334 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 63 



Third, the Observatory had to develop as quickly as possible a 

 means for determining accurate predictions of transits of the satellite. 

 This required that in the agonizing weeks to follow the staff work 

 out a successful empirical program, as opposed to the more theoretical 

 methods that Drs. Leland Cunningham and Donald A. Lautman had 

 been preparing. 



Finally, the Observatory found itself with many responsibilities 

 for which there was no adequate executive direction from the higher 

 echelons of the Government. The Observatory became the one 

 reliable American source of information about Sputnik I. Thou- 

 sands of inquiries poured into Kittredge Hall and extra staff had to 

 be hired for whom there was no budget allowance. In addition, a 

 reasonable public information program had to be set up for the press, 

 radio, and television people who, almost literally, besieged the 

 Observatory during the weeks that followed. 



SPUTNIKS I AND II 

 (Satellites 1957 Alpha and Beta) 



The launching of the first satellite by the U.S.S.E. came as an 

 overwhelming surprise not only to the American public but also to 

 most officials of the United States Government, including those 

 responsible for the IGY program. Fortunately, however. Dr. 

 Whipple had given considerable thought to this possibility. In a 

 memorandum to Dr. Schilling dated June 18, 1957, he stated that 

 as a matter of policy the Observatory should be on the alert to make 

 orbital calculations and to issue predictions for use not only in the 

 United States but also throughout the world. He conceived this to 

 be an undeniable aspect of the Observatory's responsibility to the 

 IGY. He added that in case of an unexpectedly early satellite or 

 other space effort the announcement card system of the Harvard 

 College Observatory could easily be expanded to provide rapid pub- 

 lication of such data, to be followed by scientific results issued in the 

 journals. He concluded that all members of the Smithsonian 

 satellite-tracking program should consider themselves to be on a gen- 

 eral alert beginning July 1. He ended the memorandum — "Exciting 

 thoughts, aren't they?" 



Later that month a group of Soviet scientists participated in the 

 third symposium on cosmical gas dynamics at the Smithsonian Astro- 

 physical Observatory in Cambridge. During their visit the Kussian 

 delegates showed considerable interest in the IGY program for optical 

 tracking of satellites and suggested close cooperation between Moon- 

 watch and a comparable group then being organized in the U.S.S.R. 

 This interest even extended to the possibility of direct communica- 



