USNS Kingsport

USNS Kingsport was the world’s first dedicated satellite communications ship. Originally launched as a cargo vessel, she was converted by the US Navy and commissioned on 24 September 1961 as a satellite communications test platform. Kingsport was fitted with a conventional HF radio station for ship-to-shore communications and a 8.5-m, 24-ton, gyro-stabilized, tracking, parabolic antenna for a satellite terminal operated by 44 personnel.

Kingsport played a central role in the early Syncom program. While docked in Lagos, Nigeria she provided the terminal control station during testing of Syncom 2. On 23 August 1963, President John F. Kennedy in Washington, DC spoke by telephone via Syncom 2 to Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the Kingsport, in the first live two-way satellite call between heads of state.

On 2 October 1963, off Morocco, USNS Kingsport demonstrated the first satellite voice communications with a Navy aircraft in flight off the Virginia coast. Throughout 1964 and 1965 the ship supported numerous communications experiments including further evaluation of Syncom 3. She also provided support for several of NASA’s Gemini crewed space flights.