In 1956, Dr Fred Whipple, director of the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory sent a letter to Dr CE Kenneth Mees, explaining the need for a satellite tracking station in Hawaii. Mees was the retired vice president for research of the Eastman Kodak Company and the developer of the color film Kodachrome – he gave Kodak stock to UH.
UH sold its Kodak stock and with the proceeds built a small cinderblock building with a sliding roof to house the anticipated Baker-Nunn Super-Schmidt tracking camera, and a small wood-frame building for living accommodations for the observers. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite to be placed in orbit around Earth (forcibly opening the Space Age.) Later, the Baker-Nunn satellite Tracking Camera was dedicated on August 2, 1958. In 1961, an Executive Order set aside land on Haleakala to be under the control and management of the UH, which established the ‘Haleakala High Altitude Observatory Site,’ sometimes referred to as Science City.