Thanks to everyone who voted. The answer is no.
In 1950, there was a party at Jim Van Allen's house near D.C. They discussed having an International Geophysical Year during the next solar max. There had been polar years in 1880-1 and 1930-1. The US in July 1955 announced that it would launch a satellite during the IGY (7/57-12/58). The Soviets made a similar statement about a week later. 1/ The Stewart Committee would decide who would launch the 1st American satellite. All 3 services made proposals but the serious ones were from the Army (von Braun) and the Navy (Milt Rosen - met him in 2009). In spite of the vote being 5-2 it was a close run thing. The Navy satellite and space tracking proposal was superior; vB’s rocket needed far less development. My father co-wrote the Navy’s proposal. He said that vB talked down to the committee and that may have hurt his chances. 2/

@XsukysukyX @Ghostof_Atticus My father was a branch chief at NRL who retired in 1980. As far as I can tell, Dr West’s work on the GEOID was in the 1980s. Dad didn’t work on the GEOID so how he could make a mathematical error there escapes me. I doubt if he ever heard of Dr. West. 1/ @XsukysukyX @Ghostof_Atticus Dad designed the 1st satellite with solar cells which power #GPOS satellites. He designed 2 space tracking systems (Minitrack and the Naval Space Surveillance System System). Space tracking is key to predicting future positions of GPS satellites. In 1964, he started working on 2/