SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was the world's first purpose-built communications satellite. Launched on December 18,1958, SCORE provided the first broadcast of a human voice from space. It was also the first successful usage of the Atlas rocket as a launch vehicle, The satellite was popularly dubbed "The Talking Atlas" as well as "Chatterbox".
Background Project SCORE was to be the first orbital project to utilize the Atlas. SCORE, a six-month effort, was the first endeavor of the then-new Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) The program set out to demonstrate the feasibility of transmitting messages through the upper atmosphere from one ground station to one or more ground stations. In 1955, the Air Force had actually proposed using their Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile as an International Geophysical Year satellite launcher in 1957–58. This proposal was rejected because it would redirect resources from the ICBM's development, it was also feared that the rocket would not be ready in time for the IGY. As it turned out, SCORE was launched within the IGY after all.
Spacecraft The SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting RElay) satellite of the US Army was a 24.3 metres (80 ft) long, and 3.1 metres (10 ft) diameter Atlas missile used as a platform for a communications relay experiment to demonstrate the feasibility and explore problems associated with operation of a satellite communication system. The spacecraft body served as antennae. It carried messages on a tape recorder which was used at one point to carry a Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower. The performance was nominal with experiment operation for 12 days, planned orbit lifetime 20 days, actual orbit lifetime 34 days. The tracking beacon operated at 108 MHz. The payload weighed 68 kg, and was built into the fairing pods of the Atlas missile. Combined weight of the total on-orbit package was 3980 kg. SCORE was launched into a 185 km by 1484 km orbit from LC-11 at Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida, inclined at 32.3°, with a period of 101.4 minutes. Its batteries lasted 12 days and it reentered the atmosphere on 21 January 1959. The SCORE communications package 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. The overall program was conducted in such secrecy that only 88 people were aware of its existence. Before the date of the SCORE launch, 53 of the 88 people had been told the program had been canceled and they were not to mention to anyone that it had ever existed. That left only 35 people who knew of the mission of Atlas 10B with the rest of the engineering crew, including the launch crew, under the impression that they were working solely on a test launch of the rocket. The night before launch, however, Rear Adm. John E. Clark, deputy director of ARPA, was asked at a news conference whether he could deny that Eisenhower's voice was on the recorder. He replied, "No", and news reports that day suggested the voice might well be the president's.
Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment This first purpose-built communications satellite experiment consisted of two identical communications repeater terminals mounted in the guidance pods along the sides of the launch vehicle. The experiment was to test the feasibility and explore problems associated with using satellites for communications purposes. No modulation was received on the carrier wave from experiment package no. 1. Voice and teletype messages were sent and returned in real-time, and also from experiment tape recorder no. 2. The tape recorder was loaded with new material 28 times and failure finally was due to battery depletion. The experiment receiver and transmitter operated on 150 and 132 MHz, respectively. The payload weighed 68 kilograms (150 lb), and was built into the fairing pods of the Atlas missile. Combined weight of the total on-orbit package was 3,980 kilograms (8,770 lb).
Mission
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