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Project Space Track (1957-1961)
Project Space Track was a research and development project of the US Air Force, to create a system for tracking all artificial earth satellites and space probes, domestic and foreign. It was started at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center in Bedford, Massachusetts shortly after the launch of Sputnik I. Observations were obtained from some 160 sensors worldwide by 1960 and regular orbital predictions were issued to the sensors and interested parties. Space Track was the only organization that used observations from all types of sources: radar, optical, radio, and visual. All unclassified observations were shared with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1961, the system was declared operational and assigned to the new 1st Aerospace Control Squadron as part of NORAD's Space Detection and Tracking System SPADATS.

Establishment Sensors Orbital Computations Operations Personnel References

Establishment of Project Space Track
On 29 November 1957, shortly after the launch of Sputnik I on 4 October, two German expatriates, Dr. G. R. Miczaika (from Prussia) and Dr. Eberhart W. Wahl (from Berlin) formed Project Space Track (originally called Project Harvest Moon). It was established in Building 1535 of the Geophysics Research Directorate (GRD), Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Laurence .G. Hanscom Field, Massachusetts. Both scientists had backgrounds in astronomy, although Dr. Wahl’s Ph.D. was in meteorology.

The mission of Space Track was to track and compute orbits for all artificial earth satellites, including both US and Soviet payloads, booster rockets, and debris. With the Soviet launch of Luna 1 on 2 January 1959, Space Track also started tracking space probes. The first major tracking effort was Sputnik II, containing the dog Laika, launched 3 November 1957.

An Electronic Support System Program Office, 496L, had been established in February 1959, with the program office at Waltham, Massachusetts under the direction of Col Victor A. Cherbak, Jr. By late 1959, the SPO had received additional responsibilities under the DoD Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to develop techniques and equipment for military surveillance of satellites. Continuing development of Space Track was an integral part of this effort.

Since December 1958, Space Track had been the interim National Space Surveillance Control Center.(1)  In December 1959, Space Track was moved to a new building, the National Space Surveillance Control Center (NSSCC), which was formally dedicated on 9 February 1960. . The NSSCC was part of the Air Force Command and Control Development Division (known informally as C²D²),  Air Research and Development Command. Dr. Harold O. Curtis of Lincoln Laboratory was the Director of the NSSCC. The name Space Track continued in use.

By 1960, there were about 70 people in the NSSCC involved in operations.

Space Track continued tracking satellites and space probes until 1961. In late 1960, USAF Vice Chief of Staff General Curtis E. LeMay decided that the research and development system was ready to become operational.

Eleven officers and one Senior Master Sergeant were selected to be the initial cadre of what became the 1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron. The initial cadre came to Space Track for training that started 7 November 1960. (The cadre was assigned to the new squadron on 6 March 1961.)

By mid-1961, the new squadron was operational under the USAF Aerospace Defense Force at Ent AFB, Colorado Springs, part of NORAD's Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS). The first Squadron Commander was Colonel Robert Miller.

In cavalier disregard of the Air Force Regulation on the subject, which specified clearly that unclassified nicknames, such as Space Track, should be two words (while codewords, such as CORONA, which were then themselves classified, should be only one word), ADC immediately decided to rename Space Track as Spacetrack and the name has stuck since – although the web site has returned to two words.

Sensors
The Department of Defense had decided that the US Air Force should develop a command and control system for tracking satellites and that the US Army and US Navy should develop sensors for the purpose. US Navy development was at Dahlgren, Virginia and the US Army's program was at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Drs. Miczaika and Wahl had assembled a list of facilities that could track satellites, either by monitoring telemetry or by using radar. The latter were mostly astronomical radio telescopes equipped with radars used in studying the moon (e.g., Jodrell Bank in England directed by Sir Bernard Lovell, Millstone Hill of Lincoln Laboratory in Massachusetts directed by Dr. Gordon Pettingill, and a radar at the Stanford Research Institute in California, directed by Walter Jaye). Two USAF radars, one on Shemya Island in the Aleutians and the other at Diyarbakır, Turkey, had been built to observe Soviet missile launches and became valuable for satellite tracking as well. A USA radar at the Laredo Test Site in Texas and one at Moorestown, New Jersey also participated later. Observations were received from the Royal Canadian Air Force research radar at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Goldstone facility of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was exceptionally helpful with observations of Soviet space probes.

In general, observations were in the form of time, azimuth and elevation (and range, from radars) as measured at the site or, in some cases, such as at Goldstone, in astronomical form (Right Ascension and Declination) Some early observations were very primitive, such as a report that a satellite passed near a star that could be identified.

