NASA's Ships and Planes

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This book discusses the resources and infrastructure that NASA developed and applied to support space missions in the early 1960's. When the first satellite, Vanguard, went up in 1958, there was no world-wide network of tracking stations. Thus, a series of ground stations, tracking ships, and tracking aircraft were required. When the crewed capsules of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs splashed down in the ocean, they were retrieved by U. S. Naval vessels for NASA. NASA has a couple of Ocean-going tugs to retrieve the solid rocket boosters used in the Shuttle Program. In addition, the size of the Shuttle external tank required water transportation on a barge, from the assembly point to the launch site. The Shuttle itself was flown from place to place on top of a specially modified 747 aircraft.