12 BOEING FRONTIERS / JULY 2013 historical perspective At the Paris Air Show in 1961, two Hughes Aircraft Co. scientists went to the top of the Eiffel Tower for a photo op. But not to take pictures of one of the world’s great cities. Instead, it was an opportunity for media to take pictures. The scientists, Harold Rosen and Thomas Hudspeth, were showing off the prototype of a small satellite just a little more than 2 feet (71 centimeters) in diameter. A cynical spectator at the event is reported to have remarked that the top of the Eiffel Tower was probably as high as the satellite would ever get. But 50 years ago this month, on July 26, 1963, Syncom II was successfully placed in orbit—and ushered in a new era of global communications using spacebased satellites. Today, its descendants make ordinary what would have seemed unimaginable in 1961, from monitoring the weather to providing 24-hour global entertainment. And many of those pioneering satellites have been designed and built by Boeing, whose satellite business has its roots in Hughes Aircraft. “Syncom started our journey,” Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, said during a luncheon address in Paris in 2012. An engineering prototype of Syncom is on display at Boeing’s satellite facility in El Segundo, Calif., the site of a former factory that turned out Nash Rambler cars. In 1961, the auto plant was acquired by Hughes Space and Communications, which Howard Hughes had spun off from his aircraft company. Boeing acquired Hughes Space and Communications in 2000. Syncom had its beginning at Hughes Aircraft, near Culver City, Calif. In late 1958, about a year after the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite, Rosen’s department head challenged him to find a Global Launch of Syncom satellite 50 years ago began a journey that has transformed the world By Pat McGinnis
Frontiers July 2013 Issue
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