278 ANlSrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



Aerojet-General Corporation; and several others. Von Braun was 

 already supervising the making of Redstone missiles; he suggested 

 that several of these be allocated to the project and that a cluster of 

 small solid rockets be attached to the end of each in order to stabilize 

 its flight. The launch would be made eastward at the Equator. The 

 hope was that a 6-pound ball would be placed in orbit. 



Included in this proposal was an optical tracking system of which 

 Dr. Whipple was to have charge. He planned to borrow theodolites 

 from various units of the Armed Services and set up three observing 

 stations around the Equator. The Air Force was to transport material 

 to the proposed sites. 



THE INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR — IGY 



Meanwhile, the United States had become an active participant in 

 the IGY.* In 1952 the International Council of Scientific Unions 

 proposed to the nations of the world that an International Geophysical 

 Year be organized to conduct an extensive scientific study of the earth. 

 A year later a Special Committee (to become known as the CSAGI) 

 of the International Council scheduled the 18 months from July 1, 

 1957, to December 31, 1958, as the IGY. Of the nations invited to 

 participate, 67 responded favorably. 



One of the 14 fields of investigation of the IGY was rockets and 

 satellites, the coordinator (or reporter) for which was Dr. Lloyd V. 

 Berkner of Associated Universities, a complex of research facilities, 

 including Brookhaven National Laboratories. The program outlined 

 for this field in 1954 specified exploration of the high atmosphere by 

 small earth satellites as one project. 



Each participating country organized a national committee for the 

 IGY. Chairman of the U.S. committee was Dr. Joseph Kaplan of 

 the University of California at Los Angeles. In October 1954 the 

 committee first gave serious consideration to launching an instrumented 

 satellite as one phase of its program. On January 22 of the following- 

 year the Technical Panel on Rocketry of the U.S. National Com- 

 mittee resolved that a study group, called the LPR (Long Playing 

 Rocket) committee, be set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Fred 

 Whipple. Its purpose was to report on geophysical possibilities, 

 technical feasibility, budget, controls, motor, manpower, timing, cost 

 estimates, desired orbit, and possibly other subjects related to the 

 launching of an artificial earth satellite. 



* For accounts of the IGY, Including something about the first two International Polar 

 Years from which the IGY evolved, the reader is referred to : Sydney Chapman, "IGY : 

 Year of Discovery," University of Michigan Press, 1959 ; J. Tuzo Wilson, "IGY : The 

 Year of the New Moons," Knopf, 1961 ; and Walter Sullivan, "Assault on the Unknown," 

 McGraw-Hill, 1961. 



