Many thanks to Tom and his editors for permission to run it here this evening.
Before getting to the advance copy, I just want to chime in with the results of some amateur intel photo interpretation. The Telly today carried an Associated Press photo of the Sage. By measuring the length of the ship in the photo, knowing the length of the vessel and then measuring various bits, it is easy to conclude that the Sage likely carries the same types of radar found on the United States Naval Ship Invincible (T-AGM 24) .
Invincible is used to provide telemetry to launch control stations in Florida and Texas for both manned and unmanned missions from Canaveral. However, Invincible and another range instrumentation ship, USNS Observation Island (T-AGM 23) frequently are deployed to observe foreign missile launches as part of arms control treaty verification. They also are used to collect signals intelligence from missile launches by hostile or potentially hostile countries.
If Invincible is otherwise occupied, it makes sense that Lockheed Martin might be contracted to provide telemetry support to mission B-30/payload NROL-16.
Other than that it might also be involved some other missile launches from test ranges in the southern United States.
Given the timing of the arrival in Portland and the berthing for the past three weeks, odds are good that Sage is going to put to sea tomorrow in support of the B-30 launch (NROL-16)
Of course, Argentia, Newfoundland will also be humming with automated activity too at the old "T" building. It's the one site the Americans kept at the former United States Naval Facility at Argentia. An installation built in the mid-1990s provides telemetry in support of launches from Canaveral just like the one coming up on 29 April 2005.
Without further ado, here's the story coming up tomorrow in Portland:
Copy begins***
A vessel in Portland harbor is equipped with an antenna used to monitor rocket boosters during launches, according to Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor that is leasing the vessel.
But company spokesman Doug Sayers said he didn't know whether the vessel, an offshore supply ship called the Sage, will monitor the space shuttle Discovery, due to be launched next month, or an Air Force Titan rocket, which may be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. today.
The Titan is carrying a military satellite into orbit. Its flight path would take it over the ocean on a trajectory parallel to the East Coast.
The exact time is classified. But liftoff will happen sometime between 8 and 10:30 p.m., according to Space Flight Now, a Web site that monitors space activity.
Earlier this month, the Air Force postponed the launch after the Canadian government expressed concern that its 11-ton booster engines jettisoned from the main rocket could crash into the ocean near Newfoundland's offshore oil platforms, 196 miles off St. John's, Newfoundland.
Lockheed Martin manufactured the Discovery boosters at its plant in Michoud, LA and the Titan boosters at its plant in Denver, CO.
The Sage, about 180 feet long, carries two large domes on its aft deck. Many people on the waterfront have been wondering about the vessel's mission. The ship's captain has refused to talk or let anyone near the ship, which for more than three weeks has been tied up in a secure area at the end of Pier 1 at the Portland Ocean Terminal.
The vessel's port of registration is New Orleans, La. The Sage is one of 530 vessels owned by Tidewater, the world's largest offshore marine-services provider.
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