Carnarvon

Carnarvon Tracking Station, Western Australia

1963 – 1975

To avoid confusion...

The NASA Tracking Station and the OTC Satellite Earth Station at Carnarvon are often confused in popular thinking.

They were two different installations with different purposes, at either ends of Brown’s Rang. The OTC station was at Carnarvon in order to provide communications between the NASA tracking station and the Goddard Space Flight Center in the US. The OTC station was not involved in the tracking of spacecraft.

For a larger version of this map (390kb PDF), click the image.

Carnarvon Tracking Station was opened in June 1964 to be a prime station for the Gemini Program. The Verlort Radar and Aquisition antennae were transported from Muchea to Carnarvon after Muchea closed.

Carnarvon was better placed than Muchea to be able to track Gemini spacecraft – and it was also in an ideal position to confirm the orbit of the Apollo spacecraft so that a Go / No Go decision could be made for Trans Lunar Injection.

The USB section and the 9 metre antenna were built specifically to support Apollo.

Carnarvon Tracking Station Panorama

Click the image for a 2.5MB PDF panorama. It was assembled from several black and white photographs taken from the newly-completed 9 metre USB antenna in May 1966. The PDF file has two pages – the second one is the same, but without the annotations.

The photographs were probably taken by a Department of Supply photographer. With thanks to Trevor Mosel, Stuart Wattison (who scanned them), Paul Dench and Terry Kierans. Panorama assembled by Colin Mackellar.

Click here for a 5MB Flash-based zoomable version of the same image.

Other photos from the same set may be seen here.

This 1963 NASA sketch shows demonstrates how Carnarvon was better placed to track the low-earth-orbiting Gemini spacecraft.

Carnarvon Tracking Station Layout

from a Department of Supply booklet scanned by Stuart Wattison.

(Here’s the same map rotated so that North is at the top.)

Paul Dench writes:

“Although the station wasn’t officially open until 25 June 1964, construction of the FPQ-6 started mid-January 1963, I was the first Tracker on the payroll in early May 1963, an office was open in town in July ’63, and Trackers were on-site early in August.

TTY was connected by September 1963 and some 50 Trackers and 30 NASA engineers were on-site before Christmas ’63 installing the equipment.

FPQ-6 tracked a spacecraft for the first time on 25 January 1964 with its first official contact three days later – a 3-hour track of Ranger-6 through TLI (trans-lunar injection).”

Carnarvon Tracking Station Booklet

produced by the Department of Supply – scanned by Stuart Wattison.
7.2MB PDF by Colin Mackellar.

The booklet seems to date from early 1973 – after the Apollo Program, Carnarvon (and the other MSFN stations) became part of the STDN.

The Carnarvon Tracking Station Telemetry and Control Building – before Apollo.

The foundations for the Apollo USB extension are laid out in the foreground.

Taken at sunrise, this photo shows the sea in the distance. The old Verlort radar, from Muchea is at right.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay.

Aerial view – Apollo configuration.

Note that the Apollo extension is now completed.

Hamish Lindsay, who worked at Carnarvon before going to Honeysuckle Creek, writes

“On the left are the two tropospheric scatter dish antennas for a link to Geraldton, introduced when all the land lines out of Carnarvon were lost to a lightning strike early in the Gemini Program. Next is the 9-metre USB Apollo antenna.

The big building is the T & C (Telemetry and Control) building, with the Apollo extensions visible nearest the camera with its battery of airconditioning units needed to compete with the heat of the surrounding desert.

At the top right corner of the T&C building are the two Gemini Acquisition Aid antennas, while the old Verlort radar from Muchea with its vans and small concrete tower is visible in the top right of the picture.”

The powerhouse and FPQ-6 radar were established in separate locations.

At its peak Carnarvon (CRO) was the largest tracking station outside the USA.”

Photo: Hamish Lindsay. How was it taken? Hamish writes, “I was flying in a light aircraft without the door on (the pilot pulled fencing wire out of the hinges to remove the door!), and when he banked to turn all my gear would slide towards the open door.”

The access road to Carnarvon Tracking Station, in 1971.

Notice the Dallas – Fort Worth Turnpike sign by the side of the road.

Paul Dench was leader of the team of eight from Carnarvon doing USB training at the Collins factory in 1965. (Collins Radio was the Unified S-band manufacturer, based in Richardson, Texas just north of Dallas.)

Paul was one of the four who “rescued [the sign] from its lonely existence half way along the turnpike.” He says, “It is now fixed to my verandah wall.”

Photo: Tom Sheehan. Click image for a larger version. Click here for a full resolution version.

The plaque commemorating the opening of Carnarvon Tracking Station has been mounted on a large rock outside the Visitors Centre at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla. Though not currently (2008) on public display, this should change when the entrance area landscaping is completed.

Photo: Colin Mackellar.