On rare occasions, the observations were purely verbal. For example, individuals on ships, planes, and islands in the Carribbean reported sightings of the decay of satellite 1958 β (h), although one aircraft was able to provide a detailed observation because the navigator happened to be completing a celestial fix at the exact time

Some sites could record the Doppler shift of satellite transmission or, in a few cases, the Doppler shift from their own transmissions reflected from the orbiting object. One doppler site was the Space Track Doppler Field Site at Billerica, Massachusetts. The observations obtained by this technique were the time of closest approach to the station.

The Navy program is still operated as [ http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/spasur_at.htm NAVSPASUR]. The Army program, although achieving accurate tracking results with doppler techiques and furnishing observations to Space Track, did not achieve funding for deployment.

[One of SPASUR’s contributions to satellite tracking was the invention of a map of the earth that showed both poles, so that the position of all satellites, including those in polar orbits, could be shown. This was not possible with Mercator or other projections, which do not show the entire earth. The map was, of course, very distorted at the poles (the North pole was the entire top line of the long map) but the concept proved very useful.]

Optical sensors included the twelve Baker-Nunn satellite tracking cameras operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), three Baker-Nunn cameras operated by the USAF, and the Boston University camera Patrick Air Force Base operated by Walter Manning.

SAO cameras were at Woomera, Australia; Juptier, Florida; Organ Pass, New Mexico; Olifantsfontein, Union of South Africa; Cadiz, Spain; Mitaka, Japan; Nani Tal, India; Arequipa, Peru; Shiraz, Iran; Curaҫao, Netherlands West Indies; Villa Dolores, Argentina; and Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. USAF cameras were at Oslo, Norway; Edwards AFB, California, and Santiago, Chile. Two additional cameras were later added to the USAFinventory – one of the USAF cameras was transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force at Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada in 1961.

Volunteer amateur astronomers as part of the SAO Moonwatch Team also contributed observations. Very important among these many volunteers was Arthur S. Leonard of Davis, California, leader of the Sacramento team.

By 1960, Space Track had about 150 cooperating sensors. Space Track was the only US organization that used all methods of observation to track satellites. (v)TBD

The observations were recorded on IBM punch cards for computer processing. All unclassified observations were exchanged daily with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Space track maintained close contact with the US National Security Agency, the CIA Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center (FMSAC), and Headquarters USAF Intelligence, Major Harry Holeman.

It was helpful that the USSR press service, TASS, always announced new Soviet satellite or space probe launches promptly, so Space Track was free to discuss the new objects without worrying about compromising sources. Translations of the Russian announcements were provided by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

Orbital Computations:
Dr. Wahl had been computing all the satellite ephemerides by hand using a Friden Square Root Calculator, the most advanced mechanical calculator then available. The method for computing ephemerides (documented in detail in a 1960 report by P.M. Fitzpatrick and G.B. Findley ) was originally developed by Dr. Wahl, based on historic astronomical methods.

In late August 1958, Space Track obtained its first computer, an IBM 610, used in conjunction with the Cambridge Research Center IBM 650. The IBM 610 was a very primitive machine, the programing of which was done with a plug board (similar to the ones used for IBM accounting machines in the early 1950s) and a punched paper tape.

The new NSSCC building was equipped with an IBM 709 and, a few months later, with an IBM 7090. Major programming of the new computers was done by the Aeronutronic Division of the Ford Motor Company, Newport Beach CA. The Wolf Corporation also supported the NSSCC. The ephemeris computations were issued in what was called a bulletin. The bulletin listed each equatorial crossing of the satellite and described the path between crossings. Space track also furnished “look angles,” altitude and azimuth directions so that specific sensors could point in the correct direction to acquire the satellite. Special versions of the look angles were tailored for specific sites, such as the Army and Navy sensor development projects. At the NSSCC, these computations were transmitted by the Duty Controller.

Space Track also issued a public catalogue listing all the satellites, including ones no longer in orbit, called Satellite Situation Reports, which gave basic orbital elements for each piece. At first, this took less than a page of type. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory also issued a similar document but, in 1961, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center assumed responsibility for both reports, combining them into one document..

In October 1960 George Westrum presented a short college-level course in Celestial Mechanics for those NSSCC personnel who wished to participate

Operations
By international agreement under the International Astronomical Union, the satellites and space probes were initially named with Greek letters, following the system for naming stars in constellations. The year of launch was included in the launch names, so Sputnik I was 1957 Alpha. The payload was called Alpha I, when known – in the case of Sputnik I, it wasn’t clear initially which was the payload, so the payload became Alpha II. Other pieces were also numbered, so the carrier rocket was usually Alpha II. The 24 Greek letters were soon used, so the next sequence started Alpha Alpha and so forth. By 1962 Beta Psi had been launched and it was clear that the Greek alphabet system would no longer work. Thereafter, launches were numbered, starting with 1963-1 with the payload normally being 1961-1A, etc..

