BY JOEL R. NELSON

"Revolutionary" might seem a grandiose description for such a modest cylinder, but all subsequent Boeing satellites, most notably those that support lifesaving defense, weather-monitoring and intelligence applications, bear the legacy of Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite.

This portfolio of satellite-based government systems, which currently represents 70 percent of BSS business, traces its origin to the 78-pound, 28-inch-diameter Syncom 2, whose launch capped a four-year, NASA-sponsored development effort.

"Many people thought we were unrealistic," said Thomas Hudspeth, who, with Harold Rosen and Donald Williams, made up the Hughes Aircraft Company Syncom design team. "Our boss was sympathetic and got us the funding to continue on."

Syncom 2 and Syncom 3, launched in August 1964, carried television and telephone transmissions, expanding direct, 24-hour communications access to two thirds of the Earth's surface. The spacecraft remained active through 1966, far exceeding their one-year design life.

Building on Syncom success ever since, BSS—created when Boeing acquired the Hughes satellite business in 2000—has led the satellite revolution, spawning the modern communications industry, enabling dozens of new applications, and lending technology and expertise to dozens of Boeing programs. Government agencies—and millions of people served by them—are indebted to Syncom 2 for the satellite systems that help direct troop movements, acquire required information in real time, bolster law enforcement and manage air traffic.

Forty years after Syncom 2, Boeing is still leveraging its success with that little spacecraft, working on a $3 billion backlog and preparing for several new opportunities in 2004. The principal Syncom legacy is BSS' central role within Boeing and the ingenuity with which the enterprise captures government satellite market opportunities, helps build a battlefield-management network that will provide strategic superiority, and pursues profitable commercial satellite market opportunities.

As for the pioneering spacecraft itself, though now spent and silent, Syncom 2 remains an orbiting monument to a bold idea, its legacy embedded in the hundreds of descendants that have since circled the Earth.

joel.r.nelson@boeing.com