USNS Kingsport

USNS Kingsport (T-AG 164) under way, 29 January 1963. The photo shows the 53-foot white plastic dome that protects the 30-foot stabilized parabolic antenna.

On 24 September 1961, she was delivered to the Portland, Oregon facilities of Willamette Iron & Steel Company where she underwent conversion to become the first satellite communications ship.[1][11] On 14 November 1961 she was renamed Kingsport and reclassified AG-164.[1]

Designed for use by the United States Army Satellite Communications Agency in the defense satellite communications programs, Project ADVENT, USNS Kingsport underwent extensive alteration during conversion. A special high frequency radio station was installed for ship-to-shore communications. She received advanced tracking and telemetry equipment and anti-roll stabilization tanks. In addition, a 30-foot, gyro-stabilized, computer-oriented, triaxial, parabolic antenna was installed on her afterdeck. Housed in a 53-foot, plastic, air-pressurized radome, this antenna permitted precision tracking of a high altitude satellite at any angle above the horizon.[1]

Prime Minister Balewa (2nd from right) talks to the late President John F. Kennedy on the first live broadcast via the SYNCOM satellite from USNS Kingsport in Lagos, Nigeria.

Kingsport sailed to Lagos, Nigeria after Syncom 2 had been successfully launched on 26 July 1963 to serve as the terminal control station during testing and evaluation of the satellite.[1] On 23 August 1963, President John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., telephoned Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the Kingsport docked in Lagos Harbor via Syncom 2, the first geosynchronous communication satellite. It was the first live two-way call between heads of state by satellite.[11][12] Syncom 2 and Relay 1 linked Nigeria, Brazil and the United States with Kingsport transmitting through Syncom 2 to New Jersey and New Jersey via Relay 1 to Rio de Janeiro.[13] During this period Gulf of Guinea oceanographic data, composed of depths temperature and salinity from a 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) station, were transmitted from the RV Geronimo to the National Oceanographic Data Center via Kingsport and Syncom 2.[14]

Kingsport departed Lagos 23 September and during transit off Morocco on 2 October demonstrated the first satellite communications between an aircraft in flight when a Navy aircraft off the Virginia coast made voice contact with the ship via satellite.[1][15] The ship reached Rota, Spain on 3 October, staying until 6 October, then sailed supporting communication tests in the Mediterranean from 7 to 25 October.[1] Tests of voice and teletype links between the United States and ships of the 6th Fleet successful with the ship visiting Leghorn, Italy and Beirut, Lebanon during the voyage.[1] After arriving in Rota 26 October and completing additional experiments she sailed for Norfolk 9 November and arrived 21 November.[1]

Kingsport departed for the Pacific 17 February 1964 via Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal stopping at San Diego 13 March and reaching Pearl Harbor on 25 March 1964. For the next ten months the ship operated between Pearl Harbor and Guam supporting further communication experiments including those related to the evaluation of SYNCOM 3 after its launching 19 August 1964. Further experiments extended throughout the Western Pacific and into the Indian Ocean until July 1965.[1]

She then provided support for NASA's Gemini manned space shots serving as on station communications ship between Okinawa and the Philippines for Gemini 5 from 21 to 29 August. She supported three more Gemini flights between 4 December and 16 March 1966 before returning to the West Coast in April. She remained at San Francisco from 18 April to 27 October in a ready reserve status. During November she steamed to the East Coast, and in early 1967 was at New York undergoing repairs and alterations.[1]

After completion of her communications support role the USNS Kingsport became a bathymetric and acoustic survey ship supporting Project Caesar, the installation and maintenance of the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), and undersea surveillance development.[16][17][18] The ship was part of the "Caeasr fleet" under the technical control of the project's Program Manager, then Naval Electronics Systems Command (NAVELEX PME-124).[19] Among the now published reports, declassified in 2006, of the ship's work is a description of the Indian Ocean exercise code named BEARING STAKE that took place from January to April 1977.[20]