Telemetry area installing and testing the TLM equipment, testing the helical antennas and the TLM mesh dish. They had people from RCA and Federal Electric Corp training on the ships as well. Reply
My first job out of tech school was for RCA on the tracking ships. I was on the Redstone from 77 to 82. I took a few trips on the Vandenburg to fill in. I worked in navigation. It was a great adventure for a single young man. Once I got married I had to get off the ship. Oh boy do I have stories.
The Redstone was still used in the early 90's as a range safety & tracking ship for the Star Wars program with rockets launching out of Wake Island in the Pacific Test Range. I was a crew member on one of those launches and got to visit the Redstone during the campaign.
In what capacity, Michael? I was out there,too, until both the program and ship were retired. BTW - I think the launches were out of Kwajalein Atoll rather than Wake I. I did meet the Redstone at Wake I. once and found a Japanese bullet (which I still have) beach-combing while waiting for the launch.
@@jefffleischer2481 I was with Orbital Sciences and in late 1992 we launched the two stage target vehicle for the brilliant pebbles program out of Wake. The interceptor was launched out of Kwajalein. I spent a fair amount of time on both islands that year. In September right before Typhoon Sibyl moved thru I went out to the Redstone for a range safety meeting. The most sea sick I have ever been. Luckily I got off the ship about 6 hours before the seas got really bad and they departed the area for calmer waters. We got stuck on Wake and had to ride out the Typhoon. Fun times in my younger days. Were you stationed on the Redstone?
@@MichaelLandis Cool! Yes, I do remember the BP program (though obviously not as well as I thought!) and proudly own its mission badge. I wonder if we ran into each other as I did a bit of BP support work during that time. Cheers, Michael!
My father worked on the SNARK and because of the number of failures of this rocket he said the test range around Florida was called "SNARK infested water"
Outstanding. Mr. Manley! This is a really fascinating look at a little-known, but extremely important, part of the early space age. We must remember that we didn’t have TDRS until the early 1980s. Thanks for this one...I totally enjoyed every bit of it. And a great tie-in to your local history.
My father was a NASA engineer from 1964 to 1971. He was aboard several of these ships on extended missions in support of the Gemini and Apollo missions through Apollo 13. He was on the USNS Range Tracker (T-AGM-1), USNS Watertown (T-AGM-6) and the USNS Sampan Hitch (T-AGM-14) out of Port Hueneme CA for most of those missions. On a side note. All three of these ships were built in Portland Oregon in the 1940's. My maternal grandfather was the Lead Electrician for Oregon Shipyards in those days and actually was involved in their fit outs. I have been on these ships numerous times. They looked awful on the outside after their various missions but were mostly Navy spotless on the inside.
"...taken to Brownsville Tx to be scrapped. Just down the road from where SpaceX has been making lots of more scrap." Beautiful commentary. Akin to Furturama's quote of "science cannot move forward without heaps!" Great content as always.
Scott Manley Thank you so much for "The Story of NASA's Space Tracking Ships"! My husband, Len Arends, was on the USNS Vanguard from 1969 to 1972, when it was stationed at Port Canaveral. Len's 2 brothers, Nick and Vince also worked with him in the Navigation Center. My cousin, Mike Linthicum, worked with him and introducted us. We were married in 1971. Len was also on the USNS Huntsville during Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 reentries in the South Pacific. He said he had goosebumps several times during your broadcast. Our oldest son, Leonard Arends Jr. lives in San Bruno CA and took us on a tour of Marin Works ... that's where the Bay Model is ... I think we discussed the possibility that the Vanguard was built there ... now, Scott Manley has confirmed it!
One of those 9 meter telemetery tracking antennas from the Redstone was repurposed for NASA'S X-33 prototype flight test program that I worked on. It was placed on a hill top at the U.S. Army Proving Grounds, Dugway, UT. The program got cancelled and the tracking system was removed. Good memories.
Thank you for your comments about the Vanguard tracking ship. I was involved in the testing of the ship and participated in the Apollo 4 all up test flight in November 1967 with Jay Green as the FIDO (Fight Dynamics Officer).
Fun fact, I was supposed to dive the Vanguard not too long ago, but they cancelled the trip due to weather. So instead I left my car parked too long and got a ticket.
