The first communications satellite was a whole Atlas rocket

Project SCORE, launched from Cape Canaveral on December 18, 1958, was the world’s first communications satellite, and the satellite was, in effect, the rocket: SCORE’s relay equipment flew in the nose cone of an Atlas missile, and the entire Atlas went into orbit with it, itself a first.

The name stood for Signal Communications by Orbital Relay Equipment, and the payload was developed by the US Army Signal Corps. Secrecy was tight: fewer than 100 people knew about the project before launch.

How the first voice got to space

The next day, December 19, SCORE broadcast a Christmas greeting from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first human voice transmitted from space. It was not live. SCORE worked by store and forward: a tape recorder aboard took in a message from the ground and played it back on command.

Eisenhower’s words were also a last-minute change. The Atlas had already been sealed with prerecorded messages when the project’s director persuaded the President to record one of peace. The new message had to be sent up by radio, which risked it being overheard, and Eisenhower did not want the press to scoop it. The swap worked, and the message stayed secret until the broadcast:

“This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, December 19, 1958

SCORE proved two things at once: that a satellite could receive a signal from one place and immediately retransmit it elsewhere, and that it could store a message and send it later. The Smithsonian, which holds a backup payload, credits it with 35 days of operation. Civilian satellite communication followed in 1960 with Echo 1, a giant aluminum-coated balloon that reflected signals rather than recording them.