The world's first communications satellite reached orbit
On this day · 18 December 1958
Project SCORE launched in 1958, and a day later relayed Eisenhower's voice — the first human words broadcast from space.
On December 18, 1958, the United States launched Project SCORE atop an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, placing the world’s first communications satellite into orbit. Built in secrecy at the Army’s Signal Research and Development Laboratory, the craft carried tape recorders designed to store a message and play it back on command from the ground.
The next day, December 19, the satellite relayed a recorded Christmas greeting from President Dwight D. Eisenhower — the first human voice ever broadcast from space.
“My message is a simple one: Through this unique means I convey to you and to all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere.”
The demonstration proved that a satellite could relay communications back to Earth, a principle that underpins the global telecom and broadcasting networks orbiting overhead today. SCORE itself was short-lived, its batteries fading within weeks, but the idea it tested endured.
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