The engineer who was on the team to put America’s first satellite into orbit.

Ninety days after Sputnik

A life that began in a dining-room chemistry lab

Henry Richter was born in Long Beach, California, on June 14, 1927. He showed an early aptitude for chemistry and science, and when he was seven his parents turned their dining room into a chemistry laboratory for him. As a teenager he became a ham radio operator, a hobby that became the foundation of a seventy-year career in electronics and communications.

After Navy service at the end of World War II Henry went to the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, finishing his PhD in chemistry, physics and electrical engineering in 1956. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, hired him soon after his graduation. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, Henry helped develop a satellite, overseeing its instruments and ground communications for the American answer. Explorer 1 reached orbit on January 31, 1958, and Henry was the first to confirm it through a ham radio tracking station.

Later Henry worked on the team that developed the scientific instruments for the Ranger, Mariner and Surveyor programs. He also helped locate sites for the Deep Space Network, and then spent decades designing public-safety radio systems for cities, counties and states across the West.

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