SCORE (satellite) (nonfiction)

Atlas-B with SCORE satellite on the launch pad.

Project SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was the world’s first communications satellite.

Launched aboard an American Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space, as well as the first successful use of the Atlas as a launch vehicle.

It captured world attention by broadcasting a Christmas message via short wave radio from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower through an on-board tape recorder.

The satellite was popularly dubbed "The Talking Atlas". SCORE, as a geopolitical strategy, placed the United States at an even technological par with the Soviet Union as a highly functional response to the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Spacecraft (nonfiction)

External links:

• SCORE (satellite) @ Wikipedia