![]() DARPA pioneered the construction of ground-based phased array radars such as the FPS-85. Known as the Electronically Steered Array Radar (ESAR) Program, the focus of the effort was to develop low-cost, high-power tubes and phase shifters, extend component frequency ranges, increase bandwidth, apply digital techniques, and study antenna coupling. Responding to these needs, DARPA in 1959 initiated a competition for the design and construction of a large, experimental two-dimensional phased array with beam steering under computer control rather than requiring mechanical motion of the antenna. For the first time, meteorologists were able to track storms over the course of several days.ġ959 – Phased Array Radar – Before DARPA was established, a President’s Science Advisory Committee panel and other experts had concluded that reliable ballistic missile defense (BMD) and space surveillance technologies would require the ability to detect, track, and identify a large number of objects moving at very high speeds. It took 23,000 cloud-cover pictures, of which more than 19,000 were used in weather analysis. The mission swiftly proved the viability of observing weather from space. The program greatly advanced the science of meteorology by placing the first dedicated weather satellite in orbit, TIROS 1, on April 1, 1960. Moreover, TIROS helped define ARPA’s model of successfully bringing together scientists and engineers from different services, federal agencies, and contracting firms to solve vexing problems and quickly achieve a complex technical feat. Television and Infrared Observations Satellites (TIROS)ġ959 – First Weather Satellite: (TIROS) – Initiated by ARPA in 1958 and transferred to NASA in 1959, the Television and Infrared Observations Satellites (TIROS) program became the prototype for the current global systems used for weather reporting, forecasting and research by the Defense Department, NASA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Centaur engine technology was also used in the upper stages of the Saturn rockets for the Apollo manned missions to the Moon and in the Space Shuttle’s liquid hydrogen-oxygen engines. ![]() During its evolution, the Centaur LOX/LH2 upper stage technology has been used extensively on Atlas and Titan boosters for diverse missions. ![]() launch vehicles to place sizeable payloads into geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and helped pave the way toward future lunar and deep space missions. Centaur rockets improved the ability of U.S. After several failures, the Centaur booster achieved its first successful orbital flight in 1963 and its first successful mission in 1966. There, von Braun’s initial booster technology, Juno V, would lead to the cluster-engine Saturn V Space Launch Vehicle, famous for its role in manned spaceflight to the Moon.Īnother DARPA-authorized program in 1958, development of a liquid oxygen/hydrogen (LOX/LH2) upper-stage rocket known as Centaur, also transferred to the fledgling NASA. Among these was a launch-vehicle program under the auspices of Wernher von Braun’s engineering team that would transfer to America’s new civilian space program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Agency’s first three primary research thrusts focused on space technology, ballistic missile defense, and solid propellants.ġ958 – Saturn V and Centaur Rockets – In its first months, ARPA managed and funded rocket development programs that would prove to be long-lived and far-reaching. Johnson recalled feeling on that night, adding that he remembered “the profound shock of realizing that it might be possible for another nation to achieve technological superiority over this great country of ours.” Ever since its establishment on February 7, 1958, ARPA-which later added the D for defense at the front of its name-has been striving to keep that technological superiority in the hands of the United States.ġ958 – ARPA is Born – On February 7, 1958, Neil McElroy, the Department of Defense Secretary, issued DoD Directive 5105.15 establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), later renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). “Now, somehow, in some way, the sky seemed almost alien,” then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Although it was well known that both the USSR and the United States were working on satellites for the international scientific collaboration known as the International Geophysical Year (an 18-month “year” from July 1, 1957, to Decemand designed to coincide with a peak phase of the solar cycle), many in the United States never fathomed that the USSR would be the first into space. 1957 – The Sputnik Surprise – On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union (USSR) launched the first satellite ever, triggering events that led to creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on February 7, 1958.
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