This week in 1977, the High Energy Astronomy Observatory-1, or HEAO-1, launched aboard an Atlas/Centaur rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This 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 HEAO Program was managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and involved a broad array of heliophysics, astrophysics, and planetary science investigations, ranging from the smallest nanosatellites and suborbital sounding rockets to the management of great orbiting observatories and interplanetary spacecraft. 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)