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♪

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[Erik Conway] Recently, one of
our audio technicians discovered

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a cache of audio
recordings that have been

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sitting in a box some place
at the Lab for decades.

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So the audio technician set
out to digitize them

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and as a result is some really
fantastic old recordings

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that sound new.

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This is Robertson Stevens
of the California Institute

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of Technology, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.

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[Conway] One was of
President Eisenhower

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on a early recorded radio
transmission between JPL

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and Bell Labs on
the East Coast,

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via what was called the
Echo Balloon.

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It was a satellite
balloon intended to be

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a communications satellite.

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This is President
Eisenhower speaking.

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It is a great personal
satisfaction to participate

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in this first experiment
in communications

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involving the use of the
satellite balloon known as Echo.

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[Narrator] This is
the satellite.

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A huge empty balloon

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here, shown while
still in its hanger.

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The inflated balloon is
ten stories high,

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made of a strong new
aluminized plastic.

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Strong, yet only half as
thick as the cellophane

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around a package
of cigarettes.

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[Conway] One of the other tapes
that our audio technician found

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was of a conversation
between Jack James,

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who was the Mariner
Interplanetary Program manager

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at the time here at JPL and
Astronaut John Glenn.

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[John Glenn] Hello?

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[Jack James] Yes, can you read
me better now, Colonel?

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[Glenn] Yes.

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Hear you loud and
clear now. In good shape.

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This was an active satellite
called, “Project Relay,”

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which retransmitted
the conversation.

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[Glenn] Now, I understand
we're on rather a long,

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long-distance
hook-up.

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[James] Yes sir,
I think so.

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This Relay Satellite is doing
a very good job, is it not?

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[Glenn] Well, I was thinking
the same thing here.

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This just sounds like normal
telephone conversation.

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At the time we had our first
satellite, I don't think any

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of us ever thought that we'd
be talking to each other

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via satellite, just in this
short time later.

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[Conway] JPL takes the expertise
it developed in communications

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generally and builds its own
interplanetary network,

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which we call the
Deep Space Network.

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And carries it on in to
doing what it wanted to do,

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and explore the planets.

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I love this kind of stuff
because I'm a historian!

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It's critical for us
to save our past

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because it can help
inform our future.

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[Lyndon Johnson] Let us all
continue to work to see

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that these new means of
communication replace

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suspicion with understanding,
hostility and isolation

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with cooperation
and ignorance