Laser laser devices. The question of just how to assign credit for inventing the laser remains unresolved by historians. On May 16, 1960, Theodore H. Maiman operated the first functioning laser at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California, ahead of several research teams, including those of Townes, at Columbia University, Arthur Schawlow, at Bell Labs, and Gould, at the TRG (Technical Research Group) company. Maiman's functional laser used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped synthetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light, at 694 nanometers wavelength; however, the device only was capable of pulsed operation, because of its three-level pumping design scheme. Later that year,
Sazhen-S Sazhen-S Sazhen-S () is a Soviet laser/optical space surveillance system, used to analyse the orbital parameters of space craft. There are several installations across the former Soviet Union. One of which is based at space ground station NIP-19 near Dunaivtsi in Ukraine. It is named after the sazhen, a former Russian unit of measurement which translates as fathom and has a length of . A similar system is Sazhen-T. A number of Sazhen-S installations were constructed at the network of scientific monitoring stations. At least two are now in Ukraine - one in Dunaivtsi and another at Yevpatoria. At least