Thank you for remembering a forgotten portion of the Manned Space Flight story. My dad was very involved with the Range Tracking and Instrumentation ships, from Mercury on up to Apollo. And, later, his position as AF Liaison Officer at Kwajalein Missile Range got us access to the tracking ships, especially Vandenberg, when they came from Hawaii (special treat was fresh milk, not frozen milk reconstituted like you could get at Kwaj. Mmmm, fresh milk.) I loved seeing the tracking ships when I was a kid, and love, now, seeing them back in people's sight, so to speak. Helps keep a connection between me and dad. His name was Robert P. Wetzel, for any of you range tracking ship people out there. I hope some of you got to meet him.
Used to work right around that machine shop in Sausalito for a local marina. The shipyard museum at the Bay Model near there was a cool bit of local history, but I didn't know about it's connection to space! (Also didn't realize I lived in the same county as Scott)
This topic makes me wish for another collaboration video with The Vintage Space. Like other kids in the 60's, I eagerly read about the rocket programs, but I don't recall ever reading this much detail about the ships. Thank you for posting videos like this.
Love these back stories no one ever really covers like you do. Thank you Scott! When I saw that cruise missile during the video, it made me think of the Regulus missile project which a distant family member of mine was involved with. Just by chance one day shopping at one of the local flea markets, I picked up a book all about the Regulus project and there it was in black and white, photos of Bill Micchelli and the team he worked with. What a great find!
Makes me sad that they were all destroyed. That technology and history is sooo cool. I would love to see the insides and understand how everything worked.
While true, keeping ships afloat and safe takes time and money. As large as the NASA and military budget is over there in the US it's never enough to get all the things done they need to do, pretty much inevitable for this to happen except for some lucky or famous outliers.
I was on VANGUARD (and RANGE SENTINEL T-AGM-22) just before they left for Brownsville, scavenging for useful parts for a museum ship in New York. I think one of the team took a bunch of pictures of just about every compartment in the ships. I should see if those pictures still exist. Huge computer and instrumentation rooms, mostly stripped of equipment, with just a scattering of pieces they never bothered to remove. Most impressive was the raised floors in those rooms - standard 2 by 2 tiles and uprights like any computer room, but made completely out of stainless steel.
Fun fact: In that same area in Sausalito is the Record Plant, where some famous names performed and recorded records. Musicians like Fleetwood Mac, Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead, Rick James, Prince, Bob Marley, Journey, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Huey Lewis and the News, Mariah Carey, Linda Ronstadt, John Fogerty, Jesse Colin Young, The Doobie Brothers, etc.
I'm so much more impressed with how problems were solved without the levels of tech available to us today. Thanks for continuing to provide us with great history and science content.
Nice that you mention it featured in the movie 'Virus'! It was the first thing I thought of when seeing the video thumbnail (although it is another ship).
I'd tend to consider them different, not merely because so much was replaced, but because the function was so thoroughly altered. It's not like the Ship of Theseus was being converted from a fishing vessel to a trireme.
I'm really surprised that replacing so much of the ship was cheaper than building a whole new one. (It must've been cheaper, or they wouldn't have done it. I'm just surprised.)
I have lived in Mill Valley for the past 12 years and I'm still learning things about Sausalito that I never knew of. Thanks for the history lesson Mr. Manley! Love all your Lego's btw!
When you said T2 tankers I shivered with images of hulls breaking in two because of the shoddy steel. They did an amazing job on solving that by splicing in a new midships section. Great video!
I have been following spaceflight since the '50s, and although I knew of tracking ships , I did not know this level of detail. Thanks for keeping history alive. PS I visited Goldstone at about the time TDRS was being initiated. You should take a tour there.
Scott, please please please reach out to Drachinifel to expand this video. He can give the backstory of each ship's design, construction, war service, and conversion to match the in-depth look you can give at the space mission support.
Everytime I tend to think "OK I learned almost everything about space flight history" there's another of Scott's videos making me think "oh hey I didn't know that!"
Back in the late 80s I was in the Coast Guard reserve at Port Canaveral. We had some old reserve boats we used for harbor patrols that were notably unreliable. On a night patrol I took one of those boats out to the end of the jetty and back. The Redstone was coming into port and being young and stupid in a Coast Guard boat I thought it would be cool to cut across the Redstone's bow. Of course the boat took that second to cut out! In a panic we managed to flag down the pilot boat to tow us out of the way. Yeah, don't do that...
Great video as usual. You've reminded me that I've still yet to read Ian M Bank's Matter. I'd put it on my office bookshelf about two years ago and had completely forgotten about it.
Amazing video! Thanks for telling the instering story of how man tracked the objects it first put into orbit and to the moon. Amazing infratructure and organisation!
