Spacecraft Tracking

Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1969. presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Wraps. 26 cm, [2], 18 pages. Wraps. Illustrations. This is one of the America in Space: The First Decade series. William Roger Corliss (August 28, 1926 – July 8, 2011) was an American physicist and writer who was known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomalous phenomena. Arthur C. Clarke described him as "Fort's latter-day - and much more scientific - successor." Starting in 1974, Corliss published a number of works in the "Sourcebook Project". Each volume was devoted to a scientific field (archeology, astronomy, geology, et cetera) and featured articles culled almost exclusively from scientific journals. Corliss was inspired by Charles Fort, who earlier also collected reports of unusual phenomena. Many of the articles in Corliss's works were mentioned in Charles Fort's works. Unlike Fort, known for his idiosyncratic writing style, Corliss initially offered little in the way of his own opinions or editorial comments, preferring to let the articles speak for themselves. Corliss wrote many other books and articles, notably including 13 educational books about astronomy, outer space and space travel for NASA and a similar number for the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation. The Spacecraft Tracking and Data (Acquisition) Network (STADAN or STDN) was established by NASA early 1960's to satisfy the requirement for long-duration, highly-available space-to-ground communications. Real-time operational control and scheduling of the network was provided by the Network Operations Control Center (NOCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. Consisting of parabolic dish antennas and telephone switching equipment deployed around the world, the STADAN provided space-to-ground communications for approximately 15 minutes of a 90-minute orbit period. This limited contact period sufficed for unmanned spacecraft, but manned spacecraft require a much higher data collection time. In May 1971 STADAN was consolidated with the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN) to form the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN). Condition: very good.

Keywords: NASA, Radar, Smithsonian Optical Network, Deep Space Network, Manned Space Flight, Doppler, Spacecraft, STADAN, STDN, Sidetone Tracking, Unified S-Band, Laser Illumination, MSFN

[Book #20579]

Price: $35.00

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