332 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 63 



seriously, Hynek asked him to read the full dispatch. Only then 

 did he realize that the months of planning and work had suddenly and 

 unexpectedly culminated in the launching of a satellite that now had 

 to be tracked by whatever facilities were operational. 



After a few moments of dazed unbelief, Hynek and Drummond 

 began telephoning staff members and some Moonwatch team leaders. 

 A few of both had to be convinced that this was not a joke, that this 

 was indeed the zero hour, not one that they had planned for, but here 

 nevertheless. 



As staff members arrived at Kittredge Hall, where most of the 

 satellite-tracking offices were, so also did dozens of people from press, 

 radio, and television. The building was soon a blaze of lights, to which 

 were added the brightness of television and movie lamps and the blind- 

 ing glare of flashbulbs. It must have been a spectacular display, for a 

 woman living several blocks away reported that the building was on 

 fire, and soon confusion was compounded by a pumper and a hook- 

 and-ladder dispatched to the scene. 



Dr. Fred L. Whipple, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical 

 Observatory, and Leon Campbell, chief of the Moonwatch program, 

 were attending a meeting of the U.S. Committee for the IGY in 

 Washington, D.C. At the end of the afternoon session of October 4, 

 Dr. Whipple boarded a plane to return to Cambridge, and Mr. Camp- 

 bell went with Dr. Afshar of Iran to Springfield, Va., about 15 miles 

 out of Washington, where as guests of Moonwatch team-leader Robert 

 Dellar they w^ere to attend a practice observing session. At about 

 quarter to seven, Mrs. Dellar called Leon Campbell into the house 

 saying "The Observatory is on the telephone. Mr. Drummond says 

 Russia has launched a satellite!" 



In a three-way conversation, Campbell told Drummond and Hynek 

 that the Moonwatch network was sufficiently well organized to enable 

 some teams to observe the satellite. He also suggested that, since he 

 would be on his way the following afternoon to a meeting of the Inter- 

 national Astronautical Federation in Barcelona, Spain, Armand Spitz 

 be asked to come to Cambridge to take over temporary direction of 

 Moonwatch operations. Reached later that evening. Spitz promptly 

 agreed and set out for Cambridge. 



What had been planned as a mock obsei*ving session now became an 

 actual search for a satellite, the first such attempt in the Western 

 world. The telescopes formed the fence pattern that had earlier been 

 determined as the most efficient teclmique for a Moonwatch team, and 

 soon the observers were at the eyepieces. It was, however, a frustrat- 

 ing and frustrated effort. They did not have the parameters of the 

 orbit ; and in any case they were attempting to see what no man had 

 ever seen before by a method that had never previously been employed. 



