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[Orbiting Astronomical Observatory]

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There are billions of stars in the

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universe. 

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We can see some of these with Earth-based telescopes, but not completely

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because the atmosphere distorts images seen through telescopes

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and filters out a major portion of the infrareds, ultraviolets,

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X-ray and gamma rays. It is these

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invisible radiations that could tell astronomers how stars are created,

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and give clues to the origin of the universe.

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This is the Orbiting Astronomical

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Observatory, OAO, shown here in the cleanroom at 

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland. It will soon be

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launched 500 miles out in space to take a close-up look at the stars,

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Views never-before seen by man.

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The more than two-ton OAO spacecraft is 

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this country's heaviest unmanned satellite.

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It will carry nine telescopes. Five in

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one end, four in the other. OAO

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will transmit its stored observations in numerical form, rather than

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as pictures. Computers on the ground then process the data

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for use by astronomers. The OAO

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is a precise optical package, so steady it can fix on an 

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object the size of a golf ball 100 miles away.

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One of the unique tasks on this first flight

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will be to map the entire sky by measuring 

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ultraviolet light. If the Orbiting

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Astronomical Observatory is successful in its mission, astronomers

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will have a powerful new tool for studying how

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matter and energy interact to generate the elements, the stars, and the

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galaxies. And better understand the origin of the universe.

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[Music]

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This has been an aeronautics and space report, presented by

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NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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[Music]