page_title: Project Space Track
section_title: Sensors
hierarchical_section_title: Project Space Track / Sensors
caption_attribution_description: Looking down on the Baker-Nunn Camera, one of the world's most sensitive devices for observing artificial satellites. A network of twelve tracking stations equipped with such cameras is maintained by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the observation of both natural and artificial objects in space. The stations are located in Argentina, Australia, Curacao, India, Iran, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Spain, and at three sites in the United States Full description
context_page_description: Project Space Track was a research and development project of the US Air Force, to create a system for tracking all artificial earth satellites and space probes, domestic and foreign.
  Project Space Track was started at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center at Laurence G. Hanscom Field, now Hanscom Air Force Base, in Bedford, Massachusetts shortly after the launch of Sputnik I. Observations were obtained from some 150 sensors worldwide by 1960 and regular orbital predictions were issued to the sensors and interested parties.
  Space Track was the only organization that used observations from all types of sources: radar, optical, radio, and visual. All unclassified observations were shared with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1961, the system was declared operational and assigned to the new 1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron as part of NORAD's Space Detection and Tracking System.
context_section_description: The Department of Defense had decided that the US Air Force should develop a command and control system for tracking satellites and that the US Army and US Navy should develop sensors for the purpose.  US Navy development was at Dahlgren, Virginia and the US Army's program was at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
  Drs. Miczaika and Wahl had assembled a list of facilities that could track satellites, either by monitoring telemetry or by using radar.  The latter were mostly astronomical radio telescopes equipped with radars used in studying the moon (e.g., Jodrell Bank Observatory in England directed by Sir Bernard Lovell, Millstone Hill of Lincoln Laboratory in Massachusetts directed by Dr. Gordon Pettingill, and a radar at the Stanford Research Institute in California, directed by Walter Jaye).  Two USAF radars, one on Shemya Island in the Aleutians and the other at Diyarbakır, Turkey, had been built to observe Soviet missile launches and became valuable for satellite tracking as well.  BMEWS prototype radars on Trinidad also participated.  Normally, the first radar reports of a new satellite launch from Tyuratam (Baikonur) came from Shemya and the first of a new launch from Kapustin Yar came from Diyarbakır. A USAF radar at the Laredo Test Site in Texas and one at Moorestown, New Jersey also participated later.  Observations were received from the Royal Canadian Air Force research radar at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.  The Goldstone facility of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was exceptionally helpful with radio observations of Soviet space probes.
  In general, observations were in the form of time, azimuth and elevation (and range, from radars) as measured at the site or, in some cases, such as at Goldstone, in astronomical form (Right Ascension and Declination) Some early observations were very primitive, such as a report that a satellite passed near a star that could be identified.
  On rare occasions, the observations were purely verbal.  For example, individuals on ships, planes, and islands in the Caribbean reported sightings of the decay of satellite 1957 β, although one aircraft was able to provide a detailed observation because the navigator happened to be completing a celestial fix at the exact time
  Some sites could record the Doppler shift of satellite transmission or, in a few cases, the Doppler shift from their own transmissions reflected from the orbiting object.  One doppler site was the Space Track Doppler Field Site at Billerica, Massachusetts.  The observations obtained by this technique were the time of closest approach to the station.
  The Navy program was operated as
  NAVSPASUR and is now operated by the US Air Force.  The Army program, although achieving accurate tracking results with doppler techniques and furnishing observations to Space Track, did not achieve funding for deployment.
  One of SPASUR’s contributions to satellite tracking was the invention of a map of the earth that showed both poles, so that the position of all satellites, including those in polar orbits, could be shown.  This was not possible with Mercator or other projections, which do not show the entire earth.  The map was, of course, very distorted at the poles (the North pole was the entire top line of the long map) but the concept proved very useful.
  Optical sensors included the twelve Baker-Nunn satellite tracking cameras operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), three Baker-Nunn cameras operated by the USAF, and the Boston University camera at Patrick Air Force Base operated by Walter Manning.
  SAO cameras were at Woomera, Australia; Jupiter, Florida; Organ Pass, New Mexico; Olifantsfontein, Union of South Africa; Cadiz, Spain; Mitaka, Japan; Nani Tal, India; Arequipa, Peru; Shiraz, Iran; Curaҫao, Netherlands West Indies; Villa Dolores, Argentina; and Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii.   USAF cameras were at Oslo, Norway; Edwards AFB, California, and Santiago, Chile. Two additional cameras were later added to the USAF inventory – one of the USAF cameras was transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force a
caption: The Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera.
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