Where did Townsend go, post Paris2 ca 1957/58?

Long-time Townsend Brown inquirer Jan Lundquist – aka 'Rose' in The Before Times – has her own substantial archive to share with readers and visitors to this site. This forum is dedicated to the wealth of material she has compiled: her research, her findings, and her speculations.
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Jan Lundquist
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Where did Townsend go, post Paris2 ca 1957/58?

Post by Jan Lundquist »

Dr. Sarbacher brought Townsend home from his second Paris trip and waited in the car while Townsend dropped off gifts and kissed everyone hello and good-bye. Linda reports that she didn't see him again for a year, and AFIK, that year is a void to us resarchers, as well.

Meanwhile, the race to space was proceeding apace.

While TTB was off lollygagging, SWINT (Someone who is not Townsend) oversaw the creation of network of signals intercept stations in strategic locations around Russia and the world. Their initial purpose was to capture signals from the U2 overflights of Russia, but they were ready when the CIA's GRAB mission equipment began transmitting from the front-facing DISCOVERER satellite.
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Re: Where did Townsend go, post Paris2 ca 1957/58?

Post by Jan Lundquist »

Townsend's long absence coincided with the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year. Wiki says
The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.[2] The timing of the IGY was particularly suited for studying some of these phenomena, since it covered the peak of solar cycle 19....

The origin of the International Geophysical Year can be traced to the International Polar Years held in 1882–1883, then in 1932–1933 and most recently from March 2007 to March 2009. On 5 April 1950, several top scientists (including Lloyd Berkner, Sydney Chapman, S. Fred Singer, and Harry Vestine), met in James Van Allen's living room and suggested that the time was ripe to have a worldwide Geophysical Year instead of a Polar Year, especially considering recent advances in rocketry, radar, and computing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... sical_Year

Though the IGY was presented as project of pure scientific research, I do not doubt that it was, at least partly, motivated by concerns for national security. Author Allen A. Nedell suspects so as well
In this essay I shall revisit the broader context of Lloyd Berkner’s partici-pation in both the dinner party at the Van Allen’s and the satellite invitation, emphasizing how, with one foot planted firmly in the scientific world but the other foot just as firmly in the national security realm, Berkner, when orchestrating the IGY, worked hard to serve both.
Source: Chapter 11
Lloyd Berkner and the InternationalGeophysical Year Proposal in Context: WithSome Comments on the Implications for the
Comité Spéciale de l’Année Géophysique Internationale, CSAGI, Request for Launching Earth Orbiting Satellites


(Part of the Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology book series (PSHST))
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... 0114654_12
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