ORIGINS SATELLITE COMM (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Whalen David J
Publisher: Smithsonian
Category: Book
List Price: $32.95
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Sales Rank: 2163673
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 1588340228
Dewey Decimal Number: 621.3825
EAN: 9781588340221
ASIN: 1588340228
Publication Date: August 17, 2002
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Product Description
Conventional assumptions hold that U.S. government research and development efforts produced the satellite communications industry. David J. Whalen has looked deeply into the history of the industry and presents remarkable new information to tell a much different story. He finds that most of the satellite technology was privately developed by AT&T and Hughes Aircraft Company, and that the market for satellite communications existed before the government stepped in.
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How Did We Achieve Global, Instantaneous Telecommunications? December 21, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In 1964, NASA Administrator James E. Webb asked his staff, "How did we get so much communication satellite technology for so little money?" His question was not satisfactorily answered by his NASA lieutenants, but David Whalen, a long-time aerospace engineer with a Ph.D. in space policy, seeks to answer it in this important book. "The Origins of Satellite Communications" is a significant exploration of the early years of technology development and use of space-based communications systems, with emphasis on the role of industry.
Satellite communications is the only truly commercial space technology to be developed in the more than 45 years since the beginning of the Space Age in 1957. It generates billions of dollars annually in sales. The story that Whalen tells here is how the United States achieved this technology. He asserts that the private sector led the charge, and there is much in his argument that is compelling. He notes that the first inkling of what the satellite telecommunications business might look like appeared in the fall of 1945 when a then-obscure RAF electronics officer and member of the British Interplanetary Society, Arthur C. Clarke, wrote a short article in "Wireless World" that described the use of satellites in 24-hour "geosynchronous" orbits some 24,000 miles above the Earth to distribute television programs. This proved prophetic and has informed the industry ever since.
Whalen comments that the first person to emphasize both the technical and financial possibilities of satellite communications was John R. Pierce of AT&T's Bell Labs. In the mid-1950s, he argued that a communications "mirror" in space might be worth as much as a billion dollars. His estimate was conservative. At Pierce's insistence, AT&T filed in 1960 for permission to launch an experimental communications satellite. Although embraced by the Eisenhower administration, when the Kennedy administration came to power in January 1961 this decision made some senior officials wince. They opposed AT&T's seeking to extend its telephone monopoly into the "new high ground" of space. They did not approve, and the U.S. government scrambled to implement a new regulatory environment to "level" the playing field, something that cheered AT&T's telecommunications rivals if not AT&T itself.
In 1961 NASA entered the sweepstakes to develop this new technology and awarded contracts to RCA and Hughes Aircraft to build the communication satellites, Relay and Syncom. These, government officials believed, would help offset AT&T's technological lead in the field. This approach countered the AT&T monopoly. By 1964, two AT&T Telstars, two Relays, and two Syncoms had been launched and technological knowledge had moved to firms beyond AT&T.
At the same time and largely for similar reasons, the Kennedy administration sponsored the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, authorizing the public-private COMSAT Corporation to oversee the operation of communication satellites. In 1964 COMSAT became part of the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT). On April 6, 1965, it launched its first satellite, Early Bird, and the era of commercial global satellite communications began.
David Whalen believes that the federal government's intervention in this arena was heavy-handed and in some instances punitive. AT&T was quite willing to develop this technology without government involvement. Why should they not have been allowed to do so? The Kennedy administration recoiled from the extension of AT&T's monopoly, and the debate really turns on ideology over what is the proper role of government in industries often viewed as public utilities. This debate represented a continuation of ideological struggles from the 1930s when government institutions intruded more deeply into business than ever before.
This is an important book that looks at these concerns soberly. I believe the evidence suggests that the federal government was acting appropriately on behalf of its citizens and took a reasonable position on the development of satellite communications, a position that Whalen does not accept. Conversely, Whalen argues that the private sector should have been allowed to pursue this without government entering to alter the business landscape. Of course, these differences are the stuff of historical debate and help advance understanding. Read and ponder, and ultimately gain a deeper knowledge.
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