Echo II

Echo II is shown here undergoing a tensile stress test in a dirigible hanger at Weekesville, North Carolina. A dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air" aircraft. The 135-foot rigidized balloon satellite was sent into orbit as a passive communications experiment by NASA on January 25, 1964.

When folded, the satellite was packed into the 41-inch diameter canister shown in the foreground.

Photo credit: NASA

Note: One of the Minister's first space-related memories when he was a child was watching one of the two Echo satellites orbiting the Earth one night when he should have been in bed. One of his bedroom windows faced west. He had gotten up in the middle of the night, and saw one of the two Echos (he isn't sure which one) soaring up from the horizon until the satellite went out of sight. Enthralled, the Minister stayed up much of the night and was able to see the satellite rise six times before he finally went back to bed. He remembers telling his mother the next morning that he had watched "the moon" rising again and again in the sky.