Footnotes to the Life of Albert R. Hibbs

Reading about the colorful life and successful career of Albert R. Hibbs (Physics Today, January 2004, page 68 ) brought back fond memories for us. The obituary states, “At the 1958 launch of Explorer I, the first US Earth satellite, Hibbs made the initial orbital estimate using very sketchy realtime data. He did well: His orbit calculation was only eight minutes short.” The sketchy data could possibly include those obtained by a group of college students in Taiwan, including the three of us. It is gratifying to realize our contribution, almost half a century ago and from half the world away, to the early US space program.

Intrigued by the Russian satellite Sputnik I, we learned of many tracking stations coordinated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and located in the Western Hemisphere, but practically none in the East. We attempted to fill that gap. Obviously, we needed to report the precise visual position and time of each sighting. In those days, Taiwan was underdeveloped economically and technologically, and we had to improvise.

In addition to several army surplus gun-sight telescopes provided by the Smithsonian, we got hold of a shortwave radio and a tape recorder. At dusk and dawn, we went to the roof of the tallest building (three stories) in downtown Taipei. Because electricity was in limited supply, city lights were not a problem. Having the recorder running and the radio tuned to receive the standard time signals from the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) radio station WWVH in Hawaii, we scanned the sky. Once we located the satellite, we waited until it passed near a recognizable star and then we shouted loudly.

With the help of a star chart and playback of the WWVH ticking sound and our shouting signals, we were able to determine each visual position and its corresponding time. We asked the Joint US Military Advisory Group in Taiwan to wire the data to the Smithsonian. The reply came quickly, confirming our results and requesting further input. The work continued for some time, and extended to Explorer I and beyond.

All these years, we wondered who had used our data. Now we know.