Here is a 2 Mar., 1960 transmittal letter from Air Force BSD and specifically
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Col. Harry Evans, Chairman of the Vela Joint Working Group.
The rough draft of
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- this plan is put out by Headquarters ARDC and is entitled "Project Vela Hotel,
ARPA Order No. 102-60."
The historical section of the report gives the names of
the panels who have addressed the question of nuclear test detection and says
that the Panofsky panel investigated the detection of nuclear explosions occurring
between 50 kilometers and 300,000,000 kilometers from the earth.
Furthermore,
"On 23 April.59, Dr. Killian, Secretary Quarles, and Mr. McCone met to discuss
implementing recommendations of the Panofsky panel.
Agreement was reached on the
assignment of responsibility for the high altitude detection program.
It was -
decided that the Department of Defense (DOD) would accept overall responsibility
for continuing instrumentation development and engineering with the cooperation
of the AEC for nuclear detonation aspects, and NASA,
measurements.
for radiation background
The ARPA was subsequently assigned the responsibility for a progran
involving the investigation of the detection of nuclear detonation underground,
at the earth's surface, and in outer space.
ARPA Order No. 102-60 directed AFBND
to investigate a system of ground stations and satellites for detecting nuclear
detonations above 50 kilometers.
The study was completed in Oct. 1959.
ARPA
Order No. 102-60 Amendment 1 directed AFBND to further investigate satellitebased detection system.
As a part of this study, ARPA requested that a development
plan be generated for a research and development program leading to the definition
of a satellite borne detection system.
The plan was to be written by a Joint
Working Group including members of the AEC, NASA, and ARDC.
To facilitate writing
the plan separate sub-committees for payload, space booster, and communications
and control were xexfsxmed formed.
This development plan for Project Vela Hotel,