ARIA - The Unknown Apollo Tracking Plane!

Stan Anderson explains the history and technical details of project ARIA, a little known but vital aspect to Apollo's global tracking system that enabled all the Apollo missions and beyond.
ARIA comprised a third of the entire NASA manned flight tracking network, yet hardly anyone knows about it!
Forum: www.eevblog.com/forum/eevdisc...
#Apollo50th #NASA #Apollo11

[@hoofie2002]

"But we did it" - a suitable epitaph indeed for the whole Apollo project.

[@qwertyasdf66]

What an excellent speaker. And such astonishingly detailed memory.

[@EEVdiscover]

Yes the detail he could tell was amazing, not all of it on camera though. In fact all of the trackers had incredibly detail memories, they could tell you which switched they flicked and then and why, 50 years later.

[@hanbaobao8147]

Family of 328 here! Fly Aria! Good to see a picture of it. God bless you all!

[@frederickevans4113]

I am an Assistant Scoutmaster and I'm an aerospace fan. Our Scoutmaster is a US Navy veteran and his day-job is at Lockheed-Martin (he is nearing retirement now). In his very early adulthood, he did some of the welding on one of the stands used to support models in a NASA wind tunnel. In the recent movie, "Hidden Figures", the actual stand he helped to build was glimpsed in one or two scenes (or a replica thereof). Our Boy Scout Troop has gone to the NASA Space Center in Houston (we're about 290 miles or 467 Km away) and has camped inside. I haven't been as yet, but I look forward to our Troop's next trip there. I enjoyed this episode and the interview with Mr. Anderson, USAF Ret.

[@manpetepetrop8034]

So a wireless Telco company ran by NASA back in '69... Wow! Awsome! Kudos to to mr. Stan and you Dave for giving us this wonderful story - Greetings from hot summery Athens, Greece!

[@KennethNicholson1972]

Truly incredible. How the heck they focused such narrow beam widths and so on. Brilliant to know too just how different nations, regardless of politics, pulled together to assist if needed. The Apollo missions achieved so much for mankind that gets little recognition. Great video, and what a knowledgeable man Stan is.

[@CliffordHeath]

Stan told me they had extraordinarily quick gyro-stabilised servos - if nothing else against turbulence in flight.

[@GeekIWG]

Very cool hearing about the things that go along in the background which make the most amazing things in history possible

[@GeekIWG]

@Radley2612 Haha!

[@ednorco8643]

Thank you, Dave , for bringing us Stan Anderson: he's an example of the best of what the U.S. has to offer the world....

[@oldestnerd]

Wow. That was great hearing from one of those involved.

[@surfnhood]

This was great - I was in the Air Force in 99' and ARIA/Edwards AFB was my first duty station assigned to the antenna shop. Shortly after I was there, just over a year, they scrapped ARIA. For that short time though it was an awesome assignment. He says the equipment was updated, sure from late 60's to early 80's gear possibly lol! I just remember me and the other 2 striper having to 2 man lift things that now fit in the palm of your hand. Best and most interesting job I've ever had.

[@rogerbeck3018]

I love listening to threse guys who have forgotten more than I will ever know - thanks Dave, great stuff

[@hoofie2002]

Great video - Stan relates his experiences very well. Thanks Dave and Stan

[@rakmanyt]

In the late 70's I worked as a Mission Controller at the Satellite Test Center in Sunnyvale. One of our projects was DMSP, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, launched from Vandenberg AFB. DMSP is a visible/IR video weather satellite with 1500 mile track width. For one launch, the Payload Test Facility near the beach at VAFB had never received telemetry during ascent. There was an ARIA aircraft that flew with the launch, we got the ARIA to receive the payload data, transmit to Marisat, receive at the Hawaiian tracking station "A" side, (VHF/UHF) cross connect to the "B" side (S-band), transmit to M22 relay satellite, down to the VAFB "B" side and finally microwaved to the Payload Test Facility. Worked like a charm.

[@gerrybvr]

Fair play Dave. After all the wall to wall saturation coverage of the 50th anniversary, yours is the first mention I ever heard of ARIA and I'm old enough to remember it live.

[@EEVdiscover]

Thanks. I really wanted to share this almost unknown but important bit of history.

[@HOYS]

I saw a Droop Snoot land at WPAFB in 2000. It’s on display here now at the Air Force Museum.

[@JimGriffOne]

08:23 - I like how they had "High-speed USB" antennas back then! (Unified S-Band, of course). _And thanks for the video Dave! Really love watching these kinds of things and learning new facts I didn't know before._

[@abldragon]

ARIA was my favorite assignment as an aircrew member from 1999 to the program’s end in 2000, operating the Record and Timing Systems.

[@chris_easton]

I really appreciate these videos. Thank you for shedding some light on the unseen people and equipment that propelled a few individuals to eternal history.

[@dosgos]

Fascinating interview. This guy is interesting and sharp as a tack.

[@EEVdiscover]

Yep, recalls it like it was yesterday!

[@mikedinn2838]

And in case it’s not clear, the antenna in the background is the ex-Honeysuckle one. It was dismantled in the early 80s and rebuilt at Tidbinbilla, and did 25 years of near earth tracking, including Shuttle.

