Syncom History
Forty years ago, our world became a much smaller place.
1963 marked the beginning of a journey...Syncom was launched into orbit and into history.
Syncom, a 78-pound, 28-inch diameter mass of metal, silicon solar cells, intricate circuitry and traveling wave tubes, revolutionized the way the world communicates.
When Sir Arthur C. Clarke predicted in 1945 that three satellites hovering in stationary orbit 22,300 miles over Earth would relay radio and television signals all over the world, skepticism abounded.
But less than 20 years later, Hughes Space and Communications Company teammates Dr. Harold Rosen, Donald Williams and Thomas Hudspeth designed and built a flyable prototype satellite and Syncom was born.
Syncom 2, launched in July 1963, brought together nations and people of the world in a way never seen before. Thanks to Syncom and the hundreds of satellites that have followed, we communicate in ways only visionaries ever dreamed about.
The future of communications began that day in 1963 with the launch of the 78-pound, 28-inch diameter mass of metal, silicon solar cells, intricate circuitry and traveling wave tubes.
A trip around the globe, made possible by Syncom and its hundreds of descendants, now takes seconds. Thanks to the foresight, imagination and technical know-how of the men and women of Boeing Satellite Systems, today we are connected in ways only visionaries dreamed about just decades before.