Cosmic Search Vol. 1, No. 1 A Reminiscence of Project Ozma By Frank D. Drake Independently of Cocconi and Morrison, Frank D. Drake, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, West Virginia, was formulating plans to conduct an actual search. Drake was 29 when, on April 8, 1960, he turned the 85-foot Howard Tatel telescope of the observatory toward the star Tau Ceti.