1970 - First Laser Ranging in Czechoslovakia

The observations of artificial satellites of the Earth begin in 50th years of 20 century. They were used for determination of the satellite orbit and the observing station positions. The determination of direction from station to the satellite using photography was used in 60th years. At the end of 60th years was erected the idea about determination of distance between station and satellite using pulses of light from LASER.

There were some institutions performing satellite observations in the Czechoslovakia in 60th years. One of them was Research Institute of Geodesy, Topography and Cartography which use observations of satellites namely for determination of position on the Earth. Second one was Astronomical Institute of Czechoslovak
Academy of Science which used observations of satellites for determination of satellite orbit and their changes due to gravitational effects. Other group was erected at the Czech Technical University in Prague - Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering. This group performs research in the field of LASERs  pulse generators, detectors, signal processing.

Prezentováno v posterové sekci na " 19th International Workshop on Laser Ranging" Annapolis, USA, October 2014. Poster-19iwlr.pdf

https://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/lw19/docs/2014/Papers/3022_Kostelecky_paper.pdf