North Dakota native’s satellite enabled the U.S. to overtake the Soviet Union in the space race

FARGO — 1960 was a really thrilling yr for Shelly Schjeldahl and the workers of the G. T. Schjeldahl Co. (GTS). On Aug. 12, 1960, a rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., that carried the inflatable satellite tv for pc Echo I into outer house, a satellite tv for pc that had been designed and manufactured by GTS.

As soon as it approached its prescribed orbital elevation of 990 miles above the Earth, Echo I used to be inflated and expanded into an enormous 98-foot sphere. Up till that point, the Soviet Union had been the acknowledged chief within the house race, ever because it had launched its satellite tv for pc, Sputnik, into orbit on Oct. 4, 1957. Nonetheless, that modified when Shelly’s satellite tv for pc was positioned into orbit.

The success of Echo I far-surpassed Sputnik in each side and reasserted the U.S. because the world chief in house exploration. Sputnik was 23 inches in diameter, whereas Echo I used to be 98 toes in diameter. Sputnik lasted solely two months in orbit earlier than being pulled by gravity again towards Earth. Echo I remained in orbit for eight years earlier than falling out of orbit in Could 1968.

Echo I used to be additionally very practical, largely because of the vaporized aluminum that Shelly used to coat the surface of his Mylar balloon. Digital alerts beamed towards the satellite tv for pc from stations on Earth might simply be mirrored again to, and obtained by, different stations tens of hundreds of miles away. This “led to a presidential suggestion to type a federally regulated privately-owned telecommunications community.” Echo I used to be the primary communications satellite tv for pc and, due to it, coast-to-coast tv transmission got here into being in 1963.

This was the primary of many space-related initiatives GTS would have with NASA and different federally-funded applications. The following U.S. authorities challenge was known as Stratascope II the place GTS constructed two Mylar balloons that hoisted a tall tower on which a telescope was mounted. The profitable launching that occurred at twilight on March 6, 1962, set a world file by lifting a load of 8,132 kilos 80,000 toes above the Earth’s floor.

Subsequent, GTS designed a balloon for Venture Stargazer that lifted a gondola containing a pilot, an astronomer and a telescope excessive into to the sky to make numerous totally different observations. This profitable occasion occurred on Dec. 13 and 14, 1962. For NASA’s Echo II launch, they needed a bigger balloon than Echo I, and GTS constructed one which was 135 toes in diameter that was launched into orbit Jan. 25, 1964. Later that yr, GTS fabricated the meteoroid detector panels for the PEGASUS satellite tv for pc, and in 1965, GTS was deeply concerned within the PAGEOS and Voyager house initiatives.

Throughout this time, GTS was manufacturing far more than simply Mylar balloons. The packaging equipment division was the biggest and most worthwhile division of GTS, and was “one of many world’s main producers of machines for making plastic and multiwall baggage.” GTS additionally created laminate supplies and Schjel-Bond, a “heat-sealing adhesive tape for its polyester supplies.”

In its polyester division, GTS started advertising “Schjeldomes,” which had been “air-supported “buildings.” These clear buildings had been sturdy, sturdy and waterproof, and had been used for storage amenities and coverings for swimming swimming pools and show facilities. On the GTS middle in Northfield, Minn., Schjeldomes had been additionally used for housing the overall workplace and laboratory. Schjeldomes had been standard as a result of the fee was solely 98 cents per sq. foot.

Within the early Nineteen Sixties, Shelly started to analysis and find out about microcircuitry and he additionally recognized a market that will need the ”precision-etched versatile circuitry he was engaged on.” Whereas scientists at GTS had been busy engaged on perfecting what he known as “Schjel-Flex,” Shelly, in 1964, went to New York to advertise this product to potential traders.

Board members at GTS grew to become alarmed that he was pledging to provide a product that they didn’t but have, and Shelly agreed to step apart as president of the corporate. He remained with GTS as chairman of the board and treasurer and shortly grew to become bored by not being concerned within the day-to-day operation of the corporate.

Shelly resigned in 1966 and shaped a brand new firm, Gil-Tech Growth, that made plastic bottles for delicate drinks and different liquids. After inventing the machine to fill inflexible plastic containers, Shelly additionally created the Plastic Netting Machine Co. in 1970. “This innovation was essential to automate meals packaging.” In 1972, Shelly merged Gil-Tech with Rainville, one other firm that manufactured plastic containers.

Throughout all of this time, Shelly remained an adviser at GTS and was concerned within the Apollo 11 challenge and the lunar touchdown on July 20, 1969. GTS “developed a thermal management materials… (that) managed the temperatures within the Apollo 11 command module, the lunar lander, and the astronauts’ house fits. The corporate additionally developed a particular materials for the lunar lander’s window shades.”

In 1973, GTS offered thermal management supplies in response to an emergency restore that was wanted on the Skylab house mission.

In 1974, the title of GTS was modified to Sheldahl Inc. The rationale given was that Sheldahl was simpler than Schjeldahl to spell and pronounce. One supply even wrote that Shelly “modified the spelling of his surname after which was known as Shelly Sheldahl.” I can not confirm this, though I discovered it attention-grabbing as a result of the 1930 census has the final title of all the members of Shelly’s household spelled “Shelldahl.” Regardless of the case, Shelly authorized of the corporate’s title change.

In 1975, Sheldahl constructed the bio-shield that saved the Viking spacecraft sterile on its journey to Mars.

In 1978, Shelly suffered a gentle coronary heart assault, and through his restoration, he got here up with a method to open clogged arteries. He developed a small balloon-tipped catheter that might be used to “compress the plaque and thus widen the openings of coronary arteries.” With this invention, Shelly began one other firm, the Cathedyne Corp., which was bought by Pfizer in 1983.

Apart from the innovations, improvements and creations already identified, Shelly, or the firms he headed, created: Flexswitches utilized in microwaves and washing machines, versatile circuits utilized in Trimline telephones, x-ray sensors, radar-absorbing movies, keypads for pc keyboards, helicopter blade liners, merchandise for photo voltaic vitality applications, laminate and adhesive supplies used for the Polaris missile program, versatile circuitry for kids’s toys, car electronics, and plenty of different essential merchandise.

After a protracted battle with Alzheimer’s illness, Gilmore “Shelly” Schjeldahl died on March 10, 2002.

I’m indebted to Bruce Gjovig and James Brousseau for supplying me with a lot of the fabric I utilized in writing the articles about Shelly Schjeldahl.

“Did You Know That” is written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen of Fargo. Ship your feedback, corrections, or ideas for columns to the Eriksmoens at cjeriksmoen@gmail.com.