SATELLITE-TRACKING PROGRAM — HAYES 313 



deeper penetration might be needed to locate fainter satellites or 

 bright satellites at distant apogee. Thus, a network of Moon watch 

 stations strategically located and equipped with special telescopes was 

 organized. These stations were to be located in Cape Town, Johannes- 

 burg, and Pretoria, South Africa; at the Kirkland Air Force Base 

 in Albuquerque, N. Mex. ; near the Holloman Air Force Base in 

 Alamogordo, N. Mex. ; at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China 

 Lake, Calif.; and at the Vincent Air Force Base in Yuma, Ariz. 

 These stations were equipped with 8-power M-IT elbow telescopes of 

 50-mm. objective of 120-mm. diameter and a field of 2.4° ; these were 

 supplied by the Naval Research Laboratories, which also furnished 

 limited teclinical guidance in their use. 



By spring more than 70 Moonwatch stations had been organized 

 in the United States and its territories, with a total of approximately 

 1,500 observers. The function of the visual program was now thought 

 of in somewhat larger terms. Already the Observatory recognized 

 the vital ways in which Moonwatch was informing the American 

 public. The teams were to contmue in increasing measure to educate 

 their communities and to enlist laymen in activities that would pro- 

 mote a general interest in science. 



At about this time Moonwatch solicited the aid of the Air Force, 

 which named Col. Owen F. Clarke to act as liaison officer between the 

 Pentagon and the Observatory. One of his first suggestions was that 

 if Moonwatch was going to put on an alert, an idea which had been 

 in the minds of the staff for some time, it should try to simulate the 

 passage of a satellite : a small light trailed across the sky by a plane 

 at 7,000 feet altitude and 120 miles per hour would give the approxi- 

 mate motion, magnitude, and direction of a satellite. 



On May 17, 1957, Moonwatch held its first test alert, limited to sta- 

 tions in the continental United States. Six aircraft flights to simulate 

 the satellites had been scheduled in widely separated parts of the 

 country. The individual stations were not told that the "satellites" 

 would be towed by planes so that the alert did in effect test the ac- 

 quisition capabilities of six of the teams as well as show up those 

 stations that might imagine rather than actually see a satellite. Some 

 75 of the 77 registered teams participated to the extent of reporting 

 directly by telephone to headquarters in Cambridge. The alert thus 

 also served to test communications procedures as well as to sustain 

 the interest of the people who had cooperated so splendidly in or- 

 ganizing these teams. 



The alert demonstrated much enthusiasm, cooperation, skill, and 

 hard work among the teams, as well as the effectiveness of telephone 

 communication. While the general readiness of the Moonwatch teams 

 was highly gratifying, in some instances stations did not report 



