Re: [sarex] Re: [amsat-bb] Laser Satellite Comms

[Larry Faehling <kl7ibv@xxxxxxxxx>]

Krin135@aol.com wrote:

>  Echo I and II were nothing more than *BIG* balloons. 
<snip>

 They were *brilliant* ... first magnitude, or even
>  minus-one or
>  minus-two magnitude.  Their low orbits made them really zip across the sky.

<snip>
> It was a little more complex than that. IIRC, it was the first major use of
> aluminized Mylar, but the material is still porious enough that the gas would
> not stay inside. A thin coating of a modified gelatin was used on the inside
> to prevent the balloon from deflating too soon. I'll email my dad who helped
> develope the gelatin.

I remember Echo I.  My dad and I would stand on the front steps, and
watch it going over with his old WWII binoculars that he found in a
bombed out bldg in Germany during the war.  I remember it being very
bright.  I must have been about 8 yrs old then.  Wish he was here yet to
stand outside with me.  He liked this stuff.

This thread is getting more interesting as it goes along.  :-)

-- 
Larry, KL7IBV in Wisconsin
Bluemound 97, CAP, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
Visit Larry's new Cooking Links at
http://www.frontiernet.net/~lfaehl/cooking.htm
To do is to be. -Descartes
To be is to do. -Voltaire
Do be do be do. -Frank Sinatra

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