Chapter seventeen: Of Moons and Balloons

Personal details about John Pierce (mainly pages 180—182) come from my own interviews with him.

Other details are from the next four references: oral history taken by Har­riet Lyle for the archive of the California Institute of Technology in 1979.

The Beginnings of Satellite Communications, by J. R. Pierce, with a preface by Arthur C. Clarke (San Francisco Press, 1968) (copy from John Pierce);

My Career as an Engineer, An Autobiographical Sketch, by John R. Pierce, the University of Tokyo (1988); and

“Orbital Radio Relays,” by J. R. Pierce, Jet Propulsion, April 1955 (page 183).

In Spring 1958, Pierce and Rudi Kompfner read about William O’Sulli­van’s ideas for a balloon-like satellite to measure air density and realized that by bouncing microwaves off its surface they could test many techni­cal aspects of satellite communication (page 184). Interview with John Pierce.

Brief notes describing an ARPA satellite conference on July 13—14,

1958, and John Pierce’s involvement with William Pickering in develop­ing the Echo project (page 184). The notes are in the John Pierce collec­tion (#8309 Box 5, folder-leading to Echo) at The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.

At the sixth meeting of the TPESP on June 7 and 8, 1955, William J. O’Sullivan, from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA—a forerunner of NASA), presented his ideas for a giant alu­minized balloon that could be observed from Earth, allowing information to be deduced about the density of the upper atmosphere (page 184). Richard Porter told him the idea was interesting, and that the proposal should be sent to the working group on internal instrumentation (NAS archives).

At the seventh meeting of the TPESP, on September 5, 1956, O’Sullivan told the panel that NACA was prepared to build its air drag satellite experiment without the backing of the IGY (NAS archives).

There is a May 13, 1958, memo from Rudy Kompfner to E. I. Green, including John Pierce’s memo “Transoceanic Communication by Means of a Satellite.”

May 26, 1958: a memo by Brockway McMillan, “A Preliminary Engi­neering Study of Satellite Reflected Radio Systems.” The study is based on Pierce’s ideas. McMillan favors twenty satellites at medium altitudes to give continuous service and envisages that there would be a market for a new transatlantic service between 1970 and 1975. He writes, “It is con­cluded here also… there probably exists a potentially much larger market….”

There is a July 25, 1958 memo from E. I. Green to Mervin Kelly evaluat­ing Pierce’s proposals concludes,“In summary, the proposed system would require intensive R&D on a host of problems.. . considering other demands of Bells Systems… it would be my recommendation that we do not attempt to undertake satellite communications as a Bell System devel­opment.” Presumably, it was this memo that led to his “cease and desist order” (page 185).

A letter from John Pierce to Chaplin Cutler of October 17, 1958, gives Pierce’s views of the meeting of the Advanced Research Project Agency he had attended on October 15 and 16 (page 185). Pierce was aware from the beginning of the ideas being considered by the military for communi­cation satellites. At the ARPA meeting he was acting as a consultant to what was an ad hoc panel on 24-hour satellites. ARPA’s views would change considerably. Pierce reported the view then: “It is possible that a spinning satellite with non-directive antennas will be launched early in 1960 and a satellite with an attitude stabilized platform in 1962” (Box 840902, AT&T archives).

A memorandum for the Record from John Pierce, Rudy Kompfner, and Chaplin Cutler on Research Toward Satellite Communication, Research toward Satellite Communication. Dated January 6, 1959, the memo describes a research program directed in general at acquiring the basic knowledge for satellite communication by any means and specifically at aspects of passive Echo-type satellites. A fuller version of the research memo was written on January 9, 1959 (page 185) (AT&T archives).

In a letter to William McRae, vice president of AT&T, of January 7, 1959, Pierce outlines his proposed research program for satellite communication (AT&T archives).

A memo of 16 June 1959 describes a meeting between BTL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Naval Research Laboratory, during which William O’Sullivan provided some technical details on the aluminized balloon and the Langley Research Center’s tests (page 186) (AT&T archives).

Information scattered through the chapter came from: Monthly Project Echo reports starting October 23 1959 (AT&T archives);

Project Echo, Monthly report No. 3, December 1959. Report on the first moon bounce test;

Rudi Kompfner’s correspondence and memos (AT&T archives 59 04 01); and from

Film reels in the AT&T archives:

1. Project Echo 1. An NBC news special sponsored by BTL 409-0213

2. The Big Bounce, BTL film 399-03727.