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Optical Satellite Tracking: A Case Study in University Participation in Preparation for Space Warfare

The role of military research and development in the arms race and the role of universities in promoting military R&D have been described in many previous studies. This article describes how two universities (in Norway and New Zealand) took the further step of getting involved in servicing a direct operational need of the US Air Force. A Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera was operated for the US Air Force by the University of Oslo between 1959 and 1968, then operated by the Air Force itself on the premises of the University of Canterbury (in Christchurch, New Zealand). The military requirement for space tracking is reviewed and the link between space tracking and preparations for space warfare demonstrated. The uni versities appear to have been ill prepared to evaluate the military significance of their own work. In New Zealand public debate about the spacetrack station led the university to renounce its contract with the Air Force, although the station continued in the same location. In Norway, public debate only occurred many years after the contract had run out.