There's a scale model (or was, when I was a kid) of the USNS Kingsport (T-AG 164) in the Kingsport, Tennessee Public Library. I remember looking at it quite a lot when visiting my grandparents in east Tennessee. While not mentioned in Scott's video, the Kingsport was used during the Gemini program and was also used as a control ship for the Syncom 2 satellite.
Intesting tidbit: those Snark cruise missiles (01:37) were designed to be recoverable, but of the snark A and B models, none were recovered. Finally, in the mid-50s, testing of model C Snarks was moved to Cape Canaveral and the missiles were deliberately flown into the Atlantic. The failures and the deliberate “dumps”, caused workers at the Eastern Test Range to refer to the area as “Snark-infested waters.”
The USNS Vanguard was used for navigation testing & TRIDENT missile tracking right up until scrapping, they scrapped it and today the USNS WATERS does that task, it is still used to track TRIDENT tests (it is still needed because they do launches from the ocean, and they need a ship to get line of sight to the submarine/launch location)
These ships operated out of Port Canaveral.A common sight during the early space program.Watched them come and go with not a thought of their historical significance.My father developed both Woomera and Muchae ending with MILA (Merrit Island tracking Station)at What is now Kennedy Space Center.
Various Navy ships were checked and tested for last-ditch space communications and tracking, particularly the spy (, "Technical Research") ships and command & control ships (such as the LCC class). When I was aboard one such ship in the late 1970s we'd listen-in whenever opportunities presented themselves. Mainly in Russian. Purely for training and educational purposes, of course.
Scott, you have to do a feature on TDRS. It is still an evolving infrastructure although much less of a wow factor than it was in it's early days, but still a critical asset.
Range Rats at Sea by Dan Kolachek - I think the last name is correct but check it anyway. I spent 6 years aboard the Vanguard. The Book is a real-life story.
Shoulda rounded it out by talking about the two platforms still in service, the USNS Howard Lorenzen and the SBX. Both can track both ballistic and orbital vehicles, with amazing accuracy!
Hello, After watching in amazement at your breadth of knowledge for years I can say I was a bit surprised to find out the you literally live right down the road from me! I’m up in the Wino Country of the city of Sonoma. What a small world. Your the second UA-camr that lives real close to me and that couple I actually helped them out on there project and was on several of there episodes doing what I do. Well if you and your wife ever come up to Sonoma I would be happy to give you the nickel tour of our great little town. RWES
I used to see Vanguard and Redstone at Port Canaveral, FL all the time when I was growing up. We frequently went to the Beach called Jetty Park which was at the inlet to the port. We used to call the ships "golf ball ships" because of the large white radome covers. At one point, as a young adult working temporary jobs in the 1980s I worked on one of the two ships. Crappy job. I was jack hammering tile out of bathroom. My head rang for days.
The Soviets built some neat looking space tracking ships as late as the 70's as well. A couple of them were huge, the Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was like 235m with almost Very Large Array-sized dishes.
An interesting part of their era. War surplus and excess American industrial capability allowed those ships to be made, outfitted, and operated to support the nascent spaceflight of their era. The United States today could not build those ships, outfit them, or operate them. Yet their roles have been filled in by satellites that do a much better job. Truly a indicative marker of a moment in time.
@9:23 and other maps, the coverage patterns of the ground stations are very unique. The circular coverage patterns have weird gaps. Is this related to something about the antenna structure?
The summer of 1985, my Dad and I went deep sea fishing out of Port Canaveral. We saw a ship named "Range Sentinel" in harbor -- as well as a nuclear submarine. Oh, and a Russian "fishing trawler" and a couple jets that flew out to let the Russians know the US knew they were there. The Range Sentinel was used for tracking SLBM test launches from Canaveral and submarines off the Florida coast. Oh, and we did see the Challenger on the pad, waiting for mission 51-L.
Hi Scott, I ran across the Rose knot in 78 or 79 where she was anchored at the port of Tacoma, I was looking to make a fishery processor out of it at the time. It was owned by a guy who was a pro wrestler, his stage name was the Masked marvel, can't remember his real name. The other ship I'm familiar with was called the Secret Island which made port in Dutch harbor. It did a lot more than tracking satellites and missiles. It was a total CIA op, Ie: a spy ship.. And security around the vessel was intense. Just sharing. Thanks for this post.
What did the vanguard in was how they docked it at the Cape. Because they always faced the same direction one side of the haul was very thin do to corrosion. Also it had boilers which cost a lot to maintain.
