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Today in History – December 18, 1958 – SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbital Relay Equipment) was the world’s first communications satellite to be put into orbit. As the first American satellite to relay communications from one ground station to another, SCORE used a tape recorder to store and forward voice messages. It was used to send a Christmas greeting via short wave frequency to the world from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The SCORE satellite was designed and built by Kenneth Masterman-Smith, a military communication research engineer, along with other personnel with the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory (SRDL) at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Launched in an Atlas rocket, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space. The technical objectives were to demonstrate the capabilities of satellite launch from an Atlas missile and the feasibility of transmitting messages through the upper atmosphere from one ground station to one or more ground stations. Score placed the United States at an even technological par with the Soviet Union as a highly functional response to the Sputnik satellites. The payload weighed 150 pounds, and was built into the fairing pods of the 9000 pound Atlas missile. Any of four ground stations in the southern United States could command the satellite into playback mode to transmit the stored message or into record mode to receive and store a new message. Its batteries lasted 12 days and it reentered the atmosphere on 21 January 1959.
SCORE was an early research endeavor for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which eventually evolved into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It was developed during the dawn of satellite communication innovation in the U.S. and abroad. The first satellite equipped with on-board radio-transmitters was the Soviet Sputnik 1, launched in 1957. NASA launched an Echo satellite in 1960; the 100-foot aluminized PET film balloon served as a passive reflector for radio communications. Courier 1B, (built by Philco) also launched in 1960, was the world’s first active repeater satellite. Telstar was the first active, direct relay communications satellite. Belonging to AT&T as part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post Office) to develop satellite communication, it was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, the first privately sponsored space launch.
For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on communications satellites or GPS and geomatics systems. For related curricula, visit the Information Technology Education, Electrical Engineering Education , Surveying and Geomatics Engineering Education disciplinary communities.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Alice Agogino // Dec 18, 2007 at 8:49 am
Readers may be interested in the October 30th blog on the Golden Anniversary of Sputnik or the December 8th blog titled GPS helps drivers, sailors, hikers, gamers, scientists, engineers.
2 Michael Masterman-Smith // Dec 18, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Just wanted to add a bit about the significance of SCORE. It was the product of a top secret directive from President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated during the summer of 1958. In light of the Sputnik launches in the fall of 1957, the necessity for a functional satellite was amply described by a communiqué declassified in 2006 from a CIA operative working inside the Soviet Union to the President in November 1957:
“Sputnik II has materially increased the threat to our national security. Sputnik’s weight of 1,100 pounds proves that they can send us an H-Bomb. It is vitally important that the United States launch a satellite at the earliest possible moment. This is the only way we can truly protect ourselves.”
American launch pad failures, disagreement over funding and whose authority space endeavors should be put under thwarted satellite development efforts into 1958. To end debate President Eisenhower signed Public Law 85-325 and Department of Defense Directive 5105.41, forming the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in February 1958 to fund and support the scientific and technological projects necessary to serve the security interests of the country. ARPA directed Project SCORE and system development was assigned to the U.S. Army’s Signal Research and Development Laboratory (SRDL) at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Eighty-eight civilians and soldiers were secretly tasked to the project, some of whom were still completing their work on the secret nuclear test Projects Hardtack I and II at the time of their selection. To prevent any leaks regarding the project, neither Congress, military leadership, NSA nor CIA were consulted.
On the evening of the launch, President Eisenhower hosted a dinner for a delegation from Soviet-controlled Poland. During the meal, a naval officer whispered in the President’s ear with the message from the situation room that the launch was a success. The President interrupted the dinner and announced the existence of SCORE. With an audience erupting in cheers, even the Polish delegation was magnanimous in their accolades over the technological achievement. In his announcement, the President made a point to describe the combined 9000 pound weight of the Atlas rocket and payload, stimulating debate that SCORE, while a peaceful mission, indeed served to show the Soviet Union that the United States was now capable of delivering a nuclear payload from space.
Whatever the proposed tactical advantage sought, the communication satellite provided the confidence national leaders needed to calm hysterical impulses in a fearful world. The ambitious, yet peaceful, space programs that followed offered countries alternative technical methods to display their power and global influence, and in so doing, blunted the strategic value of tactical nuclear weapons.
The very first transmitted message from space to the world below:
“This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you via a satellite circling in outer space. 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 goodwill toward men everywhere.”
About the inventor . . .
To his co-workers at Fort Monmouth, he was considered an Army version of General Electric’s Charles Steinmetz. To the Pentagon, he was U.S. Army Electrical Engineer, Position #73-750E, GS-13, Sensitive Classification, Test and Operations Directorate, Tactical Systems Testing Division, US Army Satellite Communications Agency. To our family, he was ‘Dad’.
At his funeral in 1997, two scientists from Fort Monmouth disclosed the above story to our family. It was the first time we had ever heard of SCORE or the extent of my father’s contributions to United States satellite and space programs. He lived in service to his country for 35 years and, as a top secret Army engineer, retained almost complete iron-clad discretion about his work until his death.
Michael Masterman-Smith
On behalf of Kenneth Masterman-Smith, US Army (retired, deceased)
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