Key FPQ-6 Mission Activity

A full catalogue of Carnarvon FPQ-6 tracking would be a potted history of US space exploration - post Mercury. The following group examples pinpoint highlights of Carnarvon’s radar activity in order of the first track in each group.

Communications satellites

Echo-2, a 'rigidized' 30.5m passive communications sphere, launched on 25 January 1964 was the first object in space tracked by Carnarvon (CRO). It was followed soon after on 19 August by Syncom-3, the first truly synchronous communications satellite.

 

Three communications satellites vital to NASA’s communications with its remote tracking stations followed. Intelsat-2A failed to reach a synchronous orbit but, before it decayed, managed to relay the first few minutes of the first TV transmission from Carnarvon to England on 26 October 1966 - Down Under Comes Up Live. Intelsat-2B followed on 11 January 1967 to become Pacific-1 – CRO’s communications satellite link to the US. Intelsat-2C on 23 March 1967 became Atlantic-1.

 

SKYNET-1A, a UK military communications satellite, was successfully placed in synchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean on 22 November 1969. SKYNET-1B on 19 August 1970 failed due to a faulty apogee motor and SKYNET-2A launched in January 1974 became lost and shortly after was discovered in a lower Earth orbit by the CRO FPQ-6; an orbit from which it could not be rescued.

 

Telesat-A, a Canadian domestic communications satellite launched on 9 November 1972, failed to reach the correct orbit; nevertheless CRO FPQ-6, acquiring it a little behind schedule, was able to generate new tracking parameters to enable successful acquisitions by both Hawaii and Bermuda. The satellite subsequently established a successful synchronous orbit.

 

By mid 1997, 535 domestic communications satellites had been launched. About 50 of these were supported by CRO FPQ-6 before it ceased tracking in mid-1975

Apollo/Saturn 

On 29 Jan 1964 the Saturn-V launch vehicle designed to lift Apollo for its journey to the Moon orbited the Earth from the first time and became CRO’s second track before it had even seen a Gemini spacecraft. The next Apollo mission it supported was on 5 July 1966; four orbits of Apollo-2 driven by the Saturn-IVB after separation from the Saturn-V. Fifteen Apollo missions were to follow in due course with CRO FPQ-6 supporting every viewable opportunity for manned missions; not merely the early-orbit definition period.

 

The Apollo-13 re-entry phase was the only Apollo mission for which its support bordered on critical; it had all three vehicles on view – the Command Module containing the three astronauts, and the Service Module and the Lunar Module both now jettisoned. The Lunar Module was a key concern because it held the Apollo Lunar Surface Experimental Package (ALSEP) containing 3.9 Kg of radioactive plutonium in its power generator. NASA wanted to be sure the Lunar Module was on target for a non-contaminating splashdown in deep ocean waters well away from New Zealand. Naturally the CRO FPQ-6 crew was also delighted by the safe return of the three astronauts.

Deep Space Network (DSN) support 

All DSN spacecraft needed to break free of Earth’s gravity onto a very particular path to be sure of reaching their destination. The FPQ-6’s position and accuracy was a vital part of the process. CRO’s track meant that the first post-insertion course correction could be sooner and more specific than it would for a less accurate tracking system.

 

CRO FPQ-6’s first productive track was three hours of data for Ranger-6, a DSN mission, on 30 January 1964. The support included the trans-lunar insertion (TLI) phase. Ranger-6 was on its way to televise photos of the Moon’s surface back to Earth. CRO followed with three more Ranger missions. Tracking of Ranger-8 on 28 July 1964 created a local distance record of 35,000 Km.

 

CRO FPQ-6 supported Pioneer-A on 16 December 1965 by tracking through its transition into a heliocentric (Sun-centred) orbit; the first of six similar DSN Pioneer missions. They measured solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays - ‘particles and fields’ - at different distances out from the Sun.

 

Surveyor-3 with Apollo-12: Image - NASA

The DSN Surveyor ‘Lunar Lander’ missions were probably the most interesting for CRO FPQ-6 at the time given their purpose to land on the Moon, take photos of the moonscape and to analyse soil samples. It mirrored the prime purpose of CRO without the astronauts.

 

Surveyor-1, the first of seven ‘Lunar Lander’ missions, was launched on 30 May 1966; and stimulated rivalries between the tracking systems at Carnarvon. FPQ-6, as usual, tracked the spacecraft through the TLI phase and on towards the Moon. The Unified S-Band (USB) system, destined to support Apollo at lunar distances, acquired the Ranger S-band signal without pointing data by slaving onto the FPQ-6 angles. There was some bitterness at FPQ-6 when Surveyor-1 went out of radar range as USB cheers sounded out on the intercom celebrating the fact that they were still locked onto the spacecraft. The pragmatic radar crew consoled themselves with the fact that it was merely the nature of USB technology rather than the skill of the USB crew.

 

 

By the time Apollo-8 reached for the Moon, CRO FPQ-6 had participated in 19 trans-lunar/trans-planetary insertions of DSN spacecraft. Such events had become routine.

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Gemini/Agena 

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Pioneer 

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Surveyor 

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Lunar Orbiter 

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WRESAT 

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OV series 

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Skylab 

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AE-C 

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Gemini/Agena 

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Pioneer 

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Surveyor 

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Lunar Orbiter 

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WRESAT 

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OV series 

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Skylab 

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AE-C 

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