Editing Project Echo (section)

== Background ==
The concept of using orbital satellites to relay communications predated space travel, first being advanced by [[Arthur C. Clarke]] in 1945. Experiments using the moon as a passive reflecting way station for messages began as early as 1946.<ref>{{cite book|last=Butrica|first=Andrew J.|title=To See the Unseen: A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy|publisher=NASA|date=1996|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4218/ch1.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823124845/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4218/ch1.htm|archive-date=2007-08-23}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> With the launching of [[Sputnik 1]], Earth's first artificial satellite, in 1957, interest quickly developed in orbiting communications satellites.

In July 1958, at a [[United States Air Force|US Air Force]] sponsored meeting on communications satellites, [[Bell Labs|Bell Telephone Laboratories]] engineer [[John R. Pierce]] put forth a presentation on passive satellite relay, describing how a reflective orbiting body could be used to bounce transmissions from one point on the Earth to another. [[Bill Pickering (rocket scientist)|William H. Pickering]], director of [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL), also attended the conference and suggested that JPL facilities, specifically a {{cvt|26|m}} diameter polar-mounted [[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex|antenna installed near Goldstone Dry Lake]] in the [[Mojave Desert]], might be used as a ground facility for experiments with such a satellite.<ref name="marsh2020">{{cite web |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/when-a-giant-mylar-balloon-was-the-coolest-thing-in-space|title=When a Giant Mylar Balloon Was the Coolest Thing in Space|last=Marsh|first=Allison|date=12 November 2020|publisher=IEEE Spectrum|access-date=10 February 2021}}</ref>

In October 1958, Pierce, along with fellow Bell engineer [[Rudolf Kompfner]], designed an experiment to observe atmospheric refractive effects using reflective balloon satellites. Believing the experiment would advance research toward transoceanic communications via satellites, the two engineers presented a paper advocating for the launch of balloon satellites to be used as passive communications reflectors to the National Symposium on Extended Range and Space Communication on 6 and 7 October 1958.

That same month, the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) was formed, and two months later JPL was transferred from the [[United States Army]] to the new agency. Project Echo, NASA's first communications satellite project, was officially laid out in a 22 January 1959 meeting with representatives from NASA, JPL, and Bell Telephone Laboratories setting the initial launch for September 1959.<ref name="Butrica1997">{{cite book|last=Butrica|first=Andrew J.|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/sp4217.htm|title=Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite communication|date=1997|publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration|location=Washington, D.C.|bibcode=1997bify.book.....B |oclc=229170160}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>