(The information referred to follows:)

SEC. 1(b) of Public Law 86-45 provides as follows:

"Appropriations for 'Research and development' may be used for any items of a capital nature (other than acquisition of land) which may be required for the performance of research and development contracts: Provided, That none of the funds appropriated for 'Research and development' pursuant to this Act may be used for construction of any major facility, the estimated cost of which, including collateral equipment, exceeds $250,000, unless the Administrator or his designee notifies the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences of the Senate of the nature, location, and estimated cost of such facility."

Chairman HAYDEN. The next change is recommended change No. 10, which reads:

Page 4, between lines 12 and 13, insert the following provision: "For an additional amount for 'Construction and equipment,' as authorized by Public Law 86-12, $24,250,000 to remain available until expended."

The House deleted the entire item on a point of order.

Dr. GLENNAN. I would like to ask Mr. Wyatt to describe the items involved here so that you will have a clear picture of exactly why this should be brought back into the bill.

TRACKING AND DATA ACQUISITION PROGRAM

Mr. WYATT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, in the supplemental 1959 request we included funds for several items, such as tracking facilities, development facilities and for extension and alteration of facilities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

I should like to discuss these items.

TRACKING FACILITIES

First I would like to discuss the tracking facilities. In space operations we get no value at all from the operation itself unless we have a system of tracking and data recording stations around the world to receive, by radio transmission, information collected by these satellites. This differs, say, from flight testing in airplanes where you rely very heavily on the reaction of the pilot and his observations. We do not have that avenue open to us in space flights and hence must rely entirely upon radio transmission.

Now this imposes a requirement that we have what we call tracking networks that are adequate to receive the information transmitted by the satellite or by the space probes, as the case may be.

We have, in conjunction with the Department of Defense, arrived at a statement of the national tracking facilities which are believed in the interests of the scientific program of the United States and in this budget we request funds for that portion of the facilities which have been agreed to be the responsibility of the NASA.

MINITRACK NETWORK

There are three main kinds of tracking networks required. The first is what we call the minitrack network, the name coming from "miniature transmitting equipment." A small tracking transmitter weighing some 4 or 5 pounds is included in the flight article. With the minitrack network we cannot only locate accurately the position

of the body in space, but can also receive telemeter signals or radio signals of the information being collected by the body.

This first chart shows what a minitrack station looks like. It is actually, technically, a radio interferometer station. There are four sets of antenna. They are placed in a grid and they receive the signal from the transmitter in the satellite and by the very slight shift in the signal as the signal is received by the various antennas it is possible to locate the point of transmission very accurately and hence to determine the exact location of the satellite.

(The chart referred to appears on p. 92.)

Mr. WYATT. Now, originally the minitrack network was established during the IGY. It was established using, to the greatest extent possible, the existing military launching and tracking facilities at the Atlantic Missile Range.

On this map of the world, the original minitrack network is shown by the stars with no insert symbol-in other words, the blank stars were the original minitrack network. You will notice they are predominantly at a single longitude except for a station over here at San Diego and one in Australia and one in South Africa.

(The map referred to appears on p. 93.)

Mr. WYATT. The net was established this way because under the IGY we launched to a maximum of 35 degrees latitude. In other words, the vehicle was launched out of Cape Canaveral down across here (indicating) following the Cape Canaveral launching range, and never went below 35 degrees south latitude and 35 degrees north latitude.

DETERMINATION OF POSITION OF SATELLITE

In order to establish the position of a satellite you have to have at least three observations, either three passes over one station by the satellite or one pass over three stations.

In a typical launching we come out of Cape Canaveral. Then we get a reading here, at Antigua which is still during the launching phase. The satellite comes down, over the Atlantic Ocean, goes over South Africa, and then begins to come back up, across Australia, back across the region of San Diego, and continues to make passes in this fashion.

Hence, the original minitrack network gave us information on the establishment of the orbit.

Now, as the satellite continues to pass around the world, on subsequent passes, it keeps apparently moving in this direction on this map and hence on every pass it would pass over at least one of the original minitrack stations and we could locate it and read out information that had been collected by the satellite.

But, as we get further into this field of space flight, we find that we don't want to be restricted to flights between 35 degrees north and south latitudes. Scientifically speaking, there are phenomena at the high latitudes we would like to investigate and for the communications or meteorological satellites we would like to have them move over a larger fraction of the earth and have them move from a polar orbit from north and south instead of from west to east. This means the original minitrack network is not sufficient to track a satellite launched on a 50-degree orbit.

If we try to launch at 50 degrees out of Cape Canaveral to the south we would pass over South America. It is not desirable to launch in a manner that would drop the boosters and have them land this way, hence we propose to launch to the northeast from Cape Canaveral out over the Atlantic. This requires that we have a station some place in the vicinity of Newfoundland, to give us an additional track on this launching to the northeast. Both of these next stations would not be provided, the exact site has not been selectedbut a station in England or Spain or some place in this area would be desirable because a satellite would go north and would begin to descend southward and we could get a fix in this region [indicating.]

LOCATION OF NEW MINITRACK STATIONS

Then as we came back across the United States we would want to track the satellite in the north central portion of the United States, where we do not have a station now, and hence we would like to provide a station in there, someplace in the North Central United States. Not only does this give us the required three bits of information to establish the orbit initially on the satellite, but, additionally, the new stations, the ones which we propose to put in Alaska, North Central United States and Newfoundland, and someplace in the region of Spain or England, would essentially give us a horizontal part to this net. Thus, when we launched in polar orbits we would have stations at various longitudes as the satellite would come across, to enable us to acquire information on more than a single pass. Again I would stress that the initial minitrack network is essentially on a single longitude and we would get polar orbit on it at that time, but not when it passes over here.

DATA COLLECTION BAND OF STATION

The data collection band of the station is about 700 miles, so you have to be within 700 miles of a station in order to acquire the information.

This next chart simply shows schematically that, by putting in the stations shown in green, these four stations shown in green, we cannot only cover a high inclination orbit in this direction [indicating] but also if we look at the vertical blue lines which represent paths taken by a polar orbit, we have a chance to acquire data at San Diego in the Central United States on the next pass, then here, at Newfoundland, over here.

(The chart referred to appears on p. 95.)

Mr. WYATT. With the proposed stations we will have coverage around the world on these polar orbits.

SUPPLEMENTAL 1959 FUNDS

Hence, the funds requested in supplemental 1959 money includes funds for the establishment of these four additional minitrack stations. Now the minitrack network, which receives active information from the satellites, is only one part of our total tracking requirements. When we fire vehicles not in orbit around the earth, but toward the