- Geoffrey Perry
Geoffrey E. Perry (August 4 1927,
Braintree, Essex –January 18 2000 ,Bude ) was aphysics teacher atKettering Grammar School ,Northamptonshire ,England who, together with his students, deduced the existence of the previously-secretPlesetsk Cosmodrome in 1966 by analyzing the orbit of theCosmos 112 satellite.The "
New York Times " published his discovery shortly beforeChristmas in 1966.Perry and his students (who formed the Kettering Group along with some other volunteers worldwide) continued their
satellite tracking work for a number of years, using only inexpensiveshortwave radio equipment and painstakingly using theDoppler effect to deduce the satellites' orbits. They were often able to deduce what various Soviet satellites were being used for, based on theirtelemetry . This information was very likely already known by Western intelligence agencies, although it was classified, meaning that the Kettering Group played an important role in making information about the Soviet space program publicly available.Perry received an MBE in 1973, in the New Year Honours List. In 1974, Perry received the
Jackson-Gwilt Medal of theRoyal Astronomical Society . After retiring from teaching in 1984 he worked as a space analyst for theITN television network.His wife was Jean, and they had a daughter, Isabel Carmichael.
External links
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DA103DF931A15752C0A9669C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/G/Glanz,%20James New York Times Obituary]
* [http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/jperry_obit_000120.html Obituary]
* [http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,33825,00.html Obituary]
* [http://www.zarya.info/kgs.htm Recollections of a schoolboy satellite tracker]
* [http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/getstart/oldcyts.htm Satellite tracking group]
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