The Space Department was created in 1959
to implement the APL-invented global satellite navigation concept for
the Navy. But the intellectual seeds go back to 1946, when a small group
of scientists at APL under the leadership of James Van Allen (of the Van
Allen radiation belts) began experimenting with captured German V2 rockets.
The acquisition of Doppler data from Sputnik and the subsequent formulation
of the satellite navigation concept gave rise to the Transit Program,
which compiled unparalleled availability and reliability records.
The
Discovery Years: '61-'76
By the mid-1960s, missions were designed to perform geodesy investigations
for NASA and later, astronomy and radiation experiments.
APL's GEOS satellites mapped the topography of the ocean surface to
an accuracy of 50 cm. A detailed survey of the Earth’s magnetic
field came next, with Magsat. The IMP and SAS programs began initial
radiation investigations and astronomical research.
The
Developing Years: '77-'86
Space science missions began to increase the Department's emphasis to
science. Charged particle experiments flew on Voyager 1 and 2, and are
still operating today. APL instruments also went to Jupiter on the Galileo
program, toward the Sun with Ulysses, and even generated a comet tail
with AMPTE. Geosat, HILAT, and Polar BEAR missions followed up with
more first-of-a-kind research into Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere.
Experiments in Strategic Defense
Ballistic missile defense in the mid-1980s became the
principal focus of the Department's work, with overlapping engineering
and applied science activity lasting through the early 1990s.
The
Science Missions Era
After the Cold War, science missions in both planetary
and Sun-Earth connections, plus experiments on NASA spacecraft, shifted
our projects from 70% DoD to about 70% NASA.
The
Future: 2000 and Beyond
APL's unique blend of world-class science
and innovative engineering represents a powerful combination that augurs
well for the future of the Space Department.
