Navy's Needs in Space for Providing Future Capabilities (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
A Department of the Navy History in Space
A Department of the Navy History in Space
Pages 147-164
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Appendixes
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targets or transmitters did not exist; · Weapon delivery accuracy was appallingly poor, being limited by the lack of precise knowledge of the geolocations of both the weapon release platform and the target; · Target surveillance and identification were limited to the questionable capabilities of reconnaissance aircraft whose survival over enemy terrain was tenuous; 149
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As early as 1927, NRL developed an intense interest in attaining an understanding of the factors that described the behavior of the ionosphere. By 1937, NRL had established a small group to develop sounding rockets that could carry research instruments above the atmosphere.
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Although the V-2 was an unreliable rocket, it could lift scientific payloads of 500 kg approximately 150 km above Earth. NRL teams led by Herbert Friedman and Richard Tousey were able to undertake landmark research that established the effect of solar x-rays on the ionosphere and established the nature of the solar ultraviolet spectra.
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After considerable internal debate, the Steward Committee selected the NRL approach, and on September 9, 1955, NRL won stewardship of the satellite program, which became known as Project Vanguard. NRL's basic tasking was to build a satellite launch vehicle,3 place one satellite in orbit, verify its orbital path, and accomplish one scientific objective, all before the end of the IGY.
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, started receiving data and tracking Sputnik by its third orbit, fewer than 5 hours after its launch, using the NRL's radio array at Hybla Valley, Virginia. NRL soon brought its Vanguard Mini track satellite tracking system online and used it to provide additional higher-preci sion tracking data for Sputnik.1 Sputnik orbital measurements were also collected by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University and led to the use of measurements of the Doppler shift of Sputnik's radio signal, enabling a greatly improved tracking calculation.
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· Early NRL satellite launches demonstrated the feasibility of launching multiple independent packages from a single launch -- indicating the potential for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiply targeted independent reentry vehicles. · Although the Vanguard satellite was ridiculed for its small size and multiple launch failures before finally being placed in orbit, it provided a vast amount of data on the actual shape of Earth.
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. · Sensors used in early NRL sounding rocket experiments to detect x-rays and solar radiation were also used to validate that space-based sensors could provide an improved capability to globally detect nuclear explosions.
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In addition, the less responsive the acquisition community became to Navy requirements, the less interest the Navy showed in the development and use of future systems. ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING AND GEODESY The first movie of a hurricane taken from overhead was recorded in 1954 by NRL.8 Since that time, the Navy has developed a significant number of scientific and environmental sensors and satellites, including the following: SOLRAD, the Solar Radiation satellite; Geosat, the Navy's Geodetic Satellite; and, most recently, Coriolis -- launched through the Space Test Program (STP)
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could be measured. This led NRL scientists to determine that similar radar, looking at the ocean surface from orbit, could accu 9The WindSat payload is also a risk-reduction demonstration for NOAA's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System.
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, more and higher-precision geodesy data were collected. The APL Transit satellite, the first satellite designed to provide accurate positioning data, enabled significant increases in geodetic accuracy, eventually reducing the uncertainties to the 10 m range.11 Later, launch of the GPS satellites, with their resident high-precision clocks and advanced ground-monitoring systems, brought geodetic measurement accuracies on the order of millimeters, enabling small ground movements such as continental drift and small movements along faults to be measured.
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Since 1994 NOAA has been the designated National Executive Agent for environmental satellites;12 thus, the Navy can only submit requests to the interagency steering group of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) satellites to bring about what the Naval Oceanographic Office believes to be necessary and desirable improvements in the performance of active space-based environmental sensors.
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FLTSAT satellites were initially procured in 1972 through the Air Force, with the NRL developing and providing the Fleet Broadcast Processor (FBP) -- a system that provided a large margin of jam resistance and one that continues to be used on the UFO and other UHF satellites.14 As a result of the uncertainties and delays in the acquisition of the FLTSAT satellites, the Navy was permitted, beginning in 1976, to lease UHF satellite communications from commercial sources.
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Satellite Navigation System: Transit The Navy's ballistic missile submarines had a critical need for precise location updates in order to meet their operational goals. The Navy, through the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
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The key features of NRL's efforts were as follows: · The concept of GPS;1 · The technical results of four generations of navigation satellites launched and operated from 1967 through the launch of the second Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS-2) in 1977, the first GPS satellite, and 7 follow-on years of opera tions support;2 · The geodetic Earth model optimized for the GPS orbit and geodetic-quality satellite tracking systems;3 · Operational precise orbit predictions;4 · Ground positioning accuracies meeting the joint requirements, proven us ing the NRL-developed Timation system; 1Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
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SPACE SURVEILLANCE As described above, NRL early on proved the effectiveness of its Minitrack satellite tracking system. For many years Minitrack was also used by NASA as its · High-precision satellite clocks, for which NRL continues to provide the nec essary on-orbit precision clock monitoring;5 · The Atlas F as a low-cost launch capability; · The Vandenberg Air Force Base Satellite Launch Complex Three West, used for NRL's NTS-2 and Rockwell's National Development Satellite (NDS)
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NAVSPASUR was initiated in 1958 as Minitrack and was commissioned as an operational naval command in February 1961. Data processing is done, as it has been since the early 1960s, at the Space Surveillance Processing Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.16 This system has been very productive in keeping the United States aware of almost all large objects orbiting Earth, producing an average of 160,000 observations per day.17 NAVSPASUR is still highly effective, and while responsibility for the system was transferred to the Air Force in 2003, the Air Force has retained the Navy's Dahlgren facility to continue its support of NAVSPASUR operation.
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