AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006 Session 2 History of Space
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  |   Block Schedule  [2.03] The Wisconsin Experiment Package
(WEP) aboard the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO-2)  J.
D. Marche (Kutztown University)  On 7 December 1968, NASA's
Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO-2) was launched into
space. Roughly ten years in development, the OAO carried two
sets of experiments, each designed to conduct the first extended
observations of the sky at ultraviolet wavelengths. One
experiment package was designed by the University of Wisconsin;
the other by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Remote
operation of the OAO, especially the WEP's narrow-field
photometric instruments, demanded a "complex stabilization and
control system" that could point the spacecraft towards any
desired object with an accuracy of better than one arc-minute. A
host of other calculations were routinely performed to insure
that the instruments were never point