Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

facilities in intercontinental communications as soon as possible. The telephone administrations
of England, France, and Germany have all indicated a desire to participate in such
a project. We hope to be ready for a transatlantic trial in eighteen to twenty months, or
less. The experimental satellite, or satellites, would be placed at an orbital altitude of perhaps
2,200 miles and would carry a repeater designed to make initial use of a 5-megacycle
radio-frequency bandwidth. We are willing to assume the cost involved in this experiment,
except that we would expect the participating foreign administrations to pay at least the
cost of their own ground stations.
Our present thinking is that we would design and construct the trial satellites for our
own use, making sure that the mechanical design would be compatible with the design
and capability of whatever launching vehicle was used. While it is probably too early to
know just what facilities for launching could be made available, we would hope that the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration would be willing to launch these trial
satellites for us, at our expense, if this proved to be the most practicable arrangement.
Although our primary interest is in proceeding with a trial of active satellites, we shall
be glad to cooperate with your organization in any further tests of passive satellites that
you may wish to conduct, using not only the ground equipment now available but also the
equipment that would be developed for active satellite trials.
I am sure you understand that these thoughts may be subject to some modification as
the program develops, but I believe they will hold basically. We would, of course, seek the
advice of your organization in all phases of the work and keep you informed of our
progress.
We would welcome any comments you may care to make about any part of this proposed
program.
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DR. T. KEITH GLENNAN, Administrator
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1520 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC
Dear Dr. Glennan:
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 49
Sincerely yours,
G. L. BEST
Vice President
Attachment No. 2
October 20, 1960
Dr. Fisk agreed to provide you with a brief statement of the objectives and principal
features of the experiment the Bell System proposes to conduct on long distance communication
via an active satellite.
As indicated in the statement, the experiment is an important part of a continuing
Bell System development program directed toward large scale application of radio satellites
for broad-band communications.