Template:Selected anniversaries/August 12: Difference between revisions

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||1955: James B. Sumner dies ... chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate. Pic.
||1955: James B. Sumner dies ... chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate. Pic.


||1958: George Braxton Pegram dies ... physicist who played a key role in the technical administration of the Manhattan Project. Pic.
||1958: George B. Pegram dies ... physicist who played a key role in the technical administration of the Manhattan Project. Pic.


||1960: The U.S. launched the first telecommunications satellite, Echo 1, from Cape Canaveral, packed in a Thor-Delta rocket. At the altitude for low Earth orbit, above almost all of the Earth's atmosphere, the satellite was deployed and inflated with gas at low pressure to form a 100-ft (30.5-m) diameter spherical balloon made of metallized Mylar, 0.5 mils (12.7-μm) thick. Thus it is known as a balloon satellite, as originally conceived by William J. O'Sullivan (26 Jan 1956). Its orbit was at about 1,000 miles (1600-km). It was merely passive, to reflect microwave signals between points on Earth, similar to the way the Moon reflects light while the Sun is below the horizon. A commemorative stamp was issued 15 Dec 1960. Echo 1 remained in orbit until 24 May 1968. Telstar 1 followed 10 Jul 1962.
||1960: The U.S. launched the first telecommunications satellite, Echo 1, from Cape Canaveral, packed in a Thor-Delta rocket. At the altitude for low Earth orbit, above almost all of the Earth's atmosphere, the satellite was deployed and inflated with gas at low pressure to form a 100-ft (30.5-m) diameter spherical balloon made of metallized Mylar, 0.5 mils (12.7-μm) thick. Thus it is known as a balloon satellite, as originally conceived by William J. O'Sullivan (26 Jan 1956). Its orbit was at about 1,000 miles (1600-km). It was merely passive, to reflect microwave signals between points on Earth, similar to the way the Moon reflects light while the Sun is below the horizon. A commemorative stamp was issued 15 Dec 1960. Echo 1 remained in orbit until 24 May 1968. Telstar 1 followed 10 Jul 1962.

Revision as of 04:32, 23 March 2020