[@rfengr00]

One of my past coworkers used to work as an RF engineer on one of the tracking ships. He was in charge of the antennas.

[@flymypg]

How did I not know about Stan Anderson and ARIA? What a fascinating chapter of spaceflight, and a fascinating person to tell the stories!

[@EEVdiscover]

ARIA was 1/3 of the entire NASA tracking network, yet hardly anyone knows about it!

[@Blitterbug]

Top presenting, Dave. In all seriousness you could give the telly pundits a run for their money... Watched every second. Unmissable. And thanks for the 90min conference vid at the Aussie museum. Bloody marvelous.

[@EEVblog]

Thanks. More event footage to come.

[@TheNormalUniverse]

Thanks for making this video. What an amazing and impressive story.

[@Denwitty]

Awesome memories! My dad worked on the "droopnose" as our family called them. He was an instrument tech at Patrick AFB (first pic). After he died we found his passport and realized he was on some kind of secret trips to South Africa in March of '69 and March of '70. We can only wonder if it was Apollo related. After Apollo we were relocated to Wright-Pat.

[@waltschannel7465]

Agree with the other comment about the astonishing detail this man remembers. Also incredible is that parts of the 707 based com system was used for over 30 years! Also the use of satellites so early on for voice and data was intriguing! Fantastic interview!!!

[@dosgos]

Can you invite Stan Anderson for more future interviews? Weekly guest?

[@orionsmith7668]

Awesome video. Thanks Stan & Dave!!

[@stuartlea1]

Great interview Dave. Perfect level of detail. Thanks

[@ashleypaine1105]

I loved this video Dave and Stan, really interesting.

[@chriholt]

Fascinating! Thanks for this.

[@LightSoySauce]

I love these videos Dave, thanks :-)

[@TTBOn00bKiLleR]

In telecoms, if nobody hears about it, it means it worked well

[@Testequip]

Hartebeeshoek Earth Satellite Station South Africa has two divisions viz. HartRao and telephony. HartRao was originally built by NASA in the early 1960's and was known as DSS-51. It was one of the many tracking stations worldwide used by NASA for its Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN). It was utilized for the telemetry and voice communications to their manned and unmanned spacecraft. I did some work (analog data) at the telephony satellite station before the up and downlinks. Circa 1980's. Wonderful memories indeed!

[@3800S1]

Great stuff!

[@OtusAsio]

That was GREAT !!!

[@allgood6760]

Thanks for this 🇳🇿

[@chikabestwaifu1539]

Just met this guy, such a great guy and an amazing speaker

[@johnpossum556]

Stan the man! Great you could interview him while he's still alive to tell the stories. Classic content, Dave.

[@EEVdiscover]

And nabbed it just in time before we had to go inside for the speeches.

[@tom7601]

Wow!

[@zapfanzapfan]

Very interesting, I had not heard of those planes and I'm a space nut so they are a well kept secret :-)

[@ypx5ub]

Stan is a cool guy! Than you! :-)

[@jasongray318]

Stanley Anderson (artist) (1884-1966), British engraver, etcher and watercolour painter

[@davidbevington8739]

wow

[@CreatureLove-A189]

That is my Grandfather!! Hi Grandpa!!

[@doug9176]

Good to hear Townsville had a purpose

[@RoGeorgeRoGeorge]

1:40 Hello, derpy! :o)

[@johnkelfy7256]

Is it because of the earth rotation ?

[@WacKEDmaN]

iirc i remember seeing one or 2 of them at Richmond RAAF base back in the 80s

[@EEVblog]

Nice! They were used for a long time.

[@WacKEDmaN]

maybe they where over here for Shuttle tracking... speaking of...i hope i can be just as enthusiastic as you are with Apollo when the 50th aniversary of the first shuttle launch comes around!

[@sokolum]

For sure there was much more going on at the background we don’t know off.

[@EEVdiscover]

Countless things!

[@mikedinn2838]

And Stan went to the trouble and expense of joining us in Australia for the 50th. As he did for the 40th.

[@alexlandherr]

Went the way of the OXCART...

[@KD5NJR]

Nice use of all CAPS !! ;)

[@REALIVH]

there is more airplane with satellite or radar dish on the top like E-2C Hawkeye and E-3 AWACS and many more. I have read that when the first WW1 was some telegraph get a echo from the moon some millisecond after they key, one of my bucket list is to get my own echo from the moon even if it require many kW

[@LordGryllwotth]

Seconds. Search up EME amateur radio.

[@REALIVH]

@@LordGryllwotth I have my licens to transmit on all radio amateur frequent

[@daa3417]

IV Holm Moon bounce is pretty common in amateur radio, not to say it’s easy but a few grey beards in my club have done it.

[@patton303]

And this guy was just one of the tens of thousands of brilliant minds working on The Apollo project. When the US really wants to do something, it can. But at the same time the US thinks that having a guy like Donald Trump as our president is a swell idea. So go figure.

[@Popclone]

Great stuff, what surprised me that he said that they had a man on the moon 6 times ? How come that info is not Documented for us end users ? Lol

[@GlenwingThink]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing#Human_Moon_landings

[@ianbcnp]

11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 - that's six however you count it!

[@tedsmith6137]

Well, it wasn't unknown, was it?