Today’s installment in our recurring series of space anniversaries is the launch of Project SCORE, fifty years ago today.
On December 18, 1958, the Project SCORE — Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment — satellite was launched on a USAF Atlas rocket from the Eastern Space & Missile Center in Florida. The US Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, designed the payload.
The mission featured the first messages broadcast from space, including the voice of President Eisenhower saying,
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. 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.
You can read more about Project SCORE here and here.
I think back to ten years ago at this time, and I had just come off a tour in which I helped operate two of the most sophisticated and secure communications satellites ever built — the first two Milstar satellites — and started a tour in which I would be using Milstar for nuclear command and control. In terms of space communications, we’ve certainly come a long way in a relatively short time.
by 