I go kayaking there too:) never knew the history behind that area thought. similarly, (and I know it's not space-related), but maybe sometime you could talk about Giant TNT and the black-power + TNT production over in Point Pinole, there's some pretty cool old ruins out there to check out
Yes, correct, spent 6 years aboard the Vanguard, there is a handful of us left. Enjoying the SpaceX landings. Book: Range Rats at Sea by Dan and Gloria we put up the new TDRSS satellites which out teched everything as well as the ground stations.
USNS REDSTONE shout-out! I was a newly-minted, snot-nosed BSEE when I started working in the telemetry section of this ship in 1985 . Loved the ship, loved the crew, loved the work. A minor correction, Scott. The Redstone supported space shuttle launches, tracking the solid rocket boosters and passing on the coordinates to the retrieval ships. Admittedly, our bread-and-butter during those years were the Trident II and initial SDI ("Star Wars") DOD launches. Here's hoping more Redstone crew and associated engineers catch this video. It was an honor and a joy to work with them.
Ty for your contribution to the advancement of humanity sir. Much obliged ❤
I put telemetry equipment on it!
@@mxasks What year(s)?
Gotta love UA-cam for comments like this!
I worked on the Redstone in 1966-67 for General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. I worked in the Telemetry area installing and testing the TLM equipment, testing the helical antennas and the TLM mesh dish. They had people from RCA and Federal Electric Corp training on the ships as well.
Reply
My first job out of tech school was for RCA on the tracking ships. I was on the Redstone from 77 to 82. I took a few trips on the Vandenburg to fill in. I worked in navigation. It was a great adventure for a single young man. Once I got married I had to get off the ship. Oh boy do I have stories.
Tell us!
@@GoldenEDM_2018 im sure its a preference thing. No one wants to stay away on ship for 6 months at a time when they have family at home.
@@GoldenEDM_2018 To actually be near each other?
Please tell us a story :).
I worked on the Redstone in 1966-67 for General Dynamics Electric Boat Division
Sounds like a good reason to add water physics to KSP 2
No way, water is Air
reminda me of when i was building a huge land based mobile antenna to stay in contact on other parts of kermin.
Damn straight!
so we get booster landing droneships...
@@kaltenstein7718 we already have that, it’s easy to do
Whenever Scott says *HOWEVER* I think "Oh no, this is where it all goes balls up".
ROFL This comment is ridiculously underrated
I generally take a shot of tequila every time he says ‘however’
almost like "or is it?" by vsauce
When I read this comment, Scott actually said "However"
The Redstone was still used in the early 90's as a range safety & tracking ship for the Star Wars program with rockets launching out of Wake Island in the Pacific Test Range. I was a crew member on one of those launches and got to visit the Redstone during the campaign.
In what capacity, Michael? I was out there,too, until both the program and ship were retired. BTW - I think the launches were out of Kwajalein Atoll rather than Wake I. I did meet the Redstone at Wake I. once and found a Japanese bullet (which I still have) beach-combing while waiting for the launch.
@@jefffleischer2481 I was with Orbital Sciences and in late 1992 we launched the two stage target vehicle for the brilliant pebbles program out of Wake. The interceptor was launched out of Kwajalein. I spent a fair amount of time on both islands that year. In September right before Typhoon Sibyl moved thru I went out to the Redstone for a range safety meeting. The most sea sick I have ever been. Luckily I got off the ship about 6 hours before the seas got really bad and they departed the area for calmer waters. We got stuck on Wake and had to ride out the Typhoon. Fun times in my younger days. Were you stationed on the Redstone?
@@MichaelLandis Cool! Yes, I do remember the BP program (though obviously not as well as I thought!) and proudly own its mission badge. I wonder if we ran into each other as I did a bit of BP support work during that time. Cheers, Michael!
My father worked on the SNARK and because of the number of failures of this rocket he said the test range around Florida was called "SNARK infested water"
Be careful the SNARK could become Bojum .
Sounds like the Hound-dog missile.
You're going to need a bigger (tracking ship)...
I have a SNARK at home. It can do almost anything - even tune my guitar and mandolin
Outstanding. Mr. Manley! This is a really fascinating look at a little-known, but extremely important, part of the early space age. We must remember that we didn’t have TDRS until the early 1980s. Thanks for this one...I totally enjoyed every bit of it. And a great tie-in to your local history.
I like how you called him mr manley haha
Well.... I'm not Dr Manley
@@scottmanley Yet....
@@scottmanley Honorary doctorate should definitely show up soon!
