Space Defense Operations Computation Center, NORAD

The Space Defense Center (SDC) was a space operation center of the

North American Aerospace Defense Command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

. It was successively housed at two Colorado locations,

Ent Air Force Base Ent Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located in the Knob Hill neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. A tent city, established in 1943 during construction of the base, was initially commanded by Major General Uzal Girard ...

, followed by Cheyenne Mountain's Group III Space Defense Center The 1st Aerospace Control Squadron manned the SDC at both locations, which used the

Electronic Systems Division The Electronic Systems Center was a product center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. Its mission was to develop and acquire Command and Control (Military), command and control, communica ...

's 496L System for processing and displaying data combined from the U.S. "Air Force's

Space Track Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually conside ...

and the Navy's Spasur" ( NAVSPASUR). The photo is of a console introduced for the 427M system, the 496L inputs were only card readers and paper tape readers, the only output was from two large line printers.

History

The initial 496L System was at

Hanscom Field Laurence G. Hanscom Field , commonly known as Hanscom Field, is a public use airport operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority, located outside Boston in Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. Hanscom is mainly a general aviation airport, ...

National Space Surveillance Control Center National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

and the second was installed at Ent Air Force Base's Space Defense Center. The Ent SDC was one of several facilities providing data to the Cheyenne Mountain Combat Operation Center when the nuclear bunker achieved

full operational capability In military acquisition, full operating capability or full operational capability (FOC) is the completion of a development effort. This is usually preceded by an initial operating capability or initial operational capability (IOC) phase. For the Un ...

on July 1, 1966. The SDC's approximately $5-million

Delta I Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

computer system at Cheyenne Mountain became operational on October 28, 1966, with about 53 individual computer programs totaling 345,000

instructions Instruction or instructions may refer to: Computing * Instruction, one operation of a processor within a computer architecture instruction set * Computer program, a collection of instructions Music * Instruction (band), a 2002 rock band from Ne ...

. The Space Defense Center mission moved from Ent Air Force Base to "adjacent to the NORAD command center" in Cheyenne Mountain on February 6, 1967. The NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex Improvements Program (ESD program $427M contracted in 1972, operational in 1979) included the

Space Computational Center Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consi ...

(SCC)" intended to replace the Space Defense Center (the 1979 Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) was for "replacing the in Cheyenne Mountain during October.") The Space Computational Center (using the 427M computer system) replaced the Space Defense Center (which used the 496L computer system) and the SDC was closed.

References

Cold War military computer systems of the United States North American Aerospace Defense Command Cheyenne Mountain Complex {{mil-stub