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PART 2
Here is a photograph taken during the Skylab mission in 1973. The small
9-meter antenna was reinstalled at Goldstone after being removed from
Guymas.
Name: Apollo973.jpg
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This photograph was taken in the Unified S-band area of the Goldstone Apollo
Prime station on May 23, 1969, during the Apollo 10 mission. The people I
can identify in the photo from left to right are Bill Wood, unknown
operating the USB system monitor recorders, Gil Edwards operating the USB
Power Amplifier, Tom Jonas operating Exciter 1, Gary Malphrus operating
Receiver 1 and 2, Cheryl Place operating Exciter 2, unknown operating
receivers 3 and 4.
The camera was a Nikon F with a 28 mm lens loaded with Kodak Plus-X film,
available light. The negative number is slightly different due to my
reorganizing my file. The negative was scanned in a Kodak RFS 3570 Plus
film scanner with a 3072 by 2048 pixel CCD array. The image was processed
in Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and saved in a JPEG medium quality file that is
attached here. The image file contains the Photoshop info and thumbnail
image in addition to the black and white JPEG image.
Name: 156-4-4mr.jpg
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This photograph was taken in the Unified S-band SDDS area of the Goldstone
Apollo Prime station on May 23, 1969, during the Apollo 10 mission. Tracy
Nelson is standing at the left operating the Wing station SDDS. Gil Edwards
is seated and operating the Air-to-ground voice console. My crew was
working the evening 12 hour shift.
The camera was a Nikon F with a 28 mm lens loaded with Kodak Plus-X film,
available light. The negative number is slightly different due to my
reorganizing my file. The negative was scanned in a Kodak RFS 3570 Plus
film scanner with a 3072 by 2048 pixel CCD array. The image was processed
in Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and saved in a JPEG medium quality file that is
attached here. The image file contains the Photoshop info and thumbnail
image in addition to the black and white JPEG image.
Name: 157-1-2mr.jpg
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The Goldstone Apollo site is the only one of the original three 26-meter X-Y
antenna stations still operating. Both Honeysuckle and the Madrid Apollo
station were closed and the 26-meter X-Y antennas moved to the collocated
DSN stations.
The Goldstone and Madrid X-Y antennas were converted to the STDN
self-supporting subreflector configuration in 1975 after the old STADAN
engineers at GSFC took command of the newly combined Apollo/STADAN network
renamed Space Tracking and Data Network (STDN). Not only did they junk the
feeds on the antennas but also discarded all the original Block III
receiver-exciter systems and the Collins Antenna Servo systems.
The RF systems were replaced with a GSFC designed Multi Functional Receiver
(MFR) system. These proved so unreliable that the receiver technicians
referred to them with a designation that replaced the MF in MFR with a
rather more colorful designation.
When the Honeysuckle X-Y antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla in 1985 by GSFC
engineers they "upgraded" the feed to the same configuration as Spain and
Goldstone. The old quadripod and subreflector were sold for scrap. That
essentially destroyed any chance of using the antenna at X-band or higher
frequencies.
I have attached two images that show the present configuration of the
Goldstone Apollo and Robledo, Spain stations. The original Goldstone Apollo
operations building is now nearly empty with just a few racks of equipment
that are needed to support the 9-meter and 26-meter antennas. The canteen
building is closed and used for storage.
The Apollo1996 image was taken from the collimination tower road and shows
two of the three 34-meter beam waveguide antennas that were installed
between 1992 and 1997. The third 34-meter antenna was still being
constructed out of the frame to the left. At the present time there are
three 34-meter, one 26-meter X-Y, one 9-meter X-Y (at the right side of the
photo) and one 10-meter Az-El antennas still in operation at the Apollo
site. The small dish that looks like it is pointed at the camera is an old
Comsat ground station antenna that is no longer in use. All the Apollo site
antenna are operated from the Mars basin about six miles north of here.
Fiber optic cables connect the two sites.
The Madridx.jpg image shows the site layout in 1992. The 26-meter X-Y
antenna is in the upper left of the photo. The 34-meter antenna in the
lower left was added in 1987 and is identical to DSS-45 at Tidbinbilla. The
original DSS-61 26-meter antenna was increased to 34-meters in 1979 while
the 64-meter DSS-63 antenna was increased to 70 meters in 1987.
The Apollo973.jpg image shows the Goldstone Apollo station during the Skylab
mission. The old 9-meter antenna from Mexico was installed just east of the
26-meter antenna. Later for the Space Shuttle landing support the 9-meter
antenna was moved to the north of the 26-meter and rotated 90 degrees to
make the keyholes north and south instead of east and west.
Name: Apollo1996.jpg
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