GCAT Release 1.5.7 (2024 Oct 18) | Data Update 2024 Dec 25
Donna Colletti, Daina Bouquin and all the staff at the library of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. Eileen Dorschner, former librarian at the Aeronautics/Astronautics Library, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Brian Nicklas and other staff at the library and archives of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington; Mark Kahn and the other staff of the Garber Facility Archives of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Suitland, Maryland; The staff of Archives II, the National Archives, College Park, Maryland; Tomoko Steen at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Roger Launius at the History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.; The staff of the Declassified Documents Reading Room, National Reconnaissance Office, Virginia; The library at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Elaine Liston at the Archives, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida; Mark Cleary at the History Office, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida; The Redstone Arsenal Scientific Information Center, Huntsville, Alabama; The History Office, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama; The Library, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; The National Archives Southern Area, Atlanta, Georgia; The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Archives, Pasadena, California; The Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center archives, Cleveland, Ohio; The library at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona; The staff of the NASA Center for Aerospace Information; Jeff Geiger at the History Office, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California; Harry Waldron at the History Office, Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California; Pat McGinnis at the archives of Boeing, Los Angeles, California; The public library in Lompoc, California; The library at the British Interplanetary Society, Vauxhall, London; David Dewhirst and Jean Sanderson, formerly at the library of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Doug Millard and the staff of the Science Museum archives, Wroughton, England. Joe Page II, formerly of Vandenberg AFB. The Biblioteque Nationale, Paris; The Centre Spatiale de Toulouse; Arianespace-Evry; L. Valentin at the library, ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands; Herr Schinhan at the Deutsches Museum Archiv, Munich; Heiner Klinkrad at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany and the ESA space debris team The staff of ISRO at Bangalore and Trivandrum. The staff and correspondents of Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine, Moscow; The Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
I also thank the entire space surveillance community, notably
the 18th Space Control Squadron and its predecessors and the SAIC software team
behind Space-Track.org.
In the early years of this research I made extensive use of the
Science Museum Library, South Kensington, London; the Science
Reference Library at Holborn, London (whose materials are now
sadly stashed in the off-site stacks of the British Library);
and the Cambridge University Library.
Of course, this work has also depended on the insight and generosity of
many individuals. With apologies to those not included below, a partial list follows
(affiliations may no longer be current):
Vladimir Agapov of KIAM, Moscow, historian of the Russian space program; Peter Alway, author of Rockets of The World; Stefan Barensky, in Paris, space journalist Cees Bassa, astronomer and satellite observer Chris Bergin, in York, the guy behind nasaspaceflight.com Ulrich Brocks, in Germany, scourer of old newspapers Mike Cassutt, expert on US astronaut biographies I-Shih Chang at the Aerospace Corporation; John Charles at NASA JSC; Bob Christy, Kettering group satellite tracker Phillip Clark of London, expert on Russian and Chinese space Mordechai Cohen, GSFC Anne-Marie Corley, space writer Keith Cowing, of Reston, Virginia, Mr. NASA Watch Gerry Daelemans, GSFC small payloads manager Dwayne Day, space historian Jean-Michel Desobeau of Arianespace, Paris-Evry. David DeVorkin of the National Air and Space Museum; Abby Dickes, PR for Nanoracks Russell Eberst of Edinburgh, satellite observer Martin Elvis, astrophysicist at SAO; Stuart Eves, formerly of Surrey Satellite Jeff Foust, space journalist Daniel Fischer, astronomer and space journalist Rick Fleeter of AeroAstro and Brown University; Sven Grahn, Swedish space engineer and historian and Kettering Group member. Bill Gray, of Project Pluto, asteroid and deep space junk aficionado Laura Grego, space weapons expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, MA Teri Grimwood, keeper of the satellite list at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington DC the late Rex Hall of London, biographer of cosmonauts Henry Hallam, formerly of Planet Labs Bill Harwood, journalist. Andrew Higgins, prof of Mech. Eng. at McGill in Gerry Bull's old lab Peter Hunter of Sydney, archivist of launch vehicle pictures Roland Ivarnez of CNES Toulouse, Ram Jakhu of the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University Nick Johnson at JSC, NASA orbital debris guru Bill Keel of Tuscaloosa, astronomer and space science historian T.S. Kelso, astrodynamicist par excellence and SSA gadfly the late Tony Kenden, pioneer of US military space history the late Neville Kidger, UK, chronicler of the Soviet piloted space program Joe King, National Space Science Data Center at GSFC Robert Kratschmann, Austria, database expert Gunter Krebs, Germany, space historian Greg Kulacki, Beijing representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists Marco Langbroek, satellite observer, Leiden Michael Lara, formerly of Thiokol/ATK Roger Launius, Washington, former NASA chief historian Jeffrey Lewis, the arms control wonk Igor Lissov of Moscow, space journalist and historian John Logsdon, George Washington University, space policy expert Mike Loucks, astrogator Paul Maley of JSC, satellite observer Will Marshall, formerly of NASA-Ames, enfant terrible space activist and now Planet CEO Mike McCants, satellite observer and orbit archiver Cameron Meek, OneWeb Ted Molczan of Toronto, satellite observer; Joey Murphy, MIT Jackie Newmyer, formerly of the Kennedy School, China expert Carlos Neiderstrasser, engineer at Orbital Sciences (now NG) Jim Oberg of Houston, space historian, commentator and professional gadfly Richard Orloff, chronicler of Apollo The late Geoff Perry, founder of the Kettering Group of space analysts. John Pike, Washington, space policy expert Joel Powell, expert on obscure rockets; Gopal Raj, journalist and author in Trivandrum, India Martin Ransom, Arianespace commentator. Justin Ray, Florida, space journalist Marc Rayman, JPL deep space explorer, Carl Rigg, who repeatedly cross checked his extensive launch list with mine The late Joel Runes, of Florida, master of archival TLEs; Keith Scala of Connecticut, collector of launch lists. JJ Serra, French space historian Asif Siddiqi of Fordham U. New York, historian of the Russian space program; Marcia Smith, space expert at the Congressional Research Service Glenn Swanson, Houston, former historian at NASA and founder of Quest magazine Allen Thomson, Virginia, expert on US intelligence programs in space Tina Thompson, former editor of the TRW Space Log Wang Ting of the BUAA, Beijing the late Jacques Tiziou of Washington DC, journalist and expert on the French program. David Todd of London, aerospace insurance expert. Chris van den Berg, Dutch expert in radio monitoring of Salyut/Mir. Timofey Varlomeev, Russia, expert on the R-7 launch vehicle Antonin Vitek of Czechoslovakia, Sergey Voevodin, Russian space historian Mark Wade of Vienna, author of the web site Encylopedia Astronautica Nick Watkins of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge Brian Weeden, of the Secure World Foundation Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Center at CfA Max White, satellite observer Carol Wilbanks at the Aerospace Corporation The late Fred Whipple, space age pioneer. George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic Chris Wood, UK expert on Russian navsats David Wright, from the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, MA Yoshiro Yamada at the Yokohama Science Center Peter Young, MIT aerospace professor Anatoliy Zak, Russian space expert. Aleksandr Zheleznyakov, Russian space expert.