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The first thing I did when I got out to JPL was to sit down and put down on paper, in black and white, all the circuit
schematics. I was still working with bits and pieces of notes from my
notebooks, and so I had to sit down and draw those out by hand. JPL then picked up the
work. They set up the fabrication of the electronics.
I should mention, by the way, that at the time this happened, I
was just finishing the
prototype Vanguard unit, as I mentioned earlier. I carried that out to JPL and handed it to them, and that was used, for one thing,
for a fair amount of publicity. The engineers also had it – they were using it as a physical model and reverse
engineering the electronics. Interestingly enough, I have that particular package, the very one, sitting on my desk here six feet from me.
(It has subsequently been donated to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.)
How long did you continue to work with JPL on the Explorer satellite electronics?
For Explorer II, which, as I mentioned, failed to achieve orbit, and then for Explorer III, which got into orbit. I stayed there until 11 April.
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