Project Vela

Project Vela was a project by the United States to develop and implement methods to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. The development work was performed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory with funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency and was overseen by the United States Air Force. The prime contractor for the project's seismographic stations was the Geotechnical Corp., Garland, Texas.

Project Vela consisted of three elements: Vela Uniform to monitor seismic signals to detect underground nuclear testing, Vela Sierra to detect atmospheric nuclear testing and Vela Hotel to detect nuclear testing from space.