[Orbiting Astronomical Observatory]
There are billions of stars in the
universe.
We can see some of these with Earth-based telescopes, but not completely
because the atmosphere distorts images seen through telescopes
and filters out a major portion of the infrareds, ultraviolets,
X-ray and gamma rays. It is these
invisible radiations that could tell astronomers how stars are created,
and give clues to the origin of the universe.
This is the Orbiting Astronomical
Observatory, OAO, shown here in the cleanroom at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland. It will soon be
launched 500 miles out in space to take a close-up look at the stars,
Views never-before seen by man.
The more than two-ton OAO spacecraft is
this country's heaviest unmanned satellite.
It will carry nine telescopes. Five in
one end, four in the other. OAO
will transmit its stored observations in numerical form, rather than
as pictures. Computers on the ground then process the data
for use by astronomers. The OAO
is a precise optical package, so steady it can fix on an
object the size of a golf ball 100 miles away.
One of the unique tasks on this first flight
will be to map the entire sky by measuring
ultraviolet light. If the Orbiting
Astronomical Observatory is successful in its mission, astronomers
will have a powerful new tool for studying how
matter and energy interact to generate the elements, the stars, and the
galaxies. And better understand the origin of the universe.
[Music]
This has been an aeronautics and space report, presented by
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
[Music]