APOLLO 11’S 50th ANNIVERSARY POLY CELEBRATES THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC TRANSMISSION FROM SPACE, “ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN…”
When the world’s powers were in a race to Did You Know? space in the 1960s, NASA approached Plantronics Those famous words, “one small step for man, one giant (now Poly) with a seemingly impossible task: leap for mankind” were spoken through a Plantronics create a lightweight communication headset that headset, which was produced in just 11 days. would allow Astronauts to communicate with Plantronics was founded by two pilots who wanted to create Mission Control from the Earth to the Moon, and a lighter headset for use by pilots on long-haul ights. That back again. innovation set the stage for designing headsets for one of the Our response resulted in a partnership with NASA longest ights at the time, from earth to the moon—a hefty that spanned more than 25 missions into space, 238,900 miles. stretching the limits of human exploration. NASA chose Santa Cruz-based Plantronics because of their ability to produce light-weight headsets that were also very Now, 50 years later, Poly is celebrating the historic reliable. The headsets were designed to t into the lunar landing while continuing to press ahead with Communications Carrier or “Snoopy Caps” that the Astronauts the same dedication and focus on creating powerful wore underneath their helmets. connections that unify people a world over. Our Model MS50 aviation headset (pictured) was rst released by Plantronics in 1962. The same technology was used in the astronaut’s headsets as well as the headsets used within mission control facilities around the globe. The technology was then used in the development of the StarSet headset. The MS50 and StarSet headsets remain in production today! The MS50 is a popular choice of pilots ying commercial aircraft, while the StarSet is the headset of choice by air tra c controllers. 1978 2000 2011 “Specials Division” launches for in-house custom Digitally Enhanced USB Headsets for Contextual intelligence introduced engineering for special projects the PC and Mac are introduced with Voyager PRO UC 1961 The FAA names Plantronics its Paci c Plantronics is founded 1984 exclusive headset supplier for air Plantronics is named o cial headset of the 1984 tra c control 1964 Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2018 Contracts with FAA and NASA as to provide Plantronics + Polycom rebrand aeronautical headsets to pilots and astronauts to Poly for 2019 1986 2009 1969 Plantronics ships its 5 millionth headset Captain Sully Sullenberger Apollo 11 Lunar Landing using wears Plantronics headset as he successfully crash-lands United Plantronics Headsets 2019 1991 jetliner on the Hudson River 1972 With the advent of mobile phones, Poly celebrates the 50th Plantronics introduces its rst mobile anniversary of the Apollo 11 Plantronics opens manufacturing headset, MobilStar lunar landing facility in Mexico
TO THE MOON AND BACK—POLY’S HEADSET