USNS Vanguard (T-AGM 19) on 1 November 1967 at Bermuda in her original configuration.
Click on this photograph for links to larger images of this class.
Class: VANGUARD (T-AGM 19, T2-SE-A2)
Design: MC T2-SE-A2 (mod), no Navy project #
Displacement (tons): 8,455 light, 24,710 full
Dimensions (feet): 595' oa, 575' wl/pp x 75' x 27.1'
Armament: none
Accommodations: 19-20 officers, 71 unlicensed, 108-120 scientists/technicians
Speed (kts.): 16
Propulsion (HP): 10,000
Machinery: Turbo-electric, 2 boilers, 1 screw
Construction:
| AGM | Name | Acq | Builder | Keel | Launch | Svc |
| 19 | VANGUARD | 28 Sep 1964 | Marinship | 26 Aug 1943 | 23 Nov 1943 | 28 Feb 1966 |
| 20 | REDSTONE | 19 Oct 1964 | Marinship | 26 Nov 1943 | 28 Feb 1944 | 30 Jun 1966 |
| 21 | MERCURY | 28 Oct 1964 | Marinship | 30 Jul 1943 | 14 Oct 1943 | 16 Sep 1966 |
Disposition:
| AGM | Name | T | Inact | Strike | Disposal | Fate | MA Sale/Depart |
| 19 | VANGUARD | T | 30 Mar 1998 | 13 Dec 1999 | 29 Nov 2001 | MA/T | 23 Oct 2013/D |
| 20 | REDSTONE | T | 6 Aug 1993 | 7 Dec 1993 | 17 Nov 1995 | Navy sale | -- |
| 21 | MERCURY | T | 1969 | 28 Apr 1970 | 29 Oct 1969 | MA/T | 23 Jun 1970 |
Class Notes:
These ships entered Navy service in 1947 as units of the MISSION BUENAVENTURA (T-AO 111) class, and their history before their AGM conversions is described on the page for that class. All three ships were stricken and transferred to MARAD in 1957-58 along with others of their class.
MISSION SAN FERNANDO, MISSION DE PALA, and MISSION SAN JUAN were reacquired and converted for NASA's Apollo program. A meeting between DOD and NASA representatives was held in June 1962 to discuss continuing and future instrumentation ship requirements. It was decided that, to be totally effective for NASA projects, floating platforms had to have extensive amounts of "project peculiar" equipment on board identical to that of the ground network and they would have to be fully integrated into that network and operated by the same contractors. On 21 January 1963 NASA took exception to the DOD position that existing instrumentation ships (see for example T-AGM 12) then being used for the Atlantic Missile Range could support the Apollo program, stating that NASA needed ships equipped with improved traffic communications lines and larger dish antennas that could track and communicate with spacecraft at lunar distances out of radar range. After much study it was agreed to augment the instrumentation fleet with the addition of three converted T2 tankers (the T-AGM 19 class) to support spacecraft earth-orbit insertion and lunar-orbit injection and the upgrading of two existing Victory ships (the T-AGM 6 class) for tracking spacecraft re-entry. The Navy established an Instrumentation Ship Project Office (PM-5) at the Bureau of Ships to convert the five ships, and the FY 1964 and FY 1965 budgets included funding for them. The General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division, previously the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. yard at Quincy, Mass., was selected as the prime contractor to modify the three tankers. The ships became part of the worldwide twenty-five-station Apollo network.
The "19-Class" ships, officially known as "Apollo Instrumentation Ships (AIS)," were World War II T2 tankers in which a an approximately 300' midbody comprising all of the ship except the 75'1.5" bow section and 120'1.5" stern section (the latter with the propulsion equipment) was cut out and replaced with a new 379.75' midbody 72 feet longer than the old one and containing some 325 to 400 tons of instrumentation and accommodations for nearly 200 men including 108 scientists (88 ship's company and 122 instrumentation personnel in AGM 20). The major instrumentation aboard each included an RCA AN/FPS-16 radar similar to the one originally installed on TWIN FALLS (T-AGM 11). Their telemetry systems were able to handle hundreds of channels of information, including data on both the performance of the various spacecraft and the health and welfare of the astronauts. The 30-foot dish antennas that communicated with the NASA network and the radar antennas on deck were stabilized by computers compensating for motions of the ship. The navigation systems could track stars by day and night and could read maps of the ocean floor. Each ship carried a crew of 17 officers, 71 crew members, and 122 technical personnel including the NASA Flight Controllers. The old mid-body of VANGUARD was sold and replaced the midbody of the T2-SE-A1 tanker WASHINGTON TRADER.
On 8 April 1965 SECNAV changed the names of the tankers from MISSION SAN FERNANDO, MISSION DE PALA, and MISSION SAN JUAN to MUSCLE SHOALS, JOHNSTOWN, and FLAGSTAFF, cities with no connection to the space program, but after NASA engineer Earl Hilburn suggested using names from the agency's first space projects the Navy cancelled these names on 1 September 1965 and replaced them with VANGUARD, REDSTONE, and MERCURY. VANGUARD was floated out of dock on 9 September 1965 and completed builder's trials in January 1966. She was accepted by MSTS on 28 February 1966 and was expected to enter service in June 1966 following instrumentation testing at Quincy. She was accepted at the Eastern Test Range on 11 October 1966 and was then transferred to the Western Test Range on 17 March 1967, although she ended up serving in the Atlantic. REDSTONE was launched on 18 November 1964 after lengthening and was accepted by MSTS on 30 June 1966. She was accepted at the Western Test Range on 20 Sepember 1967. MERCURY was launched 19 Nov 1964 after lengthening and was accepted at the Western Test Range on 18 January 1967. After relaying communications between Gemini astronauts and Cape Kennedy she returned to Quincy in 1967 to have upgraded satellite terminals installed for the Apollo program. After the first Apollo mission, the ships' long haul high frequency (HF) radio was replaced by Super High Frequency (SHF) satellite communications.
