JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I do not have the source for this though I believe it is from Science Magazine from 1960.  The ad was placed LANL looking for new hires, and employed the artwork of Emil Bisttram (Taos, New Mexico), representing the new ARPA (pre-DARPA) work for the detection of nuclear explosion tests conducted in outer space, Project VELA.  (“In a continuation of presidentially directed programs, Eisenhower assigned ARPA in the summer of 1959 the task of developing the technologies necessary for the detection of nuclear tests, what would become Project VELA (Vela means watchman in Spanish). This program would examine technologies for detection space and atmospheric tests by satellites (VELA , undertaken by the High Altitude Detection panel (the Panofsky panel) of PSAC, which recommended that a satellite system be employed to detect atmospheric or space nuclear tests as part of a verification system for a possible nuclear test ban treaty.”–“DARPA Space History”, here: http://qnet.me/legal/DARPA%20-%20Background.pdf