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SECRET MSF 9-.3-13 SECTION 1 OF 2. 

FOR SSG. SUBJ: PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT • 

PLAN (PTDP) FOR THE MOL PROGRAM. 1. IT IS APPARENT 

0 THAT APPROVAL OF A PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOL 

PROGRAM WILL NOT BE FORTHCQ4IN.G FRC101,40D UNTIL WE 

PRESENT TO THE SEC OF DEFENSE A CO.INCING ACCOUNT 

MOL PROGRAM EXPERIMENTS WHIFai I;;L' SATISFY THE 08- 

JECTIVE OF DEMCNSTRATING_QMOTIVE 

. itt•■;41.- tr Y AND QUANTITA 

TIVELY TH "TrAltr--USEFilLNEsS OF MAN IN SPACE. THE 

PRELIM It VELOPMENT PLAN OUTLINE, $UEPIITTED 

PAGE 2 RUEAGL 157 SECR ET 

TO DOD ON 7 JAN 64 DID NOT FULLY MEET 'THIS REQUIREMENT 

THEREFORE, THERE IS A NEED TO SUEMIT A .PTDP WHICH 

MPHASIZES THE APPROACH TO BE TAKEN TO MEET THE 

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES. 2. ACCORDINGLY SSD Ip REQUEST- /t/ I / 

EJ T3 PREPARE A PTDP WHICH WI 

LLSERVE THE FOLLOWING 

PURPOSES: A. IT WILL SERVE AS THE SINGLY AUTHORITATIVE 

REFERENCE DOCIMENT ON THE MOL PROCRAM AND, AS SUCH, 

PROVIDE THE FRAMEWORK WITHIN WHICH ALL SUBSEQUENT 

PROGRAM ELEMENTS AND ACTIONS CAN BE INTEGRATED BY 

SUBSEQUENT PERIODICAL UPDATING. THUS IT WILL PERMIT 

FOCUS WITHIN A SINGLE DOCUMENT UPON ALL ACTIVITIES. 

INITIATED IN SUPPORT OF THE MOL PROGRAM. B. IN ITS ' 

INITIAL VERSION, IT WILL DESCRIBE IN DETAIL THE PRE 

PHASE I STUDIES AND EFFORTS TO BE UNDERTAKEN IN DEFINING DCPER IMENTS REQUIRED TO SUPPORT THE CONTINUING 

EFFORT IN THE MOL PROGRAM. IT WILL THUS SERVE TO IN- C C44° ) 

SURE THAT THESE EFFORTS WILL BE COORDINATED AND, IN 

AGGREGATE, CONSTITUTE A COMPLETE AND VIABLE PREPHASE I EFFORT UPON WHICH THE PREPARATION a' THE M. Areilto 

PHASE I RFP S CAN BE BASED. IT WILL SERVE AS THE DOM- 

• 

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1.:■1 T TO OBTAIN DOD APPROVAL FOR STUDIES IN THE PRE• 

PRASE I PERIOD WITHOUT COMMITTING DOD TO THE APPROVAL 

IT THE ENTIRE MOL PROGRAM. C. IN ADDITION, IT WILL 

CCNSTITUTE AN OUTLINE AND FORMAT OF A COMPLETE TDP • 

FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE MOL PROGRAM. HOWEVER, THE 

INITIAL DOW! ENT NEED NOT GO INTO DEPTH IN THE PROGRAM 

ACTIVITIES REQUIRED AFTER THE INITIATION OF PHASE I. 

THESE SHOULD BE COVERED IN GENERAL TERMS AND WHERE • 

INFORMATION IS NOT AVAILABLE, SIMPLY INDICATE THAT 

SECTIONS ARE CM ITTED AND WILL BE INCLUDED WHEN THE. 

INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE. THIS WIL 

PRO/ IDE FOR THE 

.0 RDERLY UPDATING OF THE ENT IRE PACKAGE. 3. PROPOSED 

STUDIES AND OVERALL APPROACH IN PRE-PHASE I SHOULD BE 

DIRECTED TOWARD THE DEF IN ITION AND SYNTHESIS .OF EXPER.• 

1MENTS WHICH MEET THE APPROVED CRITERIA, E.;, '“THEY. 

