The Early Bird Get's the Worm
It was forty-three years ago this year that the "early bird" got the worm on Table Mountain. For over eighty years, much have happened on that quiet hill; it has always been the happening place...from studying the stars to space exploration. And the early bird played a big part in it.
The bird wasn't an eagle, or a red-tailed hawk, a blue jay...or any other native bird. But, this sucker was big, about 2 1/2 feet tall and weighted about 76 pounds!
Early Bird, the world's first commercial communications satellite, was built for COMSAT-Communications Satellite Corporation by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company. The satellite was launched into synchronous orbit on April 6, 1965; it was put into service three weeks later. Early Bird's design came from the Syncom satellites Hughes had built for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to demonstrate the feasibility of communications from synchronous orbit. Sitting in orbit 22,300 miles above the equator, Early Bird provided line of sight communications between Europe and North America. Acting as a communications repeater, Early Bird handled communications that included telephone, telegraph, and facsimile transmissions. And, yeah...also that little TV set that our dads called the Idiot Box. It was here on Table Mountain that the solar panels of the Bird's bigger version, the Blue Bird, was tested in August of 1966.
As pictured in the Wrightwood Mountaineer (Vol v no. 52, August 4, 2966) this inconspicuous van was the mobile test lab; that strange do-hicky mounted on the back was "sun tracker" with the Blue Bird Communication Satellite.
(JPL historic Photograph Number 342-2546A)
History note: In June 1960 JPL began testing spacecraft solar panels at Table Mountain, near Wrightwood. The site was at first a "gypsy caravan" of testing equipment brought from the Laboratory and set up on the ground. By May 1961, when this photo was taken, it had grown to include a wooden platform and trailer. This solar panel was from the Ranger 1-6 spacecraft. Collimating tubes behind test team were used to test a single solar cell mounted at the bottom of the tube, with a pyrheliometer to measure solar radiation.
Hughes Aircraft Co. first started solar panel testing on Table Mountain in 1959, when their aero-space division was organized. The mountain was perfect for such testing, since successful facilities had already been set up by the Smithsonian Institute, and they have been collecting solar studies for many years. It was in 1963, just as JPL had taken over the facility from the Smithsonian, when Hughes received the contract to fabricate and test the Surveyor space-craft for NASA and JPL. The solar panels were brought to the mountain for sunlight tests.
Jack Howard, test engineer for Hughes Aircraft, shows off the Sun Tracker with Blue Bird Communications Satellite. (Wrightwood Mountaineer, Vol V no. 52, August 4, 1966). The testing crew consisted of Lou Macca, Research Assistant, Ron Ellars, Technician, and Jack Howard, Test Engineer.
The Blue Bird solar panel consisted of rigid backing upon which were mounted 792 modules of five solar cells each. The panel worked in conjunction with two batteries in a power system to provide the power needed for the spacecraft to work. Needless to say, the test were vital in the successful mission of the space project. As the forerunner of a synchronous satellite system that would furnish communications to all the populated areas of the world, Early Bird, with capability of 240 circuits or one TV channel, successfully demonstrated the concept of synchronous satellites for commercial communications. While designed for an operational lifetime of only a year and a half, the satellite was in continuous, full-time service for nearly 4 years! It was placed on reserve status in January 1969, but later recalled into service in June of that year for use during the Apollo 11 mission. The satellite is currently inactive.
Early bird was also a key player in the early Surveyor missions. Fact was, the same solar panels that were on the Early Bird were on the Surveyor. During June 1 and the morning of June 2, 1966 , when Surveyor 1 took the first 144 pictures of the moon's surface, it was the Early Bird that transmitted those images to earth. The Surveyor missions stared the moon exploration program; and it all started when the early bird got the worm on the lonely flat-top of Table Mountain.
