"Satellites are like old soldiers. They don't die. They just fade away."
(Ed Habib/GSFC, as quoted in Bester's book)

Many books are hidden in the folds of the history of human achievements, and space travel has its own share of titles forgotten and today all but unknown. The book featured in this article is a little gem not only because of the way it is written, but also because it discloses a number of those unsung heroes who worked long and hard to get things done in those early pioneering days.

In its 1966 book "Life and Death of a Satellite", Alfred Bester departed from his usual playground as a very noted science fiction writer to provide an account of the development of the first series of space-borne astronomical observatories, known as OSO, Orbiting Solar Observatory, who led the way to the OAO (Orbiting Astronomial Observatory) series and eventually to the Hubble Space Telescope. The book aim is to describe the world of the managers, scientists and engineers of that time, in order to demonstrate that the apparent complexity of a satellite can be broken down to simpler parts. To achieve this goal behind the scenes processes are disclosed, people are described and jargon, and acronyms, are explained.

Basing only on this characteristics we would rate the book as a great success and a worthy addition to any library, both lay and technical. However we cannot fail to note that the book provides so many details about people, companies and space politics as well as technical explanation about the ingenuity which went into the building of this very first kind of satellites. All this highlights the texture that links all technical achievements, and this book excels at this.

The entire project of the OSO-class satellites, whose research target was the Sun as seen from a low Earth orbit, was won by the Ball Brothers Research Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, in September 1959. This small group of researcher had a reputation for pointing mechanisms for the early military rockets in use at the time. Laurence Hogarth and dr. John Lindsay, program manager and project scientist for the mission, had an idea about a dual section satellite with one section fixed toward the Sun and the other revolving to ensure stability (what we now call a spin-stabilized spacecraft with a de-spun section). Tapping their experience with sounding rockets, they planned to use a light-controlled servo-motor to drive the motor that kept the so-called "sail", fitted with solar arrays and instruments, pointed at the Sun while the bottom part of the vehicle rotated. The engineering was developed by Otto E. "Pete" Bartoe, who did the theoretical part regarding the dynamic of the system, and Fred Dolder, who did the practical design. Bartoe's effort on OSO wasn't probably the longest in terms of involvement (weeks) but he defines himself as 'the father' of the satellite, while Dolder was said to be 'the mother' enduring a much longer gestation period.

Technically speaking, Bester's book is full of juicy details. The making of a satellite is defined as an art and this is pretty clear demonstrated by the number of problems encountered with having a DC motor flown in space, and the required slip ring contacts and so on. We learn about the solutions that were devised at the time and how the closely knit group built the subsequent satellites more on memory records than written knowledge of the acquired experience. We are offered a thorough explanation of telemetry in the early days and how a wrong decision for a simpler telecommand system nearly caused the loss of the first satellite. And we are also given an insight in the early computer languages, with a line by line explanation of the pretty obscure syntax.

These and many other details make the book a very interesting read. But we can't fail to underline that the principal aim of the book, that to describe the people and their work, is perfectly achieved, with historical references, personal anedoctes and the pretty unique accounts of an engineering team meeting that will make any contemporary spacecraft engineer smile with understanding.

Additional references

More interesting info about the life anc achievements of O. E. Bartoe (one of the many characters portrayed in the book) can be found, for instance, here and in this paper.

Bartoe is also well-known for his design of the short take-off and landing jet called Jetwing, whose wing worked on a particular aerodynamic effect to achieve high-lift at low speeds. The only Jetwing prototype is now a prized possession of the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, in Denver (CO), whose wonderful Research Library also holds all the technical papers.

A used copy of the book might be available through Boggs Spacebooks.

Title: Life and Death of a Satellite

Author: Alfred Bester

Editor: Little, Brown and Company

Year: 1966