Launch Vehicle: Scout G-1
First Launch: 15 May 1981 (NOVA 1) (Navy 20)
Total Weight: 368 pounds

The cylindrical main body of the NOVA had four solar arrays deployed windmill-like, a sensor extended below the main body on an accordianlike pylon, and a hydrazine motor to raise and circularize the orbit.

The NOVA program was a US Navy satellite-navigation system that was compatible with the Transit satellite navigation system, of which 15 spacecraft and three improved spacecraft had been launched at the time NOVA 1 was launched. NOVA preceded the more sophisticated NAVSTAR system. The spacecraft were developed by the Navy and launched by NASA and the US Air Force from Vandenberg AFB.