Comsat Legacy Foundation

Bulletin # 18

May 24, 2005


DEAR FRIENDS:

This is the eighteenth bulletin on progress by the Comsat Legacy Foundation.

ARCHIVES

I have executed a second Deed of Gift agreement with Johns Hopkins University for our second and third donations deposited in November, 2004 and February of this year.  A list of the materials in these donations is attached to this report.  When combined with the list contained in my fifteenth report of last October, this encompasses the totality of our donations to date.  We still need to deal with graphics, duplicates and artifacts as well as the sporadic stream of materials coming in from Comsat veterans.  

Hopkins hopes to complete processing the collection by July 15th at which time, it will be available to researchers and others wishing access.  A visit may be scheduled between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and on Thursday evenings.  Since the collection is not in the main library building, 24 hour notice will be required for retrieval of all off-site materials.  Photo ID will be required for entry to the library and again for access to the Comsat collection.  Also, on your first visit, you will be asked to complete a registration form.  For other details, contact Margaret Burri at mburri@jhu.edu.  I will also be happy to respond to your questions.

VIDEOS

The Live via Early Bird DVD is still being distributed and there are just about ten left from the production run of fifty.  The film Via Marisat, a Golden Eagle winner produced by Hale Montgomery, is also still in distribution.  If you haven’t gotten your order in yet, this would be a good time to do so.  In a review of other Comsat films that have been digitized at Clarksburg, we have identified three candidates for possible production.  They are the Intelsat VI reboost mission, the Early Bird 25th anniversary party and the Marisat 20th anniversary party although the latter two  require substantial editing in order to be reduced to a reasonable length.  An expression of interest from you on any of these videos could hasten plans for their production.

MUSEUMS/EXHIBITS

I have paid a return visit to the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport and have not given up hope that we may eventually find space for Comsat there.  The Space Wing is now open with unsurprising emphasis on manned space flight.  There is a display of “Application Satellites” including a Relay satellite and Echo balloon package. A sign mentioning COMSAT states: “Telstar was a success, but the United States decided to develop space-based communications through two new government-created organizations, COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) and INTELSAT rather than through private corporations such as AT&T.”

In a subsequent exchange that I had with the Smithsonian, I suggested a Comsat exhibit in one of the glass enclosed modules sprouting up along the walls.  The answer was that that would be a possibility but not likely in the near future since they already have some 20-30 such exhibits in queue.  They will be adding ATS-1 and ATS-6 to the space wing between this summer and early next year and are working with Boeing/Hughes to acquire the engineering model of Syncom.


Edward J. Martin
President
7122 Plantation Lane
Rockville, MD  20852

Telephone:     (301) 770-0984
Fax:          (301) 881-5726
E-mail:     edmartin752@aol.com