My father was a NASA engineer from 1964 to 1971. He was aboard several of these ships on extended missions in support of the Gemini and Apollo missions through Apollo 13. He was on the USNS Range Tracker (T-AGM-1), USNS Watertown (T-AGM-6) and the USNS Sampan Hitch (T-AGM-14) out of Port Hueneme CA for most of those missions. On a side note. All three of these ships were built in Portland Oregon in the 1940's. My maternal grandfather was the Lead Electrician for Oregon Shipyards in those days and actually was involved in their fit outs. I have been on these ships numerous times. They looked awful on the outside after their various missions but were mostly Navy spotless on the inside.
"...taken to Brownsville Tx to be scrapped. Just down the road from where SpaceX has been making lots of more scrap." Beautiful commentary. Akin to Furturama's quote of "science cannot move forward without heaps!" Great content as always.
The comment about SpaceX caught me off guard and I almost fell over laughing.
It should be noted that SpaceX is producing leading edge hi tech, aerospace scrap!
I'm betting Space X has the long term goal of being "| Green " " Our rockets contain 50 % post consumer material. "
I see your collection of LEGO space stuff continues to grow with the Shuttle model carefully placed in shot
Scott Manley Thank you so much for "The Story of NASA's Space Tracking Ships"! My husband, Len Arends, was on the USNS Vanguard from 1969 to 1972, when it was stationed at Port Canaveral. Len's 2 brothers, Nick and Vince also worked with him in the Navigation Center. My cousin, Mike Linthicum, worked with him and introducted us. We were married in 1971. Len was also on the USNS Huntsville during Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 reentries in the South Pacific. He said he had goosebumps several times during your broadcast. Our oldest son, Leonard Arends Jr. lives in San Bruno CA and took us on a tour of Marin Works ... that's where the Bay Model is ... I think we discussed the possibility that the Vanguard was built there ... now, Scott Manley has confirmed it!
Hello from Rich in the calibration lab on the Vanguard
@@dieselnich what years?
@@dianearends6377 1973 to 1979 with 6 months in Barstow
One of those 9 meter telemetery tracking antennas from the Redstone was repurposed for NASA'S X-33 prototype flight test program that I worked on. It was placed on a hill top at the U.S. Army Proving Grounds, Dugway, UT. The program got cancelled and the tracking system was removed. Good memories.
As a teen I saw the Vanguard rusting away docked at the port. I had no idea what its purpose was. So cool! Thanks Scott.
Thank you for your comments about the Vanguard tracking ship. I was involved in the testing of the ship and participated in the Apollo 4 all up test flight in November 1967 with Jay Green as the FIDO (Fight Dynamics Officer).
11:58 throwing some serious shade man haha
If you're in Sausalito that often you should collab with Adam Savage going through his prop warehouse explaining space suits or something with him
I visited the Tested studios a couple of years ago.
Fun fact, I was supposed to dive the Vanguard not too long ago, but they cancelled the trip due to weather. So instead I left my car parked too long and got a ticket.
F
oof
Ahhhh, yes, those are the kind of memories you treasure....
But this way you get a souvenir.
F
Nice pace. Lots of vids lately! Congrats Scott
Thank you for remembering a forgotten portion of the Manned Space Flight story. My dad was very involved with the Range Tracking and Instrumentation ships, from Mercury on up to Apollo. And, later, his position as AF Liaison Officer at Kwajalein Missile Range got us access to the tracking ships, especially Vandenberg, when they came from Hawaii (special treat was fresh milk, not frozen milk reconstituted like you could get at Kwaj. Mmmm, fresh milk.)
I loved seeing the tracking ships when I was a kid, and love, now, seeing them back in people's sight, so to speak. Helps keep a connection between me and dad.
His name was Robert P. Wetzel, for any of you range tracking ship people out there. I hope some of you got to meet him.
0:23 "Machine Shop captured, all vehicles will now auto-repair."
Kirov reporting
@@feelx92ger Maneuver props engaged!
Used to work right around that machine shop in Sausalito for a local marina. The shipyard museum at the Bay Model near there was a cool bit of local history, but I didn't know about it's connection to space! (Also didn't realize I lived in the same county as Scott)
This topic makes me wish for another collaboration video with The Vintage Space. Like other kids in the 60's, I eagerly read about the rocket programs, but I don't recall ever reading this much detail about the ships. Thank you for posting videos like this.
