USNS Huntsville (T-AGM 7) ca. 1961.
Click on this photograph for links to larger images of this class.
Class: WATERTOWN (T-AGM 6, VC2-S-AP3)
Design: MC VC2-S-AP3
Displacement (tons): 4,512 light, 15,200 full
Dimensions (feet): 455' oa, 444' wl x 62' e/wl x 28.5'
Armament: none
Accommodations: 14 officers, 75 unlicensed
Speed (kts.): 17
Propulsion (HP): 8,500
Machinery: Geared steam turbines, 2 boilers (465psi/750deg), 1 screw
Construction:
| AGM | Name | Acq | Builder | Keel | Launch | Svc |
| 6 | WATERTOWN | 11 Aug 1960 | Oregon SB | 12 Feb 1944 | 25 Apr 1944 | 1961 |
| 7 | HUNTSVILLE | 11 Aug 1960 | Oregon SB | 2 Mar 1945 | 13 Apr 1945 | 1961 |
Disposition:
| AGM | Name | T | Inact | Strike | Disposal | Fate | MA Sale |
| 6 | WATERTOWN | T | Feb 1972 | 16 Feb 1972 | 23 May 1974 | MA/S | -- |
| 7 | HUNTSVILLE | T | end 1974 | 8 Nov 1974 | 17 Jul 1975 | MA/S | -- |
Class Notes:
In 1958 the United States initiated its first human spaceflight program, called Project Mercury. Its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union did. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, a system of tracking and communications stations, although the astronauts had backup controls. Both astronaut and capsule were to be recovered by helicopters deployed from US Navy ships. Six manned Mercury flights between May 1961 and May 1963 were followed by 12 Gemini two-man flights between 1964 and 1966.
On 8 June 1960 the BUSHIPS Hull Design Branch (Code 440) promulgated within BUSHIPS draft design criteria for a Pacific Missile Range tracking ship, AG(PMR). (This project like many other conversions was handled within BUSHIPS without involving the Ship Characteristics Board.) The draft was based on requirements obtained from BUWEPS and PMR, and the job order was due for completion on 15 July 1960. The criteria were to be used for the contract design for the conversion of two VC2-S-AP3 hulls, KNOX VICTORY and NIANTIC VICTORY, to tracking ships for PMR use "in Discoverer follow-on, MIDAS and SAMOS programs." The ships were to be based at Port Hueneme, California, and would be assigned to tracking stations varying from 800 miles to 3,000 miles down range from Point Arguello, California. Each ship would be operated by a 55-man civilian MSTS crew while range functions would be carried out by a 20 man PMR technical group. The arrangement of the ships would follow that of previous AG(PMR)s, and as many features as possible of the Victory ships would be retained. Range instrumentation functions would be concentrated on the second deck of number three hold with the use of some portions of the second deck of number four hold as dictated by the antenna arrangement. A roll stablization tank would be provided similar to and at the same location as that installed in previous PMR recovery and instrumentation ships (a probable reference to AGM 3 and AGM 5). Locked water ballast tanks would be used as in most other Navy auxiliary vessel conversions. Cargo hatch openings would be plated over as necessary to provide boundaries for new spaces. If practicable, one set of booms and winches near amidships would be retained for use in handling stores.
On 22 August 1960 Commander MSTS requested that KNOX VICTORY and NIANTIC VICTORY, soon to be acquired as missile range ships, be assigned appropriate classifications and names. On 12 September 1960 he alerted his staff that SECNAV Instruction 5030.1B of 25 August 1960 had established a new classification, AGM, with the meaning "Missile Range Instrumentation Ship," and that a change of the classification of MCV 100 (NIANTIC VICTORY) and MCV 184 (KNOX VICTORY) to T-AGM 6 and T-AGM 7 was pending in OPNAV. New names were also to be assigned. On 27 October 1960 effective 27 Nov 1960 SECNAV approved the new classifications AGM 6 and AGM 7 and the names WATERTOWN and HUNTSVILLE for these ships. Both ships were converted by Triple A Machine Shop, Inc., of San Francisco, with HUNTSVILLE on range in about January 1961 followed by WATERTOWN in about March 1961. Both ships were used to support the Mercury space program in 1962.
The key feature of this class was the AN/SPQ-8 tracking radar (nicknamed the "Spook Eight") built by Fairchild that could track satellites and capsules in space. It was mounted forward on the stump of the former foremast. The first set was installed in HUNTSVILLE and the second and probably last set followed in WATERTOWN. Because of their different mission these two ships lacked the helicopter facilities and air search radars of the preceding LONGVIEW class but had better tracking capabilities.
Both ships of the "6-Class" were modified in the mid-1960s to support the Apollo program. Their mission was to take station in the planned landing zone, then to be in the Pacific, to cover the return of the astronauts to earth. An extra deck level was installed between the bridge and the forecastle and new antennas and electronics were installed. Each ship during an Apollo mission had 14 officers, 56 crewmen, and 72 technical personnel including the NASA flight controllers. They were upgraded for the Apollo program at a cost of $20 million apiece by the Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, La. Their AN/SPQ-8 tracking radar was replaced with the more advanced AN/FPS-105 system, a solid-state variant of the AN/FPS-16 that NASA used in all of the ground stations for its manned space program and that was also embarked in USNS RANGE TRACKER (T-AGM 1) and WHEELING (T-AGM 8) and as the AN/FPS-16-V in the VANGUARD (T-AGM 19) class. HUNTSVILLE was modified between 1965 and October 1966 and WATERTOWN, although blown ashore by Hurricane Betsy in September 1965 at the beginning of her conversion, entered service about a month ahead of her. The ships were accepted at the Air Force Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, in July and August 1967. WATERTOWN was released by NASA in the fall of 1968 after which she was modified as a tracking ship supporting rocket launches in the Pacific from the Air Force Western Test Range at Vandenburg AFB, California. In February 1971, the Air Force decided that it no longer required WATERTOWN's services and she was removed from service. After supporting Apollo missions in 1968 and 1969 HUNTSVILLE also supported the Western Test Range under the control of the Air Force Space and Missile Test Center. She was to be deactivated in 1973 because of a lack of current support ship requirements and to save $1 million per year, but she was retained to support US surveillance of French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. She replaced WHEELING, which had conducted the 1972 and 1973 surveillance missions, and spent approximately 90 days between June and September 1974 on that mission before leaving service near the end of that year.
Ship Notes:
| AGM | Name | MCV | Notes |
| 6 | WATERTOWN | 100 | (ex-NIANTIC VICTORY, compl. 18 May 1944). FY 1961. On list and named 27 Nov 1960. Modified FY 1966 at Avondale for Apollo, accepted at the Air Force Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, on 19 July 1967. To MA custody 22 Mar 1972. To buyer 16 Jul 1974. |
| 7 | HUNTSVILLE | 184 | (ex-KNOX VICTORY, compl. 11 May 1945). FY 1961. On list and named 27 Nov 1960. Modified FY 1966 at Avondale for Apollo, accepted at the Eastern Test Range on 18 August 1967. To MA custody 22 Nov 1974. To buyer 11 Aug 1975. |
Page Notes:
Compiled: 18 Oct 2021
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2021
Special sources: NARA: RG 19 Entry P 62 Box 99 (Design Job Order File 19-60); "NASA's Moonship Fleet" by Eric Pearson in PowerShips (the journal of the Steamship Historical Society of America) No. 314 (Summer 2020) pp. 38-45.