The Rise and Fall of COMSAT: Technology, Business, and Government in Satellite Communications PDF
Preview The Rise and Fall of COMSAT: Technology, Business, and Government in Satellite Communications
The Rise and Fall of COMSAT This page intentionally left blank The Rise and Fall of COMSAT Technology, Business, and Government in Satellite Communications David J. Whalen UniversityofNorthDakota,USA ©DavidJ.Whalen2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-39691-4 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-48473-7 ISBN 978-1-137-39693-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137396938 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. Contents ListofFiguresandTables vi Acknowledgements vii NoteonSources viii Introduction:ATechnologicalCamelot 1 1 TheCommunicationsSatelliteActof1962 6 2 CreatingCOMSAT 37 3 CreatingIntelsat 67 4 RisingtothePeak 88 5 MobileSatelliteCommunications 112 6 Technology 131 7 Domsats(COMSTARandSBS) 144 8 DirectBroadcastSatellites 172 9 TheOldGuardRetires 184 10 Fadeout 203 Epilog:Post-Mortem 222 Glossary 226 Notes 233 Index 271 v Figures and Tables Figures 5.1 COMSAT’sInmarsatrevenuesandoperatingincome 129 9.1 COMSATrevenuesandnetincome 194 10.1 COMSATrevenues 206 10.2 COMSAToperatingincome 206 Tables 3.1 Hughes-builtEarlyBirdandIntelsatIIseries 72 3.2 IntelsatIIIseries 74 5.1 MARECSsatellites 125 5.2 IntelsatVsatelliteswithMCS 125 5.3 InmarsatIIsatellites 126 5.4 InmarsatIIIsatellites 127 vi Acknowledgements IwouldliketothankallwhocontributedbothtothisbookonCOMSATand to my previous book on the origins of satellite communications. Libraries and archives are incredibly important to the historian. The George WashingtonUniversityLibraryprovidedmanynuggets—especiallyfromthe Joseph V. Charyk Papers. The Hagley Museum and Library is home to the MCI Papers, which includes much of the documentation of SBS. Much of the material I gathered after the dissolution of COMSAT I received directly from Lockheed Martin sources, but this material now resides at the Johns HopkinsUniversityLibrary. Several friends provided material from their own collection or told me where material could be found. Perhaps more important, they cheered me up when I thought my COMSAT enterprise was falling apart. These friends include Steve Teller, Al Smith, Andrew J. Butrica, and the late Ed Martin— andmanymore.RobBriskmanletmeknowhethoughtIhadcapturedthe essence of the COMSAT story—this was right after receiving a devastating reader’sreview. Manygraciouslyallowedmetotakeuptheirtimewithoralhistoryinter- views.ThesesupplementedtheCOMSATHistoryProjectinterviewsfromthe mid-1980s. These interviewees included: Mickey Alpert, Joseph V. Charyk, CalCotner,IrvDostisandGeoffreyHyde,WilliamEnglish,NeilHelm,Ellen Hoff and Paul Schrantz, Edward Martin, Maury Mechanick, Susan Miller, AlbertJ.Smith,andDickThomas;Ithankthemall. vii Note on Sources Thisworkusesavarietyofsources:oralhistoryinterviews,companyrecords, newspapers,magazines,andscholarlyjournals.Asacasualexaminationwill show,noteverychapterhadthefullvarietyofsources.TheJosephV.Charyk papers (JCP) are held in the special collections of the Gelman Library of George Washington University. These cover the period from the beginning of COMSAT until 1985 when Charyk retired. The MCI papers (MCIP) are held at the Hagley Museum and Library. These cover the life span of SBS (1970s–1985). In the mid-1980s, a large number of oral history interviews were undertaken for the “COMSAT History Project” (CHP). These are now held at the Johns Hopkins Library along with other COMSAT materials donated by Lockheed Martin after COMSAT was dissolved. The 1980s may have been the critical period for COMSAT; they had lost control of Intelsat andwerehavingtroubleswithnewinitiatives.Thesourcesforthisperiodare varied. The sources for the 1990s are primarily newspapers and magazines. Theauthor’sowninterviewssupplementthesesources. viii Introduction: A Technological Camelot Don’tletitbeforgot,thatoncetherewasaspot, Foronebriefshiningmomentthatwasknown,asCamelot. Camelot,1960BroadwayMusical On December 7, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, “a Day of Infamy,” an official Lockheed Martin announce- mentdeclaredthatLockheedMartinGlobalTelecommunicationswouldbe dissolved—seenbymanyasanotheractofinfamy.Lockheedhadworkedfor several years to get legislation passed that would allow it to buy the Com- municationsSatellitesCorporation(COMSAT).Alittlemorethanayearafter thepurchase,LockheeddecidedtoshutdownCOMSATandtakea$3billion write-off. This ended four decades in which the best and brightest of the technologists of the 1960s and 1970s, the height of the Cold War, created themoderneraofubiquitoussatellitecommunications. COMSAT had its genesis in the Kennedy Administration—a political Camelot1 withahandsomekingandbeautifulqueen.COMSATwasstarted astheresultofamulti-organizationalargumentoverhowbesttoimplement whateveryonerealizedwouldbethefirstcommercialspaceapplication.Most of the US government seemed to be opposed to American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) building the international satellite network—in spite of theirobviousqualifications—becauseoftheirnearmonopolyofUStelecom- munications. Some elements of government wanted to control satellite communicationstotakecreditforitsexpectedsuccess.TheKennedyAdmin- istration was able to pass an act that promoted the creation of a private corporationwithcertaingovernment-imposedconstraints.AT&Tendedup as COMSAT’s largest shareholder and helped the corporation enormously, butneverseemstohaveimposeditswill. COMSAT was instrumental in forming the International Telecommu- nications Satellite (INTELSAT) organization in 1964—although the speed of formation left many issues open. They were to be resolved in the “Definitive Agreements,” to be negotiated five years after the “Interim Agreements”of1964.Inthosefiveyears,COMSAT,asINTELSAT“manager,” 1
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