Space Detection and Tracking System: Difference between revisions

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'''Space Detection and Tracking System,''' or SPADATS, was built in 1960 to integrate defense systems built by different branches of the [[United States Armed Forces]] and was placed under [[North American Aerospace Defense Command]] (NORAD). The [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] had a program called [[Project Space Track|Spacetrack]], which was a network of space-probing cameras and radar. The [[United States Navy|Navy]] had a system called SPASUR, a space surveillance system that was "an electronic fence" the protected the southern United States.<ref name="Sloan2005">{{cite book|author=Elinor C. Sloan|title=Security and Defence in the Terrorist Era|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=evldtppA72AC&pg=PA194|date=28 October 2005|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-7320-8|page=194}}</ref>

SPADATS was developed by the SpaceTrack Research and Development Facility, also called the 496L System Program Office, at [[Hanscom Air Force Base|Hanscom Field]] in [[Bedford, Massachusetts]].{{r|Weeden}} ([[Bendix Corporation|Bendix]], [[Sperry Rand]] and [[Hughes Aircraft|Hughes]] competed for SPADATS contract in the early 1962 on the basis of their prior experience in [[phased array]] technology.<ref>''[[Aviation Week and Space Technology]]'', March 19, 1962, '''76'''(12):23.</ref>) It first operated at the Electronic Systems Command building at Hanscom and in 1963 was transferred to the [[Ent Air Force Base]]{{r|Weeden}} and then to the [[Cheyenne Mountain Complex]] in 1965<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.norad.mil/Portals/29/Documents/History/A%20Brief%20History%20of%20NORAD.pdf | title=A Brief History of NORAD | publisher=NORAD | date=December 21, 2012 | author=Office of History, North American Aerospace Defense Command | accessdate=February 23, 2015 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420161330/http://www.norad.mil/Portals/29/Documents/History/A%20Brief%20History%20of%20NORAD.pdf | archivedate=April 20, 2015 }}</ref> or 1966.{{r|Weeden p. 4}} From that point, the SpaceTrack Research and Development Facility continued to build and test new software, manage contracts for hardware and software, and operate as a backup facility.<ref name=Weeden>{{cite web | url=http://swfound.org/media/15742/computer%20systems%20and%20algorithms%20for%20space%20situational%20awareness%20-%20history%20and%20future%20development.pdf | title=Computer Systems and Algorithms for Space Situational Awareness: History and Future Development | author=Brian C. Weeden and Paul J. Cefola |work=ISCOPS 12th International Conference of Pacific-Basin Societies | publisher=Advances in the Astronautical Sciences | via=Secure World Foundation | date=December 1, 2010 | volume=138 |pagepages=3-43–4 | accessdate=February 23, 2015}}</ref> SPADATS was developed in assembly language and the hardware at all three locations was Philco 2000/Model 212 large scale transistorized[[transistor computerscomputer]]s.<ref name="Weeden p. 4">{{cite web | url=http://swfound.org/media/15742/computer%20systems%20and%20algorithms%20for%20space%20situational%20awareness%20-%20history%20and%20future%20development.pdf | title=Computer Systems and Algorithms for Space Situational Awareness: History and Future Development | author=Brian C. Weeden and Paul J. Cefola |work=ISCOPS 12th International Conference of Pacific-Basin Societies | publisher=Advances in the Astronautical Sciences | via=Secure World Foundation | date=December 1, 2010 | volume=138 |pagepages=3-43–4 | accessdate=February 23, 2015}}</ref> Spiral Decay, a Special Perturbation Program, was used to model the motion of space objects re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Project 437 used a second Special Perturbation Program called ESPOD.{{r|Weeden p. 4}}

SPADATS remained operational until about 1980 at Cheyenne Mountain. Some of its logic, though continued on in [[Space Defense Center|Space Defense Operations Center]] (SPADOC) systems.{{r|Weeden p. 4}}

==References==

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[[Category:NORAD systems]]

[[Category:SpaceEarth probesstations byin the country|United States|Space Detection]]