File:330-ps-8553-usn-709946 15986659210 o.jpg

English: 330-PS-8553 (USN 709946): A recently discovered minor planet has been named in honor of the Navy’s fastest and most powerful electronic computer, the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator. Discovered in 1953 by S. Arend at Uccle, Belgium, the planet has been named NORC after the computer which is located at the computation center of the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia. The orbit of the newly-named planet was established entirely on the basis of computations made on the NORC by Dr. Paul Herget, an eminent astronomer (shown at the computer), who is Director of the Cincinnati Observatory. Under his direction and the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, the NORC has also provided a vast amount of computation of orbits of other minor planets, and has computed a precise orbit of the Earth from 1920 to 2000 A.D. According to Dr. Herget, the researchers used nine hours of running time of the NORC during May 1956 and completed more computation than had ever been done at one time in the history of Astronomy. Photograph released September 24, 1957. (12/30/2014).