VIII. PROGRAM DIVIDENDS - SATELLITES Usually, any given program having a specific objective can be adapted and used for another closely related project. There was no departure from this fact  in the IRBM development program. The idea to develop long- range missiles and satellite vehicles and the approval of such action was almost simultaneous. And without the missile, the satellite concept was impossible. Hence, the two programs remained almost inseparable throughout the ICBM and IRBM R&D stage, Also equally parallel to the missile portion, the Army met with the same maddening rebuffs in that the initially selected satellite program was based on the theoretical possibilities of a completely new program as opposed to one that could be based on proven hardware. All during 1954 and 1955, when proposals for the long- range missile were being made, Dr. von Braun was offering suggestions for the orbit of a satellite.  By December 1954 the Army and Navy met in a conference to consider the advisability of establishing a satellite program. Attending representatives  concluded that an inert slug approximately two feet in diameter and weighing five pounds could be injected into orbit by existing hardware. REDSTONE  was to be used as the basic booster, with clusters of LOKI rockets forming the second and third stages. The fourth and top stage would be a single LOKI.  This proposed project became known by the names of Project ORBITER and Project SLUG. _____________________________

125. Hist, ABMA, Jul-Dec 59, P. 15, Hist Off files; Interview, Mr. Prince Danley, REDSTONE- CORPORAL-JUPITER Project Off, AOMC, 11 Jul 62.