Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

Document I-4
Document Title: Memorandum from S.G. Lutz to A.V. Haeff, “Commercial Satellite
Communication Project; Preliminary Report of Study Task Force,” October 22, 1959.
Source: Hughes Space and Communications Company, Los Angeles, California (used with
permission).
By 1959, work on communications satellite research and development was going on in several industrial
firms besides Bell Laboratories. The Department of Defense had taken the lead in sponsoring
research on active repeater satellites, while NASA concentrated its initial efforts on passive reflectors.
In particular, the Department of Defense was supporting research on a complex satellite project called
Advent, which intended to develop a satellite for use in geosynchronous orbit. An engineering team at
Hughes Aircraft in mid-1959, led by Harold Rosen, devised a proposal for a much simpler geosynchronous
satellite and asked the company to support its development. This memorandum reports to
Hughes vice president for research, A.V. Haeff, the conclusions of an internal task force set up to assess
the proposal of Rosen and his team, which also included Donald Williams and Thomas Hudspeth.
(The appendices referred to in this memo are not included.) Over the following months, Hughes managers
debated whether to provide support for the proposal from company funds or to seek government support
for the project. Enough corporate funds were made available to keep the project going, but it was not until
NASA contracted with Hughes to develop and demonstrate what became known as Syncom that the project
became the foundation for the many geosynchronous satellites to follow.
[1]
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 31
Hughes Aircraft Company
Interdepartmental Correspondence
To: A. V. Haeff cc: See Distribution Date: 22 October 1959
Subject: Commercial Satellite Communication Project; From: S. G. Lutz
Preliminary Report of Study Task Force
1. It is the unanimous opinion of the Task Force working members* that the satellite
communication system proposed by Dr. H. A. Rosen is technically feasible, is possible
of realization within close to the estimated price and schedule, has great potential economic
attractiveness and should not encounter too serious legal or political obstacles.
2. The Task Force has, of necessity, concentrated on technical aspects of the program
and has not been able to make an adequate market survey. The phraseology, “great
potential economic attractiveness[,]” is justified by the following:
a. A rapidly increasing demand for new long-distance communication facilities
is being created by: (1) Population increase, (2) Shrinkage of travel time via
commercial jet aircraft, (3) Increasing foreign industrialization and international
commerce, (4) Increasing military communication loads, and (5)
Forthcoming decrease in HF [high-frequency] communication capability
because of the declining sunspot cycle. Rather than being able to open more
HF radio circuits to carry the increasing traffic, new circuits (cable, scatter or
satellite) will be needed to pick up perhaps a third of the traffic now carried
by HF circuits.
* Task Force working members are: E. D. Felkel, S. G. Lutz, D. E. Miller, H. A. Rosen and J. H. Striebel.