|
ARIA History - Patrick AFB
In
the early 1960’s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA)
realized that the lunar missions of the Apollo program would require a
worldwide network of tracking and telemetry stations, many positioned in
remote regions of the world. This requirement had already been identified by
the Department of Defense (DOD) in its management of unmanned orbital and
ballistic missile reentry test programs. To meet these requirements, a new
concept in tracking stations was developed, a high speed aircraft containing
the necessary instrumentation to assure spacecraft acquisition, tracking,
and telemetry data recording. This
concept became a reality in the Apollo Range Instrumentation Aircraft, ARIA.
This highly mobile station was designed to operate worldwide, receive and
transmit astronaut voices, and record telemetry information from both the
Apollo spacecraft and other NASA and DOD unmanned space vehicles. To
implement the concept, NASA and DOD agreed to jointly fund modification of
eight C-135 jet transport/cargo aircraft. The ARIA, designated EC-135N,
became operational in January 1968, after being modified at the basic cost
of $4.5 million per aircraft.
The management responsibility for the initial modification
program was shared by both civilian and military agencies. NASA participated
in all phases of development and simulation testing. DOD developed policy
considerations and assigned overall responsibility for procurement to the
Electronic Systems Division of the US Air Force. The Air Force Eastern Test
Range (AFETR) at Patrick AFB, Florida, was selected to operate and maintain
the system in support of the test and evaluation community. The
McDonnell-Douglas Corporation and the Bendix Corporation were selected as
the contractors for the design, aircraft modification, and testing of the
electronic equipment.
|