The ships had different roles in the Apollo program. VANGUARD was concerned primarily with the insertion of the space vehicle into earth orbit and was to be stationed in the North Atlantic. REDSTONE and MERCURY were to be stationed in the Indian Ocean near South Africa and in the Pacific between the Canberra and Hawaii tracking stations to monitor the injection of the vehicle into the lunar trajectory for its flight to the moon. The first of these ships to participate in the Apollo program was VANGUARD, which supported Apollo 4 (launched on 9 November 1967) as a tracking and communication platform for insertion/injection in the mid-Atlantic. REDSTONE and WATERTOWN made their initial appearance in January 1968 in support of Apollo 5, the former in the Atlantic and the latter in the Pacific. They played the same roles in support of Apollo 6 in April 1968. For the first manned flight, Apollo 7, VANGUARD was positioned near the Bahamas to support orbital insertion, REDSTONE was stationed in the central Pacific, MERCURY was positioned east of Taiwan, and HUNTSVILLE was 1,200 miles west of Los Angeles to support reentry. The same four ships supported Apollo 8, Apollo 9, and Apollo 11, with VANGUARD in the Atlantic and the other three in the Pacific.
After Apollo 11 NASA kept VANGUARD on station in the Atlantic for the remaining Apollo flights as a secondary tracking station but released the others, stating that the success of the previous flights made it possible to reduce the number of tracking areas. MERCURY was declared by the Air Force on 15 August 1969 to be in excess to its requirements, and as no other requirement for the ship then existed she was consigned to the NDRF with the provision that she be held for future DOD utilization. The Air Force planned to release her by 15 October 1969 for placement in the NDRF a month later. Because of fiscal constraints MARAD specified that the Navy was to retain title to the ship. In response the Navy on 20 October 1969 informed MARAD that the Navy and Air Force no longer had any need for the ship and that she would be transferred for disposition in place of retention. MERCURY was sold in 1970 and converted to a bulk carrier. REDSTONE was transferred to the Eastern Test Range at the end of 1969 and participated in various missile projects, and in April 1983 she tracked the two solid fuel rocket boosters released in the maiden flight of the CHALLENGER space shuttle. REDSTONE was deactivated on 6 August 1993, having been replaced in June 1993 in monitoring northbound TITAN IV flights by a new range site in Argentia, Newfoundland. VANGUARD was transferred to NASA's new Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN) in 1972 and continued to support NASA with the Skylab program in 1973-74 and the Apollo-Soyuz Test project in 1975. By 1975 she was assigned to downrange support for the POSEIDON SLBM program. In 1980 VANGUARD replaced COMPASS ISLAND (AG 153) as a submarine navigation system test platform ship and, redesignated AG 194, helped test the POSEIDON and TRIDENT I navigation subsystems and develop the TRIDENT II navigation subsystem. At the same time the later RANGE SENTINEL (T-AGM 22) served as a flight test navigation support ship. RANGE SENTINEL was placed out of service on 12 June 1997, VANGUARD was deactivated in 1998, and WATERS (T-AGS 45) began operating in the fall of 1999, replacing both.
Ship Notes:
| AGM | Name | MC | Notes |
| 19 | VANGUARD | 1274 | Ex MUSCLE SHOALS 1 Sep 1965, ex MISSION SAN FERNANDO (T-AO 122) 8 Apr 1965, completed 29 Feb 1944. To MSTS from JRRF 28 Sep 1964 for conversion. Made trial runs on 27-29 January and 5 June 1966. Supported NASA programs in the 1970s. To AG 194 on 30 Sep 1980 to replace COMPASS ISLAND (AG 153). Replaced as navigation test support ship by WATERS (T-AGS 45). To MA custody 12 Jun 1998. Departed 23 Oct 2013 under sales contract. |
| 20 | REDSTONE | 1280 | Ex JOHNSTOWN 1 Sep 1965, ex MISSION DE PALA (T-AO 114) 8 Apr 1965, completed 22 Apr 1944. To MSTS from Beaumont reserve fleet 19 Oct 1964 for conversion. Made a trial run on 4 June 1967. Transferred to the Eastern Range at the end of 1969. Inactivated 6 Aug 1993 and to MA custody in JRRF same date. To buyer from JRRF 30 Jan 1996 following Navy sale. |
| 21 | MERCURY | 1272 | Ex FLAGSTAFF 1 Sep 1965, ex MISSION SAN JUAN (T-AO 126) 8 Apr 1965, completed 31 Jan 1944. To MSTS from Beaumont reserve fleet 28 Oct 1964 for conversion. Still at conversion yard in March 1967, probably for trials. Custody and title to MA 29 Oct 1969. Sold under MA exchange program to Matson for their HAWAIIAN BUILDER (a 1945 C3 freighter), title delivered 23 Jun 1970 and ship delivered 24 Jun 1970. Converted by Matson to bulker KOPAA 31 Mar 1971. Sold Oct 1984 to BU in Taiwan. |
Page Notes:
Compiled: 18 Oct 2021
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2021
Special sources: "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; "From the Sea to the Stars: A Chronicle of the U.S. Navy's Space and Space-related Activities, 1944-2009" (www.history.navy.mil)