Love these back stories no one ever really covers like you do. Thank you Scott! When I saw that cruise missile during the video, it made me think of the Regulus missile project which a distant family member of mine was involved with. Just by chance one day shopping at one of the local flea markets, I picked up a book all about the Regulus project and there it was in black and white, photos of Bill Micchelli and the team he worked with. What a great find!
Makes me sad that they were all destroyed. That technology and history is sooo cool. I would love to see the insides and understand how everything worked.
While true, keeping ships afloat and safe takes time and money. As large as the NASA and military budget is over there in the US it's never enough to get all the things done they need to do, pretty much inevitable for this to happen except for some lucky or famous outliers.
I was on VANGUARD (and RANGE SENTINEL T-AGM-22) just before they left for Brownsville, scavenging for useful parts for a museum ship in New York. I think one of the team took a bunch of pictures of just about every compartment in the ships. I should see if those pictures still exist. Huge computer and instrumentation rooms, mostly stripped of equipment, with just a scattering of pieces they never bothered to remove. Most impressive was the raised floors in those rooms - standard 2 by 2 tiles and uprights like any computer room, but made completely out of stainless steel.
I have the two of the four tracking dishes that were on the range sentinal and would love to see pictures from that ship
Hope you got some good pieces it had nates wing accurate and one-of-a-kind technology. spent 6 years aboard, Rich
@@dieselnich do you have any pictures of it
I'm always impressed learning just how much behinds the scenes technology went into the early space program.
Thanks for bringing some attention to these ships, my father served abroad USNS Mission San Luis Rey as a gunner in the US Navy Armed Guard in WWII.
Fun fact: In that same area in Sausalito is the Record Plant, where some famous names performed and recorded records. Musicians like Fleetwood Mac, Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead, Rick James, Prince, Bob Marley, Journey, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Huey Lewis and the News, Mariah Carey, Linda Ronstadt, John Fogerty, Jesse Colin Young, The Doobie Brothers, etc.
I'm so much more impressed with how problems were solved without the levels of tech available to us today. Thanks for continuing to provide us with great history and science content.
Nice that you mention it featured in the movie 'Virus'! It was the first thing I thought of when seeing the video thumbnail (although it is another ship).
Cool! Thats one of my favourite movies really good
Watch till the end for details.
Ship of Theseus paradox; they replaced so much of the original ships when refitting, are they even the same ships?
I'd tend to consider them different, not merely because so much was replaced, but because the function was so thoroughly altered. It's not like the Ship of Theseus was being converted from a fishing vessel to a trireme.
If they replaced everything but one bolt, it's still the same ship.
Ship Of ARIA paradox
I'm really surprised that replacing so much of the ship was cheaper than building a whole new one. (It must've been cheaper, or they wouldn't have done it. I'm just surprised.)
Yes, because continuity of identity.
I'm currently rereading my Iain M. Banks books too. Great stuff.
Kept looking at Matter sitting there.
I have lived in Mill Valley for the past 12 years and I'm still learning things about Sausalito that I never knew of. Thanks for the history lesson Mr. Manley! Love all your Lego's btw!
Having been to the concrete shell of what is left of the NASA tracking station on Ascension Island, I'd love to learn more about that Scott.
When you said T2 tankers I shivered with images of hulls breaking in two because of the shoddy steel. They did an amazing job on solving that by splicing in a new midships section. Great video!
That was the east coast shipyards.
@@scottmanley Yes, you're correct. Keep these great videos coming.
I was told that the expected fatiguing of those splicing welds figured significantly into the decision to retire these ships when they did.
Need to mention the Bay Model. That is worth a trip.
Those sketches around 9:00 would make very, very fitting wall art for me, I think.
I have been following spaceflight since the '50s, and although I knew of tracking ships , I did not know this level of detail. Thanks for keeping history alive.
PS I visited Goldstone at about the time TDRS was being initiated. You should take a tour there.
I like that you uploaded a video about ships on the Titanic's sinking anniversary.
@12:03 - spilled my coffee "Space-X has been making more scrap metal"
Scott, please please please reach out to Drachinifel to expand this video. He can give the backstory of each ship's design, construction, war service, and conversion to match the in-depth look you can give at the space mission support.
My favorite Naval History channel covering this would be great!
Everytime I tend to think "OK I learned almost everything about space flight history" there's another of Scott's videos making me think "oh hey I didn't know that!"
Got to go on the Range Tracker in Oxnard as a kid back in the late 60's.
