Back to the InfoAge
Homepage
Back
to the Press Index
The Coast Star
|
 |
 |
First communication
satellite built in
Wall Twp
|
America was still struggling in the shadow of the October 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first satellite by the Soviet Union. The American perception of the country's technical abilities as a nation needed rebuilding. On Dec. 18, 1958, America's pride got a big boost. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the world's first communications satellite to beam his holiday wishes to the world. The President began his message with, "This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space." The satellite was SCORE, an acronym for Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment. The satellite payload was designed, tested and in large part built at Camp Evans, in Wall. It was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fa. The heart of the payload was a tape recorder designed to survive a rocket liftoff, function in the vacuum of space and use as little electrical power as possible. Mechanical engineer John Licht and senior designer Julian C. Jones of Point Pleasant created the advanced recorder. The device had already been used in the experimental "weatherbird" satellite Vanguard 2. It was only 5 1/2 inches wide and contained a 75-foot, endless loop magnetic tape. It was a marvel of engineering. The battery power source lasted for 13 days allowing communications with ground stations around the world and at Camp Evans 78 times with voice and teletype messages. The satellite effectively demonstrated the practical feasibility of worldwide communications. SCORE paved the way for later Signal Corps' communication satellites like Courier, just two years later. It was the grandfather of all current communications satellites which today relay millions of times the information including television, computer data, telephone and message traffic. The recorder Mr. Jones helped design would be used in Courier and the hurricane tracking satellite TIROS.  In 1960, President Eisenhower would be given the first satellite weather photo developed at Camp Evans and flown by jet to Washington. The television data needed to develop the photos was also carried on the Camp Evans designed recorder built into the TIROS satellite. One of the recorder units is on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. President Eisenhower finished his holiday message, "My message is a simple one. Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind America's wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere." Just as Camp Evans played a major roll in World War II supporting then General Eisenhower's D-Day assault with advanced radar and communica¬tions equipment, Camp Evans was helping the president rebuild America's technological pride in our quest to catch and pass the Soviets in the conquest of space. |
Back to the InfoAge
HomepageBack
to the Press Index
