USNS Range Recoverer ( T - AG - 161 ) USNS " Range Recoverer " ( T - AG - 161 / T - AGM - 2 / YFRT - 524 ) was a missile range instrumentation ship responsible for providing radar and / or telemetry track data on missiles launched from American launch sites . She was built during World War II as U . S . Army U . S . Army " FS - 278 " , and was acquired by the U . S . Navy in 1960 as miscellaneous auxiliary and was converted into a missile tracking ship . She continued her missile tracking until being placed out of service in 1972 , at which time she was reclassified range tender " YFRT - 524 " , and eventually scrapped in 1974 . U . S . Army . " FS - 278 " was built for the Army in 1944 by the Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp . , Whitestone , New York . " FS - 278 " was a Coast Guard - manned Army vessel commissioned at New York on 25 November 1944 departing New York on 17 December 1944 , for the Southwest Pacific where she operated at Peleliu , Palawan , etc . during the war . Command transferred to LT D . W . Engle , USCGR on 25 June 1945 . From 28 August until 20 September " FS - 278 " transported General Douglas MacArthur ' s defense planning staff for the Philippine Islands . She was decommissioned 3 October 1945 . U . S . Navy . The ship was acquired by the Navy in April 1960 ; converted by Pacific Ship Repair , San Francisco , California ; and placed in service with the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) as " T - AG - 161 " on 22 June 1960 , Capt . John Strom in command . Missile tracking activities . Named " Range Recoverer " on 12 July , she reported to the Pacific Missile Range in August 1960 . On 27 November she was reclassified a missile range instrumentation ship and designated T - AGM - 2 . She is equipped with telemetry , data processing and radio instruments as well as recovery facilities to retrieve nose cone s . Manned by a Civil Service crew of the Military Sea Transportation Service , " Range Recoverer " served first as a telemetry and recovery ship on the Pacific Missile Range where she launched , tested , and evaluated the Regulus missile ; then , in July 1962 , shifted to Little Creek , Virginia , to support the NASA facility at Wallops Island , Virginia . NASA technical party operators used on board equipment , including helix antennas , data recording systems and a communications suite with direction finders to locate and recover payloads . There she replaced two T - 1 tankers , " Dumont " and " Whitlock " , damaged during a storm . Since that time , into 1970 , " Range Recoverer " operated out of Little Creek primarily between Wallops Island and the splash down area near Bermuda . Other services provided . During the mid - sixties the ship traveled to Greece for coordinated research on a solar eclipse and was visited by the Greek royal family . NASA , assisting other government agencies , has also loaned " Range Recoverer " to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute , to conduct oceanographic surveys off the coast of Virginia . Final disposition . " Range Recoverer " was placed out - of - service in 1972 and reclassified as range tender " YFRT - 524 " . She was struck from the Navy List ( unknown date ) and sold for scrap 1 November 1974 .