Echo 1 (launched 1964)

With balloons on everybody's minds, I rendered Echo 1. This is one of the strangest early space vehicles designed by the United States. It was a passive communications satellite, a massive mylar balloon that people could bounced radio signals off of. Instead of lifting off from the ground, Echo 1 was launched into orbit on a Thor-Agena rocket and inflated in space. They called it a "satelloon."