Dec 3 1958

From The Space Library

By Executive Order, President Dwight D. Eisenhower transferred the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a government-owned facility staffed and operated by the California Institute of Technology, from Army to NASA jurisdiction. The new JPL radio telescope at Camp Irwin, Calif., called the Goldstone Tracking Facility, was capable of maintaining radio contact at distances of up to 400,000 miles and was the first of NASA's deep-space tracking stations.

JPL built, designed, and tested upper stages, payloads, and tracking systems for the first IGY Explorer satellites.

NASA and the Army reached an agreement whereby ABMA and its subordinate organizations at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., would be responsive to NASA requirements.

DOD announced details of Project Discoverer, series of polar orbiting satellites.