History of analytical orbit modeling in the US space surveillance system

The role played by analytical orbit modeling in the development of U.S space surveillance capabilities is discussed. For nearly a half century the U.S Space Surveillance system has been tracking and maintaining a catalog of manmade Earth orbiting satellites, which now consists of 10,000 objects. The tremendus success of this endaevor has been due in part to independent but complementary efforts by both the U.S Navy and the U.S Air Force at their missions in Dahlgren, Virginia, and Colorado Springs, Colorado respectively. Today the operational centers still depend largely on the original orbit models and applications of the pioneers of the 1950s and 1960s.