Today in History: SCORE

On this day (December Eighteen) in 1958 the U.S. launched the first communications satellite into space. It was called SCORE—Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment—and was intended to counter the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. SCORE could record a short message and replay it. President Eisenhower recorded a Christmas message to the world using the communication satellite.