Space agency considers rocket tracking station on Bermuda

Cooper’s Island — once the home to a NASA station that played a pivotal part in the moon landings — has been earmarked as a potential site for the European Space Agency.

The island, now largely used as a nature reserve, could double as a “temporary rocket-launch tracking station”, according to environment and infrastructure minister Walter Roban.

Satellite

He revealed the project in a one-line aside as part of a press conference held by Government to trumpet its achievements yesterday.

He added: “I am excited to boast that the European Space Agency has tentatively been attracted to establish and operate its temporary rocket launch tracking station at Cooper’s Island, which holds a world of promise for our island.

“Related to this, there have been steps taken within our Ministry to insert the presence of Bermuda into the satellite industry.”

Mr. Roban said a more significant announcement will be made in the future.

Coopers Island has had a significant role to play in the history of space exploration. Though the station is now defunct and the buildings are starting to be pulled down it is still used, on occasions, by NASA.

It is understood scientists visit the island about four times a year, bringing mobile equipment with them to track the launch of rockets from Cape Canaveral and Virginia.

Jeremy Madeiros, conservation officer at the site, said: “The technology has got to the point where they can get everything into one container and it is more cost effective for them to do it that way than to maintain a station.”

The mobile tracking technology gives ground readings to back up the sophisticated satellite technology that monitors spacecraft on their ascent into orbit. Details of the deal with the European Space Agency have not been released but it is likely that it will be something similar to the NASA usage, possibly on a more consistent basis.

Mr. Madeiros said conservation services’ main role had been in opening up Coopers Island to the public.

He added that the site’s relationship with the “space race” was an important part of its history and the concept of a museum or information boards commemorating Bermuda’s involvement had also been discussed.

From the early 1960s Coopers Island was a thriving NASA base, used to track rockets from their launch.

Important

The area was also designated as a bale out option for astronauts, offering them a brief window for an emergency landing if something went wrong after take-off.

Mr. Madeiros said: “We were very important as we were the first down-range tracking station from Cape Canaveral.

“We were the first station that could pick them up as they rose into orbit then they would be passed on through the Azores, Portugal, Spain — there was a whole network of these stations.”

He said Bermuda had played a significant role in the Mercury and Apollo space missions, including the moon landings.

New technology and cost cutting made the base obsolete in the 1990s.