IEEE New Jersey Coast Section Centennial Journal Part - GHN

TELSTAR
The top com munications engineering achievement
in the past 50 years
The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) has just announced its l0 top
engineering achievements over the past 50 years during a cetenony of the NSPE in Saa
Francisco, as reported in the IEEE 'Instituten for March 1984.
An NSPE committee cited. the following ad,vances as the most outstanding since
1934: nylon; the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reactionl the Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Calculator (Eniac); the transistor; the inertial navigational
guidance system; the Boeing 707 jet airlinerl the cardiac pacemakerl lasersl the
TELSTAR satellite; and Project Apollo.
The I0 outstanding engineering adrievements were selected in a two+tage
ptocess. First, the 801000 NSPE members were ashed to choose l0 award, categories.
(The ones selected were qrnthetic fabrics, nuclear enetgy, electronic computets, solid-
state electronics, automation and control systems, jet aircraft, biomedical lasers,
communications, and the space program.)
Next, an ad hoc NSPE committee ctrose the most significant achievement iu each
category. A chronological list of the achievements and their award categoties followed.
The launching of the TELSTAR I by AT&T Bell Laboratories on July lOt L96Zt
heralded a new era of communications for data transmission, television and radio signals,
and telephone messages. The TELSTAR and its zuceeeding communications satellites
have provided the links to move information around the world almost simultaneously.
For the latest on TELSTAR III see the BelI Laboratories Record for May/June 1983.
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