Gentlefolk, Thirty years ago, I had just began work as the "Interrange Operations Officer" in the Network Control division of the AF Satellite Test Center (the "STC," the big blue cube on highway 101). Part of my duties involved overseeing the transmission of orbital elements of the VELA HOTEL radiation detection spacecraft to NASA in support of the Apollo program (if memory serves, orbital elements were put on punch paper tape which was then taken to the STC comm center to be transmitted by telex). The VELA spacecraft operated just outside the Earth's magnetosphere (then referred to as the "Van Allen belts" ) to avoid the noise of trapped particles. They were used to detect and triangulate the locations of nuclear explosions, but they proved useful for monitoring Solar particle flux, too. They also detected astronomical gamma ray bursts. The time and magnitude of Vela flux readings combined with their ephemerides allowed engineers to construct a rough three dimensional picture of the radiation environment in near Earth space, predict radiation exposure of the unshielded astronauts, and call for their return if needed. Fortunately, this never came into play. Apropos of the previous topic, The VELA operations office at the STC then was headed by a woman AF Major (I think the name was Norma Klare) at a time when woman line officers were rare enough to attract notice. She was a careful, dignified, matronly woman and very married.
--Best, Gerald _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
