USAV Worthy

 military, ship, United States Army, satellite/space tracking station

Laid down in April 1986 at the Halter Marine Gulfport shipyard as the fourteenth member of the Stalwart Class Ocean Surveillance Ships for the US Navy, the USAV Worthy entered service with the US Military Sealift Command as the USNS Worthy (T-AGOS-14) in December 1988. Operational with the MSC's Atlantic Special Mission Ships Fleet through the fall of the Soviet Union, the Worthy was subsequently transferred to the ownership of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for use as a oceanographic research vessel in May of 1993.

Operating in her new role for only two years, the Worthy was deemed surplus to the needs of NOAA in 1995 and offered for sale to another government agency, winding up in the operational control of the US Army in late 1995. Renamed as the USAV Worthy and shifting to Pearl Harbor for the installation of advanced radar and telemetry systems, the Worthy became the host for the Kwajalein Mobile Range Safety System (KMRSS), a suite of tracking radars designed to provide Flight Safety officers with visual presentation from which to assess missile performance. As configured, the Worthy's twin telemetry antennas support both S-band receiving gear and UHF Flight Termination System transmitting systems which play a vital role in the testing and evaluation of ballistic missile testing being undertaken at the Reagan Test Site. The vessel also serves as a primary logistical and instrumentation support for the numerous remote tracking sites ringing Kwajalein Atoll.

www.smdc.army.mil/KWAJ/RangeSafety.html
www.navsource.org/archives/09/66/6614.htm