Project Space Track was a research and development project of the United States Air Force, to create a tracking system for all artificial satellites of the Earth and space probes. Triggered by the launch of Sputnik 1, the project was started in 1957 at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center at Laurence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts. Observations were obtained from some 150 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 Surveillance and Control Squadron until 1976, as part of NORAD's Space Detection and Tracking System.
Establishment On 29 November 1957, shortly after the launch of Sputnik 1, two German expatriates — Gerhard Robert Miczaika and Eberhart W. Wahl — formed Project Space Track (originally called Project Harvest Moon).Cotter, L[awrence] R.: Sputniks and Space, The National Space Surveillance Control Center. Presentation before a joint meeting of the New England Society for Paint Technology and The New England Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association. Boston: 19 January 1961Air Force Cambridge Research Center. Background of National Space Surveillance Control Center. Press release 60-P7. Bedford, MA: February 1960? It was established in Building 1535 of the Geophysics Research Directorate, Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Laurence G. Hanscom Field, Massachusetts. The mission of Space Track was to create a tracking system to track and compute orbits for all artificial satellites of the Earth. The first major tracking effort was Sputnik 2, which was launched on 3 November 1957, containing the dog Laika.
With the Soviet launch of Luna 1 on 2 January 1959, Space Track also started tracking space probes. An Electronic Support System Program Office was established in February 1959 at Waltham, Massachusetts under the direction of Col Victor A. Cherbak, Jr. By late 1959, the SPO had received additional responsibilities under the DoD's Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop techniques and equipment for military surveillance of satellites.https://web.archive.org/web/20010305204135/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-18/au18003c.htm Continuing development of Space Track was an integral part of this effort. 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.Air Force Cambridge Research Center. Press release 60-P6. Bedford, MA: [February 1960] The NSSCC was part of the Air Force Command and Control Development Division (known informally as C²D²), under the Air Research and Development Command. Harold O. Curtis of MIT Lincoln Laboratory was Director of the NSSCC. By 1960, about 70 people were involved in operations at NSSCC.Wahl, E[berhart]. W.. Program Development in Orbital Computation at the U.S. National Space Surveillance Control Center. [Proceedings of the Second Symposium (International) on Rockets and Astronautics]. [Tokyo: May 1960.]
In late 1960, USAF Vice Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay decided that the research and development system was ready to become operational.Cotter, Lawrence R.: Reminiscences About Space Track History. Privately published. [Berkeley CA]: 20 November 2006. On 1 July 1961, the new squadron became operationalMiller, [Robert]. Signed draft AF Form 77a. [Ent AFB CO]: 31 August 1961 under the USAF Air Defense Command at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, part of NORAD's Space Detection and Tracking System. The first Squadron Commander was Colonel Robert Miller. The Space Track organization at Hanscom Field assumed a backup role for squadron operations. Disregarding 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 SPACETRACKHeadquarters USAF. The History of Air Defense Command, Jan - Jun 1964. Showing the official usage as all caps SPACETRACK. Washington DC: 19665? and the name has stuck since – although the web site of the 614th Air & Space Operations Center, which currently performs the mission, has reverted to two words. The 614th is part of the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
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 that 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 Observatory, Millstone Hill, and a radar at the Stanford Research Institute). Two USAF radars, one on Shemya Island and the other at Diyarbakır, had been built to observe Soviet missile launches and became valuable for satellite tracking as well. BMEWS prototype radars on Trinidad also participated. Normally, the first radar reports of a new satellite launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome came from Shemya and the first of a new launch from Kapustin Yar came from Diyarbakır. USAF radars at the Laredo Air Force Station in Texas and one near Moorestown, New Jersey also participated. 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 also 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)Fitzpatrick, F.M. And Findley, G.B.: The Tracking Operation at the National Space Surveillance Control Center (NSSCC), Eglin AFB, FL: 2 September 1960.Teletype message, Space Track Control Center, 5 June 1960 1630Z. Some early observations were very primitive, such as a report that a satellite passed near a star that could be identified.Miczaika, G.R. and Wahl, E[berhart].W.. The Orbital Motion of the Earth Satellite 1957 β from 1 April 1958 to Its Decay 14 April 1958. Bedford, MA: 5 June 1958. AFCRC-TN-58-445. The report includes observations made in the United States, England, Finland, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, and Germany, illustrating the widespread international efforts to observe satellites in the early days of the space age.
On rare occasions, the observations were purely verbal. For example, individuals on ships, planes, and islands in the Caribbean reported sightings of the decay of satellite 1957 β, 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 was operated as NAVSPASUR and is now a Space Fence operated by the US Air Force. The Army program, although achieving accurate tracking results with doppler techniques 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 at Patrick Air Force Base operated by Walter Manning.
SAO cameras were at Woomera, Australia; Jupiter, 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, USAF cameras were at Oslo, Norway; Edwards AFB, California, and Santiago, Chile. Two additional cameras were later added to the USAF inventory – 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. Among these many volunteers was Arthur S. Leonard of Davis, California, leader of the Sacramento, California 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.
The observations were recorded on IBM punched cards for computer processing. All unclassified observations were exchanged daily with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Wahl, E[berhart] W. and Delaney, W[illiam] A. The Orbital Motion of the Earth Satellite 1958-Delta One During the Last Days of its Existence. Bedford, MA: 2 January 1959.
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.