It is 1996. In the sweltering heat of the Mission Director Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, Canada’s John Korda is watching the clock count down the final minutes before the launch of yet another telecommunication satellite. As the satellite’s Launch Director, on his shoulders rests the final authority to proceed with the launch – and the final responsibility for any failure. But Korda himself is unperturbed – after all, he is wearing his “lucky” polyester suit and it has never before let him down. As the clock nears zero, he takes a final puff on his cigar and then makes his decision....

The space age has brought with it many technological innovations, but perhaps none can match in sheer impact the world-spanning influence of the telecommunication satellite. The commercial satellite industry is now very big business indeed, with total costs per satellite launch sometimes exceeding three hundred million dollars. Perhaps the most important individual in any satellite launch is the Launch Director, the overall manager of the entire process of actually getting a satellite off the ground and into space.
 

An Arian 4 launcher blasts off from its launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. John Korda's remarkable record has included working with European, American and Chinese launch vehicles. [Photo, courtesy Telesat Canada and Arianespace]

The Launch Director must have a thorough knowledge of the satellite, its rocket vehicle, the weather, the Worldwide Tracking System that enables launchers to keep track of their “bird,” and a myriad other factors. It is the Launch Director who makes the final “go/no go” decision, and it is the Launch Director who is held ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the launch. The Launch Director must have both the strength of will to maintain iron control of the activities of hundreds of people and the intuition to make launch deci-sions based on little more than a “gut feeling” that the moment is right.

Of all the Launch Directors in the history of the telecommunication industry, only one, Telesat Canada’s John Korda, has maintained a career-long record of no satellites lost in launch. For Korda, this achievement is even more spectacular, considering that his career spans virtually the entire history of the commercial telecommunication satellite. In a very real sense, Korda was present at the creation of an industry that today is changing the lives of individuals in every country on the globe.

John Korda was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 14, 1929. He studied mechanical engineering at university but left Hungary without his degree in December 1956, shortly after Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Despite the dangers of crossing the bor-der to escape Hungary, Korda felt he had to leave his homeland because he sensed that his opportunities had become limited. Korda can recall to this day the vivid emotions he felt as he left everything behind him and ventured forth into an unknown world.

Accompanied by his wife Hedy (Hedwig), Korda spent several months in Vienna before obtaining his Canadian visa. He and Hedy took a thirty-four hour flight to Montreal, then crossed Canada by train. It was this experience that enabled Korda to understand the vast-ness of Canada, as well as to improve his command of the English language.

At Hedy’s urging, Korda returned to university, receiving his engineering degree from the University of British Columbia. In 1963, he began work in Ottawa with Computing Devices Canada, and in 1965 he joined the aerospace engineering department of RCA Montreal (now Spar Aerospace). It was, Korda recalled later, a special era in the history of the telecom-munication industry. “Space was a cottage industry back then,” he said. “In the sixties, we got to dabble in everything. There were no ready-made experts around.” In those years, Korda worked on the experimental Canadian satellites Alouette and ISIS, and gained a repu-tation as an individual always willing to learn, to expand his professional horizons.

It was this desire to grow that led Korda to leave Canada in 1969, sensing that greater opportunity lay in the United States. But in 1970, newly formed Telesat Canada hired Korda, who has remained with them ever since. It was a critical time, not only for the Canadian satellite industry, but for the commercialization of space as a whole.
 

John Korda with an Anik E satellite. The satellite is folded up and is being packed into the fairing of an Ariane 4 launcher. This photo was taken in Kourou, French Guiana, at the European Space Centre. At this point the satellite is fueled. The highly poisonous nature of the propellants explains the need for the safety mask. [Photo, courtesy Telesat Canada and Arianespace]

In 1970 most involvement in space was still strictly governmental, fueled by the demands of the Cold War. Space remained ripe for commercial development, but it was Canada and not the great powers that stepped most boldly into the void. The challenge for Canada, as Korda saw it, was that “any fool can build with unlimited funds. The goal was to make space operate as a business.”

Despite its small population, Canada was the third nation on Earth to have a satellite in space and the first to have a commercial domestic operator of geostationary satellites – Telesat Canada. And it was John Korda whom Telesat Canada chose to be Launch Director on every one of its satellite launches. Since his hiring by Telesat, Korda has launched sixteen satellites with no losses, including two satellites for Brazil and two for the United Kingdom, one of which was Britain’s first Direct Broadcast Satellite. In addition, Korda became the first western Launch Director to work with the People’s Republic of China when a satellite he helped launch for Hong Kong-based Asiasat rose into space atop a Chinese Long March rocket.

Now Korda’s career is approaching its climax. He was Launch Director for TMI’s first mobile satellite, launched early in 1996 on the French Ariane rocket. Ever since he was Launch Director for the first Anik satellite in 1972, Korda has worn what he calls his “lucky suit,” a decidedly unfashionable wide-lapelled polyester two-piece complete with bell-bot-tomed pants. Korda wore the same suit for the 1996 launch and smoked his trademark cigar. According to plan, the Ariane rose from its launchpad in French Guiana to begin yet another perfect satellite launch, the latest in John Korda’s career of successes.

Looking back on his life with satellites, Korda believes that over the years he has accumu-lated a storehouse of experience and not just knowledge. The most important advice he gives to young engineers and scientists interested in careers in space industry is this: “Don’t just look for a job. Look for an avocation – a calling. And above all, don’t lose your spark, your capacity to dream.”

Korda is a recognized authority by the satellite insurance industry, a tribute both to his suc-cess and to that of Telesat Canada. In a world in which satellite communication has helped to revolutionize politics, economics, and culture, John Korda must be considered one of the most influential figures – a pioneer in an industry whose effects even now are sweeping the globe.

Patrick Hadley