Communication Moon Relay The Communication Moon Relay project ( also known as simply Moon Relay , or , alternatively , Operation Moon Bounce ) was a telecommunication project carried out by the United States Navy . Its objective was to develop a secure and reliable method of wireless communication by using the Moon as a natural communications satellite - a technique known as EME ( Earth - Moon - Earth ) communications . Most of the project ' s work took place during the 1950s at the U . S . Naval Research Laboratory . Operation Moon Relay was spun off from a classified military espionage program known as Passive Moon Relay ( PAMOR ) . Background . Communication Moon Relay grew out of many ideas and concepts in radio espionage . Some impetus for the project was provided by post - World War II efforts to develop methods of tracking radio signals , particularly those originating in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union . Other sources included earlier proposals to use the Moon as a radio wave reflector , which date back to 1928 . The Project Diana program of the U . S . Army Signal Corps detected radar waves bounced off the Moon in 1946 and attracted the attention of Donald Menzel . Menzell was a staff member of the Harvard College Observatory and a former United States Navy Reserve commander , who proposed that the Navy undertake a program to use the Moon as a secure communications satellite . Prior to the Moon Relay project , long distance wireless transmission required that radio waves be refracted by the Earth ' s ionosphere , which was sometimes disrupted by solar flare s and geomagnetic storm s . The Moon , and , later , artificial satellites , provided a target from which to reflect radio waves , enabling them to be promulgated even when the ionosphere was disturbed . The developments in Moon circuit communications eventually came to the attention of James Trexler , a radio engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory . His interest was piqued by a paper published by researchers at an ITT laboratory . Trexler developed plans for a system designed to intercept Soviet radar signals by detecting the transmissions that bounced off the Moon . This program , codenamed " Joe , " began making regular observations in August 1949 . Within a year , " Joe " was made an official Navy intelligence program , the Passive Moon Relay ( PAMOR ) . In September 1950 , a new parabolic antenna for the PAMOR project was completed at Stump Neck , Maryland . The first tests of this antenna were impressive ; the returning signal was of much higher fidelity than expected . This presented the possibility of using a Moon circuit as a communications circuit . Unfortunately for PAMOR , collecting Soviet radar signals would require a larger antenna . Efforts began to have such an antenna constructed at Sugar Grove , West Virginia . Development . With the PAMOR project requiring a larger antenna , the Stump Neck antenna was pushed into service for testing whether communication via the Moon was possible . This marked the emergence of the Moon Relay as a separate project . Test transmissions between Stump Neck and Washington , DC were carried out ; the first satellite transmission of voice occurred on July 24 , 1954 . These were followed by the first transcontinental test of the system on November 20 , 1955 ; the receiving site was the U . S . Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego , California . After corrections to reduce signal loss , the transmissions were extended to Wahiawa , Hawaii . The Navy received the new system favorably . A Navy contract for the project soon followed the successful tests , and , among other things , it was recommended that American submarines use Moon - reflection paths for communications to shore . Expansion . The Moon Relay project was soon transferred to the Communications Section of the Radar Division of the Naval Research Laboratory . Under this department , the system was upgraded to use the ultra high frequency ( UHF ) band . The experimental system was transformed into a fully operational lunar relay system linking Hawaii with Washington , DC , which became functional in 1959 . The new system was officially inaugurated in January 1960 , when Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke sent a message to Commander , Pacific Fleet Felix Stump using the system . The finished system used two sets of transmitters at Annapolis , Maryland and the Opana Radar Site in Hawaii and two sets of receivers at Cheltenham , Maryland and Wahiawa , Hawaii . It was later expanded to accommodate ship - to - shore transmissions to and from the USS " Oxford " ( AGTR - 1 ) . Results . The Moon Relay system became obsolete in the later 1960s as the Navy implemented its artificial satellite communication system . However , the information gleaned from the project in fact made the later artificial system possible . Additionally , the equipment used in the Communications Moon Relay project was of much use to U . S . Navy astronomers , as they used it to examine the Moon when the Moon was not in a position conducive to radio transmission . Although relatively short - lived , the Moon Relay served as a bridge to modern American military satellite systems .