Back in the late 80s I was in the Coast Guard reserve at Port Canaveral. We had some old reserve boats we used for harbor patrols that were notably unreliable. On a night patrol I took one of those boats out to the end of the jetty and back. The Redstone was coming into port and being young and stupid in a Coast Guard boat I thought it would be cool to cut across the Redstone's bow. Of course the boat took that second to cut out! In a panic we managed to flag down the pilot boat to tow us out of the way. Yeah, don't do that...
Good presentation, ps nice lego shuttle in the bottom left corner 😉
I see that new LEGO Shuttle set behind you Scott.
Thanks for giving us this Scott. Such an interesting piece of history!
Very interesting with just the right amount of information added for a thirteen minute presentation ✅
Great video as usual. You've reminded me that I've still yet to read Ian M Bank's Matter. I'd put it on my office bookshelf about two years ago and had completely forgotten about it.
You missed the USS American Mariner, the "DAMP" ship, operated by the US Merchant Marine, USCG, US Army, USAF and US Navy during her career.
My father was on the Rose Knot. Shout out to all the Range Rats! It could be a video all to itself.
I was an AB on the USNS Range Sentinel , a converted Victory ship out of Port Canaveral from '84 to '86 .
Amazing video! Thanks for telling the instering story of how man tracked the objects it first put into orbit and to the moon. Amazing infratructure and organisation!
A diving trip to key west just made it onto my bucket list...
There's a scale model (or was, when I was a kid) of the USNS Kingsport (T-AG 164) in the Kingsport, Tennessee Public Library. I remember looking at it quite a lot when visiting my grandparents in east Tennessee.
While not mentioned in Scott's video, the Kingsport was used during the Gemini program and was also used as a control ship for the Syncom 2 satellite.
The Kingsport was not a mission control ship (which is probably why it wasn't mentioned) but helped with communication.
Sad that classic building of the machine shop is being demolished. Great video btw, fly safe too!
I meant to say it's probably being restored, roof is off but walls are being supported.
Scott...Thanks very much my friend....!
07:09 20,000 is over 2,000 so you were not wrong.
Intesting tidbit: those Snark cruise missiles (01:37) were designed to be recoverable, but of the snark A and B models, none were recovered. Finally, in the mid-50s, testing of model C Snarks was moved to Cape Canaveral and the missiles were deliberately flown into the Atlantic. The failures and the deliberate “dumps”, caused workers at the Eastern Test Range to refer to the area as “Snark-infested waters.”
Looking forward to watching. Installed a camera tracker on the Redstone many years ago. ~1985.
Have any pictures of the optical trackers you installed. I'm interested as I do the tracking for several companys
@@edgeiger6621 Have some but not even sure where to start looking. Will talk to our marketing head at the time. He may still have some archives.
Really interesting piece of little known space history. Thanks, Scott.
I see the lego space shuttle box behind you! I recently got mine and I cant wait to build it!
The USNS Vanguard was used for navigation testing & TRIDENT missile tracking right up until scrapping, they scrapped it and today the USNS WATERS does that task, it is still used to track TRIDENT tests (it is still needed because they do launches from the ocean, and they need a ship to get line of sight to the submarine/launch location)
These ships operated out of Port Canaveral.A common sight during the early space program.Watched them come and go with not a thought of their historical significance.My father developed both Woomera and Muchae ending with MILA (Merrit Island tracking Station)at What is now Kennedy Space Center.
I see that lego shuttle in the back!! I finished building the Hubble piece today!
Various Navy ships were checked and tested for last-ditch space communications and tracking, particularly the spy (, "Technical Research") ships and command & control ships (such as the LCC class). When I was aboard one such ship in the late 1970s we'd listen-in whenever opportunities presented themselves. Mainly in Russian. Purely for training and educational purposes, of course.
In early January I dove the Vandenberg wreck, very cool ship indeed!
In the 1970s, USNS Vanguard was 'hanging out' around Alaska. Saw her couple of times. While at sea on our Coast Guard Cutter. . .
Scott, you have to do a feature on TDRS. It is still an evolving infrastructure although much less of a wow factor than it was in it's early days, but still a critical asset.
Wow, nothing says "expendable" like not even giving a ship a name. I wonder what it was like to serve on such a ship.
Range Rats at Sea by Dan Kolachek - I think the last name is correct but check it anyway. I spent 6 years aboard the Vanguard. The Book is a real-life story.
Scott missed a golden opportunity to close by saying "Dive safe"... 😂😂😂
Shoulda rounded it out by talking about the two platforms still in service, the USNS Howard Lorenzen and the SBX. Both can track both ballistic and orbital vehicles, with amazing accuracy!
