T-23 Days to STS-135 - 1965

In 1965, we were in the middle of the Gemini launches, Apollo was being developed and starting unmanned test flights.  The Soviets were still ahead.  They had sent larger crews into space, performed longer missions and were even soft landing a spacecraft, called Luna, on the moon.  We were frantically trying to catch up and we still had time.  Outside of the space race, other history was being made.

Soldiers in Vietnam

When Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson took over.  Some people remember him best for escalating the Vietnam war.  In March, the first combat troops were deployed, and it sure did escalate from there.  In our current war, the soldiers all sign up to join the military.  There were not enough willing soldiers in 1965 and a draft was instituted.  When we (boys) turned 18 we were required to register for the draft.  Each year, a birthday lottery was held and you found out your order to be picked and sent to Vietnam.  Over 60,000 US soldiers were killed or went missing in the war.  It was a scary time.  My draft number was 237.  I remember registering at Cambridge City Hall, in 1971.   I would not be drafted.  I was safe.

Early Bird Satellite

 In 1965 the US launched our first geostationary satellite.  Intelsat I, nicknamed Early Bird, was to provide communications between the US and Europe.  A geostationary satellite orbits the earth at a high altitude where it orbits the earth once a day.  Remember, higher is slower.  It was placed in orbit around the equator, so it would seem like it stays in one spot.  Today, that is the norm for most communications satellites.  Before this, the satellites moved across the sky quickly.  Antennas had to move and track it as it went and you had to wait for one to be in view of both sides of the conversation.  We could finally communicate over the ocean.  It would still be may years for enough capacity for affordable phone calls outside the US.

A Crossbar Switch

In fact, in 1965, we were nearing the completion of the Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) network that permitted people to dial their own long distance calls in the US.  Before that, you had to call an operator to make a call outside of your local area.  Telephone systems were all controlled by relays.  The workhorse of DDD was the #4 Crossbar.  It used a switching matrix that could switch 20 inputs to 10 different outputs in a space about 3' by 2'.  Wow really dense.   These were the phone systems I first learned how to make and fix.  There was no electronic or computer control of the phone network.  By the end of the year the fourth (yes, ever) transatlantic cable was completed.  It could handle 138 simultaneous phone calls.  Yes, right, no zeros, K or M after that number.  After this cable, total trans-Atlantic capacity was 315 calls, all cables combined.  Satellite communication was going to be a huge leap.

And we are building rockets to go to the moon.  The space program technology advances are not a myth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War