WILL ESTABLISH QUALITIVE AND QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS OF MAN'S USEFULNESS IN SPACE IN PERFORMING NIL I• 

TARY TASKS. *THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS SHOULD HAVE 

CONSIDERED THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM OF POSSIBLE MILITARY 

APPLICATIONS. IN THIS REGARD, THEY SHOULD BE FOCUSED. 

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UPON THE ROLE OF MAN RATHER THAN UPON THE ROL 

E OF 

SPECIFIC EQUIPMENT. 4. WHILE F1PERIM aiTS WHICH WOULD 

ASSESS MAN'S ROLE IN RECONNAISSANCE MAY BE CONSIDERED, 

IT IS EMPHASIZED THAT THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MANNED 

RECONNAISSANCE SYSTEM IS NOT AN APPROVED OBJECTIVE 

FOR THE M OL PROGRAM. EXPERIMENTS RELATED TO RECON.. 

NAISSANCE WILL ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE MAN IS CAPABILITIES,. . WITH APPROPRIATE AIDS TO POINT AN INSTRUMENT WITH 

ACCURACY BETTER THAN ONE HALF VILE, TO ADJUST FOR 

•IM ATE MOTION TO BETTER THAN 0.2 PERC OJT, AND TO FOCUS 

PRtCISELY ( IF THIS IS NECESSARY). A. ALL MOL DEVELOP.. 

MENT PLANS AND BRIEFINGS IN RELATION TO RECONNAISSANCE 

OBJECTIVES WILL BE CONFINED TO THESE PARTICULAR OB.. 

JECTIVES AND EVERY STEP WILL BE TAKLA TO AVOID SPON• • 

SORING •OR ENCOURAGING ANY EFFORTS TO PROPOSE ACTUAL 

RECONNAISSANCE CAPABILITY OR TO DESCRIBE THE ESTIMATE 

ST ATE OF THE ART IN SATELLITE RECONNAISSANCE. ALL • 

AF SC IN-HOUSE AND CONTRACTOR WORK, INCLUDING DISCUS•.: 

SIONS WITH CONTRACTORS, WILL BE CONFINED TO THESE 

OBJECTIVES. BP PHOTOGRAPHY OF RECONNAISSANCE QUALITY 
......■•■■••■••••■••••• 

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WILL NOT BE USED TO RECORD OR VERIFY PERFORMANCE. 

LIG AND FOCUS EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED USING A 

TELESCOPIC SYSTEM. POINTING ACCURACY CAN BE RECORDED 

WITH A SIMPLE COLLIMATED CAMEii., OF ; ESOLUTION EASILY 

AVAILABLE FROM UNCLASSIFIED EG IIPME T.. 1MC PERFORMAN`CE CAN BE RECORDED BY PHOTO FAPH 1, 1 STARS OR BY 

USE OF LONG EXPOSURES OR IN OT i / R A ;ON A BL Y UNSOPHISTICATED WAYS. FOCUS EXPERIMEN , I 1'ECES3ARY, CAN 

i EE CONDUCTED AT SUCH MAGNIFICP 1 )N 4.\T RECONNAISSANCE 

CONDITIONS ARE SIMULATED WITHCJ1 BE it; DUPLICATED. .;::r • ..•,./ . I 5. IT MAY BE ASSUMED /HAT ADDITIONAL F.XPERIMENTS WILL 

EE UNDERTAKEN LATE IN THE PROGRAM. DETAILS OF THESE a ,. 

,PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED AT A LATER 

. DATE BY SEPARATE CORRESPONDENCE. NO CONSIDERATION 

NEED'

1 APRIL SUEMISSION OF YOUR PTDP. 6. THE FOLLOWING 

BE GIVEN TO THESE ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS IN THE 

,_ ADDITIONAL GROUND RULES APPLY: A. THE PTDP SHOULD .BE _....____ 

' - FORWARDED TO HIS HQ (ATTN MSF-1) As SOON AS POSSIBL , T . 

