i tell him about my meeting with milt saxmann. the balloon was taken from one of the final tests where they inserted too much gas for the balloon to handle and it exploded. milt had explained exactly how his father, doc, had gotten hold of this scrap of material. it split open and everybody just dived in, you know, like kids with leaves, they just dove into this balloon. [ tukufu chuckling ] and your father dove in as well. he dove in as well, yeah. because it was all over the place. and this looks or appears to be one of those pieces that he brought home? oh, yeah, absolutely. yeah, yeah, yeah. boy, that takes me back. so a conversation over 30 years ago led to you having a piece of history in your closet. i never understood why he would send me this. i was just a voice on the air. now i have this story. this is really nice. nice to know. echo was the public face of the u.s. cold war satellite strategy, but just days after sputnik, president eisenhower authorized the cia to develop a top-secret satellite program. the goal: photo