SATELLITE-TRACKING PROGRAM — HAYES 343 



ton, and Aubrey Stinnett had received the appropriate predictions 

 from headquarters in Cambridge. 



Wlien the satellite appeared in the sky it looked like a large air- 

 plane light. In this transit it was orbiting so low and was so large 

 that one probably could have photographed it with a Brownie camera. 



Although the observers had no difficulty in acquiring the satellite 

 visually, they did have problems in pointing and training the camera 

 in the right direction. No one had ever used a satellite- tracking cam- 

 era before, and the orbital information was rather inexact except for 

 the time of the satellite's appearance over the horizon. The predic- 

 tions called for it to be in an area 29° SSW, although in fact it 

 appeared at approximately 41°. 



By might and main the observers swung the camera around until 

 it was sighted along the correct altitude and then moved it by its 

 power drive to the proper elevation. They then started the film 

 mechanism. The satellite took approximately a minute and a half to 

 move from horizon to horizon. 



Wlien they developed the film, the observers found that the image 

 of Sputnik I appeared on only four or fi.ve frames. Had they been 

 more expert they would have been able during such a transit to 

 photograph the satellite on every frame. 



Tliey now had the first satellite film ever made by a tracking cam- 

 era of the Western world. Prints were made of the best frames and 

 distributed to the press. The wide publicity that resulted properly 

 convinced millions of Americans that if the Russians had put up a 

 satellite, United States scientists had been going through an orderly 

 process of research and development and were now actually able to 

 track the object. 



In the nights that followed, the observers reviewed their tracking 

 techniques and within a short time were able to photograph the satel- 

 lite without difficulty. The camera remained in operation in South 

 Pasadena for about 3 weeks, until Sputnik I was no longer visible 

 in that part of the United States. It was then disassembled and 

 loaded on a van that had been esj^ecially provided and equipped by 

 Bekins, a large moving and storage company in southern California. 

 Gerry Barton rode aboard the van from South Pasadena to Las 

 Cruces, a trip of a little more than 24 hours. 



INTERIM OBSERVING PROGRAM 



In November only one Baker-Nunn camera was in operation to 

 photogi'aph Sputnik I, and no one in this country knew what and 

 when the Russians would launch in the next month or two. 



The staff of the New Mexico station of the Harvard Meteor Project 

 demonstrated that the super-Schmidt camera was capable, without 

 any adaptation, of photographing so bright an object as Sputnik I. 



