The SOLRAD 1 spin-stabilized spacecraft was a sphere of 51 cm diameter that was put into orbit by the same launch vehicle that launched Transit 2A. The spacecraft carried two Lyman-alpha photometers and one X-ray photometer mounted along the equator of the satellite, looking out in a direction parallel to its equatorial plane. A visible light aspect system that used a vacuum photocell to determine the solar aspect angle was also attached. The aspect system had the same direction of view as the UV photometers and the opposite view with respect to the X-ray photometer. The objective of the project was to make long-term continuous observations of the solar hydrogen Lyman-alpha and soft X-ray emissions and to correlate these emissions with ground-based observations.