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[Seas of Infinity. Length: 14:25]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music][Seas of Infinity]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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Galaxies,

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constellations,

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stars,

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planets

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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The universe appears to be infinite, but starting from his tiny

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dot in one corner of the Milky Way, man is

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beginning his conquest of it.

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[Music]

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After his first trial steps, he will one day

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walk 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

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long way to the stars.

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One of the slenderest things on our small planet is spider silk.

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That's why these fine threads are used

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for crosshairs in delicate optical instruments to study the stars.

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Spider silk is so fine, that one pound

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would circle the Earth.

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To reach Alpha Centauri,

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the nearest star beyond the Sun, would require

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one half-million tons of silk. Enough to fill a train

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150 freight cars long.

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Only by the science of astronomy can we leap across this

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vastness, and, by our eyes, and with special scientific

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instruments, analyze the elements and atomic structure

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of distant suns. The sole

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source of knowledge of objects beyond our solar system

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is electromagnetic radiation. When the spectroscope was

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invented, we found we could analyze matter by its radiation.

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Every chemical element

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creates a unique set of special lines that we can compare

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with others. Thus, we can deduce that the entire universe

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is made up of elements similar to some of those we find

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on Earth. We see some radiations

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as colors. But despite the fact that we receive almost all

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our knowledge through our eyes, the visible spectrum is

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a narrow one. We might see many new colors if

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we could see into other wavelengths, such as radio waves,

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infrared, ultraviolet,

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X-rays, and gamma rays.

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

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Already, this invisible light has led

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us to a new understanding of the universe, and provided

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unsuspected puzzles for our solution.

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The envelope of air which protects life on Earth

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also screens out, or absorbs, the starlight

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in this portion 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

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astronomers, the challenge is tantalizing.

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Telescopes on brief rocket flights have brought us hints of entities

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we never knew existed. And balloon

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flights have lifted telescopes 8 miles into the air, to take some

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of the clearest photographs of the Sun ever obtained.

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From Earth-bound views like this,

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to this.

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Yes, it is beyond the air that we must go

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if we seek a clearer image of the heavens.

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Above distortion that makes the stars twinkle, above

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the blotter of air that absorbs the ultraviolet, the X-rays,

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the gamma rays, on which much of the study

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of starlight depends. We need a

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solid platform, hundreds of miles out in space, from which

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to make our studies. Not a rocket, not a balloon, but an

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orbiting astronomical observatory, and that is what has been developed

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by scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where

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Dr. James Kupperian headed a group of distinguished astronomers.

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To know

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the stars, we must capture starlight, light that is cut off

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forever from human eyes on Earth. For this, we need special

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telescopes. There are such

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telescopes, and here is Dr. Arthur D. Code who helped design

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one of them at the University of Wisconsin. [Dr. Code]: Radiation

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that comes to us from celestial objects spans the entire

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electromagnetic spectrum, from the long radio waves

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through the infrared and visible light, into the

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X-ray and gamma-ray region. The Wisconsin telescopes

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are designed to observe in the ultraviolet region

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beyond the range of visibility

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of the eye. Space contains not only many old

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stars like our Sun, a few billion years old,

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but young, blue stars only a few hundred thousand

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of years of age.

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These young hot stars give off most of their light

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in the ultraviolet, a region which does not penetrate the Earth's

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filtering atmosphere. The Wisconsin telescopes will be

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able to see these hot young stars. They will measure the energy

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distribution and the intensity of light from young stars,

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something never-before possible. From these studies

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and more, we hope learn more about how stars are born,

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age, and die, and how matter is reborn

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into the universe. [Narrator]: This

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telescope was invented in the 17th century by Monsieur Cassegrain.

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Medieval. But a modern version will aid man's knowledge

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of space. Dr. James Kupperian of the Goddard Space Flight Center

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has, with the help of other NASA astronomers, devised a new way

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to use Cassegrain's ancient telescope.

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[Dr. Kupperian]: The Goddard Telescope system has been developed by us to

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explore ultraviolet radiation of stars, in a manner somewhat similar to that

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of the Wisconsin telescopes. The emphasis, however, is on increased

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spectral resolution. With the Goddard telescope in space,

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we can sample radiations emitted from within our own galaxy

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and compare them to emissions from galaxies

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

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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 the stars

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

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entire sky by ultraviolet light. In charge of making this

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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 telescopic

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cameras, we intend to make an all-sky map

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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 than

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astronomers have previously recorded in the ultraviolet.

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[Narrator]: Among other objects, an ultraviolet map

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of the sky will study pockets of interstellar gas and dust clouds.

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Some are dark, some almost invisible from Earth.

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These vast clouds in space may hold clues as to how

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stars are born.

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An OAO project, developed in the space telescope

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program of Princeton University, will investigate these

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provocative dark areas. Dr. Donald Morton describes it.

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[Dr. Morton]: This telescope can be used for many different kinds of observations,

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but at Princeton, we have a particular study in mind.

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Not all clouds are as dark as this one in Orion, but it is apparent

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that the space between the stars in not empty, but filled with great clouds

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of dust and gas. As starlight travels towards us, the atoms

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in these clouds absorb part of the spectrum.

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By observing these areas in ultraviolet light with our spectrometer, it's

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possible to deduce the density and chemical composition of the

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interstellar gas. All the telescope packages

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will be working in the same range of wavelengths, but there will be a difference

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in the sharpness of resolution. For example,

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the Smithsonian and Wisconsin telescopes will take the initial

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broad approach, with low-resolution studies, in bands

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500-10 angstroms wide. The Goddard

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telescope will examine this same radiation with medium resolution.

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in bands from 10 angstroms down to 1.

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And for the Princeton package, there remains high resolution, down to

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one-twentieth of an angstrom. Astronomers have long believed

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that new stars are formed by the condensation of

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interstellar gas and dust.

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With our OAO, we hope

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to determine the density and chemical composition of this tenuous material

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and then we may be able to better understand

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the process of star formation.

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[Narrator]: This satellite,

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the OAO, is the biggest and most complex unmanned

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satellite in the NASA program. Built by the Grumman Aircraft Corporation,

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it is basically a shell, into which various kinds of

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telescopes can be mounted. When it has been placed in an orbit

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500 miles beyond the Earth. this space observatory will gives us

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eyes to see into regions until now invisible to man.

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[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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Launched by a

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Centaur rocket, the OAO sheds its protective fairings in

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space. [Music]

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The OAO powers itself through

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solar panels, storing electrical energy derived from sunlight.

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Once in orbit, it relies on solar sensors

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and star trackers to stabilize itself. Then,

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it opens its eyes to look through a new window in the universe.

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With each succeeding year, a new OAO will be orbited,

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the first one in space carries telescope packages in both ends.

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From a ground

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control station, men reach into space 500 miles

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to point the OAO toward any part of the sky they wish to study.

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Precision is such

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that the OAO could fix on the eraser of pencil

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100 miles away. Observations can be stored by

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magnetic memory, and all information

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flashed to Earth within seconds.  Recorded as numerical data,

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starlight images can be translated into pictures by the

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trained scientists.

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The OAO will be another significant advance in astronomy

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since Galileo aimed the first telescope to prove

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the Earth was not the center of the universe.

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From the time when prehistoric man

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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 tiny planet --

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a sand grain on the shoreline of the seas of infinity --

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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 may

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or may not, have a beginning or an end.

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[Music]

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

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[Music]

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[Music]