Project OSCAR Inc. was started in 1960 by members of the TRW Radio Club of Redondo Beach, California as well as persons associated with Foothill College to investigate the possibility of putting an amateur satellite in orbit.

[4] OSCAR 4, along with LES-3, LES-4, and OV2-3, was launched on the third Titan IIIC test flight[5] on 22 December 1965 at 14:00:01 UT from Cape Canaveral LC41[6] just one second behind schedule.

However, this final burn, scheduled for T+6:03:04 after liftoff,[5] never occurred due to a leaking valve in the booster's attitude control system.

[8] In 1969, AMSAT-NA was founded by radio amateurs working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Baltimore-Washington DC region, to continue the efforts begun by Project OSCAR.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.