The Horn was built so that it could swivel towards the orbiting satellite. It contained a ruby crystal maser, an innovation that went through early testing and improvement in Murray Hill. As John Pierce wrote, “When a maser amplifies a signal, it adds practically no noise to it.”

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

In anticipation of Project Echo, construction of a satellite dish and horn antenna began in 1959 on Crawford Hill, near the Holmdel lab. The dish was a transmitter while the horn antenna was a receiver.

While other horn antennas were already in existence, Harald Friis, head of the Holmdel lab, designed this particular variety, more precisely called a horn-reflector antenna.

Holmdel, NJ had been ideal for people like Karl Jansky to work on antennas because it was open and rural. Yet, six years after this photo, the Holmdel campus would be transformed from modest structures surrounded by large machines to an immense modern building that dwarfed these transmitters and receivers.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

The passive Echo satellite took the form of a large silver balloon. It was compressed into a 26 inch wide tube for its journey into outer space then expanded after leaving the rocket. Inflated, it was ten stories tall and visible from Earth with the naked eye. People could find viewing schedules in newspapers or could phone into a tracking service (set up by the Bell System of course!). The balloon continued to float around until May 1968.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

The logistics of Project Echo were managed by William Jakes, electrical engineer. Rudi Kompfer, Pierce’s friend and colleague, had helped get the project off the ground. The initial transmission from Echo was only the beginning — within two weeks, Jakes achieved the first two-way conversations and fax transmissions over satellite.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

At a time when Cold War tensions were mounting, President Eisenhower’s address for the Echo transmission stated “The program is being carried forward vigorously by the United States for peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind. The satellite balloon...may be used freely by any nation for similar experiments in its own interests....”

Collection of Jill M. Barry.

Pierce’s article in 1952, “Don’t Write: Telegraph” calculated sending messages using the moon as a naturally occurring satellite. In preparation for Echo’s launch, the lab in Holmdel and the Jet Propulsion Lab in California needed a third test point in space to create a triangular connection for communication. A point on the moon worked as a stand-in for the balloon satellite, in what was known as a “moonbounce.”

Pierce wrote science fiction under the pseudonym J.J. Coupling. His colleagues knew of his way with words and had gone to him for help when naming the transistor. He was eccentric and was known to get up and wander off in the middle of conversations.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.