Project Vela was a project by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to develop and implement methods to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty

Partial Test Ban Treaty

The treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty , Limited Test Ban Treaty , or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons...

. The development work was primarily performed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and was overseen by the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

.

Project Vela consisted of three elements: Vela Uniform

Vela Uniform

Vela Uniform was an element of Project Vela conducted jointly by the United States Department of Energy and the Advanced Research Projects Agency...

 to monitor seismic signals to detect underground nuclear testing

Nuclear testing

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...

, Vela Sierra to detect atmospheric nuclear testing and Vela Hotel

Vela (satellite)

Vela was the name of a group of satellites developed as the Vela Hotel element of Project Vela by the United States to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union, and other nuclear-capable states. It means vigil or "watch" in Spanish.Vela started out as a small...

to detect nuclear testing from space.

"The USAF set up a nuclear detection system by
launching twin satellites from Cape Canaveral into circular 57,000-mile-high orbits on opposing
sides of the earth. The 496-pound (225 kg), 20-sided satellites, known as Project Vela Hotel or Project
823, could detect nuclear explosions from 186,000,000 miles away".