OV1-8 was designed to test the passive communications utility of an aluminum grid sphere versus a balloon satellite (e.g. NASA's Project Echo).

The Orbiting Vehicle satellite program arose from a US Air Force initiative, begun in the early 1960s, to reduce the expense of space research.

General Dynamics received a $2 million contract on 13 September 1963 to build a new version of the SPP (called the Atlas Retained Structure (ARS)) that would carry a self-orbiting satellite.

However, in 1964, the Air Force transferred ABRES launches to the Western Test Range causing a year's delay for the program.

OV1-8 was a 9.14 m (30.0 ft), 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) open spherical grid of fine aluminum wires mounted in an inflatable balloon, produced by Goodyear Aerospace, of polybutyl methacrylate.

Within an hour, the plastic had been completely disintegrated by solar ultraviolet radiation, as planned, leaving a spherical aluminum grid behind.

[4] OV1-8's retrograde orbit was chosen to accentuate the drag and perturbation caused by the upper atmosphere to analyze their effect on the satellite's motion.