 The Corps of Engineers participated in the Vanguard satellite program with the US Army Signal Corps and US Navy to obtain astronomic, geodetic and gravimetric observations to determine the size and shape of the earth, intercontinental relationships and gravity fields.Continuing this work, Alden Colvocoresses developed the Space-oblique Mercator projection, which was used with the Landsat satellite to make the first satellite produced map of the US.The AMS and other agencies, split off to form the US Army Engineer Research and Development Laboratories (UASERDL) in 1947; then evolved into next into the [Geodesy, Intelligence and Mapping Research and Development Agency (GIMRADA) in 1960; then the Engineer Topographic Laboratories (ETL) in 1967; and then became the Topographic Engineering Center (TEC), which came to be housed at the Humphreys Engineer Center in Alexandria, Virginia.