LOS ANGELES, December 8, 2003 – Media luminaries Walter Cronkite, David Hartman and Jim McKay will join Boeing [NYSE:BA] on Dec. 12 to highlight four decades of achievement in satellite technology as it celebrates the historic deployment of a small, spinning satellite that created a global revolution.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Syncom, the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite, Cronkite, Hartman and McKay will discuss the dramatic impact that advances in satellite technology have made in the fields of journalism, sports, telecommunications, military operations and spaceflight at Boeing Satellite Systems, El Segundo, Calif.
From the first live satellite-based, transatlantic presidential telephone call made by President John F. Kennedy to today’s direct-to-home satellite TV and radio services, The Boeing Company has led the way in developing advanced technologies that have created a global satellite industry valued at $86 billion in 2002.
“With the launch of Syncom in the early 1960s, we began a pioneering in space that continues to this day,” said Roger Roberts, senior vice president of Space and Intelligence Systems, for Boeing. “In the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, the emerging industry of telecommunications and information took shape. We started using space to communicate, to monitor weather, and to protect national security. Within a few years of Syncom, technology had grown rapidly, enabling us to hop oceans, conne
ct the world, and witness history in the making.”
The Boeing-built Syncom, launched by NASA in 1963, enabled Kennedy to place the first live two-way satellite telephone call between heads of state to Nigerian Prime Minister Abubaker Balewa while the prime minister was aboard a U.S. Navy vessel, the USNS Kingsport, docked in Lagos harbor.
In 1964, Syncom was used to provide the first continuous trans-Pacific television broadcast of the Olympic Games from Tokyo, bringing the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” into the homes of millions of Americans.
Today, advanced satellite technology enables American soldiers in war zones to call home via mobile satellite systems. The National Weather Service relies on satellite-based radar and infrared sensors to warn the public of severe storms. And doctors diagnose diseases and prescribe treatments for patients in distant lands thanks to the availability of broadband satellite technology. Advancements in distant learning, telemedicine, public safety, entertainment and military operations are on the horizon as we
continue to harness the power of satellite technology.
Boeing will launch a web site recounting the Syncom achievement and demonstrating its contribution to the global satellite industry. Trace the journey of Syncom, from theory to flight to its ongoing impact on defense systems, global communications and weather monitoring at www.boeing.com/satellite/syncom.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Integrated Defense Systems is one the world’s largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $25 billion business. It provides systems solutions to its global military, government and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; the world’s largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world’s largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communica
tions; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA’s largest contractor; and a global leader in launch services.
