Vela (satellite)

Vela

Artist's impression of Vela 5B satellite in orbit
Country of origin	United States
Operator	U.S. Air Force
Applications	Reconnaissance
Specifications
Regime	Highly elliptical orbit
Design life	15 years
Production
Status	Disabled
Launched	12
Operational	0
Retired	12
Maiden launch	Vela 1A
Last launch	Vela 6B
Related spacecraft
Derived from	Project Vela and Integrated Operational Nuclear Detection System (IONDS)

Vela was the name of a group of satellites developed as the Vela Hotel element of Project Vela by the United States to detect nuclear detonations and monitor Soviet Union compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.

Vela started out as a small budget research program in 1959. It ended 26 years later as a successful, cost-effective military space system, which also provided scientific data on natural sources of space radiation. In the 1970s, the nuclear detection mission was taken over by the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites. In the late 1980s, it was augmented by the Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. The program is now called the Integrated Operational NuDet (Nuclear Detonation) Detection System (IONDS).