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Opening in March 1967, the Corpus Christi Apollo Tracking Station was situated at the NE corner of the former Rodd Naval Auxiliary Air Station outside Corpus Christi, TX.
The Apollo Station was on the same site as the earlier Mercury and Gemini tracking station.
The 30 foot USB antenna (pictured) was sited at 27°39'13"N 97°22'43"W (map) – the shell of the Operations Building and half of the antenna pad still remained until 2019 when the Ops Building was demolished.
Click the image to download a 2.9MB PDF file
– a scan of a brochure kept by Dick Nafzger.
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This summary of the history of the Corpus Christi Tracking Station (generally known as TEXAS or TEX on the Network) is taken from the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Technical Information Bulletin Volume 4, Number 9, August 15 1967. (Headings and bold have been added.) –
“Since the conception of Project Mercury, the MSFN station at Corpus Christi Texas, has been an important tracking and data acquisition facility. Its major functions are transmission of data and voice communications to the spacecraft and reception of data, voice communications and television pictures from the spacecraft.
Mercury role
Originally designed as a Mercury station, Corpus Christi has since been modified for the successive stages of the American space program.
The first stage of Corpus Christi began in early fall 1959 when a site survey was made for a Mercury station location.
The survey team chose Rodd Field, a deactivated naval auxiliary airfield originally under the jurisdiction of the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, for the station. Antenna separation, soil conditions, water, sewage disposal, communications, transportation, electric power, topography and climate were considered satisfactory at the site.
By April 1960, construction of station facilities had begun: the abandoned hangar was renovated for offices, equipment, storage and maintenance. The control and acquisition antennas were placed on the roof of the hangar to minimize new construction and to utilize existing facilities.
Since the field had not been in use for some time, renovation was also necessary during the construction period on the grounds.
Gemini role
By April 1961, the equipment had been completely installed and thoroughly checked under simulated flight conditions; qualified personnel had been trained; and the Corpus Christi facility was ready to support Mercury missions.
The second stage of the Corpus Christi station started in 1962 when NASA and industry engineers began designing and developing new network systems required for Project Gemini. Rebuilding for Gemini began in March 1964, and the facility had been modified and checked out for Gemini missions by summer 1964.
Apollo role
While the station supported Gemini missions, construction for the third stage Apollo expansion program began. A unified S-band building, generator building and hydromechanical building were built. By September 1966, the station was ready to support Apollo missions. The new Apollo station at Corpus Christi was dedicated in March of this year [1967].
Major equipment additions were: a unified S-band system with 30-foot antenna; VHF telemetry receivers; a telemetry decommutation and simulation system; data processors; data recorders; a TV monitor and an intercom system.
Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, “Texas’ sparkling city by the sea,” is a semi-tropical tourist-industrial center on the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles southwest of Houston. Overlooking the bay for which it was named, the city (pop. 192,000) rises out of a coastal plain near the Nueces River.
Recreational opportunities provided by miles of white Gulf beaches and over a hundred parks are abundant: fishing, swimming, sailing, hunting and golf among them. Nearby Padre Island National Seashore, a 114 mile island which parallels the Texas coast, offers untainted natural surroundings to tempt swimmers, anglers and beachcombers for Spanish treasure.
From an industrial standpoint, too, Corpus Christi has many resources. The port, the nation's tenth largest in volume, processes steamship cargoes from many countries. Cotton, grain, sorghum, dairy products and livestock produced by South Texans bring $100 million annually into the area. In addition, the city is noted for its petroleum processing industries, and more than 20,000 oil and gas wells can be found within a 152-mile radius of the city.
Both tourism and industry thrive in the warm, comfortable, although humid, climate. Average annual temperature is 72 degrees.
The history of Corpus Christi goes back to 1519 when the Spanish explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda discovered and named the bay, although the city really began when a frontier trading post was founded by adventurer-colonizer Colonel Henry Lawrence Kinney in 1839. However, it remained an obscure settlement until about 1845, but was finally incorporated in 1852. The establishment of the Naval Air Station during World War II greatly added to the growth of the city.”
