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This Week in NASA History: HEAO-1 Launches – Aug. 12, 1977

This week in 1977, the first of three spacecraft in NASA's High Energy Astronomy Observatory program, HEAO-1, was launched.
This week in 1977, the High Energy Astronomy Observatory-1, launched aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

This week in 1977, the High Energy Astronomy Observatory-1 launched aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and developed by TRW, HEAO-1 was the first in a series of three spacecraft in the HEAO Program and was designed to survey the sky for additional X-ray and gamma-ray sources and to pinpoint their positions. The mission lasted 17 months. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)