Immediately after the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test in 1962 , the U.S. military realized it had no ability to collect accurate data on the intense and persistent radiation belts created by the blast . This would lead Edward Teller to appropriate a satellite instrument designed and built by Trainor , then a graduate student in the physics department at the University of New Hampshire . Trainor had no choice but to provide his instrument , originally designed to study cosmic ray neutron albedo , to the U.S. government along with all its data bus specifications and complete documentation . Trainor was not initially told why his graduate work was being appropriated . The instrument was immediately flown to California where engineers were to graft it onto other equipment before launching it into orbit . After the data from the satellite returned to earth , and about a week after the detonation , Trainor was invited to a scientific meeting where the data collected from his instrument were discussed in a packed room at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
Starfish Prime
Starfish Prime
James H. Trainor