File:330-ps-8339-usn-709827 15781382684 o.jpg

English: 330-PS-8339 (USN 709827): Mr. Walter R. Silvester, one of the engineers assigned to the Earth Satellite Project, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., adjusts the minitrack precision time standard equipment being used in the minitrack radio tracking stations that will track the scientific Earth satellite as it passes around the Earth sometime during the International Geophyiscal Year. The time-standard equipment is so accurate that it will enable Naval Research Laboratory scientists to coordinate their timing devices within one thousandth of a second at much of the radio tracking sties. The mini-track stations will receive information from the satellite as it passes over the Earth and relay it to a computing station in Washington, D.C., where orbital calculations will be made. Since these calculations are relayed to scientists all over the world for their use in observing or tacking the satellite, extremely close coordination of time at the various stations is necessary. The project is being sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation as part of the U.S. program for participation in the International Geophysical Year, April 25, 1957. (1/29/2015).