Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 5
different versions of national legislation to create a framework for satellite communications
emerged during 1961—and especially during 1962—within Congress. The bill of
Senator Robert S. Kerr (D–OK) would have made space communications entirely private.
From the opposite perspective, the bill of Senator Estes Kefauver (D–TN) would have
made such communications entirely a governmental enterprise. Finally, the Kennedy
administration’s bill sought a compromise between private and public ownership and
among various policy objectives. [I-16, I-17]
After months of debate and a filibuster led by liberal Democrats, complete with a cloture
vote, the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 finally emerged. [I-18] This law called
for the creation of a new entity to be known as the Communications Satellite Corporation
(Comsat), with ownership divided fifty-fifty between the general public and telecommunications
corporations, such as AT&T, International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT),
RCA, and Western Union International. 13 Comsat’s Board of Directors consisted of six representatives
from the public stockholders, six representatives of the telecommunications
industry, and three presidential appointees. Comsat was designated as the official representative
of the United States for global satellite communications. Two years later, the corporation
became the manager of the emerging global system known as the International
Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT), which was formed on August 20,
1964. 14 [I-19]
Between the creation of Comsat as a new corporation on August 31, 1962, and the creation
of INTELSAT, Comsat contracted with the Hughes Aircraft Company (the designer
of Syncom 1, 2, and 3) to build an upgraded version of the Syncom satellite. This satellite
was initially designated HS 303; it later became known officially as INTELSAT I. The
world, however, came to know it by its popular name, “Early Bird.” The satellite, which was
the first operational geosynchronous communications satellite, weighed eighty-five
pounds and was launched in April 1965. It had a lifetime of eighteen months and a capacity
of 240 voice circuits or, alternatively, a black-and-white television channel. This transatlantic
satellite, with three times the capacity of the largest submarine cable then available
and the ability to provide real-time television transmission, captured the world’s attention.
Early Bird ushered in a new age of international television communications. 15 Also in
1965, the U.S. Department of Defense deployed a low-Earth-orbit satellite system known
as the Initial Defense Satellite Communication System (IDSCS), while the Soviet Union
deployed its first highly elliptical satellite system known as Molniya (“Lightning”).
13. It is interesting to note that John A. Johnson, General Counsel of NASA, was temporarily detailed
to Senator Kerr’s office to write draft legislation for the Communications Satellite Act, then later requested by
the Kennedy administration to draft the version that actually became law (personal interview by the author with
John A. Johnson, February 1984, INTELSAT Archives). See also J.O. Pastore, The Story of Communications (New
York: MacFadden-Bertell, 1964), pp. 67–92.
14. Over the years, the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 was amended to allow telecommunications
organizations to sell off their Comsat holdings, to restructure the Comsat Board of Directors, and to allow
Comsat to be the official U.S. participant in the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT),
another consortium formed over a decade later. In most respects, Comsat’s legislatively defined role has
remained the same. Over time, however, through actions of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),
the U.S. executive branch, and the courts, Comsat has given up its ownership of Earth stations, entered the U.S.
satellite communications market on a competitive basis with other corporations, and found its monopoly role in
INTELSAT and INMARSAT questioned. These changes were largely the result of a changing regulatory environment
within the U.S. government. During the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations, there have been
increasing efforts to move toward a deregulatory and competitive approach to most telecommunications activities
that had traditionally been carried out by monopolies. Despite the erosion of the legislative and regulatory
framework within which Comsat operated with respect to INTELSAT, which occurred between 1965 and 1990
(especially the loss of technical management of the INTELSAT global system between 1973 and 1979), Comsat
remains one of the few monopolies left in the United States.
15. ICSC Document, ICSC-7-4E (April 1965), pp. 8–9.