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[Music] The universe appears

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to be infinite, but starting from his tiny

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dot in one corner of the Milky Way, man is beginning

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his conquest of it. [Music]

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[Music]

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After his first trial steps, he will one day walk

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the Moon. We can marvel at such exploits, 

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even as we realize the chances are slight that man will venture

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personally beyond his own solar system. It is a long

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way to the stars.

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The sole source of knowledge of objects beyond our solar system

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is electromagnetic radiation. But despite the fact that

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we receive almost all our knowledge through our eyes, the visible

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spectrum is a narrow one. We might see many new

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colors if we could see into other wavelengths, and the light

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invisible to us can tell us much about the mysteries of space.

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Already, this invisible light has led us to a new

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understanding of the universe, and provided unsuspected puzzles

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for our solution.

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The envelope of air which protects life on Earth also

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screens out, or absorbs, the starlight in this portion

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of the spectrum, and it is these invisible radiations

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that could one day tell us how stars are born and die.

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And how the universe was created. For Earth-bound astronomers,

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the challenge is tantalizing. Yes, it is beyond the air

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that we must go if we seek a clearer image of the heavens.

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Above distortion that makes the stars twinkle,

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above the blotter of air that absorbs the ultraviolet,

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the X-rays, the gamma rays, on which

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much of the study of starlight depends.

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We need a solid platform, hundreds of miles out in space,

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from which to make our studies. Not a rocket, not a balloon,

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but an orbiting astronomical observatory, and that is what has

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been developed by scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center,

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where Dr. James Kupperian headed a group of distinguished astronomers.

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[Music]

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To know the stars, we must capture starlight,

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light that is cut off forever from human eyes on Earth. For this,

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we need special telescopes. [Dr. Kupperian]: With the Goddard telescope in space,

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we can sample radiations emitted from within our own

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galaxy and compare them to emissions from

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galaxies tens of millions of light-years distant. It's an exciting

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prospect. With the OAO man will go a long way

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toward solving the mystery of the creation of matter.

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[Narrator]: Through our new window on the universe, we shall search

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the stars in many ways. An early project will be the mapping

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of the entire sky by ultraviolet light. In charge

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of making this unique celestial map is Dr. Fred Whipple.

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[Dr. Whipple]: The new map of the universe, which will be very different

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from these maps, will be made by a celescope.

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With four such ground-controlled 

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telescopic cameras, we intend to make an all-sky

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map in four separate ultraviolet colors.

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In addition, we plan to catalog more than

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30,000 very hot stars

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much brighter than the Sun, many times more

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than astronomers have previously recorded in

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the ultraviolet. [Narrator]: This

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satellite, the OAO, is the biggest and most complex

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unmanned satellite in the NASA program. Built by the Grumman 

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Aircraft Corporation, it basically a shell, into which

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various kinds of telescopes can be mounted. When it has been placed in an

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orbit 500 miles beyond the Earth, this space observatory will

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give us eyes to see into regions until now invisible

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to man. [Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music][Rocket launch sound]

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[Rocket launch sound]

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[Rocket launch sound]

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Launched by a Centaur rocket, the OAO sheds its protective fairings

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in space. [Music]

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The OAO powers itself

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through solar panels, storing electrical energy derived from

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sunlight. Once in orbit, it relies on

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solar sensors and star trackers to stabilize itself.

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Then, it opens its eyes to look through a new window in the

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universe. With each succeeding year, a new OAO 

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will be orbited. The first one in space carries telescope packages

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in both ends. [Music]

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From a ground control station, men reach into space

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500 miles to point the OAO toward any part of the sky

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they wish to study.

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Precision is such that the OAO could fix on the eraser of a pencil

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100 miles away. Observations can be

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stored by magnetic memory,

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and all information flashed to Earth within seconds. Recorded as numerical

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data, starlight images can be translated into pictures

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by the trained scientists.

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The OAO will be another significant advance

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in astronomy since Galileo aimed the first telescope

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to prove the Earth was not the center of the universe.

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From the time when

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prehistoric man wondered at the bright pin points in the sky,

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astronomy has developed as a challenge.

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The OAO, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory,

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will extend man's range of vision across the universe.

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Man, on his 

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tiny planet -- a sand grain on the shoreline of the seas

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of infinity--longs to find out what the stars are,

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why they are there, how they came to be there,

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vast, in the immensities of space, that

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may, or may not, have a beginning,

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or an end.

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[Produced by Film Graphics, Inc.][Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]