posted 06-21-2024 05:40 PM               

The cachet artwork does remind me of a prominent cachet maker, also, note the abbreviations of "ITT-FEC" and "MSTS" which I believe are of three aerospace contractor firms along with "AFWTR," with the later referring to the Air Force Western Test Range. It would appear the USNS Vanguard tracking ship might had been on station off the coast of California at the time during the second lunar landing mission.

posted 06-22-2024 04:27 AM               

It was then no longer a Primary tracking ship, but had a reduced role as a secondary tracking ship providing tracking, telemetry and communications relay during the immediate post launch and orbital insertion phase of the Apollo flights 12 through to Apollo 17. The ship was on station south east of Bermuda for all six flights. There was no post office aboard, and the majority of the missions have return to port dates close to splashdown dates.

Specifically for the Apollo 12 mission I have seen the same cachet as you show with Cape Canaveral dates of 19th November (moon landing), and 24th November (splashdown), which would suggest an earlier than usual return to port date soon after liftoff.

Whether it was an official ship's cachet I cannot tell you. USNS Vanguard cachets in my possession for missions 4, 8,10, and 13 through to 17 had a completely different design than the Apollo 12 one, and were more or less uniform for those eight missions.

As for the abbreviations in the diamond, I believe they are a kind of potted history of the USNS Vanguard from when it was designated T-AGM-19:

• ITT-FEC = ITT Federal Electric Corporation, who I believe fitted out the Muscle Shoals (later Vanguard), Johnston and Flagstaff (later Mercury and Redstone) at the General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division in 1965. It was also ITT-FEC who after the first Apollo mission, replaced the ships' long haul high frequency (HF) radio by Super High Frequency (SHF) satellite communications.

• DOD-NASA = are Department of Defense/ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

• MSTS = Military Sea Transportation Service (U.S. Navy) who took possession of the newly named Vanguard in 1966.

• AFWTR = is as stated by Ken, the Air Force Western Test Range where Vanguard was first placed on active station in 1967.

Vanguard was floated out of dock on 9 September 1965 and completed builder's trials in January 1966. She was accepted by MSTS on 28 February 1966 and was expected to enter service in June 1966 following instrumentation testing at Quincy. She was accepted at the Eastern Test Range on 11 October 1966 and was then transferred to the Western Test Range on 17 March 1967, although she ended up serving in the Atlantic."

Vanguard was concerned primarily with the insertion of the space vehicle into earth orbit and was to be stationed in the North Atlantic."

The ships had different roles in the Apollo program. Vanguard was concerned primarily with the insertion of the space vehicle into earth orbit and was to be stationed in the North Atlantic. Redstone and Mercury were to be stationed in the Indian Ocean near South Africa and in the Pacific between the Canberra and Hawaii tracking stations to monitor the injection of the vehicle into the lunar trajectory for its flight to the moon. The first of these ships to participate in the Apollo program was Vanguard, which supported Apollo 4 (launched on 9 November 1967) as a tracking and communication platform for insertion/injection in the mid-Atlantic.

Redstone and Watertown[?] made their initial appearance in January 1968 in support of Apollo 5, the former in the Atlantic and the latter in the Pacific. They played the same roles in support of Apollo 6 in April 1968. For the first manned flight, Apollo 7, Vanguard was positioned near the Bahamas to support orbital insertion, Redstone was stationed in the central Pacific, Mercury was positioned east of Taiwan, and Huntsville was 1,200 miles west of Los Angeles to support reentry. The same four ships supported Apollo 8, Apollo 9, and Apollo 11, with Vanguard in the Atlantic and the other three in the Pacific."

After Apollo 11 NASA kept Vanguard on station in the Atlantic for the remaining Apollo flights as a secondary tracking station but released the others, stating that the success of the previous flights made it possible to reduce the number of tracking areas.

posted 06-23-2024 08:33 AM               

The only observation I would make is that I have several USNS Vanguard covers from Apollo 12 and all of them have this cachet. I've haven't seen any other cachet. If someone has a different one please show it.