SCORE

Description

The US Army's SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting RElay) satellite was an 80-ft long, 10-ft diam Atlas missile used as a platform for the communications relay experiment. The spacecraft body served as antennae. This satellite was to demonstrate the feasibility of, and explore problems associated with, operation of a satellite communication system. It carried messages on a tape recorder which was used at one point to carry a Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower. The performance was nominal with experiment operation for 12 days, planned orbit lifetime 20 days, actual orbit lifetime 35 days. The tracking beacon operated at 108 MHz.