"HULLO ITS SCOTT MANLEY HERE"
never gets old
Hello,
After watching in amazement at your breadth of knowledge for years I can say I was a bit surprised to find out the you literally live right down the road from me! I’m up in the Wino Country of the city of Sonoma. What a small world. Your the second UA-camr that lives real close to me and that couple I actually helped them out on there project and was on several of there episodes doing what I do. Well if you and your wife ever come up to Sonoma I would be happy to give you the nickel tour of our great little town.
RWES
What an interesting but very little talked about subject. With Scott Manley you know you will learn something new.
I used to see Vanguard and Redstone at Port Canaveral, FL all the time when I was growing up. We frequently went to the Beach called Jetty Park which was at the inlet to the port. We used to call the ships "golf ball ships" because of the large white radome covers. At one point, as a young adult working temporary jobs in the 1980s I worked on one of the two ships. Crappy job. I was jack hammering tile out of bathroom. My head rang for days.
Great Wednesday video -Drachinifel- Scott Manley.
A bit shorter than his usual fare (or should I say longer? They're supposed to be five minutes - more or less)
I worked the "Observation Island" for RCA for a while. Not a ship you discussed, but a close cousin.
Man, that seems like and equal parts cool and dangerous dive.
Dive safe!
Note "Matter" by Iain M. Banks on the desk. That's where the General Contact Unit "Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall" is mentioned.
The Soviets built some neat looking space tracking ships as late as the 70's as well. A couple of them were huge, the Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was like 235m with almost Very Large Array-sized dishes.
I spy with my little eye a new Lego set that I'm jealous of!
Fantastic video, thanks for being our space historian!
Hello Scott, Great video.
"Only the vanguard remained..."
Suitable for a ship named the vanguard.
"During the drama of Gemini 8..." Sounds like a good video for Scott Manley...
Thank you very much for this great episode.
An interesting part of their era. War surplus and excess American industrial capability allowed those ships to be made, outfitted, and operated to support the nascent spaceflight of their era. The United States today could not build those ships, outfit them, or operate them. Yet their roles have been filled in by satellites that do a much better job. Truly a indicative marker of a moment in time.
I sat through that thinking that ship looks like the one from Virus, so glad you mentioned it Scott, now I don't need to look it up.
i forgot about that movie, but just got it on DVD, spanks Fly Save:)o7
You thought 2020 was weird? 2021's so weird that Scott Manley's started to believe that space ships sail on the ocean!
"Where SpaceX has been making a lot more scrap metal"
Cue Kelso.
@9:23 and other maps, the coverage patterns of the ground stations are very unique. The circular coverage patterns have weird gaps. Is this related to something about the antenna structure?
I dove to the Vandenberg a few years ago. Really cool dive but it is so deep (~100ft) you can only spend a few minutes there.
The summer of 1985, my Dad and I went deep sea fishing out of Port Canaveral. We saw a ship named "Range Sentinel" in harbor -- as well as a nuclear submarine. Oh, and a Russian "fishing trawler" and a couple jets that flew out to let the Russians know the US knew they were there. The Range Sentinel was used for tracking SLBM test launches from Canaveral and submarines off the Florida coast. Oh, and we did see the Challenger on the pad, waiting for mission 51-L.
3:07 nice Dazzle camouflage
Hi Scott,
I ran across the Rose knot in 78 or 79 where she was anchored at the port of Tacoma, I was looking to make a fishery processor out of it at the time. It was owned by a guy who was a pro wrestler, his stage name was the Masked marvel, can't remember his real name. The other ship I'm familiar with was called the Secret Island which made port in Dutch harbor. It did a lot more than tracking satellites and missiles. It was a total CIA op, Ie: a spy ship.. And security around the vessel was intense.
Just sharing. Thanks for this post.
What did the vanguard in was how they docked it at the Cape. Because they always faced the same direction one side of the haul was very thin do to corrosion. Also it had boilers which cost a lot to maintain.
I go kayaking there too:) never knew the history behind that area thought. similarly, (and I know it's not space-related), but maybe sometime you could talk about Giant TNT and the black-power + TNT production over in Point Pinole, there's some pretty cool old ruins out there to check out
Yes, correct, spent 6 years aboard the Vanguard, there is a handful of us left. Enjoying the SpaceX landings. Book: Range Rats at Sea by Dan and Gloria we put up the new TDRSS satellites which out teched everything as well as the ground stations.