As soon a a new satellite or space probe was launched, Space Track alerted the primary sensors and processed observations at they came in, issuing a preliminary tracking bulletin promptly and updating it after about 24 hours, when additional observations from around the world had been obtained. Routine bulletins continued to be issued regularly as needed to keep up with the changing orbits, some of which decayed fairly rapidly in the atmosphere. There was another flurry of activity when the last revolutions occurred, as it was difficult to forecast the exact reentry path.

The NSSCC had a room dedicated as a filter center for monitoring communications and obtaining observations. The filter center had displays listing the orbiting and decayed satellites and a projector system that could show the motion of one satellite over the earth. The displays were devised by A/2C Peter P. Kamrowski. The center was manned by a Duty Controller and his assistants. The center was designed by Senior Controller 1st Lt Cotter, based on his earlier experience as a volunteer member of the USAF Ground Observer Corps (the Ground Observer Corps filter centers were in turn based on United Kingdom aircraft tracking centers developed during World War II to track Nazi aircraft).

By 1960, the position of Duty Analyst was established. Once observations had been reduced, the duty analyst reviewed them and decided which orbits needed to be recomputed to bring them up to date. In the case of new launches or decaying satellites, one analyst was dedicated to processing observations for that satellite.

As with many other activities in the dawning space age, Space Track operations often involved doing things for which no precedent existed.

Unusual Space Track Operations
On 2 January 1959, the Soviets launched Luna I (aka Mechta (Dream)), their first lunar probe. Tracking data was obtained for Space Track by the Goldstone site of the California Institute of Technology, which verified that the probe had headed for the moon. Dr. Curtis used a plot of this data in a presentation to a committee of the US House of Representatives. His presentation clearly was one of the influences that caused President Kennedy to establish the Apollo Program. Kenneth E. Kissell later published a Project Space Track analysis of the trajectory. At this period, the 6594th test wing was valiantly trying to achieve a successful launch in the Discoverer satellite program (the first 12 launches were failures). The satellites, launched from Vandenberg AFB, were all in polar orbits. They were controlled by the 6594th Test Wing at Palo Alto (later the AF Satellite Control Facility at Sunnyvale CA). Lt Cotter was the liaison officer between Space Track and the 6594th Test Wing. The first 12 launch attempts were failures, the first success was Discoverer 1 (1959 Beta). Lockheed Corporation, the development contractor, won their bonus payment because the telemetry showed the satellite achieved orbit, but it was never seen again, despite massive Space Track and other efforts to find it.

By this time Space Track had contacts with many sensors around the world. One of them was at the South Pole, associated with the International Geophysical Year. One of their ninety observations of Discoverer 2 (1959 Gamma) was sent from Byrd Station saying that the satellite had passed to the left of the zenith at 2.25 degrees, implying an orbital inclination of 89.9 degrees. This report is probably the only direct observation of the inclination of a satellite’s orbit that has ever been made.

Lockheed decided to put a small light on Discoverer 11 (1960 Delta). Space Track acted as liaison between the 6594th and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, to use their Baker-Nunn camera at Cadiz, Spain, to photograph the light. This would give Lockheed valuable information about the accuracy of their orbit computations. The experiment worked very well and was not repeated.

Discoverer 19 (1960 Tau) had a payload called MIDAS, the developmental version of what later became the Defense Support Program. The Air Force decided that the0 Midas orbit should be classified, which meant that Space Track sensor observations had to be classified also. This lead to a surreptitious midnight data transfer at the edge of Concord Greene in Concord, Massachusetts between Dr. Gordon Pettingill of Millstone Hill and Lt Cotter, as there was no secure teletype or telephone available.

Communications
Most Space Track communication was by teletype or, in some cases, by telephone, mail, or messenger.

The bulletins and look angles were initially typed by hand by airmen in the communications office and sent by teletype to all the participating sensors. The teletype machines used punched paper tape, before the invention of chadless tape.

Eventually, Roy Norris and Lt Cotter inveigled the IBM 610 into cutting paper tapes for the satellite bulletins, so that the airmen in the communication department would not have to type all the data by hand. This was not part of the IBM 610 design and was a surprise to IBM personnel. Later computers would also prepare the bulletin and look angle data tapes automatically.

There was some limited secure communication: One method valid for sending classified information was a pair of one-time pads. These pads were each made of twin sets of pages, the top one of which had all letters and numbers on a line, perhaps 40 lines to a page. The top sheet was carbonless paper. To use the sheets, one circled each letter or number row-by-row on the top sheet. This marked the second sheet, which had all the letters and numbers scrambled. The scrambled version could then be transmitted by teletype or telephone to the recipient who, using his matching set of one-time pads, could reverse the process and read the secure message.