• 1 APPROPRIATE BRIEFING. B. ALL•RFP'S A:4D WORK 

BUT NO LATER THAN 1 APRIL 1964 AND ACCOMPANIED BY AN • 

NN NN 
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1964 MAR 10 AM 6: 32 

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OF 2. 

. EXPERIMENTS 

) DISCUSSION WITH 

'ILL BE MADE 

THIN THE AIR 

TO MINIMIZE THE 

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DOWNGRADED AT 12 YEAR 

INTERVALS; NOT AUTOMATICALLY 

DECLASSIFIED. DOD DIR 5200.10 

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SECRET MSF 9-3-13 FINAL SECTION 

MENTS OF ALL CONTRACTS RELATED TO MO' 

WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THIS HQ PRIOR T 

CONTRACTORS. C. MAXIMUM UTILIZATION 

CF EXISTING STUDIES CONDUCTED EJ: H 

FORCE AND BY OTHER AGENCIES IN ORDEF.: 

TIME REQUIRED FOR PROGRAM APPRCVAL. i. MAXIMUM USE 

WILL BE PROPOSED OF GROUND TESTS, SINULATION, AIRCRAFT 

TESTS, AND USE OF EXISTING SPACE PROGRAMS FOR TESTING. 

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EXPERIMENTS PROGRAMMED FOR THE MOL SHOULD BE THOSE 

WHICH CANNOT BE ACHIEVED IN ANY OTHER WAY OR IN WHICH 

THE ACTUAL EXPERIMENT IN MOL CONSTITUTES PROOF TESTS 

CF EXPERIMENTS PRIMARILY CONDUCTED IN OTHER AREAS. 

7. THIS MESSAGE IS CLASSIFIED SECRET BECAUSE IT CONTAINS 

SPACE PLANNING INFORMATION VITAL ?CHUM:NAL DEFENSE. 

G7-3. 

Br Sth 

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SECRET 

MANNED ORBITAL LABORATORY TECHNICAL PANEL 

FIRST PRELIMINARY REPORT 

Section I 

p f 

Introduction 

The Secretary:of Defense'has recently announced a manned space 

project which has been designated the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL). 

The Air Force is to manage this project. The MOL program is to have 

a twofold purpose; basically it is intended to assess man's utility 

and ability to perform a military mission in space; secondarily, it 

will include thc.6e military experiments which can make best use of the 

MOL vehicle and which at the same time can be accommodated. Since 

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration may also enter into 

the program, other than military experiments may be carried. The MOL 

program presents an excellent opportunity for the Navy to investigate 

and establish man's usefulness in space in the performance of naval 

missions. The investigations of the MOL program are intended to test 

or check only those components or parts of.a military system which 

require the presence of man in space to determine the potential 

'usefulness of the complete military system which could follow. 

At present the MOL program stands in need of justification within 

the Department of Defense in order to obtain the necessary approvals 

for the preparation of a complete technical development plan as a 

first step in getting the program under way. 

In order to prepare the Navy's plan for MOL experiments, by 

reference (a) the Bureau of Naval Weapons established a MOL Technical 

Panel composed of members from each bureau, the Office of Naval Research, 

the Institute of Naval Studies, and such other naval field activities 

.7,r laboratories as were interested in or capable of making a contri- .

bution. The Naval Research Laboratory was requested to act as host 

activity and to designate the Panel chairman. The function of the 

Panel was to generate in detail a series of space experiment proposals 

suitable for flights on the MOL. A summary report recommending an 

array of experiments and supported by preliminary cost estimates, 

development schedules, experiment plans, and recommended sponsors for 

each experiment (a NavY laboratory or a contractor) was to be submitted 

to the Bureau of Naval Weapons for approval and ensuing action to 

assign specific follow-on responsibility and for funding support. 

The first meeting of the MOL -Technical Panel took place on 

27-28 February 1964 at the Naval Research Laboratory under the chairmanship of Dr. W. C. Hall of the NRL. Minutes of this meeting have 

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been provided to all participants (reference [b]). Those in attendance 

at this meeting as members of the MOL Technical Panel are listed in 

reference (b). 

