Project Vela

From the beginning, however, and through 1960, ARPA pressed to add research for testing surface-based, atmospheric, and outer-space detonations, and advocated satellites as a potential platform for such detections.

[4] In the article astrophysicist Ed Fenimore states "Vela was the prototypical project that made Los Alamos the premier scientific national security laboratory in the world."

There is very little documentation which directly addresses the topic of the initial Vela Project due to its low funding, staffing, resources and status of priority.

The first sensor package sent into space, labelled the "Vela Hotel" experiment, was launched aboard the Ranger 1 lunar probe in August of 1961 and returned useful data.

The Vela Hotel satellite program was primarily developed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, under the supervision of the United States Air Force.

The Vela Hotel series of satellites never detected any weapons being tested in outer space, but they did provide the scientific community with valuable data regarding the mechanics of the solar system.

Importantly, this series of satellites was responsible for discovering Gamma-Ray Bursts,[7] markers of collapsing stars and black holes which are now recognized as the most violent events in the universe.

The discovery of Gamma-Ray Bursts enabled scientists with unprecedented ability to map the universe as they augmented existing methods of measuring light to identify deep space objects.

Vela Uniform was created with the intention of monitoring seismic activity in order to determine the magnitude and location of any covert nuclear weapons tests beneath the surface of the earth.