Another method Space Track later had was a secure teletype machine that had a pre-punched paper tape attached. The tape served to garble each letter typed, which could then be decrypted by a reverse procedure at the other end of the teletype line. This system was used to communicate with Air Force Intelligence at the Pentagon. More sophisticated cryptographic equipment was available later.

In addition to data communications, Space Track published a series of technical reports. (e.g. see References, ).

Dr. Wahl presented detailed descriptions of Space Track activity at the first two International Symposia on Rockets and Astronautics in Tokyo, 1959 and 1960.

Space Track Personnel
Individuals in Project Space Track, 1958-1961, named in documents in the archives of the National  Museum of the United States Air Force, are listed below, with a few from secondary sources. There is no known roster of all Space Track personnel. Additions to the list are solicited (including crew lists for the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria, if available).

USAF Civilian personnel
E.L. Eaton was the Director, Project Space Track in 1958 and 1959. Robert M. Slavin became Director, Project Space Track, in early 1959. Dr. Harold O. Curtis from Lincoln Laboratory was Director of the NSSCC in 1960. GS-15 Bill Morton was the senior civilian at the 496L SPO.

Drs. Miczaika and Wahl were joined by Robert Chabot, who was in charge of processing observations, assisted by J. Stone and later by J. Giorgio. Kenneth E. Kissell from Wright-Patterson AFB occasionally helped in Space Track management, but his primary activity was in satellite observations in Ohio. Dr. Duane S. Cooley, and Carl (?) and Nan Dieter later joined the Space Track staff.

In December 1958, astronomer Dr. Hans Beat Wackernagel came from Switzerland to join Space Track.

William Delaney was in charge of orbital computations from late 1958 until mid-1959. Others working as orbital analysts during the period were Ed Casey, Larry Cuthbert, M. Francis, F. Mulkern, and N. Richardson.

Russell H. Woessner was Chief, Plans and Operations, NSSCC.

Other civilian personnel: Roy Norris, John MacEachern, Leo Ryan, George Westrum, Anthony Liu

USAF officer personnel
Col Victor A. Cherbak, Jr. was the initial Program Director of ESSPO 496L.

Major Charles R. Wells, Jr., was Deputy Commander, NSSCC.

In the early days of Space Track, an administrative officer, USAF Lt Col Eugene E. Duff, was on loan to the project (from 1959 onwards he was the Space Track liaison officer at the 6594th Aerospace Test Wing at Sunnyvale, California .   He had Department of Defense responsibility for computing the orbit of NASA's Explorer IV and and later was the Senior Controller at the NSSCC .  In these functions, he was the first officer to perform duties later formalized as Air Force Specialty Code 2025A (Orbital Analyst) and 2035A (System Controller) Space Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2..

USAF airmen
These airmen were assigned to Space Track, either as part of the communications section, working in data processing, or in the control center:

MSgt Walter J. NolanSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

MSgt Edward J. StengleinSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

TSgt William C. BedellSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

SSgt Joseph S. NorfolkSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

SSgt Robert F. Wayman

A/1C Claude H. HogueSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

A/1C 	Thomas J. Roe, Jr.Space Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

Other personnel: S/Sgt Garrett, A/1C Nelson

NSSCC Control Center personnel
2d Lt Gregory J. Grabka, Duty Controller

2d Lt Jack A. Frohbieter, Duty Controller

2d Lt Robert W. Burns, Jr., Duty Controller

Mr. Tony Salvucci, Duty Controller

A/3C Peter P. KamrowskiSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

A/3C Johnnie R. BeardSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

A/3C Minogue

A/3C Zaris

TSgt Arne Ericson

A/3C Mickshaw

A/2C Fetsko

A/3C Voutiritza

A/3C Francis C. GriffethSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

A/3C Arthur WarnerSpace Track personnel formally assigned to the NSSCC in Headquarters Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Special Orders Number A-133, 12 April 1960, paragraphs 1 and 2.

Miss Nancy Caldaroni

Contractors
In 1960, the Aeronutronic Division of the Ford Motor Company had a contract with Space Track to develop improved methods of predicting the orbits of decaying satellites, a computer program called Spiral Decay, and for other software for new computers in the new building. Lou Walters and Jeff Hilton of Aeronutronic were among the contract employees who were vitally important to the work. (Aeronutronic had been hired to do a system analysis of the control center on 1 October 1959.

Another very important group was the employees of Bill Wolf’s Wolf R&D Corporation (Concord, Massachusetts), which did programming and had the contract for operating computers at the NSSCC, including the IBM 7090 mainframe. Barry Rosenberg was the chief of the programming group that later went to Colorado Springs to install, modify, and run the program set that was being used at Hanscom on the IBM 7090.