While further meetings of the MOL Technical Panel will be needed 

to complete the assignment of the Panel, the urgent time schedule 

now being followed in the development of the MOL program makes it advisable to submit a preliminary report at the present time. This 

preliminary report will discuss in some detail the concept for 

experiments bearing upon the Navy missions and provide all information 

that is available at the present time. It will also list briefly 

some of the more important work yet remaining to be done. The text 

of the report has not been circulated to Panel members for concurrence, 

again owing to lack of time, and hence represents the opinions and 

work of only a small number of the whole Panel. For this report, 

therefore, the Chairman alone must accept responsibility. 

The guidelines provided by the Navy for the MOL Technical Panel 

were simply the following: that ocean surveillance, anti-submari.ne 

warfare, and command and control missions were to be given primary 

emphasis. 

There were several approaches which could be followed by the 

Technical Panel in performing its mission. It could proceed logically 

to develop a series of experiments based upon concepts of the Navy 

mission to provide global coverage of the oceans; thus the Navy is 

required to maintain globarsurveillance over surface shipping. 

Similarly it needs surveillance over the globe for submarine activity. 

For both purposes it needs all-weather orbital sensors capable of 

detecting the presence of and classifying ocean going ships and submarines. In each case the same barrier to progress is reached, namely, 

the inability of the present state of the art to provide sensors in 

spacecraft capable of obtaining the necessary information for full 

performance of the mission. 

A second approach being followed by the Space Systems Division 

of the United States Air Force is to study thoroughly all suggested 

experiments which can be performed in the following general areas: 

(1) reconnaissance and surveillance; (2) other missions - including 

satellite survivability; satellite logistics, maintenance, and repair; 

and finally satellite orbital command posts; (3) bio-astronautics; 

and (4) general tests or general science. 

The approach chosen by the MOL Technical Panel is a variation 

of the second approach. Thus the MOL Panel chose to consider those 

military missions which are now possible considering the state of the 

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art, and of interest to the Navy. Each possible experiment needs to 

be reviewed critically to determine whether it involves man in an 

essential manner; it needs to be reviewed to determine whether it is 

of unique Navy interest; it needs to be reviewed to determine whether 

it is being done now by unmanned satellites. Table 1 presents a number of astronautic missions possible in the time period of 1968-1970 

and of interest to the Navy.. Opposite each of the astronautic missions 

there listed may be found an appropriate comment. 

Table 1 

Astronautic Missions of Naval Interest 

Ocean Surveillance The SAMOS Program of the AF 

has been active since 1961. 

Command and Control The STARLIGHT Report recommended space-oriented command 

ships. 

General Science NASA has OSO, OGO, OAO, and 

Explorer programs under way. 

Communications TEISTAR, RELAY, SYNCOM6 LOFTI, 

COMSAT Programs, etc., are now 

under way. 

Electronic Countermeasures 

Elan 

Of general interest to all 

Services. 

The AF has the MIDAS Program. 

The related program is SAINT. 

Meteorology 

Navigation 

Bio-astronautics 

Present major programs are TIROS, 

NIMBUS, and the Operational Weather 

Satellite. 

TRANSIT and the ADVANCED TRANSIT 

programs are under way. 

NASA has a series of six bio - 

satellites planned. 

(Continued on next page) 

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(Continued from previous page) 

Orbital Defense 

Naval Ocean Data Satellites 

The DYNASOAR program has been 

cancelled for reasons of economy. 

NASA has a program for data collection satellites under preliminary 

study. 

Precision Delivery Satellites No Navy mission is now foreseen. 

Logistics, Maintenance, .1=.11•1 

and Repair of Satellites 

Geodesy The ANNA Program exists to fill 

this requirement. 

Anti-submarine Warfare The state of the art is not 

sufficiently far advanced. 

* * * 

The MOL Technical Panel received in all 89 experiment proposals, 

or topic ideas, for Navy astronautic systems. The Panel assumed 

that astronautics was to be regarded purely as a technology which 

could be used to improve the capability of the Navy to operate globally 

and maintain control of the seas. With this assumption, it arrived 

at the grouping given in Appendix B for these 89 experiments, and 

shown by Figure 1. It will be seen that the two groups receiving 

the greatest attention from the MOL Technical Panel members are those 

of Ocean Surveillance and. General— Science: 

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