Sputniks over Britain

JUL 01, 1958

During the past months numerous newspaper and magazine articles have described the observational techniques used by US scientists associated with the “Moonwatch” and “Minitrack” programs designed for the systematic tracking of artificial earth satellites. The following account, written by an American science liaison officer with ONR’s London branch, summarizes the tracking procedures employed by British observers of the first Russian Sputniks.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3062643

George C. Sponsler

Shortly after midnight on October 5 at precisely 0015 GMT, the British Broadcasting Corporation listening station at Tatsfield, just south of London, recorded the now famous “beep‐beep” of Sputnik I on its very first transit. News of this detection and the official Russian announcement of the satellite launching were flashed almost simultaneously to a startled world. Thus began two months of feverish but magnificent improvisation and observation which saw the British in the forefront of the Western scientists engaged in tracking the Russian satellites.

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George C. Sponsler, US Office of Naval Research, American Embassy, London.