Tracking ship

The cosmonavt Yuri Gagarin (1986)

The Chinese Yuan Wang 2 (2005)

A tracking ship or telemetry ship is used to track rockets and similar missiles when they - as is often the case for safety reasons - are launched from sea or their ground track leads across the ocean. They are equipped with antennas, radar and the corresponding radio systems to receive signals from the missile as well as to issue commands, e.g. B. for flight path corrector, and can significantly increase the range of ground stations . They can also be used to communicate with satellites or flight crews.

Rail tracking ships were and are mainly built and used by the USA, the Soviet Union and Russia . The People's Republic of China has had Yuan Wang class tracking vessels since 1977 . The French Navy has been using the Monge as a tracking ship since 1992 .

The importance of orbit tracking vessels has declined since the 1970s, as satellites already in high orbits can provide better and cheaper connections today .

Web links

Commons : Tracking ships  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Encyclopedia Astronautica : Soviet Space Tracking Systems ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Suzanne McHale: tracking sites and ships (English)