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Ocean’s Heritage, Summer 2017
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October 4, 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the launching of the Soviet Sputnik
Deal Test Site first to track Sputnik I, 1957 It's not hard to defend the claim that Deal Test Site (today's Joe Palaia Park) is the most historically significant acreage in the 11.1 square miles that make up present-day Ocean Township. Aside from the mastodon skeleton unearthed there in 1823, and the breakthrough research conducted by Western Electric (later Bell Labs) on wireless communications, there is 1957, when Deal Test Site—then occupied by the Army Signal Corps—became the first U.S.-based facility to track the Russian Sputnik. Or at least that's the story we've been telling visitors since the Museum opened its doors. But recently, a visitor gave us pause. She told us that her father, a scientist at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown, was the first person to sight Sputnik I and that she had the newspaper clippings to prove it. Had we been misinforming the public for decades? A troubling thought. And what better time to straighten out who did what, where, and when than for the 60th anniversary of the launch in question?
The simple (ish) answer Turns out both claims are correct. On Oct. 12, 1957, Stan Schodowski (our visitor's father) was the first American to optically sight (with aid of a telescope) the Sputnik, its nose cone, and booster rocket— three objects. His story is told in the "I Remember . . " column on page 5. But a week earlier, at 7:50 a.m., Oct. 5, just hours after the launch, the Astro-Observation Center, an outpost of Fort Mon-
Deal Test Site, 1957. This new H-shaped combat antenna had recently been designed at Deal Test Site to locate enemy ground radio stations. Having it gave engineers there a unique ability to pinpoint the location of the orbiting Sputnik. mouth's Signal Corps on Deal Test Site, was the first U.S. government facility to pick up radio signals from the Soviet satellite (an instrument sighting).
The full (er) story The launch of the first man-made moon—as satellites were then called— was not a surprise. Several years earlier, scientists from around the world set it as
Astro-Tracking Center, Deal Test Site, 1969. Operations at Deal Test Site were in the news often after the historic tracking of Sputnik I. An elaborate (this time official) monitoring operation was set up in time for Sputnik II, launched Nov. 3, 1957. (America sent up its first successful satellite, Explorer I, Jan. 31, 1958.) The Test Site continued as a 24/7 tracking station until its role waned as NASA developed its own monitoring facilities in the late 1960s. It closed officially June 30, 1973.
a goal for the upcoming 1957/58 International Geophysical Year (IGY), a global, collaborative initiative to learn more about the earth and space. The surprise was who did the launching. The Navy had won the bid to develop a U.S. satellite. IGY and U.S. government resources around the world were preparing to track what they expected to be the U.S. Vanguard. But at 3:30 (EDT), Thursday, Oct. 4, the Soviets shocked the world by putting the first man-made moon (22" in diameter, 184 lbs.) in orbit. Deal Test Site was already geared up for satellite tracking. It had a unique capability to pinpoint the source of radio signals on the very frequencies the Sputnick was broadcasting. It had engineers trained and ready to go into action. For 500 hours, from Oct. 5 until the satellite batteries ran out, 30 Deal Test Site engineers (who called themselves the "Royal Order of Sputnik Chasers") worked—unofficially—round the clock seven days a week without overtime pay to detect and record Russian signals. The Site's significance is real The stories behind the claims show no contest for first. Both Stan Schodowski and the Deal Test Site have earned their place in history. Thanks to the U.S. Army CECOM History Office Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, for sharing its
records and photographs.