December 19, 1958 was the first time we heard a voice from Space. Was the voice of the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, and it was a message of peace for all men and women of the earth at a time when the cold war with Russia was rather fearful of a conflict.
Joking, Wired magazine wrote that the real message was: “Damn, we have to stick to these Russians.” Many have written that that message contained wishes for a Merry Christmas, but there is never any mention of Christmas or upcoming holidays.
The message was transmitted by an experimental satellite created by the Arpa agency (the same that will make the Internet), called Project Score, an acronym that stood for Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment. In short, the aim of the project was to demonstrate the feasibility of transmitting more articulated messages from Space than the beep transmitted by Russian Sputnik the previous year, which had also caused a sensation. Only 88 people knew of the true purpose of the project and 53, shortly before the launch, it had been said that it had been canceled, intimating not to talk about it anymore. In short, the fear that it was a fiasco was strong. In fact, the Atlas B 10 B missile with the satellite had been launched two days before the transmission and had left without Eisenhower’s message; instead there was the message from Defense Minister Wilber M. Brucker.
They say Eisenhower did convinced to send that first message himself at the last minute: but there was no more time to stop the launch and then the on-board technological equipment came to the rescue. Nothing extraordinary when examined with today’s criteria: a pair of tape recorders and 4 radio antennas, two to receive signals and two to amplify and transmit them. In short, Eisenhower’s message was sent into space and from there sent back to earth. After many years that message is considered so important that the Library of Congress in 2013, having to choose to archive 25 audio recordings for their historical significance, next to the songs The Dark Side of the Moon e Sound of Silence chose to preserve those 30 seconds as well.
Qual era il messaggio? Questo. Lo lascio in inglese: “This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere”.
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