A Tale of Two Satellites

摘要

Opening at the National Air and Space Museum on March 29, the exhibit "Time and Navigation" tracks the progress of timekeeping over three centuries. One of the highlights of the exhibit, a Transit 5 navigation satellite used by the U.S. Navy to guide its nuclear-powered submarines, was added to the collection as a replacement for an artifact that got away. The swap began in 1984. That year, when the U.S. Air Force called Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory looking for a spare satellite to launch into polar orbit, APL program manager David Grant knew just where the service could find one: hanging from the ceiling of the National Air and Space Museum. Grant had recently taken his children for a visit, and remembered seeing an Oscar 17 satellite on display.