An Askania kinetheodolite was used to track the positions of artificial satellites at RGO Herstmonceux from July 1963 until January 1967. The RGO tracking was done at the request of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (especially of Desmond King-Hele) to support their national prediction service.

The instrument had been developed by the RAE for tracking rockets after launch, but it was adapted for observing the positions of satellites. These positions were analysed by King-Hele and others to determine changes in the orbits of the satellites, which in turn gave information about the density of the atmosphere and the gravity field and shape of the Earth.

The Kinetheodolite Section of the RGO was formed of a small team of staff: Wally Grimwood from the NAO, Norman Rhodes from the Solar Department (until his untimely death in 1966), and Arthur Cordwell from the Chronometer Department. Although based in an office in the NAO section, they were not formally a part of the NAO. The kinetheodolite was installed in a small dome on the east hill in the meteorological enclosure (which was at that time unused). Regular observing began on 7 October 1963. The observer followed the satellite with the telescope of the instrument and the altitude and azimuth were recorded regularly. The results were sent directly to the RAE which provided the predictions; they were not analysed at the RGO.

In mid-1966 some improvements were made to the kinetheodolite and Bill Martin wrote a prediction or ‘data look’ program for the ICT 1909 computer for use by the observing team. The Radio and Space Research Station at Slough later took over responsibility for the prediction service from the RAE and adopted this program.

Observations with the kinetheodolite ceased at Herstmonceux on 9 January 1967. The instrument was dismantled and transferred to the Cape of Good Hope where observations began again in July 1967.