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Memorial Tributes Volume 20 (2016) / Chapter Skim
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WALTER K. VICTOR
Pages 340-345

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From page 341...
... Walt's first major contribution to space technology was in the development of CODORAC, which stands for coded Doppler radar communications system. Intended to be part of the Sergeant missile's guided system, it employed pseudonoise techniques to make the missile guidance unjammable.
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From page 342...
... This experiment refined the length of the astronomical unit and proved that the laboratory would be able to receive the faint signals from spacecraft near Venus. In 1963 Walt became chief of JPL's Telecommunication Division and in 1967 deputy assistant laboratory director for the Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition.
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From page 343...
... Professor Solomon Golomb, who was deputy section chief of the Telecommunications Research Section under Victor from 1960 until he left for USC in 1963, said that "Victor was a consummate engineer who thoroughly cross-examined everyone who worked for him to be sure they had overlooked no detail in the systems or subsystems they were assigned to design and build. As a result, we knew that if Victor was in charge of a project, it was sure to succeed." Walt was an intensely private man who did not socialize and who refused any sort of retirement ceremony after 35 years at JPL.
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From page 344...
... Walt died July 25, 2012. He is survived by his children, Trudy Victor Elardo, Daryl Victor, and Walter Victor, five grand­ hildren, and four great-grandchildren.
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Key Terms

  • assistant laboratory
  • laboratory director
  • space network
  • space information
  • research section

  • eberhardt rechtin
  • spacecraft near
  • radar experiment
  • solomon golomb
  • reliability programs

  • doppler radar
  • mudgway wrote
  • simplify acquisition
  • include seven
  • nasa headquarters

  • eventually shutting
  • coded doppler
  • experiment refined
  • summate engineer
  • unequivocal commitment

  • data acquisition
  • outside madrid
  • renamed deep
  • telecommunication division
  • geographic changes

  • missile guidance
  • victor elardo
  • guidance section
  • deputy section
  • engineers elected


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