NASA GSFC Ref Pt E -- Cooper's Island Nature Reserve, St George's Parish BM
N 32° 20.920 W 064° 39.235
20S E 344363 N 3580286
Third of six Non-NGS joint NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center benchmark disks on a long concrete wharf at what was formerly a US Navy base in Bermuda. These BMs were used for tracking the Space Shuttle.
Waymark Code: WMNF1X
Location: Bermuda
Date Posted: 03/03/2015
Views: 1
Eight Non-NGS disks were located along a concrete retaining wall on board what is now the Cooper's Island Nature Reserve. Six are still there as of 2015; two are missing. All were monumented around the 1980s-1991 timeframe at what was then the US Navy Base at Kindley Field in Bermuda.
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration and the Goddard Space Flight Center set up a tracking station here in the 1960s for use with Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, and Skylab programs. These disks were were most likely used as part of ground-tracking calculations for the various NASA space missions in the 1980 until the tracking station was abandoned.
These marks were not set by the NOAA, and are not listed in the NGS Database.
Blasterz best guess for the monumentation date for Ref Pt. E is mid-late 1980s, since other NASA-GSFC disks nearby look very similar, but they are date-stamped and have a different emblem in the center.
The waymarked disk is inscribed "NASA-GSFC" along the top curve. "Ref Pt E" with a circle and a hole punched in the center occupies the center of the disk. "Greenbelt, MD" is inscribed at the bottom of the disk.
To reach NASA-GSFC Ref Pt. E, go to the Cooper's Island Nature Reserve and park outside the gate. Walk in on foot along Cooper's Island Road toward the Bird Lookout Tower. As you pass over a narrow neck of land to the tower, look left and right for two retaining walls on either side of the road. NASA-GSFC center Ref Pt E will be on your left, on the retaining wall closest to Long Bay.
Condition: Mark found in good condition
Designation: Ref Pt E
Benchmark Agency: other (not included below)
Benchmark Agency (if other): NASA-GSFC
Monumentation type: other (not any of the below)
County: St George's Parish
USGS 7.5' Topographic Quadrangle Name (optional): St. David's Island
Special Category (if other): NASA-GSFC tracking station disks
Find type: Found by luck/skill/knowledge
Monumentation type (if other): Not listed
Special category (optional): Not listed
Web address of this benchmark's datasheet (optional): Not listed
NGS PID: Not listed
Local database's URL (optional): Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
- A closeup photo of the mark taken by you is required.
- A 'distant' photo including the mark in the view is highly recommended. Include the compass direction you faced when you took the picture.