He brought the first United States imagery satellite, CORONA, into operation and demonstrated signals intelligence technology from space.

[2] In 1980, Charyk was elevated to the grade of IEEE fellow for leadership in the development and application of communications satellite systems.

He fought skepticism that this untested technology would not work for voice transmission because of a half-second time delay.

His efforts launched a global system that would eventually seem commonplace to billions of people around the world.

[5] Charyk earned his bachelor's degree in engineering and physics from the University of Alberta and his PhD in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.