1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron

The 1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron, a unit of the USAF Air Defense Command, was activated on 6 February 1961, organized on 14 February 1961, and became operational on 1 July 1961 as the SPACETRACK component of NORAD Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS). It was the operational version of research and development Project Space Track. Effective 1 October 1961, the Squadron was assigned to the 9th Aerospace Defense Division, which had been activated on 15 July 1961.

The Squadron name was changed to 1st Aerospace Control Squadron on 1 July 1962, but it was still informally called just 1st Aero. The unit was inactivated on 21 April 1976.

Until April 1966, when operations were moved to the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex, 1st Aero was located on the bottom two floors of Ent AFB building P4 Annex, a former hospital building, adjacent to the NORAD command center. The Space Defense Command's 1st Aerospace Control Squadron moved from Ent AFB to Cheyenne Mountain in April 1966.

1st Aero was responsible for tracking all artificial earth satellites, space probes, carrier rockets, and debris, US and foreign. The mission included detecting additional objects previously unknown and maintaining a complete catalogue.

The mission is now performed by the 614th Air & Space Operations Center, part of the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, California. An important additional mission is forecasting possible collisions in space.

Supporting unit, 4608th Support Squadron, ADC, 1 February 1960 – 30 April 1962

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, 1 June 1961 – 15 September 1963

Outstanding Air Defense Unit of the Air Defense Command, Air Force Association, September 1963

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, 1 July 1973 – 30 June 1974

The 1st Aero emblem was approved on 6 February 1962.

On an Air Force blue rectangular area a stylized computer above a semicircular geometrical pattern all surmounted by a stylized satellite, its four antennae saltirewise, all Air Force golden yellow; the satellite charged with an Air Force blue star; issuing from dexter chief a portion of the sun in splendor, and in sinister chief a formation of stars, Air Force golden yellow.

On an Air Force golden yellow scroll, edged and inscribed Air Force blue, PRIMARII AETHERIS DEFENSORES, Space Defenders of the First Rank.

The emblem is symbolic of the squadron and its mission. Against a background resembling in shape the fan-like radar of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, deep blue in color to represent the sky, and supplemented with the sun and stars to indicate day and night operations, a stylized satellite of the Vanguard class symbolizes the squadron as the Vanguard of Aerospace Defense. The satellite surmounts two symbols representing a computer for analyses and computations and a detection system with the capability of the MIDAS system and world-wide sensors. The solitary star on the satellite indicates that this is the first organization of this type.

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