hilltop in new jersey citing giant antennas like monstrous eyes and ears straining watching waiting inside the control station a team of specialists but ultra sensitive electronic equipment ready to probe the vast reaches of the sky these men are waiting for the climax of a dramatic experiment they've been working on for many months in collaboration with the national aeronautics and space administration and experiments known by its code name as in a few minutes if things go right home delgo communicate by telephone in a brand new way by routing the call through outer space to goldstone in california two thousand three hundred miles away where scientist are waiting this call will be bounced off a manmade satellite if it works it will be the first time voices travelled from the earth to a manmade moon and back to earth again package of cigarettes its aluminum coating gives it nearly one hundred percent reflectivity that balloon will soon be hurtling across the sky a thousand miles high over north america yes these men know why they are on this new jersey hilltop but others may wonder even if it works so what who cares about bouncing messages off a space balloon what's the practical good of it we can telephone almost any place in the world today thanks to ocean cables we can talk over seas as if to the phone next door this year about three million messages will be transmitted across the atlantic but ten years from now it is predicted there will be twenty one million messages more facilities will be needed and there are the polar regions for severe at the spirit conditions make radio reception difficult here particularly the military need for alternate communication systems is great powerful microwave transmitters carry telephone calls over  been spaces these systems will always serve us well but today as scientists look ahead they foresee great gaps in our worldwide communications unless more and different systems can be devised for instance we would like to see live television programmes history in the making from all over the world but t v broadcasting presents a special problem one t v channel requires the space of almost one thousand telephone this requirement is simply too expensive for present systems and even if this problem could be linked to the day what about tomorrow for many years now bell laboratories scientists have been looking ahead to satellites for communication we are already capable of building satellite equipped with operating receivers and transmitters which could be made to operate at a much greater height than a simple reflector balloon like that in project echo the higher you go the greater the portion of earth in range of the satellite and the fewer you need to circle the globe a worldwide communication system of satellites like this has already been outlined by the bell system the plan and vision of several strings of equipped satellites altogether about fifty of them orbiting at a height of about three thousand miles as the one you are using moves out of brains you would switch to the next one coming along and so on and if you wanted to send say a telephone message or a television program to some area not covered by any single satellite the signals might be bounced from transmitter to satellite back to earth up to a second satellite then down to the destination that way you could maintain continuous transmission of telephone calls and television programs to various parts of the earth but scientists have conjectured even far beyond this perhaps someday it will be possible and worthwhile to put up a precisely positioned satellite twenty two thousand three hundred miles out which at that distance would revolve in step with the earth and would seem always to hang in the same place in the sky in new jersey and california today's experimental balloon satellite the pioneer of worldwide space communications is already up in the sky the files and miles high on its first two hour orbit around the approximately fifteen minutes to bounce their messages from coast to coast or in fifteen minutes it will have swept across the united states on a brain these men well know the complicated chain of events that is a natural part of missiles and space operations earlier in the day the first big question was with the missile system work down at cape canaveral delta missile that would put the echo balloon into orbit was on its launch ready to be guided through space by the commander guidance system located in a bell laboratories control station  scientists the same system that meets the precise target demands of the titan intercontinental ballistic missile its job here is to put the echo satellite in orbit with pinpoint accuracy that is the question these men asked themselves as they finished monitoring the guided portion of the missiles flight and will a balloon squeezed into a twenty six c spear release ok well it inflate properly or burst into frank clear the balloon is inflated by a chemical powder which instantly vaporize in the vacuum about her space the man won't know it for some time yet about balloon inflated and in orbit as the minutes pass scattered tracking stations take up the difficult job of finding the balloon and tracking it now it's up to bill jakes and these other communications men in new jersey and california to find it when they do in addition to transmitting tape recorded messages they will talk together on the telephone but until and they still have their worries this new unique type antenna so painstakingly developed here and home down will it really eliminate that it should with the help of new circuitry and this other recently developed a group called the maser these inventions will make that we can voice signals come in strong and clear even after their long journey through space this is no or makes the maser one of the greatest new contributions to communications at last a spreading out area and is about over dallas in constant touch with goldstone by an open telephone line the first space like trying to locate a golf ball a mile away tracking looks good to eisenhower speaking it is a great personal satisfaction to participate in this post experiment in communications involving the use of the satellite balloon known as eko this is one more significant step in the united states program of space research and exploration the program is being carried forward vigorously by the united states for peaceful purposes for the benefit of all the satellite which as a reply to these words may be used plea by any nation for similar experiments in its own interest information necessary to prepare for such participation was widely distributed some weeks ago the united states will continue to make freely available to the world the scientific information acquired from this and other experiment space exploration it already sounds good here was fine and so the first spoken word from man through space to his own satellite and back to man again is the voice of the president of the united states and that is the satellites sweep swiftly on a brief further transmission must wait for another passage now some time later as the balloon again passes over america the same scientists try the first telephone conversation ever bounced from a manmade satellite you can fire the transmitter right a new bold stride on the long road has been taking the road to communications between ourselves and others overseas with the same variety and dependability we now enjoy anywhere in our own country the balloon satellite of project echo is of course for experiment only but it is an experiment that may result in a new intercontinental communications system as these men of bell laboratories and western electric continue their around the clock program of research and development they are determined to keep america well ahead in the field of communication and today they are looking as all of humanity looks to the vast potentials of outer space